Close One

Here's the headline:

Huge Asteroid that 'could end human life' defying gravity as it moves towards Earth, scientists say

Then you read a little further and discover the scientists are talking about "asteroid 1950 DA, which has a one in 300 chance of hitting the planet on 16 March, 2880."

I realize headlines are supposed to grab you, but they're not supposed to make you spit up your cereal.

Forget the one in 300 chance--let's assume it's 100% certain it'll smash into Earth.  Not only will we be long gone by then, but we'll have eight centuries of more technology.  Compare what we have today with the 1200s, then multiply the advances by 100.

We'll be living on other planets then. We'll have repellant rays that can move moons around.  And anyway, our minds will be in clouds, ready to reload any time necessary.

If the asteroid was coming in a decade, yeah, let's drop all wars and get on this project.  But as for 1950DA, let's save it for the people of the 29th century to deal with.