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Author
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Topic: Is our species viable?
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Apemantus
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1845
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posted 07 August 2002 08:34 AM
The power is not what differentiates us, it is the awareness of what power we do have. And perhaps it is arrogant to assume that the human species are special compared to the other species that have ever lived that we should somehow act differently - if other species had the power humans have, would they be as considerate of its consequences or would they just carry on in the selfish, animal fashion to which they had become accustomed?If the universe is infinite, then we really are about as insignificant as it is possible to get, excluding the infinite number of species less significant than us, and to spend so much time trying to delay the animal in us from taking its natural course is perhaps just delaying the moment when the rest of the universe and this planet can get back to being natural without one species holding all the cards. Maybe the best thing that could happen, despite the short-term pain to the species that would be affected, is for humans to hurry up and become extinct, so that we stopped delaying the inevitable self-destruction of our species. Maybe environmental movements are the problem not the solution. Maybe humans should just run amok, maybe the green lobby is getting in the way of nature rather than letting it run its course... 
From: Brighton, UK | Registered: Nov 2001
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Apemantus
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1845
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posted 07 August 2002 09:26 AM
quote:
I just spent an hour listening to the news (I do it once a month for reality-check)
For a reality check? Interesting...
From: Brighton, UK | Registered: Nov 2001
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Apemantus
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1845
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posted 07 August 2002 11:20 AM
quote:
When I am in a particularly fragile state of mind I forbid anyone to tell me anything happening in the world
Do you close your eyes on here, and hope for the best? This place is full of news! America, the environment, the ICC - in fact, if hearing about human stupidity in the world makes you wanna kill or die, what are you doing visiting this place? It is an unremitting smorgasbord (I like the word, OK!?) of depressive 'reality', and shows more clearly than the TV news, just how stupid and inane humans are, not least because their worst actions are the things people here like to discuss, it seems... This place must be like Hell for you, you poor petal!
From: Brighton, UK | Registered: Nov 2001
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dale cooper
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2946
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posted 08 August 2002 01:33 AM
I agree we have the potential to become viable, but unfortunately, in the same way that apes have the potential to become our masters. I can sit here and daydream of it, make up a million beautiful (and some not so beautiful) scenarios where such happens, but in reality, it will never happen. We will continue on the tracks we ride. Who knows, maybe science will independently rescue us for a brief period of time, but it will have little or nothing to do with us as the backbone of it.In the long run, we will destroy the entire works (although there will always be something that survives I suppose to bring forth a new world) and there is little or nothing to be done about it. That being the case, I withdraw my previous complaint and say: why not sit here and quibble about the lemmings. It is as productive as anything we may do and will briefly shed the spotlight on a previously ignored species. Shine on, dear lemming friends. And do a swan dive for me.
From: Another place | Registered: Aug 2002
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Terry Johnson
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1006
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posted 08 August 2002 04:11 PM
quote:
We're just bad, bad things.
I don't have much patience for this "human beings are evil and Earth would be better off without us" stuff. Yep, we've done some bad things. But we're also loveable creatures. And it seems to me that if we're going to make a better world for ourselves, and the hundreds of millions of other species on this planet that are our relatives, we need to have a little more confidence in our own abilities. Who else will give a damn? I mean, when the first plants started pumping poisonous oxygen into the planet's atmosphere, dooming most life at the time to extinction, they didn't press together their leaves and moan, "damn, we're evil." Buck up, guys and gals. We're really a basically good and endearing species with a lot of still untapped potential. Personally, I like my fellow human beings. And I like the planet where I live. And I want to do my best to ensure that as many human beings as possible get to share that same joy.
From: Vancouver | Registered: Jul 2001
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dale cooper
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2946
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posted 08 August 2002 08:33 PM
Hey, now... I never said humans were EVIL. Just bad. There's a difference. To clarify further, I think individually, there are some very nice, good people out there. However, as a collective group, we are bad bad bad. How can something that has as much potential as we have, who on the whole have done so much to harm the world be considered anything but bad? Look out your window. Cars spewing exhaust, concrete covering grass and natural habitat, people building enormous buildings, and then flying airplanes into them, spending billions on space "exploration" which will never amount to anything while there are people and animals starving and dying down here. No matter what good we've done, the fact that these bad things still go on outweigh it. If we were evil, we'd be doing it all deliberately. But we're letting it happen out of ignorance, and that just makes us bad.
From: Another place | Registered: Aug 2002
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