Where do you think humans are as a species? - On an anthropomorphic scale, are we as humans just in our infancy, or circling the drain?

[PT 404]

On the scale of human lifespan (infancy to geriatric), where do you think we are as a species?

Are we just starting our adventures, or are we in a rapidly declining twilight?

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

Adolescent and aliens might consider us lolcows.

 

[Yeeb-Renzo]

Where's the option to choose All of the Above?

 

[PT 404]

Where's the option to choose All of the Above?

I just added it, cuz quantum mechanics.

 

[TaterBot]

Americans, adolescent.
Other countries, idk

 

[IV 445]

The end is near

 

[Rand /pol/]

Depends on the culture and country, places like the West are decadent and degenerate and nearing there end.

 

[Audit_The_Autist]

We're in our infancy and deserve to be euthanized. We've just started to create horrors using science and must be stopped before we go mad with power. Frankenstein was not meant to be an instruction manual and before we know it the troons are going to start destroying any concept of the "human" form and mind.

 

[Jequiti]

We're still committing mistakes, but at the same time we're learning with them. Pretty much like an edgy teenager.

 

[RG 448]

We’re still confined to Earth and blowing each other up over stupid shit, we’ve got a lot of growing up to do, if we live long enough.

 

[de_DEVIL_tails]

It is oyr manifest destiney to settle the stars and while great unspeakable horrors will be unleased because of our hubris within the crucible of the infinite darkness we will find our new humanity and ascend to a higher plane of existance :V

 

[AnOminous]

Depends what you consider human. The transhumanists are probably right that eventually, if we're going to survive and move on, it's going to involve genetic engineering to improve the species, but then it won't be humanity as such.

And of course we could always commit some psychotic nuclear suicide/engineered plague/other human-made world-ending apocalypse. There's also global warming, but even under the gloomiest predictions, it would just be a mass die-off. Some people would survive, unless the aftermath deteriorated into some kind of nuclear armageddon situation.

In either event, though, humanity as a species will probably end at some point. It's just whether it ends horribly or ends with a transformation into something awesome (or into something horrible).

 

[Bassomatic]

We won't know until it's too late.

In some ways we are the most amazing thing we've ever come across and I don't mean that as a joke. Sure stars are huge most make the sun look like a toy. That's amazing, but we haven't found anyone else who looks at them. By the fact we look at them and learn, because why not? Is fucking amazing.

Assuming we don't destroy ourselves one day we will visit them I'm sure, just to you know see what they are like.

But we have serious cancers and do dumb shit. A lot of what we know is right moral, safe and good. Isn't exactly easy to swallow. We are cowardly towards many things and it costs us some of our potential.

Since the 50s about, we had the potential to destroy our selves just to prove we could. We still do, and we always should have that for a lot of reasons, but what we need is a way to get the fuck away from it just incase we do start playing a game of hot potatoes with ICBMs.

In evolution, we are faster stronger and smarter than we were 500 years ago. Darwin meant fittest by able to breed best, not who is the better being. We seriously need to stop allowing the bottom rungs to take us down a notch by leeching off, a good human trait, pity and kindness.

I seriously feel I will die, before humanity does. I don't think I will pass in a ELE (extinction level event). So no matter how much I pine on about the greatness of humanity, I will never see it grow for better or worse.

If I had to pick one option out of the list, I'd say early adult hood. We have the power and rights but really don't know how to use em best yet. I look forward to humanity to hit it's early 30s so to say.

 

[Y2K Baby]

This thread is stupid but I like it. I'm tired.

 

[CrunkLord420]

Some interpretations of the fermi paradox imply we're just about at the end of our species existence and about to wipe ourselves out.

 

[AnOminous]

Some interpretations of the fermi paradox imply we're just about at the end of our species existence and about to wipe ourselves out.

I think it may actually be that while the existence of extraterrestrial life is a near certainty, the frequency of it may be low enough that it is very unlikely intelligent species will encounter each other soon after their own evolution and growth into civilizations. Whether you'd want to call it an idea of God or just random chance, this would prevent civilizations from encountering each other while still in their primitive, murderous stage, at least very often.

It's also possible that ideas like ethics, altruism and kindness actually derive from logic and that any sufficiently advanced civilization will inevitably develop strict rules of conduct that would cause the vast majority of them to have something like the Prime Directive and not interfere with more primitive civilizations. They would also be post-scarcity civilizations and gain no real advantage by invading other civilizations for raw materials when plenty of those are available in uninhabited areas.

It seems there would be more than one stage of intelligent life. Once a species develops intelligence, it almost inevitably is going to take over its entire planet and become the dominant species. Intelligence is just too much of a killer app to lose to any other species. However, evolution halts at that point because, having developed care for each other, we tend to keep alive those who would have previously died, thus ending natural selection. At that point, there's a pause in evolution until it can become self-directed, such as by genetic engineering.

Now, transhumanists like Ray Kurzweil posit something often called the Singularity, where advances all converge suddenly on each other and massive, radical change occurs nearly immediately. I don't know if I buy that, but I do think progress will inevitably accelerate at some inflection point. I'm a little skeptical about the concept that this is happening any day now, though, as Kurzweil and others do.

 

[CrunkLord420]

I think it may actually be that while the existence of extraterrestrial life is a near certainty, the frequency of it may be low enough that it is very unlikely intelligent species will encounter each other soon after their own evolution and growth into civilizations. Whether you'd want to call it an idea of God or just random chance, this would prevent civilizations from encountering each other while still in their primitive, murderous stage, at least very often.

It's also possible that ideas like ethics, altruism and kindness actually derive from logic and that any sufficiently advanced civilization will inevitably develop strict rules of conduct that would cause the vast majority of them to have something like the Prime Directive and not interfere with more primitive civilizations. They would also be post-scarcity civilizations and gain no real advantage by invading other civilizations for raw materials when plenty of those are available in uninhabited areas.

It seems there would be more than one stage of intelligent life. Once a species develops intelligence, it almost inevitably is going to take over its entire planet and become the dominant species. Intelligence is just too much of a killer app to lose to any other species. However, evolution halts at that point because, having developed care for each other, we tend to keep alive those who would have previously died, thus ending natural selection. At that point, there's a pause in evolution until it can become self-directed, such as by genetic engineering.

Now, transhumanists like Ray Kurzweil posit something often called the Singularity, where advances all converge suddenly on each other and massive, radical change occurs nearly immediately. I don't know if I buy that, but I do think progress will inevitably accelerate at some inflection point. I'm a little skeptical about the concept that this is happening any day now, though, as Kurzweil and others do.

You'd think that if there was at least one civilization with thousands of years of interstellar experience their solar system/section of the galaxy would be lit up like the Eiffel tower. If you survive thousands of years, why not tens or hundrends of thousands? You'd need to wait thousands of years just to see any signal due to general relativity.

It only takes one alien race to survive, and once they begin colonizing other planets or just space itself it becomes much harder for the entire species to die off all at once.

 

[AnOminous]

You'd think that if there was at least one civilization with thousands of years of interstellar experience their solar system/section of the galaxy would be lit up like the Eiffel tower. If you survive thousands of years, why not tens or hundrends of thousands? You'd need to wait thousands of years just to see any signal due to general relativity.

It only takes one alien race to survive, and once they begin colonizing other planets or just space itself it becomes much harder for the entire species to die off all at once.

I think it's more likely that if you had such civilizations, you'd actually see stars start to wink out one by one as they were surrounded by Dyson spheres.

 

[Bassomatic]

I don't think if ayyyy's are real we can even begin to set "rules" for them. We say alien life has to be real due to math of how much shit is out there. I lean to agree, myself. But we keep saying they are like us, care like we do etc etc.

There's not one scrap of proof they would even be carbon based. Perhaps they are smarter stronger better than humans, but they have some kinda pleasure planet some real chill pad and have 0 want to leave.

Maybe they are literally what we would call a rock, but have emotions and thoughts like us. Lastly maybe they don't want us to find them, for a myriad of reasons. If you can cross the galaxy, you probably don't want to the smelly monkeys who happen to love nuclear weapons know you are around.

We may be the lolcows of the universe and being laughed at right now.

 

[CrunkLord420]

I don't think if ayyyy's are real we can even begin to set "rules" for them. We say alien life has to be real due to math of how much shit is out there. I lean to agree, myself. But we keep saying they are like us, care like we do etc etc.

There's not one scrap of proof they would even be carbon based. Perhaps they are smarter stronger better than humans, but they have some kinda pleasure planet some real chill pad and have 0 want to leave.

Maybe they are literally what we would call a rock, but have emotions and thoughts like us. Lastly maybe they don't want us to find them, for a myriad of reasons. If you can cross the galaxy, you probably don't want to the smelly monkeys who happen to love nuclear weapons know you are around.

We may be the lolcows of the universe and being laughed at right now.

rocks aren't people, not even alien rocks.