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Ask HN: What is humankind’s best case scenario?

4 points by desertraven 5y ago

t-3 5y ago
Best case scenario for what? Survival? In the long run we will die out. If we manage to get into space sustainably (a very big if), we may last longer, but will eventually die out as well (space colonies, due to the vast scales of distance, will probably diverge from current humanity as well if they last any appreciable length of time, which is unlikely). The universe has a time limit, and our expiration date will precede that by a very large margin.
- desertraven 5y ago
  I suppose the question is a subjective one. I mostly agree with your points, though I wonder if you think the path we take to our inevitable demise is of any consequence? Trying to skirt nihilism here.
  - BoHerfIVJrEsq 5y ago
    Hmm, it's a hard question. Maybe eventually the blackboard gets completely erased, all the legos get taken back apart and we can't tell what they used to be before. I don't think that means it was all for nothing. I'm inclined to think of our activities as part of a learning process, or a dream, or a game. The universe is going through its permutations and we're watching. If you're struggling with life seeming meaningless, please let me suggest that how life seems is not so much a matter of circumstances as training. Sometimes people explain this idea by saying the world is like a mirror of the mind. Change the mind, change how the world looks. The way I like to train is using meditation. The specific method I use is described in this free book: https://www.thepathtonibbana.com/ https://www.thepathtonibbana.com/
  - t-3 5y ago
    On a personal level, I have some pretty strong beliefs about what I feel we /should/ be doing, but I don't expect to ever have the influence to change anything (and I don't really want to have to try, either). I'll let society do as it pleases, and live as well as I'm comfortable with in the meanwhile. It's a somewhat nihilistic attitude, but I'm an atheist anarchist antinatalist, so I guess the shoe fits.
    - desertraven 5y ago
      May I ask the basis of what we /should/ be doing? I’m not very knowledgeable on nihilism as a philosophy, though I’m surprised it can coexist with a care for society at all?
      - t-3 5y ago
        I wouldn't say nihilism is a philosophy, more the emergent result of holding the values that I do. My evolutionary path has been voluntarily cut off, so I have the freedom not to care about humanity's fate, I don't hold religious beliefs and was not trained in them, so I don't have a "spiritual" or moral perspective to uphold, I don't believe authority is positive for humanity, so I don't care about law or country. From a pragmatic viewpoint, none of my views about what we should be doing is possible: Reducing the population and shrinking it's footprint to allow other life to thrive and evolve, abandoning the notion of nations, and especially armies and war, doing away with the idea of ownership of land, which leads to the dispossessed being little better than slaves, automating as much as possible and promoting subsistence in favor of productivity... I could go on further, but it would get redundant.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    Why would you think that something doesn't matter just because it is impermanent?
verdverm 5y ago
We are the Borg?
bediger4000 5y ago
Best case scenario: get replaced by the artificial like humanoids of Charlie Stross' book "Neptune's Brood". At least those humans could survive space travel and move life away from a single planet, which will be consumed when the sun goes red giant in a couple of billion years.

4 points by desertraven 5y ago

t-3 5y ago

Best case scenario for what? Survival? In the long run we will die out. If we manage to get into space sustainably (a very big if), we may last longer, but will eventually die out as well (space colonies, due to the vast scales of distance, will probably diverge from current humanity as well if they last any appreciable length of time, which is unlikely). The universe has a time limit, and our expiration date will precede that by a very large margin.

desertraven 5y ago
I suppose the question is a subjective one. I mostly agree with your points, though I wonder if you think the path we take to our inevitable demise is of any consequence? Trying to skirt nihilism here.
- BoHerfIVJrEsq 5y ago
  Hmm, it's a hard question. Maybe eventually the blackboard gets completely erased, all the legos get taken back apart and we can't tell what they used to be before. I don't think that means it was all for nothing. I'm inclined to think of our activities as part of a learning process, or a dream, or a game. The universe is going through its permutations and we're watching. If you're struggling with life seeming meaningless, please let me suggest that how life seems is not so much a matter of circumstances as training. Sometimes people explain this idea by saying the world is like a mirror of the mind. Change the mind, change how the world looks. The way I like to train is using meditation. The specific method I use is described in this free book: https://www.thepathtonibbana.com/ https://www.thepathtonibbana.com/
- t-3 5y ago
  On a personal level, I have some pretty strong beliefs about what I feel we /should/ be doing, but I don't expect to ever have the influence to change anything (and I don't really want to have to try, either). I'll let society do as it pleases, and live as well as I'm comfortable with in the meanwhile. It's a somewhat nihilistic attitude, but I'm an atheist anarchist antinatalist, so I guess the shoe fits.
  - desertraven 5y ago
    May I ask the basis of what we /should/ be doing? I’m not very knowledgeable on nihilism as a philosophy, though I’m surprised it can coexist with a care for society at all?
    - t-3 5y ago
      I wouldn't say nihilism is a philosophy, more the emergent result of holding the values that I do. My evolutionary path has been voluntarily cut off, so I have the freedom not to care about humanity's fate, I don't hold religious beliefs and was not trained in them, so I don't have a "spiritual" or moral perspective to uphold, I don't believe authority is positive for humanity, so I don't care about law or country. From a pragmatic viewpoint, none of my views about what we should be doing is possible: Reducing the population and shrinking it's footprint to allow other life to thrive and evolve, abandoning the notion of nations, and especially armies and war, doing away with the idea of ownership of land, which leads to the dispossessed being little better than slaves, automating as much as possible and promoting subsistence in favor of productivity... I could go on further, but it would get redundant.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Why would you think that something doesn't matter just because it is impermanent?

verdverm 5y ago

We are the Borg?

bediger4000 5y ago

Best case scenario: get replaced by the artificial like humanoids of Charlie Stross' book "Neptune's Brood". At least those humans could survive space travel and move life away from a single planet, which will be consumed when the sun goes red giant in a couple of billion years.