Poll: do you think the human race should survive?

[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.

 

[Biodeamon]

Yes, becuase a) intelligent does not come around easily. it's a pure miracle that a life form such as ours evolved and i wouldn't waste something that precious.
b) i wouldn't be standing around if i didn't think life was worth it.

i don't care how many gloomy people point our flaws the only thing i care about is that we are very rare precious.

 

[GeneralFungi]

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?

If we humans continue to evolve (which we will) it'll still be a continuation of the Homo-Sapien race. I'm curious of how we'll actually continue to evolve at this point. We already come up with technology to overcome our genetic disabilities. There actually is very little we can do to improve ourselves in a way simple technological advancements won't.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Oh look, yet another 'let's see how fast I can out apathy everyone else' thread. Marvelous.

 

[Bloodstain]

It really annoys me how, at any given time in history, people say 'Gosh, people nowadays are so stupid and useless! What has become of humanity?'. Hating humanity is not only the new hip thing to do, it's always hip.
Humanity is actually quite great, and full of potential -- especially in comparison to other races on our planet. There are many stupid people, but humanity itself is still amazing. I look forward to the things we will develop over the next few decades.

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.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH.

EDIT: In my opinion, this inferiority complex regarding our race is just a way of trying to convey 'I stand above you puny humans, for I fathom our faults and you do not.' People 'hating' humanity just appear arrogant and vain to me.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Yep. We've survived as a species this long, why not take it a little further?

 

[verdant monkai]

WAIT. STOP. HOLD IT RIGHT THERE.

Name any other species that has a global network system that can transmit information to the other side of the planet in a split second that stores the entirety of their cultural and technological information on.

The internet alone is one of the most amazing things ever conceived, I think a race capable of that in only around 400 years of electricity being discovered in a usable form is a bit more deserving than some of its members might think. Give us another 100 and space exploration may be the new internet.

Yeah the internet......wow
why does that justify the continuation of our species, so we can look at porn anywhere in the world, and update our pointless twitter accounts with stuff like just saw a film. Or just took a crap. Yeah that's really great isn't it.
Admittedly we can do a lot of good with the internet like amnesty international and other such positive things. But at the end of the day I would rather live in a society which is more environmentally friendly, than have a lot of the annoying bullsh*t.
Think of a world without tax returns, car insurance, nuclear bombs, guns and governments that know everything about everyone. A world where there are still blank spaces on the map waiting to be discovered.
A world where we can all live a sustainable existence, with the environment and its wonderful animals.
Hippy rant aside I think we should continue as a species, but there needs to be less of us and we need to be more environmentally friendly.

 

[spartan231490]

I think our potential is just too great to allow us to go quietly into the void. We aren't much now, and as a whole we do a lot more harm than good, but we have a lot of potential.

 

[planet.tyler]

No humans should most definately be extinct..... The replies on this forum prove that as anyone who tries pass any species off as intelligent when said species knows it can't support even 2 billion people but gives themselves a clap when their population reaches 7 billion!! no animal on earth is as stupid as us, nor more convinced of just how clever it is.

 

[isometry]

"For every scientist or teacher there are a million dumb-f*cks..."

The thing is, dumb-f*cks are nothing new or unusual in the universe, but teachers and scientists are. There are billions of dead planets with no intelligent life on them, adding ours to this collection of empty planets wouldn't improve anything.

 

[370999]

Using human based reasoning to argue the moral worth of humanity and the case for it's survival? This whole topic won't work.

I want humanity to survive. A lot of other people want that. If you don't want then fne, top yourself of first.

 

[Faulty Turmoil]

If I were harsher, I would tell anyone who thinks we should all die to lead by example. I consider someone who thinks that not only me but everyone I love deserves to die to be ignorant, childish, selfish, short sighted, and in general a horrible person and I wouldn't want to speak with them anymore.

It is of my opinion that the only species I actually care about is my own, and I wish for us to one day travel the stars and conquer the galaxy, hopefully making some alien friends along the way.

 

[bruunwald]

Yes, because my eleven-year-old son is a decent little guy who deserves life as much any unoriginal cynical poll-starter.