Extinction of the Human Race

[Grypesagon]

dboyzero

I agree that our potential to solve problems is indeed powerful, but I'm sure that there will inevitably come a time where there is a threat far greater than our ability to solve at the current level of technology. Currently, we're unable to solve any host of human-ending disasters, and I'm positive that there must be millions, if not billions more that we couldn't even imagine in our wildest nightmares. If tomorrow we detected a meteor en route to Earth that would destroy us completely and utterly, how much time do you think would be needed to for us to mount a defense to it? As of this time, we have no strategy or scenario for that kind of disaster. Like the attack on the World Trade Centers, it's something that we'd never expect to actually happen, and thus are wholly unprepared for it.

Neon Proxy, I responded to your earlier post and I'd very much like your feedback on it, since that is of greater relevance to the topic at hand.

Quote:

But humans are a product of nature, doesn't that mean that anything that we do and anything we produce is part of nature as well, part of the grand design, so to speak?

Put more specifically, I think you make a lot of claims and assumptions in your post that I think don't have a great deal of backing or grounds.

Please note... all I'm talking about is complete and total extinction.

If the world goes nuts and a dozen people survive in a bomb shelter or an underground military base we're still not extinct. If a meteor is coming at us and we still have 3 dozen people up on the space station who can hold there for a decent amount of time we can still survive as a species. We'd be at a disadvantage for quite a spell... but I'm just saying. The odds of an event coming (out of the conceivable events I can fathom) I can't think of one where I can't almost immediately devise a simple plan the keep a few people alive. Short of the earth falling into the sun or something but since I felt the world being destroyed was less likely then us all dying... smile  

[Yaoi_miroku]

well no. dogs and cats will go extinct as well since they survive off of food that is made through the labor of humans. a lot of others animals that live through similiar means of surivial will be extinct as well. humans also try to protect wildlife and such from going extinct. i do not know everything that would take effect if humans were to become extinct but i feel like a lot of bad effects will take place

Interesting topic by the way 3nodding smile  

[Grypesagon]

Yaoi_miroku

well no. dogs and cats will go extinct as well since they survive off of food that is made through the labor of humans. a lot of others animals that live through similiar means of surivial will be extinct as well. humans also try to protect wildlife and such from going extinct. i do not know everything that would take effect if humans were to become extinct but i feel like a lot of bad effects will take place

Interesting topic by the way 3nodding smile

Wow. I hadn't thought of that stuff. Good angle of thought.

I need to go feed my kitten.  

[Cornelius loh Quatious]

Grypesagon

Please note... all I'm talking about is complete and total extinction.

If the world goes nuts and a dozen people survive in a bomb shelter or an underground military base we're still not extinct. If a meteor is coming at us and we still have 3 dozen people up on the space station who can hold there for a decent amount of time we can still survive as a species. We'd be at a disadvantage for quite a spell... but I'm just saying. The odds of an event coming (out of the conceivable events I can fathom) I can't think of one where I can't almost immediately devise a simple plan the keep a few people alive. Short of the earth falling into the sun or something but since I felt the world being destroyed was less likely then us all dying... smile

Well, like I explained earlier, the planet's going to be swallowed up by the sun eventually, so that's kind of a for sure thing. By then, humans may or may not have discovered interplanetary travel and colonization, so whether that destroys the whole human race or not depends.

Even if a small group of humans survive, unless it's a rather large number (say, at least a couple hundred), I doubt that they would survive and reproduce enough to continue the species in a significant manner. There's a thing that happens in severely devastated populations that causes them to go further extinct, and this is a result of the lost genetic variation. A dozen people may be enough to survive on their own for a while, but eventually inbreeding will lead to dangerous genetic consequences, such as still-births, hemophilia, and susceptibility to disease.  

[Neon Proxy]

Every {time} I bleed, ~there~ lies the reason -to- live...
===============~{The Final}~===============

You have to realize I have been quite busy with having to make a new account and restore all the threads and guild I was in so I am frankly quite busy, so I will just post this for now.
Ok first of all, as for my other post that was extremely long, I realize it is unsupported and seemingly rabble, thats mainly because I have issues chaining thought together into complicated paragraphs, and When I typed that it was 3:00 in the morning and I was almost falling asleep on my keyboard. So yeah it's not all well put together and like I said im too lazy to change it or make another one.

It's true that humans are a manufactured offspring of nature, but consider this.
An established and balanced ecosystem functions in a dynamic symbiosis. All species interact with each other in three possible ways: mutualistic, communalistic, or parasitic. A mutualistic relationship helps both organisms. A communalistic relationship neither helps nor harms the interacting organisms. A parasitic relationship helps one and harms the other.
Are we a part of Nature in the same way a timber company is a part of the forest? Or the same way a farmer is part of the farm? We could be part of nature the same way, say, an otter is: eating sea urchins and being eaten by sharks.
We were once like the otter, part of the ecosystem. Then we developed agriculture, and have become parasitic, depending on exploitation of Nature for our survival, but giving nothing back.
The fossil record shows that each time Homo sapiens entered a continent, a spasm of extinctions followed. Exotic invaders typically disrupt ecosystems, and we are no exception.
On some philosophical level there is no doubt some truth feeding the myth. However, by examining our daily lives, and asking ourselves, "What part of my normal day is a part of Nature?" the sad truth is revealed.

And as for all of the following posts, I have this to say. True, cats and gods would most likely all die off, along with lots of birds, fish, etc. But this is all because they have been tainted and domesticated by human hands. Their entire species has become completely dependent upon human porvisions because we bended nature and made it that way. In a world where all humans are extinct and all thats left is nature, Domesticated animals will most likely die off.
And yes It is most likely That one event could wipe out the entire human race. Even if 99.99% of humans were to die, there would still be roughly 650,000 people left on earth to repopulate.

===============~{The Final}~=================
...And I (-discover-) words _becoming_ so vivid and bright.

 

[Cornelius loh Quatious]

I appreciate you taking the time to post, given the circumstances. Just trying to keep the discussions lively.

As you said, yes, spasms of extinction do follow humans wherever they go. However, every balanced ecosystem, when thrown out of balance, continue to find their way back to balance. Even if it takes a hundred years or more, fallow earth will never remain so. Some areas thrive off of destruction and devastation, such as the chaparrals or areas around active volcanoes.

Think of it this way: even if humans continue to pollute and destroy the world's resources (note: I'm in no way condoning this), one of two things will happen. First, we may render the resources completely unusable, forcing us into extinction or emigration off of the planet. Should this occur, the planet will inevitably balance itself back out as per the natural processes of various living organisms that exist and those that have yet to evolve. For those niches that are created, new species will always rise to fill them.

On the other hand, let's say that we don't kill ourselves off or force ourselves off the planet. This means that we must have found some way to cope with the damage that we've done, and found a way to live sustainably and in harmony with the rest of the planet. This means that nature (including humans) has already balanced itself, and all things have returned to a status quo. Will many species go extinct between now and that point? Yes, and unfortunately so. However, a wide range biodiversity is not required for the survival of the planet or for various organisms. Also remember that new species are always evolving as well, even if we can't see them (read: microorganisms, insects, and other out-of-sight creatures).

Parasitic relationships are but one inevitable part of the circle of life, and even those never last forever.  

[R i o k u]

Neon Proxy

And yes It is most likely That one event could wipe out the entire human race. Even if 99.99% of humans were to die, there would still be roughly 650,000 people left on earth to repopulate.

Where in the world did that number come from?

 

[Neon Proxy]

R i o k u

Neon Proxy

And yes It is most likely That no one event could wipe out the entire human race. Even if 99.99% of humans were to die, there would still be roughly 650,000 people left on earth to repopulate.

Where in the world did that number come from?

I just realized that i made an error in that post *Edits*
And as for the number...it's called a calculator hun.  

[R i o k u]

Neon Proxy

R i o k u

Neon Proxy

And yes It is most likely That no one event could wipe out the entire human race. Even if 99.99% of humans were to die, there would still be roughly 650,000 people left on earth to repopulate.

Where in the world did that number come from?

I just realized that i made an error in that post *Edits*
And as for the number...it's called a calculator hun.

Thanks;

And the name is Rioku.

 

[killerclownmeat]

I say If we go extinct, life will go on just as normal.Just look at the dinosaurs....they died and evolved/ became plant food.We're just a little part of this world and if we go, then we wont leave a dent in the "CIRLCE OF LIFE"<----go lion king  

[Bearorist]

I think human extinction would probably mean a catastrophe that most other species would die to as well, so no, human extinction benefits nothing.  

[Kachan36]

In the roughly 4.6 billion years since the formation of the Earth, there has been life on it for approximately 3.8 billion years. Humans first evolved about 5 million years ago. That's about one one-thousandth of 3.8 billion years. We've occupied the planet for about .1% of the time that life has occupied it.

In those nearly 4 billion years, life has gone from simple one-celled creatures, to multicellular, vertebrate species and later to mammals and primates, our closest relatives. And of all the species we know of, more than 90% are now extinct. That's how life remains on this planet, it evolves. We are selfish to even imagine that humans are somehow the intended end result of evolution. We will become extinct just like every other species that has come before us--most likely after a new species evolves from our genetic material.

In short, it is not only beneficial for the planet that humans eventually succumb to extinction, it is also necessary for the continuation of life on the planet.  

[Master Azrael Reaper]

Yaoi_miroku

well no. dogs and cats will go extinct as well since they survive off of food that is made through the labor of humans. a lot of others animals that live through similiar means of surivial will be extinct as well. humans also try to protect wildlife and such from going extinct. i do not know everything that would take effect if humans were to become extinct but i feel like a lot of bad effects will take place

Interesting topic by the way 3nodding smile

dogs and cats eat man made food because we domesticate them into it, but most have not yet lost their natural instincts entirly. if humans were gone, they would rehone those instincts and survive fine.
humans protect wildlife extenction because humans are the cause of many extinctions. we humans dominate over the natural order of things all over the world, always reshaping nature to better fit OUR needs.
essentially, i think that if we humans, the main parasites of the world, were to somehow die off, the world would still keep moving on, most likly for the better actually.
of course with human life covering so much of the world, any event that could completly annialate us would likly dammage the nature of the would rather dramatically.
the most likly cause would be the humans finally creating the worst most powerful types of nuclear bombs immaginable, world powers nuking each other til there is no one left, leaving nothing alive but cockroaches and the increadible hulk most of the worlds land would stay ungrowable for many many many years, and eventually the leftover dna of creatures would evolve and life would start anew.  

[Vakna]

locke317

Would it be benificial for the human race to go extinct? Not just from the human point of view, but from the point of view of the rest of the living creatures. Would it be good for the rest of the world if the human race went extinct?

Humans are making an effort to fix their collective mistakes, so, if they actually go through with solar energy, then they could clean up the Earth, and actually make it better than it was, much faster than the Earth herself could.

If not, then, ********. 'Cause nothin' short of a cataclysmic explosion, which would hurt everything else along with us, or a horrible disease would stop us now. Or nukes. (Fallout, hehe)


(Also, I didn't think of it, but the girl two posts up is right. Even if we don't nuke ourselves, get AIDs'd to death, or get killed by meteors or global warming, we'll still "die" through evolution into a, hopefully, more intelligent/strong/compassionate version of ourselves.)