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No, I dont think so. Would you say that to all the extinct species? There's nothing guaranteeing you don't starve. There is no design. Genes are just "random

No, I dont think so. Would you say that to all the extinct species? There's nothing guaranteeing you don't starve. There is no design. Genes are just "random reproductive bets" with fairly high probabilities of failure over the long-run. The environment is basically guaranteed to change faster than your species can evolve, including via meteor. I dont think the rabbits who die alive eaten by foxes, and the foxes which starve from eating all the rabbits regard that cycle as "designed for them". Nor likewise, were the dinosaurs that impressed by the sky going dark. This idea that "we had a home" or "there was once Eden" in any respect is wrong. The life which we were evolved for is one in which if you survived 10, then you might not survive the lion, and if you survive that, not the volcano, and so on. Your body is just a bet made over millions of years, and not one any conservative gambler would take.

mach1ne 4y ago
Extinct species become extinct because there is some change in their environment to which they are not successful at adapting. Generally speaking, neither the human genome or the wilderness of Earth has changed since we built our first huts. You're correct in your regard for exceedingly high child mortality, though it bears no weight on the survival of humanity as a whole in a technology-breaking event. The human body is indeed a bet, and one that has paid off for ~300,000 years and about 12,000 generations, if we start counting from Homo Sapiens. I'd very much take that bet any day.
- deleted 4y ago
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- wiredfool 4y ago
  There's not that much wilderness left. Globally, The max distance to a road is something like 250km, in the middle of the Sahara. In the lower US, it's more like 40 miles. Entire ecosystems are gone (e.g. tallgrass prairie), or are only present in chunks that are only a few square miles. There are basically no old growth landscapes in Ireland/England. All the old trees were harvested, and sheep were farmed in the high places. Biomass of land mammals is heavily skewed to Humans and their livestock.
  - wrycoder 4y ago
    It will revert very quickly. In two hundred years (outside of the dead cities and major highways), you'll have to look hard to find traces of the old civilization.
    - wiredfool 4y ago
      It may revert -- some -- but without the previous genetic diversity because what's gone is gone. Apex predators are mostly gone over large parts of their former range. The species of trees in the forests that we had in UK/Ireland just aren't there any more. It will probably be taken over by hedge laurels. Deer have been introduced where they used to not be. Florida is going to be a hellscape of escaped pets, like the pythons. The old growth forests of the PNW aren't going to come back for 1000 years or more, if they even can at all due to the extinction of some species and the addition of invasives.
- mjburgess 4y ago
  The earth has been here 4bn years... a species profliferating for over 300,000 years isn't even "making its money back". Almost all of past human history has been spent dealing with mass death, and it isnt clear almost that won't be the case for future history, until we're extinct. The world isnt made for us, and there's no reason to suppose we won't go faster than the dinos

mach1ne 4y ago

Extinct species become extinct because there is some change in their environment to which they are not successful at adapting. Generally speaking, neither the human genome or the wilderness of Earth has changed since we built our first huts. You're correct in your regard for exceedingly high child mortality, though it bears no weight on the survival of humanity as a whole in a technology-breaking event. The human body is indeed a bet, and one that has paid off for ~300,000 years and about 12,000 generations, if we start counting from Homo Sapiens. I'd very much take that bet any day.

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wiredfool 4y ago
There's not that much wilderness left. Globally, The max distance to a road is something like 250km, in the middle of the Sahara. In the lower US, it's more like 40 miles. Entire ecosystems are gone (e.g. tallgrass prairie), or are only present in chunks that are only a few square miles. There are basically no old growth landscapes in Ireland/England. All the old trees were harvested, and sheep were farmed in the high places. Biomass of land mammals is heavily skewed to Humans and their livestock.
- wrycoder 4y ago
  It will revert very quickly. In two hundred years (outside of the dead cities and major highways), you'll have to look hard to find traces of the old civilization.
  - wiredfool 4y ago
    It may revert -- some -- but without the previous genetic diversity because what's gone is gone. Apex predators are mostly gone over large parts of their former range. The species of trees in the forests that we had in UK/Ireland just aren't there any more. It will probably be taken over by hedge laurels. Deer have been introduced where they used to not be. Florida is going to be a hellscape of escaped pets, like the pythons. The old growth forests of the PNW aren't going to come back for 1000 years or more, if they even can at all due to the extinction of some species and the addition of invasives.
mjburgess 4y ago
The earth has been here 4bn years... a species profliferating for over 300,000 years isn't even "making its money back". Almost all of past human history has been spent dealing with mass death, and it isnt clear almost that won't be the case for future history, until we're extinct. The world isnt made for us, and there's no reason to suppose we won't go faster than the dinos