A global catastrophic risk is a (hypothetical) future event with the

potential to inflict serious damage to human beings on a global

scale.

Some such events could destroy or cripple modern civilization.

Other, even more severe, scenarios threaten permanent human
extinction. These are referred to as existential risks.

Natural disasters, such as super volcanoes and asteroids, pose risk if

sufficiently powerful.

Human-caused, or anthropogenic, events could also threaten the

survival of intelligent life on Earth.

Such anthropogenic events could include catastrophic global

warming, nuclear war, or bioterrorism.

The Future of Humanity Institute believes that human extinction is

more likely to result from anthropogenic causes than natural causes.

Some scientists identify four types of existential risk.

"Bangs" are sudden catastrophes, which may be accidental or

deliberate. He thinks the most likely sources of bangs are malicious
use of nanotechnology, nuclear war, and the possibility that the
universe is a simulation that will end.

"Crunches" are scenarios in which humanity survives but civilization

is irreversibly destroyed. The most likely causes of this, he believes,
are exhaustion of natural resources, a stable global government that
prevents technological progress, or dysgenic pressures that lower
average intelligence.

"Shrieks" are undesirable futures. For example, if a single mind

enhances its powers by merging with a computer, it could dominate
human civilization, which could be bad. Scientists believe that this
scenario is most likely, followed by flawed super intelligence and a
repressive totalitarian regime.

"Whimpers" are the gradual decline of human civilization or current

values. He thinks the most likely cause would be evolution changing
moral preference, followed by extraterrestrial invasion

Eschatology is a part of theology concerned with what are believed

to be the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity.
This concept is commonly referred to as the "end of the world" or
"end time

In the context of mysticism, the phrase refers metaphorically to the

end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine.

In many religions it is taught as an existing future

event prophesied in sacred texts or folklore.

Most modern eschatology and apocalypticism, both religious and

secular, involve the violent disruption or destruction of the world

Eschatologies vary as to their degree of optimism or pessimism

about the future. In some eschatologies, conditions are better for
some and worse for others, e.g. "heaven and hell".

Many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of
its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a
mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early
Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years.
Sextus Julius Africanus revised the date of Doomsday to 800.
The Millennium Apocalypse at the end of the Christian Millennium. Various
Christian clerics predicted the end of the world on this date, including Pope
Sylvester II. Riots occurred in Europe and pilgrims headed east to
Jerusalem.
Predicted the end of the world during 1186, based on the alignment of
many planets.
Pope Innocent III predicted that the world would end 666 years after the
rise of Islam.
One mathematician calculated that the Judgement Day would begin at
8:00am on this day.
The so-called Mayan apocalypse. The Earth would be destroyed by
an asteroid, an alien invasion or a supernova.
According to Rashad Khalifa's research on the Quran Code, the world will
end in this year.
The heat death of the universe is a suggested ultimate fate of the universe