Joe Yates
The end is nigh... or so mankind has been told for centuries, be it from Nostradamus, Isaac Newton or whoever else.
But the prophets of the past were never equipped with modern-day technology - which makes Cambridge scientist Luke Kemp's claims that the world could end in 25 years all the more terrifying.
The research affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, has dedicated his life to furthering his knowledge of the destruction of past civilizations and noting what could transpire for the internet-surfing, cellphone-carrying apes of today.
Speaking on The Great Simplification podcast with host Nate Hagens, the Indiana-born Kemp described what could see the noted: "It is tragic that essentially no US election has been decided by the candidate's policy on nuclear weapons.
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"The most devastating thing that can ever be done is the US launching a nuclear strike, and yet that can be decided by a single person - the president. And yet that never factors into elections whatsoever."
Yes, it's terrifying to think President Donald Trump has the power to reduce Earth to a radioactive wasteland... but that's not the reason why Kemp believes the world may end in 2050.
In his book, titled Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, Kemp claims that every civilization that has stood before us has ultimately fallen due to what he describes as 'self-terminating'.
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Explaining this to the Guardian, he said: "As elites extract more wealth from the people and the land, they make societies more fragile, leading to infighting, corruption, immiseration of the masses, less healthy people, overexpansion, environmental degradation and poor decision making by a small oligarchy.
"The hollowed-out shell of a society is eventually cracked asunder by shocks such as disease, war or climate change.”
But what could cause everything to dramatically come to an end by 2050, Kemp references the Carrington Event of 1859 - which saw the sun produce gigantic electromagnetic solar flares. If that were to happen today, it is thought it would destroy our electrical infrastructure.
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That's everything from computers to banking, the internet and more - as satellites would cease to work, creating chaos on Earth.
The likelihood of that happening rises by 20.3 percent every 10 years - and in 2050 the chances of it happening are at 50 percent.
"An entire industry of reinforced, luxury bunker-manors with pools, wine vaults, artificial gardens for sunbathing in simulated sunlight, and underground hydroponic farms, from Texas to the Czech Republic," Kemp writes.
Later adding: "In one case, with a dozen ex-Navy special forces SEALs.”