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I think there are more than 2 possibilities, and the worst of them is what Orwell called "a boot on a human face, forever". Catastrophe -- accidental or encoura

I think there are more than 2 possibilities, and the worst of them is what Orwell called "a boot on a human face, forever". Catastrophe -- accidental or encouraged -- leads to consolidation, then history gets written to make the survivors be the good guys or victims of circumstances, and their victims objects worthy of persecution. I can already smell that in the air, there is nothing that can't be handled with the right narrative. If all humans died at once, it would suck, but there is more where we came from, so to speak... but systems of control that nip any and all possible challengers to totality of their control in the bud would be so dead, even death would be creeped out.

namaria 3y ago
Things will keep changing forever. I don't know why people are afraid of permanent oppression. We only know of around 10k years of society history, in a planet that has had intelligent apes for 100k years, complex ecosystems for 4b years. Even if we vanish in the next century, the overwhelming chances are that a) uncountable complex ecosystems exist right now; b) uncountable intelligent species exist right now; c) uncountable oppressive and uncountable liberal systems exist right now; d) uncountable intelligent species and complex ecosystems will vanish and emerge over the billions of years ahead. We get too attached to what we see around us, while Hubble and JW have shown we are utterly insignificant in both time and space.
- johnnyworker 3y ago
  Countless of other things likely existing doesn't discount any of them. If, to just put it like that, people in all those other liberal and oppressive systems have nothing else to say than "meh, there are countless of other systems", what makes them so significant? I see the how it is and what we rationalize it as, I see the trends and I'm not impressed. That others might do worse or better is completely irrelevant to me, that's to their shame or credit.
  - namaria 3y ago
    There's only shame because there's pride. Feel ways about the world you know, it's like feeling good or bad about how the soap bubble you blow come out.

namaria 3y ago

Things will keep changing forever. I don't know why people are afraid of permanent oppression. We only know of around 10k years of society history, in a planet that has had intelligent apes for 100k years, complex ecosystems for 4b years. Even if we vanish in the next century, the overwhelming chances are that a) uncountable complex ecosystems exist right now; b) uncountable intelligent species exist right now; c) uncountable oppressive and uncountable liberal systems exist right now; d) uncountable intelligent species and complex ecosystems will vanish and emerge over the billions of years ahead. We get too attached to what we see around us, while Hubble and JW have shown we are utterly insignificant in both time and space.

johnnyworker 3y ago
Countless of other things likely existing doesn't discount any of them. If, to just put it like that, people in all those other liberal and oppressive systems have nothing else to say than "meh, there are countless of other systems", what makes them so significant? I see the how it is and what we rationalize it as, I see the trends and I'm not impressed. That others might do worse or better is completely irrelevant to me, that's to their shame or credit.
- namaria 3y ago
  There's only shame because there's pride. Feel ways about the world you know, it's like feeling good or bad about how the soap bubble you blow come out.