Continuation of the human race may not be the preferred option.
Since antiquity many have noted a variety of unfortunate constituents of our human condition: pandemics, famines, mass murder, etc. One of the first written myths, The Epic of Gilgamesh, laments human mortality. The epic describes the eponymous hero‘s grief caused by the death of his friend, Enkidu:
The issue of Enkidu, my friend, oppresses me,
so I have been roaming long roads through the wilderness.
How can I stay silent, how can I be still!
My friend whom I love has turned to clay.
Am I not like him? Will I lie down, never to get up again?
But maybe technology will save us.
Some hoped that technology would produce unending smiles, but engineers create wealth which brings decadence, and obesity. Scientists may abet dictators. Elites have been empowered at the expense of the people. War has not diminished.
Technology not helping:
Poetic interlude: The World Is Too Much With Us
Prominent leftists have denounced the technocracy. For example Adorno and Horkheimer wrote “Enlightenment is totalitarian“. They thought that we desire technology in order to dominate nature and other men.
An “advanced” society eliminates children and lengthens lifespans so its members can slowly decay in solitude until oblivion finally arrives as relief.
Sometimes a multimillionaire with access to every advanced technology cannot prevent his own untimely death or that of his family members. Think of his child wasting away within a tastefully decorated mansion: the man is magnificent and impotent, tragic and ridiculous.
Steven Pinker is one of the better known cheerleaders for the technocracy, but he is just a stooge for the rich & powerful.
Then liberals & leftists will save us.
No.
The “noblest” among us celebrate, as the summit of morality, intolerance and killing children in their mothers‘ wombs.
The Democratic Party “reformed” itself in the late 1960s and early 1970s. People like George McGovern and Fred Dutton wanted a party that promoted peace and “power to the people” instead of the big corporations. However, now the Democratic Party promotes wars that don’t even serve the interests of the United States and elites who despise the American people.
Liberal media conglomerates foment ethnic hatred.
Elite Democrats, though revered by certain dupes, are vile hypocrites:
Madeleine Albright committed mass murder of children.
Hillary voted for the 2nd Iraq War.
We now know that the War in Afghanistan was a sham that cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Our puppet government lasted about 15 minutes. Let’s remember how Obama surged troops into the war.
Obama and Hillary invaded Libya which led to the reenslavement of black Africans.
Obama murdered children with drone strikes.
The Biden Administration pushed for NATO expansion which led to another pointless war.
Bernie Sanders is a fraud who denounces war and the 1% and then meekly endorses Democratic candidates who embrace war and the 1%.
Zelensky is eager to start WW III.
And how can liberals/leftists accomplish anything given their internal discord?
And of course corrupt conservatives who serve corporations and warmongers offer no solutions.
So it looks like the human experiment has failed. Mankind faces numerous intractable problems: tribal conflict, slavery, anxiety, addiction, unsuccessful pair formation. Consider also the pains and infirmities of old age, the insolence of office, suicide, cancer, Barbra Streisand. The planet is burdened with swollen sweaty reeking fleshy heaps of billions of humans and billions of domesticated animals we eagerly kill and cram still bleeding down our gullet. Africa in particular is booming in population. Our problems seem insurmountable. Maybe this is why we so often retreat into fantasy.
Can we all admit that the human project is not working so well? Attempts at reform have not always proved successful. More than a little disappointing. There is a line between determination and stubborn mulish inability to accept reality. If your toaster has caused a dozen conflagrations maybe it’s time to get a new toaster.
I imagine the robots will sharply reduce the human/cow population. Mosquito-bots that inject women with Depo Provera?
Time for our species to say “Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.”
Or alternatively we can say “Goodnight sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”
I hope to bring people together on this issue. Can all of us agree on the desirability of mankind’s extinction?
https://www.haaretz.com/2009-08-06/ty-article/israeli-arms-dealers-join-liebermans-entourage-to-africa/0000017f-e6db-da9b-a1ff-eeffaae60000
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/07/21/how_media_lies_have_distorted_a_tragedy_119311.html
https://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/database-discriminatory-israel/ Planet of the Humans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE
Why not try something new, something completely different? I suggest a combination of nature and robots, the primitive and the advanced. This combination possesses many strengths and has a better chance for success & well-being than the current anthropocentric arrangement. The robots will soon be able to improve their own design and reproduce. They can explore the galaxy. They can seed appropriate planets with organisms from earth: bacteria, grasses, termites, mushrooms, diatoms, lichens, earthworms.
We can recognize that mankind’s self-destructive urges are not entirely negative. We could eliminate the bulk of mankind (leaving behind only a remnant) as peacefully and painlessly as possible. The timing is important. We could achieve our goal soon after we make significant improvements in robotic and AI technology. It will be like going to our nightly rest after a tiring, eventful day. Our Mother gently tucking us into our beds.
In the next few decades we must develop robotic and AI technology and at the same time preserve the biosphere. We must advance our technology without allowing this technology to harm the natural world.
In the interim, before the Robot Overloads establish their rule, we must not destroy our robotics technology or our biosphere. Our robots and our or for our galaxy.
We can choose between two futures. 1) Human future: mass extinctions, biological warfare, a permanent dark ages only occasionally illuminated & enlightened by detonation of the remaining nuclear weapons 2) Robotic/Natural future: borders of knowledge and physical borders ever-expanding, grasses waving in the wind on distant planets, microorganisms swimming in distant seas.
We can cultivate anthropic pessimism but galactic optimism.
Earth is bursting at the seams.
kamikaze parasite
Let’s think big. Let’s consider not just the U.S. or Earth, but the whole Milky Way Galaxy. Let’s consider not just the next few decades or centuries but millennia.
The robotics, AI, computer, space travel research we are doing now may be the most important event in the history of our galaxy, may be the best hope for our galaxy.
Technologically advanced civilization & a complex biosphere - neither may exist anywhere in our galaxy. We should be very careful in the coming decades not to destroy either (or ourselves). After we create intelligent, adaptable, self-designing, self-assembling robots we should be just as careful to destroy ourselves (or at least most of us).
If we succeed stretch as far as doth the mind of man
we must travel to the nearby red dwarf stars. These stars will last trillions of years, 1000 times as long as our sun.
The robots we create will be able to spread out across the galaxy and seed millions of barren planets with earth organisms. The robot’s accomplishments will dwarf mankind’s.
But his dominion that exceeds in this,
90Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.
Robotocene Era
https://xiebq.blogspot.com/2018/02/unenlightened-thinking-steven-pinkers.html
Brittle fiasco flawed disappointing
preferable options
continuation of the human race may not be the preferred option
discontinue
bankrupt fresh model alternative
replacement Successor
Overthrow Numerous disadvantages
Ticket to Posthumanism requires punched four realizations three are nonpartisan
inadequacies
understated throughout
Cooper union gay plague
Killing is very cruel so let’s kill everyone so they’ll be no more killing.
cs Lewis radicals
There is a line between determination and stubborn mulish inability to accept reality. Can we all admit that the human project has not worked out so well? Is there an end to war, poverty, dictatorship? Attempts at reform have not always proved successful. black book Definitely disappointing.
the pains and infirmities of old age, the insolence of office,
Mankind faces numerous intractable problems: pandemics, tribal conflict, suicide, addiction, unfortunate unsuccessful pair formation. unfortunate Perhaps this is why we so often we retreat into fantasy.
overpopulation but abortion is cruel
crime. But police are cruel
immigration but
Africa population war disease famine poverty Muslim countries India
child free depressing elderly silently decaying
Those most revered are vile hypocrites.
The Democratic Party 1969 Fred Dutton peace corporate governance
Maybe we should try something new. We can place our hope in the natural world and in robots. I suggest spend the next few decades building advanced robots smart enough so who they can themselves design their successors. Then we can quickly quietly self- destruct before we destroy the world without pollution and nuclear weapons.
If your toaster has caused a dozen conflagrations maybe you should get a new toaster. Similarly
Our purpose temporary ladder create something greater overcome
wnderful prospect plants seeded robots throughout galaxy
and we should render ourselves extinct as peacefully as possible. It will be like going to our nightly rest after a tiring, eventful day.
and we should render ourselves extinct as peacefully as possible. It will be like going to our nightly rest after a tiring, eventful day.
, poverty, and disease torment us. Should we resort to Methods for reducing this massive population
Is there an end to war, poverty, dictatorship?
He finds it, but it is quickly
might cut short our wailing and weeping and
extol
and smothering free speech as the height of
stolen away.
science leads to reductionism which causes
common sense worst catastrophe
interminable wailing and weeping, of despair
Pascal Schopenhauer Huxley Russell Dr. Johnson Buddhism Jesus