One of the possible solutions to Fermi's Paradox (if the Universe is filled with intelligent species, where are they all?) has always been to suggest that advanced civilizations tend to bring about their own destruction.Adam Korbitz suggests two possible mechanisms by which this might happen here on Earth:
First, researchers at the University of Colorado have published a study showing that even a limited nuclear exchange between longtime rivals India and Pakistan would have devastating environmental effects --- although it would by no means spell the end of the human race.
Second, the World Health Organization issued a warning today about the catastrophic human death toll that unchecked climate change may cause this century, particularly in the poorest countries.
Of course my favorite solution to F's Paradox is that they are already among us - but they call themselves Hungarians.
(A slow news day, obviously)
There's the particularly human quality to see oneself as living at a uniquely dramatic point in the history of civilisation. Either end times, or paradigm shifts or what have you.
ReplyDeleteI tend to feel that way having lived through the Moon landing, the advent of the Information Age, the end of the Cold War and the collapse of world communism and the initial stages of a global emergency. What has taken the drama out of that is the realisation that the shift may be way more stupid, boring and uncinematic than I ever imagined.
Oh c'mon. Even God didn't create the earth in one day. We'll get there, it'll just take a little longer.
ReplyDeleteWe know there have already been at least two, near total extinctions of lifeforms on this planet and there'll probably be at least a few more before the sun does the place in.
Whether it's global warming into the late 21st/early 22nd century or a massive volcanic eruption or a major asteroid strike, it will happen.
We're not the first and we're not going to be the last. Life is fragile.
Why else do we quest to "boldly go" to Mars and elsewhere? It's for the survival of the species. We gotta get off this rock if our species isn't to face inevitable extinction. Will we last long enough to do that? Probably not but it is worth trying.
Found on the web:
ReplyDeleteDoom is coming - doom, I say;
It will be here any day -
Helen Caldicott agrees
That we’ll either burn or freeze.
Through my research I have found
Zombies will live underground
And crawl out to eat the dead,
As Ted Turner, scholar, said.
Psychic healers and my cat
Say, with proper funding, that
Spirits will communicate
Doomsday’s precise day and date.
Kill yourselves, it’s not too late
To avoid a gruesome fate;
Trust me, I have seen the tapes -
Humans will be ruled by Apes!
I suppose Paul S. doesn't realise he's one of the reasons why I don't think the decline will be shocking or cinematic.
ReplyDeleteYou can't even talk about any of this without some anonymous fog-horn showing up and sneering.
Even the ignorance has become dull and conformist.
Another week with another prediction about imminent GW disaster . . . that's what is really dull and conformist ti-guy.
ReplyDeleteWell then ignore it.
ReplyDeleteMaking a point of coming here and yawning all the time is not the usual reaction to something one finds dull.
What I find dull is the willful mischaracterisation of anyone who addresses this topic, in any way, as some kind of panic-stricken hysteric.