[Scott Bakker]

I just started reading The Late, Great, Planet Earth in an attempt to reaquaint myself with the childhood roots of my own obsession with the apocalypse.

So how about it? Is humanity doomed? Why or why not?

[Leiali]

I think we are doomed if we don't do anything about the environment. I don't think an apocalypse is imminent, as I reckon there are more sensible people in the world than not (though if you look at our leaders, that isn't much of an indicator). Sheri S Tepper looks at humanity and what we do to the environment regularly, my favourite book by her is 'The Family Tree'. Castigation.

But we haven't always been on this planet and we won't always be. At some point I am sure we will be some other races dinasours.

[Radone]

Color me an optimist, but I think we'll survive. In what form is another matter. I would actually be more surprised if humans, in our our current genetic make-up, continued unadulterated in the upcoming centuries.
I think that there will be a number of humans who for whatever reason will choose to have themselves or their progeny 'changed' either genetically, with nanotechnology, cybernetics, or a combo of all three. It will be interesting.
It can actually be argued that an insulin pump, for instance, or a pacemaker/defibrillator are in some ways early cybernetic devices.

[juzzza]

We may be doomed.

A few scientists hypothesise that a global catastrophe of one sort or another is inevitable... Climate change, meteor... Something.

Dunno if we will die out completely, but our current existence may get challenged.

I agree with Leiali that we can hope there are more sensible people on the planet but then it only takes one finger on one button for it all to go up in smoke.

I'm a firm believer that taking the human virus to other inhabitable planets is the only sure way to ensure our survival as a species, but I feel sorry for any species less-developed species we may encounter along the way. I think higher lifeforms giving us a reality check would be healthy.

[kahnovitch]

I feel sorry for any species less-developed species we may encounter along the way. I think higher lifeforms giving us a reality check would be healthy.

Ditto.
It would be nice to think that we will be a benevolent higher species that has the live and let live attitude of Gene Roddenbury's Star Trek universe, but it's more likely we'll enslave and conquer any poor suckers not advanced enough to defend themselves, in the same we have throughout our short history.

That is of course if we survive our own myopia.
Sure we've explored a little of our own back yard i.e. Mars, the moon and now Titan. We've taken a few pics, got a few soil samples etc, but we are years, and I mean hundreds away from any sort of extra terrestrial colony.

Personally I'm looking forward to my first Soylent Green subway sandwich. :D

[Leiali]

Wouldn't it be fabulous if human beings evolved enough to become members of the Federation of Planets and star trekking across the universe? I am too cynical to believe we will ever get that self righteous - there are far too many stupid people in the world balancing out the sensible.

If you speak to environmentalists, the doom and gloom is pretty stark. If you speak to scientists (I have archeologist friends who maintain this) we are just a blink in the eye of the universe. I don't think space travel is going to happen without sorting out problems at home, so I don't think we are going to colonise other planets any time soon. And by that I mean within the next five hundred years. I also can't see how we can evolve any more that we have done.....it's been hundreds and thousands of years in the making and I don't see we have the equivalent of that left as a race.

Just realised how pessimistic that all sounds. Well. Fatalistic anyway.

[Radone]

Maybe I just haven't been beaten up by reality, but I look back at what humanity must have come from and where we are now, and I can't help but feel hopeful that we'll somehow get through whatever is to come.

[Dawnstorm]

If we're not doomed, we're wasting time worrying.

If we're doomed, we're also wasting time worrying. Wouldn't we be better off enjoying life as long as we can.

If we're not doomed, we might be able to avoid unpleasant consequences through action; but then those very same actions might actually doom us. Depends on how educated our educated guesses are...

Dilemma, hmm?

[saintjon]

well the thing about evolution is that we're not being physically challenged so much anymore. We'll probably evolve more supple hands, more slouchy spines and less resistance to the elements if I guess right. I'm with Dawnstorm though.

[Scott Bakker]

OK, let me lay out some 'arguments for doom,' see what you all think. I'll leave the environmental one for a bit later. I'm all ears for faulty inferences and/or false premises:

A:The Biblical Apocalypse Argument

A1) The Bible say we're doomed.
AC) Therefore, we are doomed.

B The Social Meltdown Argument

B1) Society, at root, is the collective sum of our interelated actions.
B2) Technological change transforms the consequences of our actions, thus forcing change on our society.
B3) Adaptive systems, like societies, can only accomodate a certain amount of change before risking collapse.
B4) Our society stands on the brink of the most drastic period of technological change in the history of the human species.
BC) Therefore, social meltdown is imminent.