Question133

Could we find a way to survive all the catastrophes that threaten the survival of humankind?

• No, but the survival time can be extended by getting off this mudball. It's not a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket. (Stoney #9)

• We probably will; humans are pretty clever, Fundies aside. We're pretty young for a species, so I figure we've got at least a few million years before we die out or evolve into something else. (Eric #1532)

• No - eventually we'll all die out... Meanwhile we can try to fight the catastrophes that we can... No simple answer, but trying to do our best and such... Depending of what sort of catastrophes you had in mind... If we could do something about "blind faith" - we might have avoided many human catastrophe, or maybe blind faith *is* a human catastrophe ??? (Mvh. Nikitta #1759)

• I think it's a testament to mankind that we haven't done ourselves in during the last 50 years. We can pretty much go on same as ever and hope for the best or disintegrate society back into medieval times where the only people you'd know your whole life were the 300 in your village. Sometimes I think it'd be easier to do that than to raise the bottom line of idiocity that goes around. (Hendrix Fan #1692)

• I don't know if we will survive, I certainly hope so. But if our descendents survive , lets say. 10 millions years from now, I am not sure we will still consider them human, or they would consider us.... (YOELK 1309)

• Do you mean to ask whether I think we *can* find a way to survive? If so, then my answer is no. There isn't any "one" way. There are several ways, and we need them all: science, technology, and diplomacy are near the top of the list. (Jeff Dee #1355)

• Sci-fi movies notwithstanding, major natural catastrophes such as asteroid or comet impact, the sun exploding, or the like may not be survivable. Perhaps in the future we will have the technology to avoid these, or to flee from them.

  I am more concerned about potential man made catastrophes such as all out nuclear or biological warfare, the effect of global warming, poisoning through pollution, or starvation as the result of overpopulation, just to name a few. In time these might be avoidable too, but a lot depends on how fast the human race can grow up. Our governments, in particular, need to stop acting like unruly children and learn how to cooperate with one another on addressing these problems. Of course, the same goes for the citizens of said governments. (John Hachmann #1782)

• Speaking from the viewpoint that we are often our own biggest catastrophe, I possess hopeful pessimism that we can survive. Our record shows that we've done more damage to each other than natural processes have done damage to us.

  And there's this other thing; this uniqueness we possess. Judging from the history of life on Earth, humanity is a fluke, an oddity. Flukes and oddities rarely survive very long. This period we are going through right now, our so-called civilization, is barely six thousand years old. In terms of all the species that have lived and died, we are a blip in the stream. I would hardly elevate humanity to the status of successful species quite yet.

  I think the answer is no. Come back in 5 million years and ask again.

• Who knows, there's always hope, even on the longest term. In order to make it beyond the short term we'll have to have a fundamental shift in mentality, though. Ensuring the survival of the species by reproduction is rapidly becoming a stupid strategy, for instance.

  But it's not just that we survive, it's very much how we survive too, this is addressed in the following quote, which I shamelessly stole from another ng:

  "Play cricket, perhaps. That's how we shall save the race. Eh? It's a possible thing? But saving the race is nothing in itself. As I say, that's only being rats. It's saving our knowledge and adding to it is the thing."

  "The War of the Worlds" H.G. Wells 1898 (DJ Nozem #1465)

• No. One of the catastrophes will be the heat death of the universe, or at least of what be know of the universe. No manipulatable energy flows, no life.

  On a lesser scale, individuals and groups can probably survive more any single catastrophe, but in some cases it may require gathering and hoarding resources away from other groups. We do it now, to an extent, with the use of resources by the major powers compared to the peoples of the third world. You think it's necessary for people to be currently starving in African nations?

  Short of total planetary vulcanism, or comparable destruction by nuclear idiocy, human will be around and "survive" for quite a while. We might not like what we make to survive "in" though. (Dewey Henize #122)