The end of Mankind on Earth

[Miss Chicken]

Last night I looked at the documentary "Life With Man". It looked at what would become of the world when Mankind was no longer around. It didn't look at the reason why Mankind was gone so I thought i would have a poll to see what people think the major reason would be for the demise of Homo Sapiens on Earth.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Boredom, most probably.

I think that if Mankind does reach the stars and finds a better place, one day he may very well become tired of Earth, which will have outlived its usefulness from every perspective imaginable, and finally leave the cradle for good in whatever form he has evolved into.

So yeah, boredom.

 

[Amaris]

Apathy.


J.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Boredom, most probably.

I think that if Mankind does reach the stars and finds a better place, one day he may very well become tired of Earth, which will have outlived its usefulness from every perspective imaginable, and finally leave the cradle for good in whatever form he has evolved into.

So yeah, boredom.

Leaving the Earth is one of the options in my poll. So is evolving into something else.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Boredom, most probably.

I think that if Mankind does reach the stars and finds a better place, one day he may very well become tired of Earth, which will have outlived its usefulness from every perspective imaginable, and finally leave the cradle for good in whatever form he has evolved into.

So yeah, boredom.

Leaving the Earth is one of the options in my poll. So is evolving into something else.

What about boredom?

 

[Jetfire]

Cataclysm.

 

[RoJoHen]

What about boredom?

What does that even mean?

 

[Miss Chicken]

Boredom, most probably.

I think that if Mankind does reach the stars and finds a better place, one day he may very well become tired of Earth, which will have outlived its usefulness from every perspective imaginable, and finally leave the cradle for good in whatever form he has evolved into.

So yeah, boredom.

Leaving the Earth is one of the options in my poll. So is evolving into something else.

What about boredom?

Boredom doesn't actually kill. If it did my kids would have died when they were quite young as the often used to whine "Mum, I am bored" during school holidays.

 

[Mallory]

Another vote for a cataclysm of some sort.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

What about boredom?

What does that even mean?

Boredom doesn't actually kill. If it did my kids would have died when they were quite young as the often used to whine "Mum, I am bored" during school holidays.

Well, it implies, thinking about it more carefully, that Mankind's demise will be of his own doing or of his own nature because he is fed up of the status quo. Consciously or subconsciously, he will say "That's it! I've had enough!" and in whatever form it takes he will meet his end if he wants it to, or if external forces will make him choose to.

Come to think of it, "boredom" is a catch-all for all of those options in the poll, if one thinks of it that way.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have a hard time believing that billions of people will collectively get that fed up with existence.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I have a hard time believing that billions of people will collectively get that fed up with existence.

Fed up with the status quo, which doesn't necessarily mean existence per se.

They could be fed up with Homo sapiens sapiens and develop down the posthuman route or evolve into something else beyond our current understanding.
They could be fed up of Earth, and abandon the planet for a new place.
They could be fed up with the current limitations of science and create a bizarre experiment that has dangerous consequences for the whole planet.
They could be fed up with the actions and opposing ideologies of their neighbours and find new ways to kill each other and themselves.
Or, yes, they could be fed up of existence and accept the fate that a massive gamma ray burst or a deadly biological threat will wipe them all out.

Or, you know, they could carry on and do something about it.

 

[clever_username]

other. like the terminator said, it's in our nature to destroy ourselves. we will never get along as a species as long as organized religion is around. sooner or later, we're gonna blow ourselves to hell.

 

[ThankQ]

OTHER: We destroy ourselves in fights over territory and influence, in the hopes that one bronze-aged tribal doctrine will prevail over another.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Most likely a cataclysm. There are simply too many of us to be wiped out any other way, though in the end it might be a combination of several things.

 

[RoJoHen]

I subscribe to the Doctor Who method of thinking: Humans always survive, in one form or another. Even at the end of the universe.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Thinking about this further, boredom and being fed up with the status quo will also inspire us to do something good for us too. Then again, such good could inevitably lead us to abandon the principles of Mankind being on Earth and lead to one of the scenarios above. Still, while some of us will embrace alien cultures and sociological systems, posthuman traits, and extraterrestrial habitation, others will no doubt want to cling onto the traditionalist, oh-so-Humanist old ways of life and stay on Earth until the Earth herself is finally fed up with Humanity and asks him to leave with his belongings and not let the ionosphere hit him on the way out.

[You sound too excitable today. You need to sleep, ZR. Sleeeeeeep..... - someone]

 

[Skellington]

I chose "evolve into something else". Stagnation is death; however, we'd be morons to sit around waiting for natural selection to do the job.
I think (or like to think) that we're approaching a technological revolution that will fundamentally change us and pretty much do away with many of nature's paradigms regarding intelligence, longevity, familial relations etc and basically what we can expect from life. I doubt very much that 100 years from now the human body will be anything like as "natural" and uncultivated as it is now. With advances in medical nanotechnology, the rapid mending of broken bones might be considered a "natural" process, seemingly performed by the body itself. However, the definition of "human" might be broadened to match, so I guess that it's a question of what we, the current generation, would consider to be a new species branching off from our own. Anyway, people will still get bored; very much so.

 

[RoJoHen]

However, the definition of "human" might be broadened to match

No doubt. The only reason our ancient ancestors are not called "humans" is because they weren't smart enough to name themselves. Even if we continue to evolve, we will likely still call ourselves "human."

The question really becomes: at what point do humans stop being homo sapiens? Will we recognize it about ourselves? Or are we more or less going to remain this form forever?

 

[ThankQ]

However, the definition of "human" might be broadened to match

No doubt. The only reason our ancient ancestors are not called "humans" is because they weren't smart enough to name themselves. Even if we continue to evolve, we will likely still call ourselves "human."

The question really becomes: at what point do humans stop being homo sapiens? Will we recognize it about ourselves? Or are we more or less going to remain this form forever?

Well, create a fixed definition homo sapiens, and if/when we fail to meet that definition, call us something else.