Poll: do you think the human race should survive?

[Frankster]

Whether we "deserve" to survive, I cannot say. Whether humanity will continue on a downward spiral and extinguish itself (or be executed by events outside of our control) or manage to evolve its collective consciousness to the point we achieve genuinely great things such as reaching the stars and breaking from our bonds on this planet to seed new populations elsewhere, I cannot know...

Whether I'm feeling in your kinda mood though (which is often, i'm a certified miserable bugger), I like to remind myself of Charlie Chaplin's speech from the dictator which I feel is strongly relevant to this topic:

We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate;
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:
machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little:
More than machinery we need humanity;
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Humanity invented chocolate milk. That is enough for them to deserve surviving.

 

[Nimcha]

Contrary to a lot of games, life doesn't have a morality meter of sorts.

So in essence, nobody deserves anything. We humans can, due to our ability to communicate vocally, decide for ourselves who deserves what.

 

[enzilewulf]

My God, I am so sick of the "Humans are bastards" shtick. I really am. Yes, we have flaws, but dammit we have done some pretty amazing things! Yes, I think we should survive, we owe it to ourselves.

Me too. I am so sick of scenarios where humans get fucked in less than a second. Yes. We should survive. We are capable of flight, going to the heavens (space that is) and then coming back. If something happens across the world killing many I will know in less then 30 minutes. Thats how far we have come from telegraphs. We are capable of surviving disastrous conditions, rebuilding and improving. Yes we should survive. Unless we can't control it (supernova or something like that)then we should survive.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yes? Sure there are many negative things about us that suggest to say we should be wipe out but I say we are still a navie race and still got alot to learn (we only got ourselves to judge, no other higher setient beings to judge us). I stil think we as the human race can redeem ourselves and have a second chance to do so.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Until something better comes along, yes. Just as homo habilis and homo erectus should have survived until their evolutionary betters came along. Why wouldn't we survive?

 

[GundamSentinel]

Should or should not in kinda beside the point. Either it does or it does not. There is no reason for humanity (or anything else for that matter) to exist in the first place (other than simple cause and effect, with a dash of quantum probability), but there isn't a reason for it not to exist either. Humanity is a tiny speck in the scheme of things, so it's all a bit irrelevant. Just enjoy your life and let others enjoy theirs.

Hopeless determinist that I am, I'll refrain from having a real opinion about it.

 

[chadachada123]

I voted other. Once we reach the transhuman phase, our resource use will shrink tremendously, and we'll be able to focus more on learning and exploration. That and religion and extremism will pretty much die out in favor of science and understanding, and even non-intervention.

 

[Fappy]

Yes. A vast majority of the human population has suffered for thousands of years while others took advantage of them. It would be quite unfair if we were to be punished for the actions and decisions of the ones taking advantage of us.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

We should continue to exist because we are the only species capable of contemplating the implications of our existence. Nothing else that we know of gives any damns about the effect they have on the universe at large, only what effect the universe at large has on them. This trait is undeniably important. If we are having a negative impact on existence, we can figure it out and we can change so that we are no longer having that impact. For that reason we should exist.

P.S. If you really want me to come out with more of these, I've got a million of them. In fact, I'd love it if somebody came at me with a reason for why we shouldn't exist, as I can easily twist it into a reason for why we should.

 

[Da Orky Man]

My God, I am so sick of the "Humans are bastards" shtick. I really am. Yes, we have flaws, but dammit we have done some pretty amazing things! Yes, I think we should survive, we owe it to ourselves.

Oh, yes.
We walked on the moon. Despite not being alive at the time to see the broadcasts, I am told that that feeling of awe does not go away. Ever. Let's face it: no other species on this earth is going do something that amazing.

Spoiler: The trick is appreciating the things in life that you usually take for granted.

The trick is appreciating the things in life that you usually take for granted.

<img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/abstraction.png" /img>

Support. Ever head of another species that has designed, made, and constructed anything like this?

 

[Ledan]

Yup.
To everyone who says we're dicks: look at nature. Its a bigger dick. Humans are the only animals that don't rape their women (dolphins and apes do). Humans are the only ones that develop moral codes. For animals, theyll do anything as long as they can get away with it and spread their genes on.

 

[lionsprey]

it would be a sad thing if we all died out although if we get rid of some of the less likeable traits we have the world would be better at least for all humans.

 

[Frankster]

Yes, the downward spiral is quite shocking. Can you believe we now have the tools to cure illnesses that would have killed any other species? Or electricity! Drainage! Computers!

Humanity is just descending into Oblivion further and further. I mean, look at our terrible living conditions! With all this internet stuff! Shocking, just shocking.

Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.

Wasn't sure how to respond to your post *shrugs* besides that I wasn't implying a technological regression.

Regarding your question, "survive what", i'm interpreting it as any sudden extinction of our species. Could be caused by ourselves in an apocalyptic ww3, or be a natural disaster that we wouldn't survive.
So all those examples you gave are good, especially the Adam Sandler movie one.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

It will until it doesn't. Everything ends, all that matters is how long the stopwatch will run.

 

[ablac]

I like life and I sure as hell like human beings. We are in general great. Sure we have problems but things arent nearly as bad as they have been in the past and we work to fix these problems rather than perpetuate them. That is societal evolution (if thats a thing) and thats reason enough to keep living. Humanity isnt bad you just only look at what is bad. Do you, or anyone you know support some of the terrible things going on in the world? No. Thats reason enough to keep our species alive. Rather than die out or give up and decide we shoudlnt live how bout you work towards making us 'acceptable' in your eyes.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Eh. Why not?
Filler of narutoesque proportions to avoid warning from mods.

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

I think we're actually pretty good, not perfect but we'll get there, so not only "yes" but I hope one day, billions and billions of years into the future when we've gone through several Singularities, Humanity will still be alive, well and dominating the galaxy...I hope.

 

[DeltaEdge]

From a non-theistic perspective, I believe that we would really have no reason to exist. We just do. If one of us died, it would mean something to the people close to them but eventually they too would die and be forgotten. The universe just exists and there is no point to anything. We simply live because we are alive. We have not a right to live, but the privilege. Our lives don't affect anything though, then simply poison the world we live on and even that doesn't matter. The world doesn't care, it's not a conscious being. There's no one up there saying "oh, you all are meaningful and should exist". If we are alive, then great, if not, then doesn't matter, there was no merit to your existence in the first place except to benefit the human race with no real significance other than appreciation of it's own existence. We don't deserve to continue as a species, but it doesn't mean deserve necessarily to be wiped out either. We will for as long as we can. (From my Christian perspective, yeah, we should be able to continue on until the end of days because we are important to him.)

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

We should continue to exist because we are the only species capable of contemplating the implications of our existence. Nothing else that we know of gives any damns about the effect they have on the universe at large, only what effect the universe at large has on them. This trait is undeniably important. If we are having a negative impact on existence, we can figure it out and we can change so that we are no longer having that impact. For that reason we should exist.

P.S. If you really want me to come out with more of these, I've got a million of them. In fact, I'd love it if somebody came at me with a reason for why we shouldn't exist, as I can easily twist it into a reason for why we should.

I would argue that we really cannot be sure whether we have a negative or positive impact. Our judgment is inherently limited by being human and having grown in our societies. What we deem to be positive or negative is based on our previous experiences and natural inclinations. We are inherently biased.

Limited or based upon? I'd say its the mostly the latter, though our potential for contemplating the implications of our actions certainly is limited by what we know, there is little limit to what we can discover. Certainly we are biased, but what isn't? Everything that can contemplate the implications of its actions must be biased, as both are traits of sapient beings, with the former existing solely among the sapient. Bias can be based on anything. A scientist is made biased by their greater knowledge of the universe, but is that bias bad? Certainly not! Is our bias misleading us? Possibly, but how can we learn that if we cease existing? And if we do learn the manner in which our bias is misleading us, are we any longer being mislead? No, and our bias will change to reflect this new knowledge. Our potential for empathizing also lets us get past our quintessential humanness and consider things that are utterly alien to us. We can understand in some manner how abusive dogfighting is despite how inhuman dogs are. Once again, this is certainly limited, but as we learn those limitations, we will move past them. Humanity is only truly limited by believing that they are truly limited.