History of smallpox centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in December 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011. It has been suggested that smallpox was a major component of the Plague of Athens that occurred in 430 BCE, during the Peloponnesian Wars, and was described by Thucydides. Galen's description of the Antonine Plague, which swept through the Roman Empire in 165–180, indicates that it was probably caused by smallpox. Returning soldiers brought the disease home with them to Syria and Italy, where it raged for
Human extinction universe can support at least 10 biological human life-years; and, if some humans were uploaded onto computers, could even support the equivalent of 10 cybernetic human life-years. Without regulation, scientific advancement has a potential to risk human extinction as a result of the effects or use of totally new technologies. Some scenarios include: Normal biological evolution of humanity will continue and change humans over geological time scales. Although this could, in a non-phylogenetic taxonomy, be considered to give rise of a new species, such an ongoing evolution would biologically not be considered a species extinction. Given the likelihood that significant