4 ms·

Revel with me in the thought that we —humans— think we are center of the world. That Earth is made for us and we have the power to shape it in whichever way we

by raulk 9y ago

Revel with me in the thought that we —humans— think we are center of the world. That Earth is made for us and we have the power to shape it in whichever way we wish. That we own the planet. But, in reality, we don't. We are here only temporarily. There are powerful organisms hiding out there who are perennial. And they act like guards. If we push it too far, we set off the right conditions for them to spring to life, and restore balance on Earth by anhililating the threat — i.e. us. What a time to be alive!

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> restore balance on Earth Who's in charge of what constitutes balance?
- glenda 9y ago
  Symbiosis? I don't think anyone is in charge of that.
- raulk 9y ago
  If anybody had the answer to that...
- raulk 9y ago
  Balance can be technically defined as homeostasis. In the biosphere, a well known concept is the Gaia Theory. More here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis
  - nyolfen 9y ago
    ecological homeostasis has been discredited for nearly half a century
adrianN 9y ago
We're the species with the best chance to ever leave the solar system, so that makes us pretty important.
- raulk 9y ago
  Until you find out that bacteria can accompany us and, more importantly, survive in conditions we don't survive in without aid. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bacteria-discovered-spacecraft-clean-rooms/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bacteria-discover...
  - pottersbasilisk 9y ago
    Yep also water bears. http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a11137/secrets-of-the-water-bear-the-only-animal-that-can-survive-in-space-17069978/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a11137/secrets-of-the-...
- jcoffland 9y ago
  > so that makes us pretty important. To who?
- hyperdunc 9y ago
  The descendants of our evolutionary lineage will hopefully leave the solar system, but I doubt they'll be the same species, or even primarily biological. It's our job to nurture the trajectory that will make this happen.
staunch 9y ago
Except that, on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death itself is solvable given effort and time. We do share this spaceship with many other lifeforms, but we really are the ones taking the helm. It wouldn't surprise me if humanity chose to restore earth to something like the state it was in before the industrial age.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  > on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death This sounds like more of a statement of faith than fact. I'm hoping this is going to be the case, but some issues may be completely intractable. Strong AI and fusion have been on the five-year horizon for decades.
  - Arizhel 9y ago
    It's conjecture either way. From everything I see, I think it's entirely possible that humanity could technically succeed like he says: conquer all known challenges on Earth, eliminate biological death even, and proceed to the stars. However, it's also entirely possible we'll fail miserably and go extinct, not because any of these things are prevented by physics (they're not, except maybe exceeding lightspeed but you can always build a generation ship or use cryo-sleep etc. to work around that), but because our basic human nature prevents us: we'll fight with each other and annihilate ourselves, or we'll destroy our environment due to our recklessness and collective stupidity and shortsightedness, and that'll prevent us from making those achievements in time to survive. Personally, I'd bet on the latter. I think it's highly likely we won't be around in 200 years, or if we are, we'll be back to the stone age and our population reduced to very small numbers. We're simply not showing that we have what it takes as a species to deal with global challenges successfully.
- discreteevent 9y ago
  > on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers We don't seem to be on a clear single trajectory. There is also a lot of short sighted self destructive stuff going on. You are right that we have definitely taken the helm but who knows which turn we will take next and the sea is a harsh mistress.

by raulk 9y ago

pavel_lishin 9y ago

> restore balance on Earth Who's in charge of what constitutes balance?

glenda 9y ago
Symbiosis? I don't think anyone is in charge of that.
raulk 9y ago
If anybody had the answer to that...
raulk 9y ago
Balance can be technically defined as homeostasis. In the biosphere, a well known concept is the Gaia Theory. More here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis
- nyolfen 9y ago
  ecological homeostasis has been discredited for nearly half a century

adrianN 9y ago

We're the species with the best chance to ever leave the solar system, so that makes us pretty important.

raulk 9y ago
Until you find out that bacteria can accompany us and, more importantly, survive in conditions we don't survive in without aid. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bacteria-discovered-spacecraft-clean-rooms/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bacteria-discover...
- pottersbasilisk 9y ago
  Yep also water bears. http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a11137/secrets-of-the-water-bear-the-only-animal-that-can-survive-in-space-17069978/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a11137/secrets-of-the-...
jcoffland 9y ago
> so that makes us pretty important. To who?
hyperdunc 9y ago
The descendants of our evolutionary lineage will hopefully leave the solar system, but I doubt they'll be the same species, or even primarily biological. It's our job to nurture the trajectory that will make this happen.

staunch 9y ago

Except that, on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death itself is solvable given effort and time. We do share this spaceship with many other lifeforms, but we really are the ones taking the helm. It wouldn't surprise me if humanity chose to restore earth to something like the state it was in before the industrial age.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers. Even death This sounds like more of a statement of faith than fact. I'm hoping this is going to be the case, but some issues may be completely intractable. Strong AI and fusion have been on the five-year horizon for decades.
- Arizhel 9y ago
  It's conjecture either way. From everything I see, I think it's entirely possible that humanity could technically succeed like he says: conquer all known challenges on Earth, eliminate biological death even, and proceed to the stars. However, it's also entirely possible we'll fail miserably and go extinct, not because any of these things are prevented by physics (they're not, except maybe exceeding lightspeed but you can always build a generation ship or use cryo-sleep etc. to work around that), but because our basic human nature prevents us: we'll fight with each other and annihilate ourselves, or we'll destroy our environment due to our recklessness and collective stupidity and shortsightedness, and that'll prevent us from making those achievements in time to survive. Personally, I'd bet on the latter. I think it's highly likely we won't be around in 200 years, or if we are, we'll be back to the stone age and our population reduced to very small numbers. We're simply not showing that we have what it takes as a species to deal with global challenges successfully.
discreteevent 9y ago
> on it's current trajectory, humanity will very shortly conquer all known challenges that earth offers We don't seem to be on a clear single trajectory. There is also a lot of short sighted self destructive stuff going on. You are right that we have definitely taken the helm but who knows which turn we will take next and the sea is a harsh mistress.