I gotta go with nuclear weapons…
What could be scarier than mutually assured destruction, right?
But I’m sure there are plenty of things that I didn’t think of…
What’s the scariest thing mankind has ever created?
AskReddit users shared their thoughts.
1. Uh oh.
“The Pug.
We created a complete inferior version of the original and still manipulated our way into “loving it.” We love things just because we made it.
Just wait until we expand our access into human modifications.”
2. Mo’ money.
“Money.
Switching from a bartering system to physical markers of effort, especially given that your pay no longer has much to do with how physically or mentally difficult your task is, and more to do with where you were born and to who, and who you met along the way with your birth-family’s help.
This has caused us to dissociate from reality. It’s rewarded absolute greed (thus, climate change) and aggression (thus, colonialism).
It’s also brought back some of the worst parts of feudalism, such as the fact that you likely d** from the elements or malicious actions from others if you don’t have protection from a noble, which is now how American health insurance works, as it’s through your employer or prohibitively expensive.”
3. Good and bad.
“Governments.
The good ones can be great, but when it comes to the bad ones the horror sets in. Corrupt governments can do almost anything they want to their citizens with little to no consequences, because as long as you have the military on your side, you cannot be overthrown (unless you make a big f**k up or millions of people storm you directly).
The worst dictators cannot be overthrown without outside interference, North Korea is the perfect example. They have been violating many human rights for generations but much can’t be done by the people. They have to either escape or live miserable lives.
Not to mention, Governments are the things that make all of these nuclear bombs and bio-weapons which many people here have listed as the most horrible things.
I’m not an anarchist but Governments are the most horrible thing that modern humans have made, an entity that pumps out all of these, bombs and, all of these weapons, whilst being able to be almost invincible to inside threats.”
4. Artificial intelligence.
“A.I.
The reason I believe this is because society is slowly imploding because of the echo chambers that A.I. recommendation systems create.
We are going down a very dangerous road and people do not understand what is happening.”
5. Horrifying.
“Nuclear Bombs.
Imagine a bomb so scary that any nation is basically crossed off the list for invasion. War despite no matter how gruesome or gory. All the d**th, torture, starvations, fire, and disease that came out of war.
No one once looked at something fired once and said” yeah no there is no fighting that level of d**th and horror.”.
Nukes are what kept the planet at peace for the majority of the world based on the understanding that if you get turned to dust in a second you are considered the lucky one on the receiving end. It is by far the scariest thing mankind has ever created.”
6. Thoughts?
“I’m honestly going to have to go with social media in its current form. Nuclear weapons have chains of command and are kept under lock and key.
Some private cannot initiate a nuclear strike but any nitwit can hop on Facebook, Instagram, etc. and fall into the rabbit hole of extremism, believing whatever some s**thead tells them due to lack of critical thinking skills, people who know how to exploit social media doing just that, and so forth. And this has happened to millions of people.
I honestly think social media has been a net negative to humankind and that, if it had been invented in the 1940s, we would still have polio crippled people being placed in iron lungs every year.”
7. Frightening.
“Biological weapons.
Sure there’s a convention that countries have agreed to that makes production illegal, but not all countries abide by it, and as the “good guys” you need to have your own in the pack so they’ll be too afraid to use it
Yeah Nukes are scary, but at least that’s an instant d**th for most of the population. A Biological weapon could take al ong tiem to actually k**l a population, or even spread. Even Covid took a relative long time to spread. Took months whereas nukes would be a few hours.
Plus not everyone would be susceptible to the weapon. Imagine surviving a pandemic that k**led 99% of the global population. Even global thermonuclear war would have more survivors than that.”
8. The reactors.
“Nuclear power reactors. Chernobyl comes to mind immediately.
To sum it up, there was a severe break of protocol leading up to a safety test. The test was delayed by 10 hours and the crew that carried out the test was unprepared. They were forced to do it anyways.
When the core exploded, it’s estimated that the radioactive material released was 400x the amount of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings put together. Over 100,000 km2 (39,000 mi2 ) was contaminated and evacuated.
So many people d**d. There isn’t even an official number. Just knowing what radiation does to people is so haunting. It’s even worse knowing that it could have been prevented.”
9. Is it too late?
“Our current climate crisis.
It’s been known of for years and we refused to change or try and find new ways.”
10. A divisive one.
“Capitalism.
Because it’s a system that richly rewards any innovation: good or evil.
Once there’s a huge profit motive, it’s impossible to resist creating dynamite, agent orange, zyklon b, nuclear weapons, etc etc.”
11. Even worse.
“Everyone here is saying nuclear bombs, I’d say hydrogen bombs.
It is formed by a nuclear fission reaction, i.e. the nucleus of the atom splits up into two or more particles. While, in nuclear fusion reactions (which forms nukes), the two particles fuse to form the atom’s nucleus.
Hydrogen bombs are 10x worse than nuclear bombs in terms of impact. I’d say hydrogen bombs by a mile.”
12. A new Cold War.
“Hypersonic missiles. We are entering a new Cold War.
China has just announced they have rockets (and a wind tunnel) that can travel at over 28,000 mph.
No anti missile system on the planet can Intercept something traveling at that speed.”
13. Frightening.
“The most terrifiing inventions are biological weapons. You can’t see them and you d** horribly.
In the best case you d** within minutes in the worst it can take hours or days. Or you don’t d** and there are permanent damages to you.”
14. Okay…
“I used to think bio weapons couldn’t be that worse than a nuclear armageddon, but the idea of botulinum toxin being produced by phytoplankton is indeed far more terrifying.”
15. Yes.
“Furbies.
What the f**k were those furry spawns of Satan?
I swear if you took the batteries out the monstrous little b**tards would keep talking, fueled only by the eternal souls of the da**ed.”
16. Dangerous.
“Adversarial thinking.
The idea that “we are right and they are wrong.”
This is how every war begins.”
17. Plastics.
“Pretty much everything made out of plastic eventually becomes microplastics in the environment, and recycling is mostly a sham.
As good a material as plastic is for many applications, it really never was very sustainable.”
18. Boom.
“TNT.
The person who created it had no idea what the implications would be in the long term as far as advancement in weaponry and was very despondent about the whole thing.”
19. All about growth.
“An economic system which prioritizes growth over everything else, completely disregarding people’s happiness, health, and the overall sustainability of the planet.”
20. Well, there’s that…
“The idea that your personal opinion and freedom is more valuble than the continued existence and progress of humanity.”
21. AI.
“Artificial Intelligence.
Just like Elon Musk said “AI is more dangerous than any nuke” AI isnt that dangerous yet but it will eventually. For example AI and bots that are being used in Minecraft.
They started off simple but now they can hunt down players, fight, and beat the game better than any humans can, how long will it take until AI can do the same thing. Imagine a bulletproof 8 foot tall robot that thinks for itself and can lift 10x as much as Olympic body builders.
They have already made AI that can learn and improve itself. AI is some scary s**t.”
22. A real headscratcher.
“The fear of certain sciences.
You go talk to some people nowadays and they are terrified of vaccines, because they don’t think it’s safe for one reason or another.
They don’t trust scientists, who have studied for a decade or more to ensure they are able to provide factual information.”
23. Yikes.
“A weaponized virus that we dont even know about yet.
Or possibly the human/animal hybrid that we all know has been attempted somewhere.”
24. Pretty scary.
“Social media and the internet.
In 20 years it’s done more damage to the fabric of social discord and interaction than pretty much anything else I can think of. I think people underestimate how damaging a fractured society or leadership is compared to tangible threats like nuclear weapons and war.
People dismiss history and then ask why empires fall. Then someone has to inform them that most empires fell because a degradation of the underlying society’s cohesion and/or the ending of a common bond (de**h of a unifying leader, lack of collective purpose, etc.).”
What do you think is the scariest thing about mankind?
Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
