Future Earth?

[Na'vin Nos'feratxu]

My greatest fear, is not when the human race will crash...
My greatest fear is, will I be here when it does?

If/when it does happen in my lifetime, hopefully I'll be back out of the metro areas, and not subject to the chaos.

Markì is very right, as a people we need to fix ourselves, before we can fix our planet.
Honestly though, I do not see the Human race with all its religious and cultural conflicts, fixing anytime soon.
Some people would rather die than to change. So much stupid pride, when they fail to see the bigger picture.
It's not about us, not anymore.

[Toruk Makto]

Change is not always voluntary...

I am not a technophobe, but I fear that our wisdom has been far outpaced by our technical effrontery. Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean we MUST do that thing.  We are inheriting the result of a century of unbridled technical advancement. The desire for more "stuff" for less effort is making the 1st world cultures soft and weak. This weakness is being exploited by those with differing religious ideals and by those who want the benefits of advanced technology without the knowledge gained from the experience of creating it.

Gahhhh. I am starting to sound like a gadfly street preacher. My opinions are my own and your mileage may vary...

[ToktorGrace]

Change is not always voluntary...

I am not a technophobe, but I fear that our wisdom has been far outpaced by our technical effrontery. Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean we MUST do that thing.  We are inheriting the result of a century of unbridled technical advancement. The desire for more "stuff" for less effort is making the 1st world cultures soft and weak. This weakness is being exploited by those with differing religious ideals and by those who want the benefits of advanced technology without the knowledge gained from the experience of creating it.

Now this I will agree with - because there is some technology designed to be smarter than the user, and correct them if they screw up (example: now gmail will tell you if you didnt attach something and you mentioned "attach" in your email.)

And yes, I feel that we use technology without really knowing how to use it, or often what its original purpose was. Unfortunately, much of what is created that we use currently in our everday lives was originally designed for military use. Although we have modified it, I wonder at what technology could be had it been designed for a peaceable purpose in the first place.

As far as the "current generation" being entitled, I won't argue that there aren't plenty of people who need to get their priorities straight, but this sense of materialism, greed, ect. is not an entirely new concept. While humans are now connected to others across the world we are also isolated from people around us, and that is damaging.

I'll stop before I ramble - but change is in order, and probably long in coming.

[Tsyal Maktoyu]

This culture of consumerism and wage slavery is slowly turning the world into a neo-feudal corporatocracy, which will lead to our eventual demise. The Earth will survive though, sans one hairless bipedal, though it might take millenia to recover. I, like Na'vin, sometimes fear I might live to see the end of humanity. This thing in Korea is starting to spark those fears in me again, I pray my concerns are unfounded...

Technology isn't inherently evil, but how we've used it to enslave and slaughter each other - all in the name of greed - while leaving a trail of death and destruction in our path is.

We need to change, drastically and quickly, or we might be part of the refuse next time Mama Nature cleans house.

"Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture" by Thom Hartmann is a good read on this subject. Just finished a week ago, definitely recommend it.

[Dreamlight]

I don't recall who originally called humanity a child race with adolescent technology, but really, it's true.  Human technology is now well beyond the wisdom to use it, well, wisely, and continues to progress at an accelerated pace.  A full, global, unequivocal, and above all, drastic paradigm shift will be the only thing that will save humanity from itself.

[archaic]

K said this in Men in Black .....
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals.


And my two cents is that, all that we are failing to achieve now, we needed to achieve twenty or thirty years ago, maybe longer.

[ToktorGrace]

I don't recall who originally called humanity a child race with adolescent technology, but really, it's true.  Human technology is now well beyond the wisdom to use it, well, wisely, and continues to progress at an accelerated pace.  A full, global, unequivocal, and above all, drastic paradigm shift will be the only thing that will save humanity from itself.

Well said.

And I am wondering about the very weird weather that's been happening... I know that the movie "Day After Tomorrow" was very far fetched, but I wonder if it was at least in part somewhat true. (It sucks that they decided to call it "Global Warming" since most people are too dumb to realize that it doesnt mean that everything will just be warmer...)

I am hoping there will be a change soon... if everyone lived like Americans do, we'd need 5 earths... but we only have one.

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

but we only have one.

At the moment.

[ToktorGrace]

but we only have one.

At the moment.

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

I don't think 'stealing' is an appropriate word if the world in question is devoid of life. Surely it would be a beautiful thing for humanity to become a kind of cosmic Johnny Appleseed (as Carl Sagan put it) turning dead worlds into places where Earth life has a toehold.
James Cameron is on my side.

[ToktorGrace]

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

I don't think 'stealing' is an appropriate word if the world in question is devoid of life. Surely it would be a beautiful thing for humanity to become a kind of cosmic Johnny Appleseed (as Carl Sagan put it) turning dead worlds into places where Earth life has a toehold.
James Cameron is on my side.

How would you define a "dead world"?

I will say that I believe JC got it right when he projected that humans would rather extract the resources from Pandora than try to examine and mimic its inhabitants. The history of the world is basically an endless extraction of resources and war when there is not enough to go around. I have a very dim outlook if we manage to find a planet that could be considered inhabitable or has resources on it that humans could use, especially if the planets inhabitants are unable to defend themselves from our "superior" technology.

I just don't see humans deviating from their very very long history of extracting what they want without care to the effects it might have and who they are harming.

[Dreamlight]

but we only have one.

At the moment.

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

This is what I have been trying to say.  The Humans will only find another planet to rob and rape--and a planet, and a planet, and a planet, and so on, marauding through the universe.  This must not happen.

[Eyamsiyu]

but we only have one.

At the moment.

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

This is what I have been trying to say.  The Humans will only find another planet to rob and rape--and a planet, and a planet, and a planet, and so on, marauding through the universe.  This must not happen.

So basically intergalactic pirates?

Yeah, I personally don't like the idea of where it's going.  Besides, if we DID find another "Earth," do you really think that it would be EXACTLY like ours?  I think Cameron pointed that out well with Pandora itself...

[Dreamlight]

True.  Few planets will be truly earthlike.  On the other hand, again by Cameron's example, that doesn't pose a hindrance.  Human greed knows no bounds.

[Eyamsiyu]

Human greed knows no bounds.

Fì'u.  Don't have anything more to add to that.

[Lolet]

but we only have one.

At the moment.

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

This is what I have been trying to say.  The Humans will only find another planet to rob and rape--and a planet, and a planet, and a planet, and so on, marauding through the universe.  This must not happen.

Personally, I don't think any of us will be alive when we reach a new planet with things for us to eat.

[Eyawng te Klltepayu]

I was thinking of places like Mars.

Why are we gonna spend billions of dollars to do this? People are always saying we've gotta solve our problems right here on Earth before we go spending money out in space. It makes me puke, frankly.

Check back in 500 or 1,000 years and people are still gonna be talking about all the problems that need to be solved. We're never gonna reach some utopian plateau where everything is solved so we can kind of with lordly confidence look around for worlds to conquer as some kind of hobby. You know, not spreading ourselves out within the solar system now, when we have the capability to do so, is one of the problems we have to be solving right here on Earth.

Personally, I don't think any of us will be alive when we reach a new planet with things for us to eat.

Plenty of CHNOPS out in the asteroids.

[ToktorGrace]

Personally, I don't think any of us will be alive when we reach a new planet with things for us to eat.

Agreed with this.. even if we manage light-speed travel it'll take years to get anywhere!

Plenty of CHNOPS out in the asteroids.

Lol although this is how we perceive life now, I do not doubt there is alternate forms of life that can exist with only some, or different elements than these that our species requires.

[Lolet]

Personally, I don't think any of us will be alive when we reach a new planet with things for us to eat.

Agreed with this.. even if we manage light-speed travel it'll take years to get anywhere!

Plenty of CHNOPS out in the asteroids.

Lol although this is how we perceive life now, I do not doubt there is alternate forms of life that can exist with only some, or different elements than these that our species requires.

An Avatar-type scenario is more likely than space pirates, you can't just wander the galaxy and expect to find something.

And who knows, maybe something really good will happen and Earth will become even more lush. 

['Tsamsiyu]

but we only have one.

At the moment.

Do you really think we should find another one and steal all the resources from it so we can keep polluting and wasting like we currently are?

Humans are foolish, I agree with the Men in Black quote up above. My father and I talk about this occasionally and he believes that we shouldn't be allowed to explore into space to inhabit another planet as he believes that we would just consume and destroy it, like we have Earth. I get the feeling he is right, that Humans are like a parasitic race that consume and then move and then consume etc. However, I hold hope that somehow we can put a stop to overbalancing Global Warming and find a way to restore Earth to it's former self, a beautiful and incredible place for sure. Myself, very much inspired from Avatar, think about finding new Earth like planets at least twice a day, and I know deep down I want us to find Pandora (who doesn't, right?). But the concept of there being life on another Earth like planet is absolutely incredible to me, now I've only been alive 16 years, so I'm hoping I still have a lot left to see out there (assuming it isn't all destroyed), but to be alive when we discover an Earth like planet and to maybe be around when people visit would be so unbelievably amazing to me!

Here's to hoping the Human race (part of it, at least) wakes up! Cheers!