The End

[oneirophrenia]

I really want to see Al Gore's end-of-the-world movie...but, honestly, I don't give a damn about global warming.

Why's that? you ask. Ain't you all about preserving the environment and all the awesome species in it?

Well, yeah--I am. With some caveats.

1) Life is not going to vanish from the planet due to our hamfisted human presence. Remember: this planet is usually a LOT warmer than it currently is. We're still recovering from an Ice Age. Rapid climate-change is not going to bake the world or scour it clean of life. Did the K-T Event wipe out all life on the planet? No. It wiped out a LOT, but...well, here we are. The planet will cope. (Unless we unleash a nanoplague that converts all carbon to diamond or something like that, but that's a whole different issue--I'm only dealing with climate here.)

2) Sure, our speeding-up of global temperature recalibration after the last Ice Age is going to result in some severe weather. Good. Maybe it'll thin the herds a little.

3) Hopefully, the planet will become so climatically destabilized that the only way for humanity to properly cope will be to convert to a nonbiological existence. Basically, humans don't have any reason to evolve further now--we're too snug and comfy as is. Only a handful of geeks like me want to abandon the wretched organic now...but imagine what the sweltering latter half of this century will be like to the remaining organic humans? Definitely not comfy, probably no fun. Evolutionary pressure will once again be exerted on our moribund species. Fortunately, though, we have the techniques and the scientific knowledge now to start guiding our own evolution. Myself, I favor going postbiological, and I will be one of the first to step up and lose this horrible, failing, worthless meat-sack I'm stuck in now. But other folks may want to stick it out by altering themselves to fit the climate better. Hey, more power to you! Diversity is a good thing. Speciation is a good thing. Maybe a global climate "catastrophe" is what we need to keep us--and the entire planet--marching forward.

And just remember, folks: robots don't give a shit if the planet's a tropical hotbox or a frozen, glacier-haunted wastelands, as long as their processor cores are kept reasonably cool. :)

Comments

[oneirophrenia.livejournal.com]

Not at all. Those idiots think that their salvation is guaranteed. I, on the other hand, see environmental change as an evolutionary pressure that will force us to consider possibilities. We may very well fail at it. But I find that highly doubtful by this point: humans are remarkably adaptable even in our "natural," nontechnological state, let alone with the assistance of all the devices we've created to augment our natural abilities.

[oneirophrenia.livejournal.com]

Nothing I can do about it. The only thing I potentially could do is stop using my car. Yeah, right. Where I live, the concept of public transportation is nonexistent. Besides...global warming is a problem that can ONLY be addressed on the level of entire nations--or, better yet, by humanity in general. Our planetary civilization as a whole is causing the upswing in temperatures: if one of two nations, or even large-scale conglomerates like the US and the EU eliminate all greenhouse-gas producers, what about the rest of the world which either: A) doesn't realize there's a problem in the first place; or B) doesn't give a shit? (Incidentally, I include the US in B.) And the planet's just heating up again on its own, as it's still coming out of an Ice Age. NOTHING can stop global warning, or, quite frankly, even slow it down. What we, as a species, are going to be faced with is simple: adapting to or dealing with our changing environment. But that's a situation that has to be dealt with on a planetary level.

Another Example of the Infinite Justice of Allah

[moebinkerman.livejournal.com]

Actually I think if real weather changes occur that are sever enough to make humans want to try implants or somekind of cybernetics or robotics, I think it would cause so many economic problems that there wouldn't be anyone with enough money and resources to do the science needed to actually implement it.

Basically once the shit starts hitting the fan, there isn't time enough to make a change that would do allow the cyborgs or robots to become viable. In the end most survivors would be people near the equators, and probably they'd be religious nuts. I think if society crashes then in the chaos, individualists loose out. Some group motivated by some psychotic religion would tend to eek out a survival, and force others to their will.

My thinking is that actual anarchy always ends with some redneck with a shotgun and no compunction about using it takes over the neighborhood. Whatever that redneck says would pretty much be law. And most rednecks don't appreciate any damm sombitch who's trying evolve us, party because change scares them and besides he was taught in school intelligent design is a valid theory better than what them fools who think we evolved from goddammed monkeys say!