The human race is doomed (thank goodness!)

Hi wonderful person .  I am not an aspergers but yes sadly the world is insane but  thankfully their are beautiful good people in the world who still may not be in the media but have morals and value people.  Granted it maybe so hard for many people to judge who those people  are but believe me I am one of them.  I am not perfect but greed sadly will always be there.  Bill gates look him up.  Diana princess of Wales.  Nelson Mandela all wonderful people all different political views but on the side of Man Kind. 

Unknown said:

So yes we are doomed. 

I'm not sure we are doomed.  Due for a realignment with reality - very certainly, but doomed?  Not necessarily in my opinion.  Nor do I think it likely that we will "destroy the planet".  We might make the planet effectively uninhabitable by our species, and many others, but destroying it, like blowing it to smithereens or something, could well be beyond our current abilities.

It's more likely that we'll be reined in by our very behaviour.  What happens when we can no longer sustain our current civilisation?  It will likely collapse, there'll be widescale deaths etc. and things will revert back to an earlier stage where our race is no longer quite the existential threat to the current eco-system that it is now.  Possibly the eco-system will change and evolve.  That might still allow our species a chance of life, or it might not.  It may be that we cease to be the top predator and become prey again.

Think in terms of the fall of Roman empire and the subsequent "dark ages".  We did better than the Romans this time around, but maybe we're reaching the limits of what can be sustained with our "current paradigm/civilisation structure".  Or maybe we'll come up appropriate fixes before we reach the point of no-return.  Who knows?...

Im debating with myself whether to have children or not. One of the reasons against is how the world is currently shaping up. To quote Nathan Barley "the idiots are winning".

Some thoughts reflecting on the comments above as well as my own. ....We have destroyed the planet because of capitalism. Everything worked in sync until the Industrial Revolution paved the way for needless commodities and extra income to spend on non-necessities as well as the climate changing pollution.  Technology is fantastic but scares me how it will develop in the future and that children are brought up not knowing life before smart phones. The I want it all now culture. 

I hope for best case scenario in that AI will relieve human kind of work and our meaning on earth will become one of enjoyment. However we need to act responsibly and not destroy the earth further.

I think graphene will change the world in a way we cant yet comprehend.

I find it ridiculous we are considering colonising Mars. Its just typical of the culture we live in. Instead of repairing what we have here we are looking at where else we can destroy.

I get comfort reading about the Universe and how insignificant we are or looking at the Pale Blue Dot picture. (My avatar). Look at it. See. Theres nowhere else for humans to go. 

Someone mentioned dolphins. Intelligent creatures with self-awareness. But we are measuring this based on a human world-view like we do with everything thinking we are superior beings.

We will obliterate ourselves before any alien invasion happens. Aliens wouldnt touch us with a barge pole. Theyll just watch from the sidelines as we slowly kill the thing that keeps us alive in the name of capitalism.

There are too many humans on this planet for us to be sble to sustain in the current way. So yes we are doomed. 

I think this quote from Douglas Adams has relevance here:

"On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was much more intelligent than dolphins, because he had achieved so much more- the wheel, New York, wars and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time.

But conversely, the dolphins always believed they were far more intelligent than man, for precisely the same reasons."

So long and thanks for all the fish, indeed.

At the moment a lot of the short-termism comes from our economic and political systems.  There are plenty of people doing long-term stuff (e.g. climate researchers) but they tend to drowned out by the short-termers.

Martian Tom said:

Fighting and killing each other over differences

We evolved as a tribal species.  People (as a whole) like being in tribes, and they are often more than happy to be led down the path of "we must destroy the tribe over there who are <insert reason here> for the prosperity and longevity of our tribe."  Sad but true.  Don't expect to sign me up for that sort of thing though!

Martian Tom said:

6 men owning more wealth between them than the 4,000,000,000 poorest people on earth.

Well, is it real wealth though?  How much of that is really just bit patterns in computer memories, and how much of that is actually down to tangible assets/commodities of intrinsic value?

Martian Tom said:

Countries starving whilst rich individuals send a sports car into space, or spend £5,000,000 on a wedding party, or £100,000,000 on another yacht.

Again, that seems to be an "as a whole" people thing - if they have perceived wealth, they like to show off about it.  Again, beyond a certain point, don't expect me to doing that sort of thing.  Even if I did have that sort of wealth (I don't) all you'd see is the tip of the iceberg.  The rest would be being used to do things I perceive to be generally useful, most of it anonymously.

Martian Tom said:

Obsessions with trivia, nonsense, junk

And you don't collect or value certain things - tangible or otherwise?

PINARELLO F8 said:

They have almost destroyed the planet

Not true.  I think you'll find the planet will quite likely still be around long after the human race is done and dusted.  Especially if we keep going down the path we currently are.

PINARELLO F8 said:

most of the animal species mainly for financial gain or pleasure

I don't know about most, but certainly many.  But it's not just animal species.  Also other types of life are at risk, plus there's the profligate use of natural resources without thinking about how those things are going to be conserved, recycled and what the impacts of using them necessarily are.

Plastic said:

Just because people have lots of money, doesn't mean they are free. Most 'rich' people are forced to live in guilded cages where they cannot venture out into the real world.

Yes - this.

Plastic said:

I would suggest there are millions of complely happy, satisfied people living in freedom with very little money.

And this.

I know some 'extremely wealthy' people and they have no freedom. They have a whole load of expectations on them from shareholders and governments. They have no real friends (except me as I don't 'need' anything from them and I've known them for years).

Their acquantances are shallow 'takers' all with their hand out. They know that EVERYONE is trying stitch them up.

They have nice cars and nice houses but can't go down the pub and play darts. They can't be seen to make mistakes. Their kids cannot do scouts without someone getting their kids to artificially make friends with them - looking to make money somehow.

Then there's the burglary and mugging risks.

They are depressed & lonely people.

This is true, I don't care about money. It's not even a real thing. Just a promiss. I don't Victoria is as misserable as she looks. I think she might just have resting *** face.

I find it interesting that you equate wealth with money and the Western consumer model. This seems to be a Western socialist guilt trip to punish themselves based on their greed & envy model..

Just because people have lots of money, doesn't mean they are free. Most 'rich' people are forced to live in guilded cages where they cannot venture out into the real world. They have no real friends and have to be suspicious of everyone around them's motives as most are looking for a quick pay-day.

Can Victoria Beckham go to the local shops in onesie to get a pint of milk without someone taking a picture? The publicity would destroy her brand value. She is forced to be +/- 1lb in weight, have perfect make-up never look happy. Some existence.

I would suggest there are millions of complely happy, satisfied people living in freedom with very little money.

The human race has a lot to answer for

They have almost destroyed the planet and most of the animal species mainly for financial gain or pleasure. I was talking to a farmer the other day who started complaining about the number of deer roaming his land. He then started on badgers, foxes, rabbits, birds of prey. in fact he was willing to destroy any animal that had a detremental effect on his profits. The number of butterflies has almost halved over the past 20 years due to the over use of insecticides

I also heard on the news yesterday that seven horses died at a Cheltenham meet last year How can this happen?I thought owners and trainers claim  to love their animals. They should prioritise the welfare of their animals over their greed and egos.

The sooner there is a nuclear war which wipes mankind off the planet the better, then let the planet repair itself

This is why we need AI. Humans are to short sighted to survive. Bring on robot overlords to tell us what to do.

I would be honoured to be part of The Last Homo Sapiens. 

This has pretty much been my outlook on life for the last 30 ish years 

Sad but true