Expert Says Collapse of Human Civilization Looks Like the Most Likely Scenario (Futurism)

[highplainsdem]

https://futurism.com/collapse-human-civilization-likely-scenario

-snip-

As The Guardian reports, a sweeping new historical survey that analyzes 5,000 years and the collapse of more than 400 societies makes the case that we're in for a rude awakening.

"We can’t put a date on Doomsday, but by looking at the 5,000 years of [civilisation], we can understand the trajectories we face today — and self-termination is most likely," Luke Kemp, research fellow at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, told the British newspaper.

-snip-

Kemp warned of narcissistic and psychopathic leaders — a powerful but small "oligarchy" working against the interests of the rest of us — who turn a blind eye to existential threats like global warming, nuclear weapons, and AI.

-snip-

"The three most powerful men in the world are a walking version of the dark triad: Trump is a textbook narcissist, Putin is a cold psychopath, and Xi Jinping came to rule [China] by being a master Machiavellian manipulator," he told the Guardian.

-snip-

He says we need to create genuine democracies to "level all the forms of power" - and we need to tax the wealthy.

[Bayard]

1. "Narcissistic and psychopathic leaders"

Isn't that the truth? trump's EPA wants to weaken environmental protection laws right now. The oligarchs are certainly in charge, and care nothing for the peasants.

[C Moon]

10. If they can get AI to build things and farm, what the hell would they need us for?

[Marcuse]

14. The Department of Homeland Security will expand its depopulation program for redundant persons.

[C Moon]

35. Say that again? Just kidding. I agree, that is a very scary and powerful department.

[Nasruddin]

13. May be part of the job description

Narcissism by itself is not completely bad - it's more like a character trait. It is annoying to be around, or burdensome to put up with.
Psychopathy - that seems bad, but it has its uses. A lot of leadership is about awful stuff like the trolley problem.

It's when these traits are out of control (like in our country at least) that things get bad for everyone.

[GB_RN]

17. We All Have Some Traits Of Narcissism...

Narcissistic Personality Disorder however, is a whole different level. Trust me, my ex-wife has it.

For those with NPD, manipulation, gaslighting, blame shifting and refusing to take any responsibility for their actions (back to gaslighting) are off the scale; NPDs have perfected them. Cantaloupe Caligula the Corpulent is probably the worst case of NPD I’ve ever seen.

[H2O Man]

28. Right.

All of the diagnostic features used to identify personality disorders are "character traits." And most of those "character traits" in and of themselves are "not completely bad." It's when the number (and intensity) of those "character traits," known as "features," reach the point of allowing for a diagnosis that they are "bad." Thank you for correcting our friend.

In the context of a Cluster B diagnosis, a person can be diagnosed NPD, for example, and have features from BPD or the two others, as well. And I'm certain that you know this all too well, from your ex.

[Justice matters.]

64. They're all contaminated with micro-plastic particles too...

They won't escape the self-extermination phase either.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Sounds like the title of a book:

Narcissistic and Psychopathic leaders and the stupid people that keep voting for them.

[twodogsbarking]

12. Volumes one through twenty.

Last edited Mon Aug 4, 2025, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)

[SheltieLover]

3. Reinstate the wealth tax!

[-misanthroptimist]

4. I reached that conclusion myself, 5-6 years ago.

I looked only at the increase in extreme weather events, but that alone made me realize that civilization as we've known it for the past few hundred (perhaps thousand) years will collapse in the next few decades.

[mucholderthandirt]

58. I've been seeing signs for decades. As a fan of post apocalyptic fiction,

I've seen a lot of scenarios, and for the most part, they're all plausible (and I wouldn't honestly totally dismiss zombies, the way some people are so evil), and I've been seeing the effects of the various climate disasters come to life.

I give us maybe fifty years, if we don't change immediately. And we all know nothing is going to change. The damage has been done. Nature is going to stomp us out, and we deserve it.

It's the only good thing that's come of my family line dying out. I have only a step-grandson, and he may never have children. I'll be dead by then anyway, but I'd hope people would see where it's going and not make more babies to suffer.

[-misanthroptimist]

60. On average, I think the 50 year estimate is good

But the problem is that while that holds for climate, in the end it is weather that is the key factor.

Put in bumper sticker form: "Climate determines what we eat; weather determines IF we eat"

So, I think that in 10-20 years The Great Collapse will begin.

[speak easy]

5. "and we need to tax the wealthy."

The most direct course would be a wealth tax, but

1. It would never past muster with SCOTUS, (especially this SCOTUS), and
2. You would need to have international agreements to discourage wealth from being moved around.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Time to study up on the Celts

[LuvLoogie]

7. Of the three I would hope the Chinese leader wins out. I don't think he is the sociopath Putin Trump and Vance are.

I could be wrong, but ...

[LudwigPastorius]

8. We had a good 8,000 year run.

I guess it's time to get my hunting/gathering chops together.

[Captain Zero]

45. Where's the nearest rich neighborhood?

Just go hunting there to start.

[LudwigPastorius]

48. Hedge fund managers are too fatty.

...even the backstrap.

[DFW]

51. I once actually met a billionaire hedge fund manager in Dallas

He was a Democrat hosting a fundraiser for Emily’s List at his home in Highland Park. I had no idea who he was, seemed a perfectly nice guy. I only looked him up afterward. His house wasn’t especially huge or gaudy, so I didn’t think to ask at the time.

Evil rich people, some of them won’t even conform to the stereotypes we set for them. The nerve!

[AverageOldGuy]

9. Need to tax the wealthy ?

Never happen. We are screwed.

[rubbersole]

16. They purchased all the governments.

Just an investment. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[ananda]

11. That's what I believe due to my reading of quantum physics...

and the idea of the holographic universe.

As long as we treat the world and everything else as
other tnan us, according to Desartes' view of mechanism,
the human psyche will move into insanity and chaos,
and the world will follow.

[Oopsie Daisy]

15. "Repent Now! The End is Near! Christ is Coming!" --- People have been saying this for a thousand years...

... I'm not worried.

>> He says we need to create genuine democracies to "level all the forms of power" - and we need to tax the wealthy.

I agree with that part.

[moreland01]

18. I was so sure

It would be trump, bezos and musk.

[MineralMan]

19. Well that prediction will help sell his next book, for sure.

It's already getting him press coverage. Clever lad!

[chowder66]

20. Maybe as a society we should do something about this.

Since social order is breaking down maybe we should skip the rules and save the planet.

[AverageOldGuy]

23. But first . . .

. . . there are a lot of roadblocks we need to get out of the way, all of them human.

[TheProle]

29. Who decides which rules can be set aside?

[chowder66]

38. That is already happening with fascists everywhere.

They are breaking them and steamrolling over them.

[Captain Zero]

46. Right now some Major Pedophiles in the GOP

nt

[Puppyjive]

21. Guns, Germs & Steel

Watch it, read the book. It will help you understand.

[rurallib]

33. excellent reference

[AverageOldGuy]

22. So - - - looks as though Arthur Clarke was right all along.

"In This Universe The Night was Falling, The Shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the Stars were still young and the light of morning lingered: and
along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again."

Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

[John1956PA]

31. "Now it's been ten thousand years . . .

. . . man has cried a billion tears,
for what he never knew,
now man's reign is through.
But through eternal night,
the twinkling of starlight,
so very far away,
maybe it's only yesterday . . .
in the year twenty-five twenty-five.

From Zager and Evans's classic song.

[DFW]

50. Exactly five hundred years from now

I must admit, I’m glad I wasn’t born 500 years ago, so there’s that.

[H2O Man]

24. Recommended.

All of organic life on Earth either grows of decays. This includes everything from a single cell to a human empire. That is one of the mechanical laws of nature. It is pathetic to think otherwise with the USA. More, the history of empires has a frequent rise of a sociopath to social-political power, with a gravity that attracts ASPD people to the closest levels. The sociopath provides license for them to do the cruelest things possible to "others."

There is only one alternative in our case today. The only thing that can change the mechanical is human beings, by consciously reaching higher ground. That is the only evolution for humanity is the evolution of our consciousness. That growth counters the decay, and uses it as the compost to grow a better society.

[Karasu]

25. The truth hurts. Not that this should surprise anyone who's been paying close attention to both domestic and

international affairs.

[Irish_Dem]

26. The psychopath rulers will destroy the planet and the people on it for money and power.

[Martin68]

27. Climate change will accomplish the collapse of civilization due to sea level rise. Many major cities will be flooded.

[airplaneman]

39. I think the loss of water

For drinking and growing crops will happen a lot faster than sea level rise. Increased heat will not allow the growth of crops to scale. These things are happening now

[Martin68]

41. Yes, clean fresh water will certainly be a major factor. Ocean level rise will effect coastal areas, and other areas

will suffer from water shortages. Both will contribute to the collapse to civilization as we know it. Humans will survive, but it could take a thousand years to build a new civilization.

[DFW]

54. That's already happening. Look at present-day Tehran

Their mismanagement of water is so extreme that some of the taps in the higher floors of their taller buildings are going periodically dry.

[DFW]

53. I agree. Access to fresh water will equal access to life

Republicans will never understand: in the near future, being “pro-life” will mean supporting whoever figures out how to capture some of the major portions of the Antarctic Ice Shelf currently separating from the continent, and tow them home and store them for use in the coming centuries (decades?). Immense numbers of de-salinization plants with purification capacity will be needed, too. Blowing up family planning clinics and their employees won’t save them, and nor will the deity they claim told them to do it. No bible will make the crops grow that will feed your grandchildren’s grandchildren. Fresh water will.

[Just Jerome]

30. Ah, yes,

I've been feeling a bit nostalgic for the Cold War of late. And why not?

[LymphocyteLover]

32. Ah, lovely

[dedl67]

34. "Civilization is in a race between education and disaster ...

.. . and although education is far behind, it is not out of the running" H. G. Wells, as quoted by Neil Postman.

I am sorry to say, in the US the race now appears to be lost.

[2na fisherman]

36. We are Devo

It sure seems like Homo Sapiens is devolving so the only thing that may save us is for all humans to somehow rapidly alter their ape minds to become better beings who share a better world.

[defacto7]

37. So, why do you think the ultra wealthy are "doing what they're doing?"

What we think is illogical, the destruction of society piece by piece, is not so illogical at all if your plan doesn't include most human life. Culling humankind takes time and a little planning. They are asking, "How shall I protect myself during the preliminary process? What will be the means of trade between surviving powers? How do I secure my offspring's position and survival at the collapse?"

They're positioning themselves for the final game in what they already know is the end of humanity.

[kimbutgar]

40. I've been watching this show on the history channel called Life after people and it feels like we're on that trajectory

In our world. Between weather events, ruthless evil dictators not caring about its citizens and the ignoring of science we are screwed. The show life after people is on tonight on the history channel if you get it.

There was a TV show called Name of the game in 1972 and there is a particular episode called Los Angeles 2017. The environment has become unviable and the rich moved into underground bunkers. It was directed by a young director named Steven Spielberg ! I see it becoming our future.

[DFW]

55. I remember that episode!

Gene Barry, right?

[kimbutgar]

61. Yep it is so relevant today

if I ever met Steven Spielberg I’d ask him to make a movie again about this episode.

[WestMichRad]

42. We are all contaminated

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/opinion/contamination-exposome.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bk8.Svdu.urhjzO_dVYoQ&smid=bs-share

Micro- and nanoplastics, PFAS, pesticide residues, waters contaminated with a myriad of chemicals, pharmaceutical and their metabolites, lead, mercury, smoke particulates contaminated with thousands of possible substances…

“Maybe this has been our fate all along,” Mark O’Connell wrote in 2023: “to achieve final communion with our own garbage.”

[Xipe Totec]

43. Cue Hari Seldon nt

[PufPuf23]

44. There is no technological not political solution except for a reduction of human population and a

reduction of human footprint on the natural world.

There is not an orderly, feasible future path without a horrific disaster for civilization.

Treating the mega-wealthy as psychopaths is appropriate.

Genuine and egalitarian democracies is right direction but think humanity if way past the tipping point and incapable of its own salvation.

There is not going to be a Messiah, political or otherwise. That is a Lie.

[Crunchy Frog]

47. It's happened many times before. It comes back eventually.

[Coventina]

49. I welcome it! The planet will be so much better off without us.

We have proven we cannot be trusted with it.

[OldBaldy1701E]

57. Yup. (n/t)

[lapfog_1]

52. we actually don't need to tax the wealthy much more than they are taxed now

we just need to keep them from being sooo goddam wealthy, but the old fashioned way... don't make them wealthy in the first place.

we need to quit spending so much of our wealth on the military. All of them are wastes of resources...

Plus we need universal health care and child care... and to gradually reduce the population and return much of the planet to wilderness and oceans free of human fishing.

Geo-engineer the planet to pre-industrial climate and control the weather.

And spread education and democracy ( and much less tribalism and religion ) to all corners of the planet.

Finally we will need to find more resources from our own solar system... planets, asteroids, and other objects. We don't need to travel to other stars... not yet. We have enough material in our own solar system to provide 3 or 4 billion people a very nice and healthy long life right here on earth with our robots roaming the solar system to provide for us. AI is only a danger if we let it become one.

[Bread and Circuses]

56. IMO, Humanity has already collapsed, we're just crawling through the rubble and don't realize it

[pfitz59]

59. the monetary collapse is inevitable

stable coins and bit coins are undermining banks.

[Ray Bruns]

62. I'm still shocked we made it this far.

[Wicked Blue]

63. It would be nice if we had actually achieved civilization

but I'm not sure it's possible