4 ms·

Meh who cares? Let it all burn and flood. Earth gets a fresh start, and hopefully whatever "intelligent" species evolves to be dominant in the next 5-10 million

Meh who cares? Let it all burn and flood. Earth gets a fresh start, and hopefully whatever "intelligent" species evolves to be dominant in the next 5-10 million years is a better custodian. Rinse and repeat until that's the case. Heck, who knows if this is actually the 1st or 100th iteration...

Y-bar 5mo ago
The rich, who have disproportionately contributed to the current crisis can buy and relocate to safety, while the poor will be hit the hardest.
- y-c-o-m-b 5mo ago
  I've seen a lot of stories about this in the last year, but I truly wonder how effective they will be. What's to stop people from acquiring equipment like large machinery to dig them out of their bunker or bombing it with bunker busters?
  - Y-bar 5mo ago
    If you look at both past and modern-day equivalents you will see that the rich do buy enough people to work as safety troops. The reason why Putin or Kim Jong Un is not dead a long time ago is that enough of the ruling upper middle class has been made dependent on their leaders and will work to ensure the safety of said leader.
- ArtemZ 5mo ago
  But ultimately, isn't it the complacency of poor people, their disinterest in politics, in standing for each other, in learning and pushing for change is what allowed the existence and conduct of the rich?
  - Y-bar 5mo ago
    I have seen this line of thinking before. ”Your honour, but the girl didn’t resist very much, so she must bear part of the blame for what I did to her”.
- jbxntuehineoh 5mo ago
  if that happens someone should form an extremist group dedicated to hunting them down and effecting justice
- qsera 5mo ago
  Isn't that the ultimate reason to be rich? Isn't the ultimate incentive? The rich have built roads, infrastructure, done research and improve QoL for everyone. We payed them and they grew even more rich. And when the judgement day come, you are going to deny everything you have paid them? That was the whole contract! I get that we can't help but be dumb and consume and enable some entities to be so rich. But then we should not blame the rich!
  - Y-bar 5mo ago
    > The rich have built roads No, the working class built the roads. > infrastructure No, the workers built the infrastructure. > done research No, the academics and researchers did that. > improve QoL for everyone Explain how Putin (Russia's riches man) improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how rich people like Epstein improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how Trump and Jared Kushner improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how the Koch family improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how Imelda Marcos, Pablo Escobar, Rupert Murdoch, Kim Jon Un, Bernie Madoff, Al Capone, Robert Mugabe, Silvio Berlusconi, Rodrigo Duerte, Peul Manafort, Viktor Bout, Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed bin Salman, Prince Andrew, Albert Thys ... Are these rich people improving the quality of life of everyone?
    - qsera 4mo ago
      > No, the working class built the roads. Are you serious? That is pretty naive! >Explain how Putin (Russia's riches man).. Look at the money in your pocket. Do you know how it got there? There is one and only one way to get it. Do some service for the society. Either you did it, or someone else who did gave it to you. Either way society owes you. Same goes for the rich.
      - Y-bar 4mo ago
        > Are you serious? That is pretty naive! Strange. I only see working class people building roads here. Show me a picture of a billionaire building a road.
        4mo ago
urbnspacecowboy 5mo ago
Mmm, ecofascism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism
- skeledrew 5mo ago
  Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. Although that's pretty unlikely as humans will be fully wiped out as a species before conditions get to the point of triggering a full reset, and cockroaches at least are notorious for surviving the most inhospitable conditions ever. Theoretically, a device could be built that triggers it though.
  - tgv 5mo ago
    He loved humanity. He just didn't care for humans.
  - urbnspacecowboy 5mo ago
    > Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. That's ecofascism, yes.
    - skeledrew 5mo ago
      Nope. From my reading ecofascism involves racism and the promotion of a particular group for resources, not doing away with everything.
intended 5mo ago
From what I recall, there will be no easy energy once our civ dies out. Whichever civilization rises after us, it will face a limit to what heights it can reach.
- skeledrew 5mo ago
  Part of why it'd be better to have a reset back to the beginning of evolution, so everything can happen again over all those years, and also so there are 0 traces of "tech" or trash from the past ~400,000 years to present to corrupt them. Although there being no easy energy would trigger innovations as well that'd blow all we've done out of the water, with the historical knowledge of why their predecessors became extinct and so aim for a better path to avoid that fate.
- bobson381 5mo ago
  We are also limited - the backstock that's made our extraordinary 200-year party possible is the reserve of oil. Future civilizations will start lower on the energy gradient.
padjo 5mo ago
It took roughly 5 billion years to get where we are now. The sun will die in another 5 billion years. I don't think there's that many rolls of the dice left.
- dredmorbius 5mo ago
  On the one hand, we're probably not faced with rolling back 5 billion years. More likely a few tens of thousands to tens of millions. On the other ... the End of Time on Earth is quite probably far less than 5 billion years in the future, and quite possibly only a few hundred millions. Given the regeneration time of fossil fuels (tens to hundreds of millions of years, and possibly not even then if, e.g., the lignan hypothesis of coal formation is correct), time to evolve a future technological civilisation might not exist. That's still excluding recovery of other mineral wealth, e.g., iron, copper, and other resources, many of which do date back billions of years (e.g., BIFs, banded iron formations, which date to the Great Oxygenation Event or subsequent eras, 1--3 billion years ago. Fortunately, iron is abundant, but rich ores are useful. The scarcity of other metals, particularly high-efficiency conductors (copper, silver, gold), and low-prevalence alloying elements (e.g., tin) could be far more problematic.

Y-bar 5mo ago

The rich, who have disproportionately contributed to the current crisis can buy and relocate to safety, while the poor will be hit the hardest.

y-c-o-m-b 5mo ago
I've seen a lot of stories about this in the last year, but I truly wonder how effective they will be. What's to stop people from acquiring equipment like large machinery to dig them out of their bunker or bombing it with bunker busters?
- Y-bar 5mo ago
  If you look at both past and modern-day equivalents you will see that the rich do buy enough people to work as safety troops. The reason why Putin or Kim Jong Un is not dead a long time ago is that enough of the ruling upper middle class has been made dependent on their leaders and will work to ensure the safety of said leader.
ArtemZ 5mo ago
But ultimately, isn't it the complacency of poor people, their disinterest in politics, in standing for each other, in learning and pushing for change is what allowed the existence and conduct of the rich?
- Y-bar 5mo ago
  I have seen this line of thinking before. ”Your honour, but the girl didn’t resist very much, so she must bear part of the blame for what I did to her”.
jbxntuehineoh 5mo ago
if that happens someone should form an extremist group dedicated to hunting them down and effecting justice
qsera 5mo ago
Isn't that the ultimate reason to be rich? Isn't the ultimate incentive? The rich have built roads, infrastructure, done research and improve QoL for everyone. We payed them and they grew even more rich. And when the judgement day come, you are going to deny everything you have paid them? That was the whole contract! I get that we can't help but be dumb and consume and enable some entities to be so rich. But then we should not blame the rich!
- Y-bar 5mo ago
  > The rich have built roads No, the working class built the roads. > infrastructure No, the workers built the infrastructure. > done research No, the academics and researchers did that. > improve QoL for everyone Explain how Putin (Russia's riches man) improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how rich people like Epstein improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how Trump and Jared Kushner improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how the Koch family improves the QoL of everyone. Explain how Imelda Marcos, Pablo Escobar, Rupert Murdoch, Kim Jon Un, Bernie Madoff, Al Capone, Robert Mugabe, Silvio Berlusconi, Rodrigo Duerte, Peul Manafort, Viktor Bout, Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed bin Salman, Prince Andrew, Albert Thys ... Are these rich people improving the quality of life of everyone?
  - qsera 4mo ago
    > No, the working class built the roads. Are you serious? That is pretty naive! >Explain how Putin (Russia's riches man).. Look at the money in your pocket. Do you know how it got there? There is one and only one way to get it. Do some service for the society. Either you did it, or someone else who did gave it to you. Either way society owes you. Same goes for the rich.
    - Y-bar 4mo ago
      > Are you serious? That is pretty naive! Strange. I only see working class people building roads here. Show me a picture of a billionaire building a road.
      - 4mo ago

urbnspacecowboy 5mo ago

Mmm, ecofascism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism

skeledrew 5mo ago
Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. Although that's pretty unlikely as humans will be fully wiped out as a species before conditions get to the point of triggering a full reset, and cockroaches at least are notorious for surviving the most inhospitable conditions ever. Theoretically, a device could be built that triggers it though.
- tgv 5mo ago
  He loved humanity. He just didn't care for humans.
- urbnspacecowboy 5mo ago
  > Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. That's ecofascism, yes.
  - skeledrew 5mo ago
    Nope. From my reading ecofascism involves racism and the promotion of a particular group for resources, not doing away with everything.

intended 5mo ago

From what I recall, there will be no easy energy once our civ dies out. Whichever civilization rises after us, it will face a limit to what heights it can reach.

skeledrew 5mo ago
Part of why it'd be better to have a reset back to the beginning of evolution, so everything can happen again over all those years, and also so there are 0 traces of "tech" or trash from the past ~400,000 years to present to corrupt them. Although there being no easy energy would trigger innovations as well that'd blow all we've done out of the water, with the historical knowledge of why their predecessors became extinct and so aim for a better path to avoid that fate.
bobson381 5mo ago
We are also limited - the backstock that's made our extraordinary 200-year party possible is the reserve of oil. Future civilizations will start lower on the energy gradient.

padjo 5mo ago

It took roughly 5 billion years to get where we are now. The sun will die in another 5 billion years. I don't think there's that many rolls of the dice left.

dredmorbius 5mo ago
On the one hand, we're probably not faced with rolling back 5 billion years. More likely a few tens of thousands to tens of millions. On the other ... the End of Time on Earth is quite probably far less than 5 billion years in the future, and quite possibly only a few hundred millions. Given the regeneration time of fossil fuels (tens to hundreds of millions of years, and possibly not even then if, e.g., the lignan hypothesis of coal formation is correct), time to evolve a future technological civilisation might not exist. That's still excluding recovery of other mineral wealth, e.g., iron, copper, and other resources, many of which do date back billions of years (e.g., BIFs, banded iron formations, which date to the Great Oxygenation Event or subsequent eras, 1--3 billion years ago. Fortunately, iron is abundant, but rich ores are useful. The scarcity of other metals, particularly high-efficiency conductors (copper, silver, gold), and low-prevalence alloying elements (e.g., tin) could be far more problematic.