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Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

nautil.us

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Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#21

Post by seper8 »

People are so skeptic and negative about humans nowadays.

We are an incredibly hardy species. We are clever. We find ways to survive in deserts, mountains, small islands, icey tundras and anything in between.

We plan ahead, we can eat and digest pretty much anything (except for cellulose) and we have as much drive to survive as your average cockroach.

Sure our species is vulnerable. And I wouldn't rule out large percentages of our population dying at some point. But don't bet against the inventiveness and flexibility of humans. We may be one of the last species on this planet to become extinct.

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#22

Post by zabzonk »

onepointsixC wrote: post #19
zabzonk wrote: post #15

anyone that thinks humans will be around in even a million years time is, imho, delusional. we were not there up until now in that timespan, and won't be after it. and don't get started on living on mars, or elsewhere - not going to happen.

Why do you think that it's so certain? There are moments in history were the number of humans in existence numbered in the thousands. What kind of event are you imagining of that is certain to occur that will kill every single last human?

i was thinking that we are obviously a fast-evolving species - look at all our mostly extinct relatives. so in a million years we will probably go the same way.

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#23

Post by zpeti »

palata wrote: post #13

> There is no technology, survey, or program in operation today to monitor all the potential threats to Earth. Because it's much easier to prepare to go live on Mars, apparently. /s

I mean, I get the sarcasm, but at the same time we could probably monitor all asteroids from what we’re spending on climate change atm.

This is one big issue I have with the hysterical end of the climate change debate, there are 100 other threats to humanity, yet we don’t really care about them, probably because the media doesn’t care as much.

Covid is a pretty good example also, it’s killed way more people than the climate has for a long long time. A pandemic is a much bigger threat to both humanity and the economy. But somehow we’ve latched on to some event that might happen based on computer models in 50-200 years, as the biggest threat. At least according to the media. In reality even the IPCC doesn’t predict any fall in GDP due to climate change, just a slow in growth. Covid actually decreased worldwide gdp. An asteroid definitely would too.

My point is, we spend resources on a lot of things as humans. Lots of stupid things sometimes. I don’t see how one man’s goal to get to mars isn’t on the more positive side of things, and the technologies that will be developed for it will be definite positives for everyone, just look at reusable rockets.

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#24

Post by nathanvanfleet »

seper8 wrote: post #21

People are so skeptic and negative about humans nowadays. We are an incredibly hardy species. We are clever. We find ways to survive in deserts, mountains, small islands, icey tundras and anything in between. We plan ahead, we can eat and digest pretty much anything (except for cellulose) and we have as much drive to survive as your average cockroach. Sure our species is vulnerable. And I wouldn't rule out large perc…

And you know, we've been poisoning ourselves for a really long time amiright? The industrial age, smog, bpa, micro plastics. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE ABUSE WE CAN PUT ON OURSELVES. Woo

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#26

Post by Tagbert »

zpeti wrote: post #23
palata wrote: post #13

> There is no technology, survey, or program in operation today to monitor all the potential threats to Earth. Because it's much easier to prepare to go live on Mars, apparently. /s

I mean, I get the sarcasm, but at the same time we could probably monitor all asteroids from what we’re spending on climate change atm. This is one big issue I have with the hysterical end of the climate change debate, there are 100 other threats to humanity, yet we don’t really care about them, probably because the media doesn’t care as much. Covid is a pretty good example also, it’s killed way more people than the…

Have you missed the people dying in major, atypical weather events? As climate change increases, those events and death will increase. Hurricanes, flood, drought, etc. Tropical diseases migrating into new territory are another thing to look forward to.

Once things get bad enough, you start to have population migrations and political instability. Add in hunger and thirst and that leads to societal collapse and war.

Climate change gets attention because it has such wide ranging effects, both primary and secondary. Yes, there are other risks. Some, like asteroids and diseases do have people watching for them though we could always do more.

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#28

Post by zmgsabst »

seper8 wrote: post #21

People are so skeptic and negative about humans nowadays. We are an incredibly hardy species. We are clever. We find ways to survive in deserts, mountains, small islands, icey tundras and anything in between. We plan ahead, we can eat and digest pretty much anything (except for cellulose) and we have as much drive to survive as your average cockroach. Sure our species is vulnerable. And I wouldn't rule out large perc…

To be fair, the same is true of dinosaurs — through their bird family.

But their era as dominant life ended 65M years ago despite their current wide spread existence; and something similar may happen to us — were our species to sufficiently fall apart.

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#29

Post by Tagbert »

zabzonk wrote: post #22
onepointsixC wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that it's so certain? There are moments in history were the number of humans in existence numbered in the thousands. What kind of event are you imagining of that is certain to occur that will kill every single last human?

i was thinking that we are obviously a fast-evolving species - look at all our mostly extinct relatives. so in a million years we will probably go the same way.

As long as we have dependents who have evolved and survived that is to be expected.

Re: Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaur

#30

Post by BizarreByte »

The fate of humans is extinction, saying otherwise is simply wrong. Be it 200 years or 2,000,000,000 at some point our species will go extinct, or whatever species we evolve into.

I understand why people get angry when you say it, but anger won’t change it because on a long enough time scale nothing will survive.

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