Philosophical Questions: Humans

[ysabetwordsmith]

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

How likely do you think it will be that humans will last another 1,000 years without killing ourselves off?

I'm dubious. On the one hand, humans are extremely numerous and adept at surviving. On the other, they have the capacity to wipe out most of the biosphere and are too stupid to realize it's a bad idea to saw off the branch they are standing on. I would not be surprised if humanity dies out. However, I think it's a lot more likely that they'll just wipe out modern civilization, and be left with a much lower population of humans at a much lower level of technology.

Of course, then they'd still have to survive their unfortunate decision to change the climate away from everything they evolved to cope with. The polar regions will remain habitable, but much of the hotter regions will not -- and that's a much smaller area of living space.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

There's also the point that although technology could be used to make uninhabitable places liveable (A/C for a start) we're not going to get a second shot at a technological civilisation if we lose this one. We've used up most of the low hanging easy-to-get-to raw resources, so we need a fairly advanced tech base to get to and process the raw resources we need to maintain and/or build a fairly advanced tech base.

Honestly, I dunno about a thousand years, I'm not even certain about a hundred. If we make it though this century, maybe... given that we'll probably be colonising Mars and the Moon in the next fifty, (which will need to be somewhat self-sustaining due to logistics) so that increases our odds of survival, if they get established.

[see_also_friend]

>>...given that we'll probably be colonising Mars and the Moon in the next fifty, (which will need to be somewhat self-sustaining due to logistics) so that increases our odds of survival, if they get established.<<

Then you run into the problem of people who want to fix problems on Earth, rather than playing house on Mars. Plus, if we can't solve problems here, how are we going to solve them when trying to terraform a Death World?

While I can see long term survival benefits in colonizing elsewhere in space, I am not sure it is worth that big a line in the budget right now. If your roof is busted, you need to pay for a roofer, not, a truckful of lotto tickets.

[siliconshaman]

You're not wrong, but right now we have a lot of billionaires who are focused on building lifeboats, and some of them are investing in colonising other planets. (there are also some who, as you say, are working on fixing problems rather than running away from them.)

Both is good. Belt and braces approach works.

[see_also_friend]

I am amenable to nudging people is slightly-more helpful directions, and someone building a lifeboat isn't hanging around and making a nuisance of themself. Though that does feel rather like the "getting rid of donkey" scene from the first Shrek movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmpK4gGW0pI

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> There's also the point that although technology could be used to make uninhabitable places liveable (A/C for a start) <<

A much lower tech for that is living underground. There are whole underground cities in some deserts. The problem would be obtaining enough food.

>> we're not going to get a second shot at a technological civilisation if we lose this one. We've used up most of the low hanging easy-to-get-to raw resources, so we need a fairly advanced tech base to get to and process the raw resources we need to maintain and/or build a fairly advanced tech base.<<

Well, not on the same branch of technology. Some others are still open. Ceramics and glass, the materials for those are plentiful and the bottom rung is literally throwing mud in a firepit. I've done it, in this life even. Biotech, it's not all DNA sequencing, some impressive things have been done just with handbreeding. But you do have to think outside the current box to see what's left.

>> Honestly, I dunno about a thousand years, I'm not even certain about a hundred. <<

Yyyyeah. I'm concerned about the level of weapons and the prevalence of imbeciles.

>>If we make it though this century, maybe... given that we'll probably be colonising Mars and the Moon in the next fifty, (which will need to be somewhat self-sustaining due to logistics) so that increases our odds of survival, if they get established.<<

True. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.