If you’re having a grim start to the week, here’s something to cheer you up.

Oxford University thinkers have worked out how the world will end.

A team for the Future of Humanity Institute (a research organisation which spends a lot of time thinking about Doomsday) have worked out a list of the 12 most likely ways the entire human race will be exterminated.


The good news? It doesn’t seem likely a mass zombie outbreak will kill us all. Or Godzilla.

The bad news? Read on…

1. Nuclear War

Despite the end of the Cold War, several countries, including the U.S. and Russia maintain large stockpiles of intercontinental missiles armed with hugely destructive hydrogen bombs.



2. Artificial intelligence

Humanoid robot (Reuters)

Professor Stephen Hawking has warned that recent developments towards ‘true’ artificial intelligence could be the beginning of a process that ends with the annihilation of all life on Earth.

3. Major asteroid impact

When American government representatives asked NASA head Charles Boden what the best response to a large asteroid headed for New York City would be, his answer was simple: “Pray”.

4. Supervolcano

Huge supervolcanoes, such as the one under Yellowstone in America, can alter global climate with their eruptions.

5. Synthetic life forms

Billionaire entrepreneur Craig Venter created ‘artificial life’ for the first time in 2010 by adding synthetic DNA to another cell – christening his life form ‘Synthia’.

Professor Julian Savulescu, an Oxford University ethicist, said at the time: “Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity’s history, potentially peeking into its destiny.This could be used in the future to make the most powerful bioweapons imaginable. The challenge is to eat the fruit without the worm.”

6. Global pandemic

In recent years a scary number of new viruses – from SARS to Swine Flu – have threatened a human catastrophe.

Luckily, governments have been planning for the new plague ever since the 1918 influenza pandemic killed 50million people – five times as many as the First World War, which had just ended.

In the event of a huge outbreak, the World Health Organisation advises to first of all, if possible, immunise yourself against whatever is raging.

7. Ecological catastrophe

8. Nanotechnology

Tiny machines small enough to ‘live’ inside human bodies could spiral out of control.

9. Global system collapse

10. A future, bad global government

And you thought our current politicians couldn’t do any worse.

11. Extreme climate change

12. As yet unknown risks