What would be your vision of a better humanity?

...of a better humanity?

Sometimes, I feel like "no humanity" is the best answer.

 

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Modern civilisation is way, way better than any human society of years gone by. In reality, compared to any previous time, we are living in a Golden Age. Except for the fact that the age in another 100 years will probably be even more golden.

Life spans go up. Child mortality goes down. Sickness goes down. Deaths per capita from homicides and warfare are dropping all the time. We have much easier access to the essentials of life, such as food, clothing, housing, medicine, while gaining a lot more of the luxuries. Hell, having a computer linked to the internet so that I can engage in this forum is a major new luxury.

There are always problems, but they are less serious each year. 100 years ago, living in a major western city meant a massive ingestion of pollution every time you inhaled, or drinking tainted water. Western nations now take care of air pollution (except from cars), and clean up water systems.

In what way would anyone be better off in a more primitive society?

 

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Which, as you yourself have noted, is hardly consistent or universal. :shrug:

In other words you're introducing a new definition - one which can't be measured. What use is that?

See my first comment.
How do you measure "happiness" or "creativity"?
What makes you so sure that they are actually "worthwhile" traits?

 

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I never said primitive societies were better. I just meant that the greed of men + the increasing technology + overpopulation are becoming more and more palpable threads to life on Earth in general.

 

WS

Re greed, technology, and population.
As I pointed out before, human population is stabilising, and should be dropping by 2050, according to the United Nations.

Technology is now essential to human life, and improving it is only making life better.

Greed is a human trait that we have had probably since the first humans evolved about 200,000 years ago. It is neither good not bad. It can be either in specific cases. For example : greed drives people to develop economic systems that provide jobs for millions. It can be bad also. But lots of traits can be good or bad.

Life on Earth in general is not at threat. Life for vulnerable species may be. About 10 to 20 species are measured as going extinct each year, out of an estimated total of perhaps 20 million. But for most life forms, this is not a reality.

In fact, modern humans are more focused on saving vulnerable species than ever before in history. The worst extinction event caused by humans was the progress of polynesians across the Pacific Ocean, during which time about 2,000 species of birds went extinct. That is 20% of the total globally at the time. Nothing modern man does compares to this. Modern civilisation has its impact on wild-life, but humanity is working on the problem and getting better at conservation.

 

This is a interesting read.
United Nations - Population in 2300

 

An interesting read indeed, livingin360, and regardless of which of the five projections proves to be accurate, with our population living longer, we can expect to experience some increase in our aged populations.

My concern ever lies with the health of the planet in sustaining whatever level of population we reach, and an empathy for all other species of life that are impacted by our activity and encroachment upon their habitat.

My vision of the future would see informed human beings making intelligent decisions in regard to minimizing our impacts and waste, increasing our efficiency, designing for durability and recycling, and respecting that other life also requires some elbow room. Society should provide free access to education and the internet to all to facilitate an informed population, IMO.

From the teachings of those who live on the land, "Take only what you need. Use all that you take."

 

Keep dreaming.

You're not the only one.

 

This:

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I want to see a humanity with more concern and consideration for the people around, than for one's self...

 

Ok this then:

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I want to see a humanity with more concern and consideration for life in general than for itself.
The problem is that we are with just too many to achieve this.

Sniffy?

 

The only reasonable way is by birth restrictions.

 

The population is going down after 2050. The myth of overpopulation being the main problem in the world is being perpetuated by the likes as Bill Gates and other inferior beings like him.

 

And the "Darwin Award" (not really an award) goes to...^

 

What happens, over time, is loss of site of things. Do you have any idea how hard these changes will be?

OTOH, take a look in the sky and see the other planets. Now envision what would work for them. So yeah i agree with you but how to impanelment this? A handful of countries? Those that agree only would not be fair at all, specifically to those who agree. What seems easy is like pulling teeth. Never gonna happen.

 

The weird thing is that we get all these well meaning ignoramuses on this thread opining about how terrible humanity is and how we cannot achieve humane goals.

Get real guys!
It is already happening. You just closed your eyes and did not see it. The whole of humanity, over the past 1,000 years, is moving towards the best goals. Especially since the scientific revolution of the past 400 years.

My favourite statistic is homicide rate. This is measured as homicide deaths per 100,000 people per year. In England 1,000 years ago, the number was 100. Today, it is 1. A reduction in murder rate of 100 fold! Now is that something to celebrate or not! Of course, the Americans are backwards in this and still lag at 5 to 6. Still better than 1,000 years ago.

Violence overall is reducing very nicely. Violence of all kinds, including war. Deaths per capita from wartime aggression is also dropping. Prof. Steven Pinker shows this in a short lecture with full data back up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ramBFRt1Uzk

Population is already mentioned. Average fertility 50 years ago of 5.5, now down to 2.5 and dropping. The population explostion is over.

We are getting better at environmental management. The London smogs beloved by Sherlock Holmes readers are a thing of the past, due to the Clean Air Act. Ditto for polluted water. This is reflected right across Europe and North America, and even the Chinese are tidying up their act with respect to pollution.

Slavery is mostly dead. Women have equal rights (mostly). Labourers have rights. No more serfs. Anyone can work hard and become rich, or choose to be a bum. Universal suffrage.

Do I have to go on? The world is a far better place than any time in the past, and is improving further all the time.

 

The only way to achieve a better humanity is with better education for everyone, everywhere. Without good education humanity will only suffer more and its achievements will decline.

 

Human society is but a house of cards and something is going to happen that will cause it to come tumbling down. The question is will we still have all our eggs only on one world when it happens. I'm sure you've watched those programs that detailed the top 10 ways our world can come to and end and that it's not if but when it will happen. Consider a large CME could happen at any time and knock out all our satellites and take out the worlds power grids. That's a relatively minor happening, but if the power stayed off even a month can you even imagine what would happen to society?

 

Killjoy

Lots of disasters have already happened. Many we have anticipated, and taken precautions. Others required major rebuilding. Humanity is capable of both.

The Chile earthquake in 1960 hit with the force of Richter 9.5. Way, way worse than the recent Japanese quake. People died. Buildings fell. Chile rebuilt.

The flooding Yellow River in 1931 in China killed about 2 million people. China rebuilt and is now stronger than ever.

In 1983, a forest fire in Indonesia burned down 14,000 square miles of forest. The country recovered.

Disasters are not new. They will continue to happen. What history demonstrated in the past will be continued in the future. People will die, and property will be destroyed. The survivors will rebuild.