Why do some believe Humanity will go extinct eventually?

lol

 

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The Belisarius series was based on a war among the decedents of humanity, some of whom had adapted so much to their new environments as to be unrecognizable as humans. The "purists" wanted only traditional "humanoid" humans and sent a probe back in time to alter history to see to it that their vision of humanity prevailed. Good series.

Again you reveal yourself as opposed to the continued existence of mankind! And this time without the environmental fig-leaf to hide your genocidal impulses.

What's your excuse this time for wishing extinction upon humanity?

 

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Prior to the existence of mankind, the earth was filled with life that amounted to little more than sustained chemical reactions, self replicating DNA. Without thought, without consciousness, what's the point of existence?

Mankind brought the light of reason, of self awareness, of thought to the earth. Without men to appreciate it, the earth might as well not exist.

We give the earth purpose. We validate it. we might even allow some part of the earth to live on when the rest of the earth is a barren wasteland swallowed up by the red giant our sun will inevitably become.

We are earth's children. As such, it is our duty to live on and spread our seed as far and wide as we can. So long as we live, the earth lives.

Hell, we may even terraform distant planets in other solar systems. Recreating the earth again and again as tribute and remembrance of the planet of our birth.

That is, of course, so long as we survive long enough to reach our full potential.

 

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What a load of egocentric twaddle. This planet was fine before humans were here, it'll be fine when we are gone.

 

Sure, it will be "fine". Just like mars is fine, and so is pluto. But without intelligent life, what's the point?

 

Who knows? Maybe the point is something that is utterly beyond our comprehension. But humans have only been on this planet for a blindingly brief flash of geologic time, and we may be gone just as quickly. To think that all of the time before and after we were here is meaningless is breathtakingly self important.

 

Perhaps. But if we can't comprehend it, who can? A universe without intelligent life might as well not exist. It's like a show with no audience. Devoid of purpose, devoid of meaning, worthless.

 

They can keep me in solitary until I've developed enough to be able to defend myself. They wouldn't just leave me open to attack, would they ?

 

The cancer spreading throughout the entire universe ? Are you kidding ?

 

Total crap. The Earth has no purpose, as you put it. Life evolves because it can, not because there is some grand meaning to it. And for all the "appreciating" of the Earth you claim we are doing, we're kicking the crap out of it at double the pace. So do yourself a favor, put that hit of acid away, and look at things for what they are, not some fanciful, bogus daydream.

 

Thank you.

 

The earth in its natural state has no purpose. No awareness. It exists, like any other planet. It so happens that on this particular planet biochemical reactions and environmental conditions gave rise to life.

Life has a purpose. To survive. To reproduce. To spread as far and wide as possible.

We give the earth purpose, our purpose. If we deem that that purpuse involves the earth getting the crap kicked out of it, then so be it.

Our time on this earth may be brief, or we may outlast the earth itself. But whatever the case, the earth is ours to do with as we please so long as we're here. We should use it to suit our ends.

 

rubbish
the plant kingdom is pissed off at us
the end is nigh for it has been foretold in the happening

repent while you still can

 

What about the fungi? Are they also involved?

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Our current race is doomed to extinction through evolution alone.

 

And that is...? Also, your purpose might be very different than mine...

 

As it has been pointed out, there are things that we can not control like asteroids or certain diseases.

Intelligence is also a double edged sword, because only by intelligence are we able to whipe ourselves out completely.

And there is Murphy's law too...And he was an optimist...

 

Entropy means the end of all life eventually.

 

Logic. We're on Earth; earth dies= we die. We need heat. Heat dies=we die. That kind of stuff.

 

The rate stays the same, but the cumulative probability of that event occurring increases as the time interval you look at expands.

The math I used is this:

If we have a 1 in 1 million chance of extinction each year, then the chance of our surviving for one particular year is 999,999/1,000,000 (call this the "Base Rate") and as you look at longer periods, it changes as follows:

Surviving from today until the end of Year 1 = Base Rate
Surviving from today until the end of Year 2= (Base Rate)[sup]2[/sup]
Surviving from today until the end of Year 3= (Base Rate)[sup]3[/sup]

...

Surviving from today until the end of Year 10MM= (Base Rate)[sup]10,000,000[/sup]

That last rate (.999999[sup]10,000,000[/sup]) equals a 0.0045339% chance that we will survive that long. The rate we will be dead by then is (1 - survival) chance, or 99.9954600297% chance.

By way of a different example, suppose I am selecting snakes from ten opaque bags at random, putting the snake selected back into its bag after I have looked at it. Nine snakes/bags are harmless, but one is poisonous and will kill me if I remove it from its bag. That means there is a 1/10 chance of me dying every time I draw a snake. So what are the odds of my dying in 2 draws? The answer is that I have a 1/10 chance of dying on the first draw, and *if I don't* then a second 1/10th chance on the second draw. If I do draw the poison snake on the first draw, though, the game is over and the second draw is irrelevant. There are four possible outcomes to look at, in theory:

P{poison snake on the first draw, poison snake on the second}=(1/10)*(1/10)=1%
P{poison snake on the first draw, non-poison snake on the second}=(1/10)*(9/10)=9%
P{non-poison snake on the first draw, poison snake on the second}= (9/10)*(1/10)=9%
P{non-poison snake on the first draw, non-poison snake on the second}= (9/10)*(9/10)=81%

The results where I draw a poison snake are the first three, with a cumulative probability of 19%. That is identical to asking, "What is 1 - P{never drawing a poisonous snake}?" (= 100% - 81% = 19%)

In the same way, the odds of my drawing a poisonous snake somewhere in the course of 10 draws:

= 1 - P{not drawing any poisonous snakes in 10 draws}

= 1 - (0.9)[sup]10[/sup]

= 1 - 0.3486784401

= 0.6513215599, or about 65%.