Project glass - new and cool or Big Brotherish?

[Coito ergo sum]

Humans are going to die out. This age of progress is a empty promise and every critical issue is pushed onto the next generation until hey presto a generation with insurmountable issues and then civilization collapse. The few survivors will have to deal with a unpredictable climate and living in the ruins of all that has gone, with chemical hazards and everything. I don't know why I even argue the case when it is self evident from the record of other great apes that dying out is very common.

It's not a promise.

And, humans would die out without technological innovation, so Luddites offer no better outcome.

But you are right, all of the great ape civilizations dying out due to technological advancement are self evident...

[MiM]

And humans have survived for 50 000 - 200 000 years (depending on what you count as "human"), before civilization, and you claim that a few hundred (or thousands, again depending on how you count) years into it, we have only 1000 more years to go. Well that's an argument for civilization and technology, if I ever heard one.

Mainly, I'm not arguing that every last one of us will for sure be gone in 1000 years, but that a great number of things (not technology driven) will depopulate us to the point that our civilization will be gone and we we would have to rebound from that to get us off the planet.

The Yellowstone Caldera is not a human technological event, and it is very likely to erupt, and can erupt at any time, and most of us will die from it. It may erupt tomorrow, or it may erupt on the order of thousands of years, but it has erupted many times in the past, seemingly cyclically.

At least according to Wikipedia that caldera has had supererruptions with irregular intervals of about 500 000 to a million years. Doesn't write "highly likely to errupt" (within the 1000 years you where previously referring to) in my book.

Civilization is fragile and cyclic. But human ingenuity is strong. There will always be survivors, who then can start a new cycle. Barring a large comet impact or such.

[Coito ergo sum]

Just because there are survivors does not mean that human civilization can readvance to the point of spacefaring technology.

There has been only one life form and one civilization which has gained the ability to leave the earth in all of the 3.5 billion years of life on Earth. That doesn't indicate that spacefaring civilizations are very easy to come by.

The Yellowstone Caldera is but one of many such natural events that would spell doom for most, if not all, of us. 98% of all species that ever lived are now extinct. We are no exception.

Technology can kill us, but it is also the only thing that can save us. We must get off this rock. The fact that people refuse to acknowledge that is mind-boggling.

[MiM]

Eventually yes, but 1000 years is an extremely pessimistic assessment of the time we need to do that in. Especially if the reason given isn't technologically driven (e.g. nuclear war or similar).

[Coito ergo sum]

Eventually yes, but 1000 years is an extremely pessimistic assessment of the time we need to do that in. Especially if the reason given isn't technologically driven (e.g. nuclear war or similar).

Technological issues are also a possibility.

However, whether the time is 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 -- the only way off this rock is, well, off this rock.

The dinosaurs went extinct because they did not have a space program.

[MiM]

Eventually yes, but 1000 years is an extremely pessimistic assessment of the time we need to do that in. Especially if the reason given isn't technologically driven (e.g. nuclear war or similar).

Technological issues are also a possibility.

However, whether the time is 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 -- the only way off this rock is, well, off this rock.

The dinosaurs went extinct because they did not have a space program.

They could have saved themselves in many other ways, well actually thy did, just go outside for a while, and you will surely hear them sing

[Coito ergo sum]

Eventually yes, but 1000 years is an extremely pessimistic assessment of the time we need to do that in. Especially if the reason given isn't technologically driven (e.g. nuclear war or similar).

Technological issues are also a possibility.

However, whether the time is 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 -- the only way off this rock is, well, off this rock.

The dinosaurs went extinct because they did not have a space program.

They could have saved themselves in many other ways, well actually thy did, just go outside for a while, and you will surely hear them sing

So...no need to get our eggs out of this one basket, then. Glad that's sorted.

[cronus]

Eventually yes, but 1000 years is an extremely pessimistic assessment of the time we need to do that in. Especially if the reason given isn't technologically driven (e.g. nuclear war or similar).

Technological issues are also a possibility.

However, whether the time is 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 -- the only way off this rock is, well, off this rock.

The dinosaurs went extinct because they did not have a space program.

They could have saved themselves in many other ways, well actually thy did, just go outside for a while, and you will surely hear them sing

So...no need to get our eggs out of this one basket, then. Glad that's sorted.

Really doesn't matter.

[orpheus]

Apropos:

I have no problem with the virtual reality on your screens as long as you are aware that it is virtual. My concern is that experience by proxy is a poor substitute for the reality of the interactive space we inhabit. As a sculptor I believe that perception structures thought and that to see is to think and conversely to think is to see. The virtual reality of the media, be it television or internet, limits our perception in that it affects our sense of space. It immobilizes our ability to apprehend actual physical space. Don’t let the rhetoric of simulation steal away the immediacy of your experience.


-from Serra's Williams College commencement address

[Xamonas Chegwé]

All we need to perpetuate the species and its civilisation after any catastrophe is a handful of survivors, one of whom can read, and an intact library.

[Jason]

I often find that when people speak of the 'extinction' of the human race what they actually mean is the death of their version/vision of the human edifice. I'm not at all worried about the future of the homo sapiens.

[Cormac]

Humans are going to die out. This age of progress is a empty promise and every critical issue is pushed onto the next generation until hey presto a generation with insurmountable issues and then civilization collapse. The few survivors will have to deal with a unpredictable climate and living in the ruins of all that has gone, with chemical hazards and everything. I don't know why I even argue the case when it is self evident from the record of other great apes that dying out is very common.

The universe is a volatile place, and it produces many phenomena lethal to squashy fleshy things like humans with great regularity as it races through entropy to get to the lowest energy state that it can.

Yep, sooner or later, humanity is highly likely to be exterminated.

So what?

What is the appropriate response? To Marvin up and moan and Cassandra about it incessantly? How boring.

We are extremely lucky to be able to.experience this marvelous universe. We should try not to waste it by being stuck in a permanent existential crisis about it all.

[cronus]

Humans are going to die out. This age of progress is a empty promise and every critical issue is pushed onto the next generation until hey presto a generation with insurmountable issues and then civilization collapse. The few survivors will have to deal with a unpredictable climate and living in the ruins of all that has gone, with chemical hazards and everything. I don't know why I even argue the case when it is self evident from the record of other great apes that dying out is very common.

The universe is a volatile place, and it produces many phenomena lethal to squashy fleshy things like humans with great regularity as it races through entropy to get to the lowest energy state that it can.

Yep, sooner or later, humanity is highly likely to be exterminated.

So what?

What is the appropriate response? To Marvin up and moan and Cassandra about it incessantly? How boring.

We are extremely lucky to be able to.experience this marvelous universe. We should try not to waste it by being stuck in a permanent existential crisis about it all.

That is a interesting viewpoint. Can you hold it for very long though?

[Jason]

Considering that we're the most adaptive, intelligent, and innovative species on the planet not to mention the added bonus of being (mostly) hairless and having sweat glands, I'd say we enjoy the greatest chances of survival of all the animal species of living through and after any sort of catastrophe you can imagine.

[Coito ergo sum]

Really doesn't matter.

To you and me, probably not. But, to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren it probably will.