[5thGenTexan]

Dear Mr Hawking,

We are too busy working on our mandated Muslim Outreach Program to spend any time working on technologies to achieve your goal.

Surely you support this sacrifice in the name of tolerance.

Signed,
NASA

[jrg]

We are too busy working on our mandated Muslim Outreach Program to spend any time working on technologies to achieve your goal.

Hey, we can accomplish both goals at the same time. We gather up all moose-limbs, put them on a space ship and send them to Mars.
There, they can create their own ideallic Mecca. Hell, they're used to dust and sand anyway, and we'll improve the way they think about themselves.

However, in all seriousness, he is correct. All it's going to take is for Yellowstone to blow. A super volcano of that size would stand a good chance of wiping out most of humanity due to starvation.

Apparently, in our distant past, the eruption of Toba almost wiped out humanity. Prior to that event, there was a great variety in mitochondrial DNA. Afterwards, the mitochondrial DNA had dwindled to a small group.