Doomsayers, as a whole - are a pretty boring bunch.
They’ve also been historically inaccurate throughout mankind's history - standing on
a soap box, beckoning in the apocalypse and warning us all to run for the hills.
Which is the opposite of good advice in an apocalyptic situation - don’t run for the
hills, run underneath the hills!
Well - you may have noticed that it’s been pretty on trend to predict the end of the
world in the last few decades.
We had the whole 2012 thing, we had the Y2K bug before that - now it seems that every
man and his dog finds the clues to armageddon at the bottom of a teacup.
But - although they’ve been inexplicably wrong, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something
to it.
Hello horror fans - and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube - Top 5 Scary
Videos.
As always, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch - as today, we batten down the hatches
- and take a look at the Top 5 Scary End Of The World Theories.
Roll the clip.
For those of you that don’t know - that clip was from the 2009 blockbuster, Knowing
- starring the one - the only - Nicolas Cage.
Not a fantastic movie - but it is fun as hell.
Now - pretty much every religion and culture has an armageddon attached to it.
Obviously, the bible has the rapture - Hinduism has Kalki and the Harihara, where the universe
is simultaneously destroyed and rebirthed.
Islam has the Yawm ad-Dim where the planet is just straight up annihilated - and then
we’ve got my personal favourite apocalypse - Ragnarok.
Where Odin is swallowed alive by the ravenous wolf Fenrir - Thor ultimately defeats the
world serpent Jormungandr - but meets his death - everyone dies in glorious battle and
the whole planet is consumed in a flood, but don’t worry - because the remaining Aesir
fix everything and two humans survive to repopulate Midgard.
Great news.
But - that’s a video for another day, because when we take a long, hard look at the physical
components of the universe - things look exponentially more terrifying.
Well - let’s take a look shall we?
Kicking off at Number 5 - The Higgs Boson Fiasco
Now, back in 2009 - when CERN’s Large Hadron Collider was first switched on - despite having
a few minor hiccups before hand - the internet went a little crazy with the prospect of this
massive particle accelerator somehow finally dividing by zero, collapsing the atom - and
leading to a chain of events where the very fabric of reality was gobbled up.
But, of course - nothing of the sort happened, and instead in 2012, we were rewarded with
some of the most important discoveries in quantum mechanics.
Mainly - the existence of the Higgs Boson particle - otherwise known as the god particle
- or, in more precise terms - the key to understanding the role of Dark Matter in our universe.
But potentially, this could be become what is known as A Very Bad Thing.
And what it boils down to, is that the Higgs Boson particle could make everything go boom
- destroying the universe just as it was created.
You see - the Higgs boson is the particle that gives all matter its mass.
Scientists have claimed that its current mass may one day be altered - and should this happen,
it could literally rip apart all of the elements that make life in our universe possible - creating
an ever-expanding bubble of dark-void energy that eats up the entire universe.
Hey, even Stephen Hawking floated the idea as a possibility - and Joseph Lykken, a physicist
at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory said - it turns out that we’re right on
the edge between a stable universe and an unstable universe.
Well, to be honest - there wouldn’t be much we could do about it anyway, so why worry?
Coming in next at Number 4 - The 50 Millionth Century
Which - if it seems like a very, very long time away - don’t worry - because it is.
Five billion years away - which is a LONG time, and if I’m still kicking around by
then, I’d like to think that I’d be chillin somewhere in the Crab Nebula - which already
went supernova millenia ago, so I should be good.
Well - you may notice through this list that a lot of these theories revolve around our
Sun - because while it is a beautiful source of life and light, it’s also really hot
and dangerous.
Well - according to currently accepted models of Stellar evolution - 5 billion years from
now, the sun’s core will run out of hydrogen, resulting in an ever expanding red giant as
a result, swallowing up Mercury and Venus, and eventually - our Earth.
Well, even if it didn’t get swallowed up - everything on it will be roasted to a crisp.
Big sun - hot sun - we dead.
One theory states that this massive shift in the sun’s mass will cause the Earth to
spiral out of the sun’s gravity and get flung out into interstellar space.
See ya later bud.
Next up at Number 3 - The Solar Flare
And while we’re on the subject of the Sun, we may as well talk about Solar Flares.
Because - sorry to tell you guys, Solar Flares are pretty serious business.
It is a widely held belief that our sun works in a series of solar cycles - which eventually
result in the production of solar storms on its surface, caused by a phenomena known as
coronal holes.
This bombards Earth in a deadly series of solar particles - and the final outcome wouldn’t
be pretty.
It is a commonly held theory that these solar cycles could occur on our sun about every
20 million years.
And - for all indications - we might be due another one.
Back in 1859 - a powerful solar storm hit the Earth - I say powerful because it was,
but on the grand scheme of things it was minor.
The result was an electronic surge never before seen.
Thankfully, we weren’t really dependent on an electronic grid at that point - but
we did have the telegram system - which was kinda completely obliterated as a result.
Telegraph wires and system lines instantly exploded, and entire receiving stations were
engulfed in flames.
Now - imagine that right now, with our planet’s current reliance on technology and electronic
devices.
Doesn’t look pretty, right?
According to research conducted by Harvard University - a flare like that could shut
down all the power grids, all the computers, all the cooling systems on nuclear reactors.
A lot of things could go bad.
Swinging in now at Number 2 - The Heat Death Of The Universe
And while we’re on this cheerful topic - we may as well cover the heat death of the universe.
Currently, the heat death of the universe is the most plausible ultimate fate of cosmic
existence.
It lays out a pretty bleak scenario - but it’s also so far away, that you probably
don’t need to worry that much.
It is the result of the universe eventually evolving to a state of no thermodynamic free
energy - and therefore can no longer sustain the processes required to increase entropy.
Without getting bogged down too heavily in the laws of thermodynamics, essentially this
means that our ever-expanding universe eventually stops expanding - reaching maximum entropy
- or, ultimately - an equilibrium.
What this means is that essentially - our universe reaches absolute zero temperature,
and the light of life is snuffed out.
As T.S Eliot wrote in his poem The Hollow Men - this is the way the world ends, not
with a bang - but a whimper.
Although, it’s not all bleak - because physicists have theorized that heat death could be avoided
if a method is devised to generate hydrogen atoms from radiation, dark matter or dark
energy - so maybe The Large Hadron Collider is the key to saving the universe after all!
Good job science.
And finally - at our Number 1 spot - The Giant Asteroid
Now - don’t worry guys, but a giant asteroid MAY hit Earth some time in 2036.
For the most part, we’ve had one key ally in the whole not getting hit by asteroids
game.
And its name is Jupiter.
Please, everyone - thank Jupiter - because without that big guy - our existence may have
been a completely different story.
On a whole, hundreds of asteroids are zipping around our galaxy at any one point - and Jupiter’s
massive gravity takes the brunt of them all.
But - there is one massive world-ending rock that could potentially slip through - known
as Apophis - an asteroid which is just over a thousand feet wide.
The odds of this happening are astronomical - but as time goes on, those odds start to
spiral as the asteroids orbital pattern shifts and changes.
By 2068, the odds are three million to one - which, eh, we could still take our chances
- but it’s enough to catch the worried attention of our leading scientific authorities.
If an asteroid like Apophis did slip through - the result would be catastrophic for our
civilization - but as my man Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park - life finds a way.
There we have it folks - the Top 5 Scary End Of The World Theories.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, because we’re a resilient species - and despite
the overwhelming forces of the universe - our best bet is to keep our chins up and put our
hope in the shared, collective knowledge of civilization.
Before we depart - let’s take a look at some of your most creative comments from the
past few days.
Why are we always yelling says - Your videos have the best like to dislike ratio out of
anybody I’ve seen on YouTube.
Well, my good buddy - that’s because you horror fans are the best guys out there - and
while we’re talking shop, your incredibly positive interaction let’s us know that
we’re hitting the right marks to deliver you the content you want.
So, to switch that one around - thank you!
Bleedin concrete says - Old danny burk.
Well, bleedin concrete - I’ll have you know that Danny Burke is in fact one week and one
month older than me, so I guess that makes me a young Danny Burke.
Or that makes him an old Jack Finch - although I’m not entirely sure by this point.
Anyway horror fans - cheers for sticking around all the way till the end.
Make sure to hit that thumbs up button if you were a fan of this video.
As always, I’ve been your horror host Jack Finch - you’ve been watching Top 5 Scary
Videos - and until next time, you take it easy.