Are you worried?

How worried are you about the future prospects of humanity?

  • Very worried

    Votes: 4 16.7%

  • Somewaht worried

    Votes: 7 29.2%

  • Not worried

    Votes: 10 41.7%

  • Don't care

    Votes: 1 4.2%

  • Unsure

    Votes: 2 8.3%
  • Total voters
    24
Gary Childress

Gary Childress

Student for and of life
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
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Location
United Nations
It is not pleasant to contemplate the thoughts that must be passing through the mind of the Owl of Minerva as the dusk falls and she undertakes the task of interpreting the era of human civilization, which may now be approaching its inglorious end.

The era opened almost 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, stretching from the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates, through Phoenicia on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean to the Nile Valley, and from there to Greece and beyond. What is happening in this region provides painful lessons on the depths to which the species can descend.
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http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/26000-owl-of-minervas-view-isis-and-our-times

What do you think? Is the human species headed for a cataclysm sooner than later?

It seems like there is a lot to be worried about right now. The important question is maybe, if we are headed toward a cataclysm, what can be done to prevent it?
 
On the brighter side, Athena (Minerva in the horrible latin) was known as the one who always casts the vote in favor of the accused. In the Classical Athenian courts this was known as "The vote of Athena", and meant that if the vote was split evenly by then, the accused would be set free cause Athena votes in his favor ;)

But yeah, the human civ currently is garbage due to the misanthrope/oligarch/warmongers/divideetimperabros ruling. From Obama to Cameron to that female frog (dr Merkele :) ), and anything around. I at least hope we aren't headed to a new huge war.
 
Empires rise, and empires fall. Humanity has continued to march on.

And there's no point in going 10,000 years back. Just a mere thousand years ago, murderous religious fanatics descended upon the Middle East, slaughtering everyone who didn't worship the right god the right way. They spared no one, and killed everyone from prisoners of war to children. Afterwards, more murderous imperialistic conquerors arrived and devastated even more cities. But after all that, things calmed down for centuries. And for the last hundred years, things have actually started to get quite a bit better.

ISIL / IS is most likely a minor setback, but even if it isn't, it too will pass, and civilisation will advance. Climate changes might be an actual problem, but even in the worst case scenarios, several billion will still survive and live in relative prosperity.

The advance of human civilisation will not be stopped by any of the foreseeable problems. :)
 
Cheetah said:
Empires rise, and empires fall. Humanity has continued to march on.

And there's no point in going 10,000 years back. Just a mere thousand years ago, murderous religious fanatics descended upon the Middle East, slaughtering everyone who didn't worship the right god the right way. They spared no one, and killed everyone from prisoners of war to children. Afterwards, more murderous imperialistic conquerors arrived and devastated even more cities. But after all that, things calmed down for centuries. And for the last hundred years, things have actually started to get quite a bit better.

ISIL / IS is most likely a minor setback, but even if it isn't, it too will pass, and civilisation will advance. Climate changes might be an actual problem, but even in the worst case scenarios, several billion will still survive and live in relative prosperity.

The advance of human civilisation will not be stopped by any of the foreseeable problems. :)
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The turks were a bane, indeed ;)
 
Humans are a bunch of cretins who are unable to plan long-term, so yes, I'm worried.

But there's no point in getting too upset about it - there isn't much I can do. So I've resigned myself to being an optimistic cynic. I'm going to enjoy my life while I'm here and then.. well.. our kids are going to have to suffer, but that's not my fault. Nothing I can do.
 
They once said we would destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons.
Kyriakos said:
The turks were a bane, indeed ;)
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Stop giving them more ideas for an earlier origin of their vatan.
 
Humanity could still destroy themselves with nuclear weapons.
 
And I can go on a killing spree and top it off with my suicide tomorrow. So?
 
I'm not trying to change your vote. But just because nuclear threat is not front-and-center in the news does not make it a lesser threat. Actually, that makes it a greater threat that everybody's forgotten about it.
 
I'm more worried we'll be too successful as a species tbh, eventually creating artificial intelligence that will supplant us and driving us to extinction or at the very least transformed us into something unrecognisably human.
 
taillesskangaru said:
I'm more worried we'll be too successful as a species tbh, eventually creating artificial intelligence that will supplant us and driving us to extinction or at the very least transformed us into something unrecognisably human.
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This, absolutely. Modern civilization always wants to move "forward," even if that means falling off a cliff.

I'm also terrified by the prospects of the annihilation of nature. If and when that happens, I will no longer have much of a will to live. But it's a gradual process that's hard to notice. Chomsky is right to be scared senseless by climate change.

That said, Chomsky is being hyperbolic as usual when it comes to politics. He's so focused on complaining about the present that he forgets the past. Yes, Mr. Chomsky, there are wars going on now. That doesn't mean it's the end of the world. We've been through much, much worse. The US invasion of Iraq was insignificant compared to the horror of the Mongol and Timurid invasions. Wars, on the whole, are smaller, less frequent, and less savage than they were a few centuries ago.

So is ISIS bringing about the end of the world? Of course not. Are climate change and environmental annihilation going to make life crappy for everyone for many centuries? Of course.
 
We'd survive as a species even if we obliterate most other species on the planet. A poor, Stone Age, unhappy, brutish, and decimated species, yes, but we'd keep on existing.

With the other scenario, the AI one, the best scenario would be if Earth's new robotic overlords find us cute and keep us around as pets.
 
taillesskangaru said:
I'm more worried we'll be too successful as a species tbh, eventually creating artificial intelligence that will supplant us and driving us to extinction or at the very least transformed us into something unrecognisably human.
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Humanity is going to be unrecognisably 21st-century human at some point in the future no matter what happens. .. I suppose unless we forcefully stall evolution for whatever reason.
 
What are the current evolutionary pressures on mankind at the moment, though?

If the environment doesn't push us, what else is causing evolutionary change?
 
Borachio said:
What are the current evolutionary pressures on mankind at the moment, though?

If the environment doesn't push us, what else is causing evolutionary change?
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Sexual selection, I think. I'm not really sure. I think we face the same pressures other species do - just to different degrees.

Either way, we are evolving no matter what happens. (except like I said if we directly attempt to stop this and turn to fully genetically engineered babies and so on)
 
So long as America reigns supreme over this planet we should not need to worry because all will be well.
 
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