Poll: do you think the human race should survive?

[loc978]

Well, I can't really say "yes" or "no" to this one. I don't really feel that invested with the subject matter (I'm not very vehement [http://www.vhemt.org/] about my position... but why did I choose to speak, then? One word: bored).
Still, I wouldn't mind if we voluntarily went extinct in the coming generations. Nothing violent or painful, no disease... just stop having kids. Like pandas (which should have gone extinct by now).
Then again, if people keep having kids, I'm okay with that too. I'm not really invested in what happens here after I die.

 

[plugav]

"Should we survive?" is not really a question I ask myself. If a species survives, it deserves it - that seems to be how nature works.
Will we survive, though? Not indefinitely, I think, but we appear to be adaptable enough to have a long time ahead of us.

 

[Vuljatar]

Wow. 19.6% of people who voted in this thread's poll are idiotic nihilists of the highest order. How can you wallow so deeply in self-loathing that you don't want your own species to continue to exist? The mere act of thinking that way makes you literally the worst possible evolutionary failure.

 

[ScaryAlmond]

At the moment it's iffy there are cultures that are still warlike and probably don't deserve to continue but i am optimistic we can change before we kill ourselves.

 

[kasperbbs]

Once im dead humanity can do whatever the hell it wants, but for now id rather we didnt go extinct.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

But in all likelyhood, we'll probably just die out. Probably not from nuclear war, or from climate change,

So you mean that our ancestors, who had to endure Ice Ages, are simply a fake?

And we have the advantages of knowledge and technology. Refrigerators and ovens didn't just fall from the sky.

I'm not quite sure what your point is bringing up the Ice Age. I said that we'll probably just die from an eventual drain of resources, which has been the case for every extinct species (that's over 99% of all species that have ever existed). We have been a resilient species in the past, but eventually it's probably going to end.

 

[CarlMin]

From an objective, universal perspective, we probably do more damage than good on this planet.
But being a human myself, I'd like to see our civilization survive as long as possible because I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Such as games and cheeseburgers.

 

[ElPatron]

which has been the case for every extinct species (that's over 99% of all species that have ever existed).

So when 85% of the planet's population died from poisonous gas they only made up 1% of the biodiversity this world has seen?

I don't think so, if the biodiversity we see now spawned from those 15%.

Climate change will only drive humans to other places. We have the technology, and we will use it.

 

[lacktheknack]

it seems to me like for every great scientist or teacber tbere's a million living excercises in mouth-breathing dumb-f*ckery and, well if I were to look at humanity as an outside observer, I don't think I'd like what I saw,

Get off the internet and go interact with REAL people. People are smart and intelligent 99.99% of the time, and the instant they screw up, it gets plastered on the internet for drama-queens to circle jerk about how they've lost their "faith in humanity", whatever the hell that means. AGAIN.

In REALITY, life goes on, and the little fails that seem to add up to "Humanity is Retarded" are forgotten nigh-immediately.

 

[RastaBadger]

Sometimes I do sometimes I don't. I think if we keep going towards doing things for monetary/personal gain then probably not and we probably won't. If we finally get around to working for the betterment of humanity and self improvement (and if everyone would just get along for once) then we probably do.
Also it seems the more news etc I watch I feel more no and the more Star Trek and MLP I watch the more I feel yes.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

which has been the case for every extinct species (that's over 99% of all species that have ever existed).

So when 85% of the planet's population died from poisonous gas they only made up 1% of the biodiversity this world has seen?

I don't think so, if the biodiversity we see now spawned from those 15%.

Climate change will only drive humans to other places. We have the technology, and we will use it.

Again, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Over 99% of all species that have ever lived are gone, this an established fact. Bio diversity is a direct result of evolution, extinction is an integral part of this process. When a species becomes unsuited to it's environment, it's population either dies out or adapts over generations, both ways resulting in the non-existence of the original species. I'm also unsure of what cataclysm you're referring to that murdered 85% of the world's population, nor do I see how that damages the afore mentioned fact that most of the species that have ever existed are dead.
And regardless, I didn't say climate change would kill us, I said lack of resources would.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Considering I'M a human I'd think it should survive yes.

 

[ElPatron]

And regardless, I didn't say climate change would kill us, I said lack of resources would.

While there are examples of species going extinct over causes other than lack of resources, therefore not 99%.

You can't just say X without actually researching. Burden of proof is not mine.

Kump, Pavlov and Arthur (2005) have proposed that during the Permian?Triassic extinction event the warming also upset the oceanic balance between photosynthesising plankton and deep-water sulfate-reducing bacteria, causing massive emissions of hydrogen sulfide which poisoned life on both land and sea and severely weakened the ozone layer, exposing much of the life that still remained to fatal levels of UV radiation.

30 literal seconds on google and I could find said event.

It was the Earth's most severe known extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species[3] and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct.[4] It is the only known mass extinction of insects

Permian-Triassic extinction event. And I think most schools teach that.

 

[XMark]

The human race as-is, nah. I mean, I like being human and everything but I guess I've been reading too many wikipedia articles about Kurzweil and the singularity and stuff, so I just can't wait to merge with the future bio-mechanical superintelligence.

 

[dragonswarrior]

I choose other. Because it really doesn't matter. Whether we survive or not the world will go on without us. Life isn't as important as everyone makes it out to be, its just another thing in a universe full of billions of things.

At the end of the day, the universe will continue with us, and it will continue without us. And even if the universe ended, it wouldn't be that big of deal...

 

[JasonBurnout16]

While I do think we should survive, I believe we need to begin adapting soon. We use up far too many resources and the like.

Kinda off topic, but does anyone else think they would have been happier in the past?

 

[Alssadar]

Humanity will survive - as a living being I will make it. And it should, as, after all, humanity is fantastic in its entire nature.
Idealistic to realism, greed and imaginative expectations, kindness and creativity, diplomacy and strength, peace and war, rage and love. Humans are given the choice to live out their lives in their own way, and whether they follow it or not is their own decision.
We humans live and have a wonderful adventure, and I see no reason why we should ever die out to some form of alien or intergalactic issue--I'll be damned before I let my brethren die, and I will fight against any depression of humanity.
Insert any part of Charlie Chaplin's speech from the Great Dictator for more inspirational reasons.