Another standard (at least in sci-fi) example: some gene in GMO foods unintentionally resulting in sterilization as a long-term side effect.
The problem with your example is that sterilization is a side effect that would take a very long time to actually cause armageddon, and if civilization can produce GMO foods they can PROBABLY reverse whatever leads to the sterility.
A nuclear exchange that wipes out the key parts of western civilization could happen in 1 hour, and the war could be over in 1 day. If someone were to release a huge swarm of killer nano-machines, it might take months to years to eat the biosphere (again, the machinery I am talking about is NOT self replicating) but developing...
Today's post, Raised in Technophilia was originally published on 17 September 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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