4 ms·

i don't know how true it is, but i loved the story. at first the statements seem random, or rather i didn't find any emotional meaning to them. then i felt wa

by diN0bot 17y ago

i don't know how true it is, but i loved the story. at first the statements seem random, or rather i didn't find any emotional meaning to them. then i felt warmth and comfort. the trees and forests grow back. maybe humans haven't damaged the earth beyond repair. finally, the timeline expands beyond human significance. that's beautiful. nicely done with the mouseovers, too.

Randai 17y ago
This sort of line that people take, "Humans are destroying the planet". Annoys me. The thing is, the only damage we are doing to the planet is making it harder for ourselves to live on it, life will continue to thrive after us in some form or another.
- gcheong 17y ago
  But even if it didn't, would it really matter?
  - belvidere 17y ago
    Arrogance and greed will be the ruination of man, and the answer to your question is, "Yes, it would matter." I feel pity for someone who could be so out of touch from the world in which he or she came. There's much, much more to the world than humanity. Do yourself a favor: step away from your computer today and find some of it.
    - lionhearted 17y ago
      > I feel pity for someone who could be so out of touch from the world in which he or she came. There's much, much more to the world than humanity. Right, but is there inherent value in the world outside of the subjective human standard? Like, is the world valuable beyond what people judge it to be valuable? That's not such an easy question. Like, is turning a tree into some books a good thing? Trees are natural, books are not. Pumping oil out of the ground, burning it for electricity? This destroys the world, but enriches minds and saves human lives, and advances pursuits we deem valuable. How about viruses - they're natural. Should we leave malaria and dysentery alone because they're natural? I say wipe them out, but you could carry that same logic into suggesting that we should chop down trees to build houses and print books, that we should burn fossil fuels for electricity and to create composites, that we should level areas of nature for the building of cities... And mind you, I love nature. I spend a lot of time in it, and really love it. I consider myself a conservationist and hate wasting stuff. But that's because the world is good to us, and serves us. The parts of the world that are hostile to us - rabid animals, parasites, diseases - wipe all that stuff out. And the resources that can be converted into wonderful things we use - electricity, composites, circuits, computers, houses, transportation, and so on - well, convert it. I'll happily turn a gallon of oil into a few hours of electricity and some CO2. Everything we judge "good" about the natural world is judged so because of our human standards, and because of how it relates and interacts with humanity. Without humanity, nature would not be good or bad by human standards. Trees and tapeworms and oil and rocks and water and ice are all of the exact same value to humanity if humanity doesn't exist, and if humanity does exist, those things are all of quite different values to us.
tomjen2 17y ago
No matter what how much damage we do to this planet, we are still the only species who have a chance of making it off the planet before it smashes into the sun. You can say what you want about us and how beautiful nature is, but in the end there are thousand of species that can fly but only one that can play the guitar, thousands of species that can walk, but only one that invented the car, a million species that breath but only one that build a ship to sail under the waters... The point of all this is that the human species really is something special.
- gort 17y ago
  "we are still the only species who have a chance of making it off the planet" For now. Personally, I hope that, if (and only if) we humans do destroy ourselves, enough life remains for something else to evolve and have a shot.
  - jerf 17y ago
    It will be much harder if it's not us. We've taken a lot of the easy resources, and many of them won't come back before the sun eats the Earth. (Some will, many won't.) Hard to build a technological civilization with no copper deposits left. It can (probably) be done, but it will be orders of magnitude slower.
- Evgeny 17y ago
  No matter what how much damage we do to this planet, we are still the only species who have a chance of making it off the planet before it smashes into the sun. What about animals used in farming, plants used in agriculture, pets, useful bacteria etc.? I'm quite sure they will not be left behind.

by diN0bot 17y ago

Randai 17y ago

This sort of line that people take, "Humans are destroying the planet". Annoys me. The thing is, the only damage we are doing to the planet is making it harder for ourselves to live on it, life will continue to thrive after us in some form or another.

gcheong 17y ago
But even if it didn't, would it really matter?
- belvidere 17y ago
  Arrogance and greed will be the ruination of man, and the answer to your question is, "Yes, it would matter." I feel pity for someone who could be so out of touch from the world in which he or she came. There's much, much more to the world than humanity. Do yourself a favor: step away from your computer today and find some of it.
  - lionhearted 17y ago
    > I feel pity for someone who could be so out of touch from the world in which he or she came. There's much, much more to the world than humanity. Right, but is there inherent value in the world outside of the subjective human standard? Like, is the world valuable beyond what people judge it to be valuable? That's not such an easy question. Like, is turning a tree into some books a good thing? Trees are natural, books are not. Pumping oil out of the ground, burning it for electricity? This destroys the world, but enriches minds and saves human lives, and advances pursuits we deem valuable. How about viruses - they're natural. Should we leave malaria and dysentery alone because they're natural? I say wipe them out, but you could carry that same logic into suggesting that we should chop down trees to build houses and print books, that we should burn fossil fuels for electricity and to create composites, that we should level areas of nature for the building of cities... And mind you, I love nature. I spend a lot of time in it, and really love it. I consider myself a conservationist and hate wasting stuff. But that's because the world is good to us, and serves us. The parts of the world that are hostile to us - rabid animals, parasites, diseases - wipe all that stuff out. And the resources that can be converted into wonderful things we use - electricity, composites, circuits, computers, houses, transportation, and so on - well, convert it. I'll happily turn a gallon of oil into a few hours of electricity and some CO2. Everything we judge "good" about the natural world is judged so because of our human standards, and because of how it relates and interacts with humanity. Without humanity, nature would not be good or bad by human standards. Trees and tapeworms and oil and rocks and water and ice are all of the exact same value to humanity if humanity doesn't exist, and if humanity does exist, those things are all of quite different values to us.

tomjen2 17y ago

No matter what how much damage we do to this planet, we are still the only species who have a chance of making it off the planet before it smashes into the sun. You can say what you want about us and how beautiful nature is, but in the end there are thousand of species that can fly but only one that can play the guitar, thousands of species that can walk, but only one that invented the car, a million species that breath but only one that build a ship to sail under the waters... The point of all this is that the human species really is something special.

gort 17y ago
"we are still the only species who have a chance of making it off the planet" For now. Personally, I hope that, if (and only if) we humans do destroy ourselves, enough life remains for something else to evolve and have a shot.
- jerf 17y ago
  It will be much harder if it's not us. We've taken a lot of the easy resources, and many of them won't come back before the sun eats the Earth. (Some will, many won't.) Hard to build a technological civilization with no copper deposits left. It can (probably) be done, but it will be orders of magnitude slower.
Evgeny 17y ago
No matter what how much damage we do to this planet, we are still the only species who have a chance of making it off the planet before it smashes into the sun. What about animals used in farming, plants used in agriculture, pets, useful bacteria etc.? I'm quite sure they will not be left behind.