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Maybe this is a good thing! I personally agree with the message of and support the The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement [0]. There is good introduction in

Maybe this is a good thing! I personally agree with the message of and support the The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement [0]. There is good introduction in form of a short film "Thank You For Not Breeding" [1]. [0] http://vhemt.org/ http://vhemt.org/ [1] https://vimeo.com/7652051 https://vimeo.com/7652051

meowface 6y ago
This takes as an ultimate goal the preservation of Earth and its ecology. I personally think of the Earth as just a means to an end (intelligent, conscious existence). I find little inherent value in an Earth that isn't collapsing but which has no (human-level or greater) intelligent, sapient entities. And no inherent value in an Earth without any sentient entities. My personal ultimate goal is to simultaneously reduce the suffering of sentient life and allow it to flourish throughout the universe. The Earth itself is just a necessary container for it for the time being. It's an inanimate hunk of molecules. Blow it up for all I care, and all the plants and archaea and bacteria and such, if beforehand every human and non-human animal can be safely transported or teleported to another celestial object or structure which supports animal life. (Obviously this is extremely unrealistic.) Is the best way to preserve sentient life the elimination of sapient life? It's one way, but I don't necessarily think it's the best way. And that's not even considering the utility one might attribute to the total number of sapient entities and how it might compare to non-sapient ones. Also, practically speaking, it's probably easier to convince enough people to address the problem of ecological destruction than to convince everyone on Earth to never reproduce. If both turn out to be impossible, then I guess that's just how the story goes.
- lcall 6y ago
  I like this idea of reaching the stars as a higher goal, partly because it (to me at least) clearly implies that we must treat each other non-destructively. Learning to improve oneself, and service to others in their growth and goals, bring real joy. I guess maybe it comes with the expansion of self and others in that way. Selfishness tears it down, like the story of the crabs in the heated water (or something like that), who prevent each other from exiting up & out. And maybe those higher aims can serve as one's higher aspirations or guiding purpose, even in the absence of religious beliefs that one sees as actually true, and which lead one to be kind & honest, and to strive for competence in service to family and humanity. I suggested so in my own writings (at my site), but perhaps less eloquently than the parent comment. My beliefs agree that the earth has a purpose, and also is a creation worth of our respectful stewardship, for high purposes. And that we can be OK and don't have to depopulate -- that there is enough, and to spare, to fulfill the higher purposes, which is comforting to know.
  - idiocrat 6y ago
    George Carlin has defined the purpose for humans to produce plastic, because the Earth needs plastic. Here is the famous quote from him: “We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me. The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are! We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. 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 toward 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 egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” Plastic… asshole.”
    - lcall 6y ago
throw0101a 6y ago
I am reminded of the scene from the British series Utopia: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVrVV-fDSs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVrVV-fDSs

meowface 6y ago

This takes as an ultimate goal the preservation of Earth and its ecology. I personally think of the Earth as just a means to an end (intelligent, conscious existence). I find little inherent value in an Earth that isn't collapsing but which has no (human-level or greater) intelligent, sapient entities. And no inherent value in an Earth without any sentient entities. My personal ultimate goal is to simultaneously reduce the suffering of sentient life and allow it to flourish throughout the universe. The Earth itself is just a necessary container for it for the time being. It's an inanimate hunk of molecules. Blow it up for all I care, and all the plants and archaea and bacteria and such, if beforehand every human and non-human animal can be safely transported or teleported to another celestial object or structure which supports animal life. (Obviously this is extremely unrealistic.) Is the best way to preserve sentient life the elimination of sapient life? It's one way, but I don't necessarily think it's the best way. And that's not even considering the utility one might attribute to the total number of sapient entities and how it might compare to non-sapient ones. Also, practically speaking, it's probably easier to convince enough people to address the problem of ecological destruction than to convince everyone on Earth to never reproduce. If both turn out to be impossible, then I guess that's just how the story goes.

lcall 6y ago
I like this idea of reaching the stars as a higher goal, partly because it (to me at least) clearly implies that we must treat each other non-destructively. Learning to improve oneself, and service to others in their growth and goals, bring real joy. I guess maybe it comes with the expansion of self and others in that way. Selfishness tears it down, like the story of the crabs in the heated water (or something like that), who prevent each other from exiting up & out. And maybe those higher aims can serve as one's higher aspirations or guiding purpose, even in the absence of religious beliefs that one sees as actually true, and which lead one to be kind & honest, and to strive for competence in service to family and humanity. I suggested so in my own writings (at my site), but perhaps less eloquently than the parent comment. My beliefs agree that the earth has a purpose, and also is a creation worth of our respectful stewardship, for high purposes. And that we can be OK and don't have to depopulate -- that there is enough, and to spare, to fulfill the higher purposes, which is comforting to know.
- idiocrat 6y ago
  George Carlin has defined the purpose for humans to produce plastic, because the Earth needs plastic. Here is the famous quote from him: “We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me. The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are! We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. 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 toward 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 egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” Plastic… asshole.”
  - lcall 6y ago

throw0101a 6y ago

I am reminded of the scene from the British series Utopia: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVrVV-fDSs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVrVV-fDSs