Is Humanity Dooomed?

josef k.

Dangerous Mystagogue
I can't think of a time beforehand when things were exactly peachy in that regard.

Evil and madness and chaos and foolishness have always been there, and are probably irradicable. Radical. Irradicable. Are things especially bad today? I don't know.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Evil and madness and chaos and foolishness have always been there, and are probably irradicable. Radical. Irradicable. Are things especially bad today? I don't know.

yes, but not b/c we're collectively more evil/foolish/etc. than we were 10, 100, 1000 yrs ago. the reason things are worse is cause we've constructed a system which is 1) by nature grossly unfair (not that, tbc, I have anything better to offer, at least not anything that is pragmatic & not merely idealistic) & 2) destroys the place we live at a fantastic clip. oh & which is entirely dependent on a single irreplaceable fuel supply that is rapidly (how rapidly being a topic of discussion among scientists & experts) dwindling.

I don't know about doomed tho. "doomed" to me implies that humans will die out entirely - which I think unlikely unless there's a large-scale nuclear war which is poisons the atmosphere so thorougly that it can no longer support life.
 

poetix

we murder to dissect
I believe that the way forwards is the construction of giant Buckminster Fuller-inspired eco-hemispheres in which the remnants of humanity can live in regulated artificial climates, safe from the howling methane storms, radioactive wastelands and ravening hordes of mutant wolf-pigs without.

My prognosis for the future is thus: humanity...is domed.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
all "physical" problems such as environmental degradation, shortage of water/food/energy, etc., can be solved. it's the system which prevents and stops the solutions from being implemented.

the power, as always, is the real problem.
 

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
i predict that humanity will get stupider and more crass with each generation, so in that sense, yes, we are absolutely doomed. but as far as stockpiling a bunker for when the global market collapses, and shit like that, i won't hold my breath.
 

josef k.

Dangerous Mystagogue
I believe that the system is an expression of humanity, not an alien power hanging over it. If the system is suicidal and destructive, crazed and short-sighted, this is because...
 

Mr BoShambles

jambiguous
all "physical" problems such as environmental degradation, shortage of water/food/energy, etc., can be solved.

I share some of your optimism zhao. Using our creative capacities for innovation and cooperation we - that is humanity as a whole - can and do address our shared problems. But it ain't that simple. Humanity rarely thinks as a whole, it is divided along many lines. Often a problem solved for one person/group is a problem created for another. Also, in solving a problem it is common to generate novel problems in the process. The cumulative effects of this mean that we undergo continual adaptation and transformation; but there is no single direction and no end-point.

This:

it's the system which prevents and stops the solutions from being implemented.

the power, as always, is the real problem.

is, IMHO, pretty meaningless. To make it meaningful you would need to be specific about what constitutes this "system" you refer to; and the nature of this "power", i.e. who holds it, where/how it is manifest etc

It's not that i don't think there is a system (cos that would be stoopid). In fact there are many systems - ecological, social, political, economic; and working at many levels - i.e. local, national, transnational, regional, global etc. They overlap of course.

It seems to me that we can see a decentralization of power taking place in the world as a result of - amongst other things - the effects of successive technological revolutions, the privatisation and deregulation of state functions and national economies, and the proliferation of increasingly influential non-state actors. Therefore the number of nodes of influence/authority/power in the overall "social" system of humanity are increasing. We live in a messy age.
 
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Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
but doesn't the system (whatever that means) have a kind of life of its own, totally exterior to the subjects that produce it? or rather, doesn't the system produce the subject, and not the other way around? ie we are a reflection of it.
 
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