When humans ALMOST went extinct

[Jaskalas]

I am optimistic.

Can I borrow some?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Uh, there is only an abstract there. Do you have access to the full article somehow?

I only have this: https://arstechnica.com/science/202...me-an-endangered-species-a-million-years-ago/

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Just now, we are beginning to learn that plastic, which has contaminated everything water can touch, is found in all our organs and at the very least, causes a form of dementia to progress.

Didn't read the link above did ya'?

"The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the Earth plus Plastic. The Earth doesn’t share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth; the Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place: it wanted plastic for itself, didn’t know how to make it, needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question: “Why are we here?” Plastic, assholes!"

 

[cytg111]

Can I borrow some?

You sure can. I have a feeling it's all gonna be ok. You just wait and see.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I am fully and completely positively optimistic that every living thing on Earth will die.

 

[cytg111]

I am fully and completely positively optimistic that every living thing on Earth will die.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

[Muse]

Different from link in OP:

Humans faced a 'close call with extinction' nearly a million years ago

The human population may have lingered at about 1,300 for more than 100,000 years, and that population bottleneck could have fueled the divergence between modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

www.livescience.com

 

[Muse]

Y'all REALLY need to read the rant by George Carlin .....

https://genius.com/George-carlin-the-planet-is-fine-annotated

.

I've seen video of Carlin delivering that spiel onstage, probably more than once. Look, George worked up his routines in advance. He'd dream them up in his head, take notes, continue working on them, revise, work parts into his very frequent shows. Eventually a lot of these ideas/themes became major schticks for his performances, and this is just one example. Realize, this man was a performer. He made his ample living in this way. He WAS NOT A SCIENTIST. A lot of his conclusions display laziness. A lot of the time he's pressing your buttons as an audience member. This schtick (in my quoted link) is so full of holes it's ridiculous. Partly he's trying to justify his lack of ability or desire to dig deeper into the environmental movement. I'm sick of this I'm sick of that. It suits him better to just do a big fuck you to it. That's George. People get that way a lot of times because they don't have the energy or time or motivation to dig into stuff. A lot of times it's because it clashes with their personal situations.

George was an on-stage shock-jock. He was smart, he came up with shit, but that was his job. And it paid handsomely . He was often spot on. In this, not so much.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Nawh, in this, he was dead nuts on.

 

[Muse]

I am fully and completely positively optimistic that every living thing on Earth will die.

Well, it's been touted as a fundamental to keep in mind, and I don't disagree. If I ever have a doubt I think on this:

1) We likely will never figure out a way to move our species in a sustainable means from planet earth.

2) Planet earth will be destroyed when our sun becomes a red giant.

Of course the chances that humans will get obliterated by 2) are slim. It's very likely to happen before. But 1 + 2 = permanent extinction for humanity.

 

[Muse]

Nawh, in this, he was dead nuts on.

You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant. - Harlan Ellison

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I've been informed that George was dead nuts on.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Well, it's been touted as a fundamental to keep in mind, and I don't disagree. If I ever have a doubt I think on this:

1) We likely will never figure out a way to move our species in a sustainable means from planet earth.

2) Planet earth will be destroyed when our sun becomes a red giant.

Of course the chances that humans will get obliterated by 2) are slim. It's very likely to happen before. But 1 + 2 = permanent extinction for humanity.

In any circumstance where humans still exist in 5 billion years, we will most certainly not be on our origin planet anymore.

 

[Moonbeam]

I will never be anywhere but where I an right now. Reght now I am laying on my couch. I can hear a jet flying somewhere and see the wind blown branches of trees outside. The house just creeped as it warms in the sun. It is perhaps 78 degrees. I can now hear a motorcycle on an upside freeway. Now I can hear a small plain fly overhead. The 23 Psalm plays in my head. The clouds out the window are so white and the sky so blue. All this will become teardrops in the rain my sad state of isolation and loneliness tells me, but wait. But am I not here now at pease in all the time that will ever exist. Isn’t what I anticipate the result of not being here now?

Perhaps what we need is faith in God 4.0

A Contemporary Look at the Nature of Religious Experience

Featured Books A Contemporary Look at the Nature of Religious Experience By George Kasabov An exploration of two recent books on the subject: How Religion Evolved: And Why It Endures, by Robin Dunbar, and GOD 4.0: On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God, by Robert...

humanjourney.us

Check out the work for the future dealt with on the home page.
For example:

Race with Ourselves - ISHK

Will we be able to educate people quickly enough to understand the complexity of the modern world? Will we be able to learn to control nuclear weapons before it is too late? Will the human population continue to increase faster than we can control it? Will we ever be able to feed ourselves?

ishk.net

 

[Ajay]

Honestly, I can't for the life of me, figure out why people hate their own species so much that they wish for us to die off; or to never have existed.

 

[cytg111]

Honestly, I can't for the life of me, figure out why people hate their own species so much that they wish for us to die off; or to never have existed.

What we need to do is consume more outwards instead of inwards... Therefor to the Moon Mars Europa, to the Stars. Lets get busy building this technology. More AI. It's gonna be OK!

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Honestly, I can't for the life of me, figure out why people hate their own species so much that they wish for us to die off; or to never have existed.

For me, it's because humans destabilize otherwise stable, natural systems. When they do, those systems become dependent on humans to maintain them, which we inevitably fail to do. It's innately an abusive relationship that we force upon the natural world.

 

[Muse]

Honestly, I can't for the life of me, figure out why people hate their own species so much that they wish for us to die off; or to never have existed.

Yeah, I don't get that either. I can be misanthropic as hell but I'm not dumb enough to write off the whole human race. The upside is limitless, people.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

There are NO advantages to the human parasite.

 

[Jaskalas]

Honestly, I can't for the life of me, figure out why people hate their own species so much that they wish for us to die off; or to never have existed.

No offense, that view point sounds like an incredibly sheltered life.
To not imagine why, the way we treat each other, some would opt to express their pain in this way.

For my part, I wish for us to exist. I wish for us to find enlightenment. But the older I get, the more I realize just how close we are to the starting line, rather than the childhood illusion of the finishing line being right around the corner. We are literally still the Flintstones, not the Jetsons. Whether we are even one step closer.... remains to be seen. The first challenge would be if we could learn to simply stop killing one another. And while some nations saw positivity following WW2, it appears that WW3 has already begun. In a slow, meandering, buildup.

Nothing about the short term future (our lifetimes) is going to be clean or pretty. It may even reach apocalyptic. There are people who see these events today, and do not even want children.

Perhaps a hallmark difference... is that you still think your nation will exist by the end of your lifetime?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

There are NO advantages to the human parasite.

Except you

 

[Moonbeam]

If we look at the problem from the point of view of honest self reflection we will note that how we see the world is dependent on an inner struggle. Have we succumbed to the notion that we are truly worthless and live in total denial or do we hold out hope in the possibility there may be some sort of redemption. From there it is just a matter of projection. For those in whom a sense of inner self worth was badly beaten out of us, the optimism is profoundly painful to contemplate. For them the raven quoth NEVER MORE. Once burnt twice shy. For others who managed somehow to hang on, they can better tolerate the possibility of hope. This is my opinion.

We see the world as our attitude toward our own fate is tuned, by the condition of our attitude. Oh Ye of little faith, understand why. This is why I posted the the thingi about God4.0 Hope can be had from a new app.

To save the world begins with saving yourself. And we are not alone. There is a long lost friend within.

 

[Moonbeam]

 

[Ajay]

For me, it's because humans destabilize otherwise stable, natural systems. When they do, those systems become dependent on humans to maintain them, which we inevitably fail to do. It's innately an abusive relationship that we force upon the natural world.

One could argue, pretty easily from a scientific perspective, that we are a product of nature. I suppose, that by analogy, we are the most effective 'virus' nature has ever created. Practically nothing is immune to our ability to enter the life of a host, take it over and consume it's resources, and then kill it or leave it compromised. We do have a weakness. We ignore the very things we create that are poisonous to us and only act after significant damage has already been done (leaded gas, PFASs, etc). Now, faced with the prospect of losing 10s or 100s of millions of lives a year in the future do to climate change - we are just beginning to act. By our nature, many of our species impede the necessary changes to save ourselves and protect our environment and the food chain that we need to live.

I'm confident, that as things get worse, more and more people will see the reality of global warming and demand change. Belatedly, but in time to prevent the absolute worst of it. We will blow by several of the targets set by climate scientists. Again, I think that by our nature, we are slow to react because historically we've been able to move to a different land, or exert control over our environment in a way to protect ourselves. It's only when too many of our tribe have been killed and eaten by tigers that we summon the courage to create a hunting party to kill the ones that have a taste for human flesh.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

One could argue, pretty easily from a scientific perspective, that we are a product of nature. I suppose, that by analogy, we are the most effective 'virus' nature has ever created. Practically nothing is immune to our ability to enter the life of a host, take it over and consume it's resources, and then kill it or leave it compromised. We do have a weakness. We ignore the very things we create that are poisonous to us and only act after significant damage has already been done (leaded gas, PFASs, etc). Now, faced with the prospect of losing 10s or 100s of millions of lives a year in the future do to climate change - we are just beginning to act. By our nature, many of our species impede the necessary changes to save ourselves and protect our environment and the food chain that we need to live.

That's not unique to humans. A similar circumstance happened during the great oxygenation event, led to the first mass extinction of our planet. They at least get credit for not understanding how any of this shit works; we should know better.

I'm confident, that as things get worse, more and more people will see the reality of global warming and demand change. Belatedly, but in time to prevent the absolute worst of it. We will blow by several of the targets set by climate scientists. Again, I think that by our nature, we are slow to react because historically we've been able to move to a different land, or exert control over our environment in a way to protect ourselves. It's only when too many of our tribe have been killed and eaten by tigers that we summon the courage to create a hunting party to kill the ones that have a taste for human flesh.

I think you overestimate how good it can still be, and underestimate how bad it can get, as well as how much 'time' we actually have. We had time a century ago, we had time to avoid the worst of it 50 years ago (that was 1973, as a reminder). Now? We are very probably past the point of no return, we're just waiting to watch it happen. In all likelihood, humans will spend another half a decade waffling about russia, china, (and for us) fighting over presidents going to jail (while still burning fossil fuels at increasing rates), the next 5 waffling about the UK returning to the EU, more china, energy security, and legislation surrounding electrifying cars as well as securing limited resource for battery materials (while still burning fossil fuels at increasing rates) The next 10 years focusing internally on ever increasing effects from climate change (wildfires, flooding, ever worse heat events, ever worse blizzards, ever worse droughts, emergence of consistent wet bulb event summers across the tropics) .... (while still burning fossil fuels at increasing rates), The following 10 realizing we've actually, no really fucked the ecosystem and starting to really consider geoengineering possibilities, SpaceX takes it upon themselves to launch a solar swarm to limit the amount of light reaching earth, resulting in our very own Kessler syndrome, meanwhile mass migrations (leading to armed border conflicts worldwide) and famine result in billions dead (while still burning fossil fuels at finally precipitating rates, on account of all the dead people). That's my prediction at any rate.