I am glad you see things as getting better, and I very much agree that, in the absents of the rare huge catastrophic changes that can occur, change is slow. And yes, coins minted from pain, I fear will be the currency paid. Nicely put Shaun.Shaun__ said:I think things are slowly getting better. I may not live long enough to see it, but I have hope for a better future. The mistake a lot of people make is looking for magical instant solutions to problems. Real change takes time, and often comes with a price that can only be paid with coins minted from pain.
LadyLuna said:I love George Carlin as well.
And I actually have to agree with him on here. While we are ADAPTING, we are not EVOLOVING. Evolving means our genetics change. We haven't evolved much at all. Gotten bigger, yes, but that's about it. Certainly haven't gotten nicer.
LadyLuna said:But seriously, that's the only way we'd know for sure about the rest of the world. In an isolated population, yeah, it's easy to track that. But when there's a whole country to choose from, and so many of the people in the country are obese and/or retarded... The argument that those with more kids will influence the genes of the next generation holds true. But not all of that is due to natural selection when there are so many methods of birth control available that let a woman decide if and how many children she wants.
LadyLuna said:Can't argue with science!
Okay, so we're evolving towards healthier. Or at least, humans in part of the world are doing so. But those all point to isolated. I demand country-wide studies, spanning the next four generations! In every country!
Red7227 said:Earth will live on, but humanity may very well be fucked. In the near future, when the long delayed next ice age kicks in, 99% of the Earth's population will die, starting with those most dependent on technology to survive.
Shaun__ said:Red7227 said:Earth will live on, but humanity may very well be fucked. In the near future, when the long delayed next ice age kicks in, 99% of the Earth's population will die, starting with those most dependent on technology to survive.
All the smart people will just go south as the miles of glacial ice creeps towards them and live it up near the Equator.
Red7227 said:Shaun__ said:Red7227 said:Earth will live on, but humanity may very well be fucked. In the near future, when the long delayed next ice age kicks in, 99% of the Earth's population will die, starting with those most dependent on technology to survive.
All the smart people will just go south as the miles of glacial ice creeps towards them and live it up near the Equator.
Won't matter, you can't fit 6 billion people on the equator, and the people already there are more than capable of hanging on to their territory. Also, the ice ages come on fast (a matter of decades) and the possibility of a volcano instantly blotting out the sun for a decade is just as likely. It has all happened before, and no species has ever been as vulnerable ad humans are now.
I'm a little confused about the first line above. The sentiment is clear, but I do not see how it is relevant to anything in the OP. Carlin was clearly expressing his opinion. The only fact that he seemed to be expressing, was, that he had no hope for the continued existence of the human race. You may feel what he said to be obnoxiously offensive bullshit, but it is the rest of that line that has me confused.Rosemary said:I get angry too when I see and hear people say the most obnoxiously offensive bullshit and try to pass it off as fact, but that's life.
I am actually excited for the future! We are on the edge of a golden age. Technology and medicine is where I sit my cushy little ass and holler about progress. We are growing functional organs in labs, cures for all types of diseases are being discovered constantly, growing food in labs, machines that can easily produce fresh water, and don't even get me started on what Ivy Bridge is bringing to the table, crime rates and teen pregnancies are going down, etc. I mean, fuck, if this isn't progress in the 'right' direction (which when I need a new heart I will be thanking the stars we don't live in the 60's), then fuck you. I want to live forever and play in virtual reality and ride a goddamn dinosaur. I really don't care if no one likes it, but don't get in my fucking way.
camstory said:Two:It is very often forgotten that evolution has no obligation to produce traits/mutations in any given direction on our scale of what we believe to be positive vs negative. That is, it is just as likely that we will evolve in ways that we now would believe to be negative, as we are to evolve in ways which we now feel to be positive.
:banana-stoner: :happy-cheerleadersmileyguy: :techie-hourglass: :dance: :text-goodpost: :hello1: :banana-dreads: :happy-cheerleadersmileygirl: When I found this Carlin clip I caught myself thinking, 'Yeah he's got it right', and my fear is, that he has. I thought about that a little, and realized I wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet. I am an old man, and I have lived my life at full throttle with the restrictor plates off. There's a twelve foot tall rabbit somewhere with my right foot on his keychain b/c he thinks he'l have better luck with it than I did. I am not the super optimist I once was, but adopting the mindset of a pessimist never has made sense to me.VeronicaChaos said:I think we live in a very exciting time, I wouldn't chose any other time in history. It's our responsibility to make this world the best we can. By saying "oh, the hell with it, it's all fucked, nothing I can do!" we're giving up. Neglecting our responsibilities as members of society....
You don't have to agree with what he says to understand what he's talking about. We have to identify the bullshit to get rid of it.
VeronicaChaos said:Thanks camstory! Yaay my rambling made contact! As much as I love love love George Carlin, I prefer Bill Hick's outlook on life:
I think you might be referring to thisRosemary said:I promised myself I wouldn't get into any heavy, time-consuming, and awesome debates, but I kind of broke my own rule here :\
Forgive me,
, but I am going to let this one go!
I understand that the course of natural selection is one of positive development. My statement was incorrect to the extent it suggest otherwise. I should have simply said that we can not count on genetic adaptation to keep us out of trouble.Two:It is very often forgotten that evolution has no obligation to produce traits/mutations in any given direction on our scale of what we believe to be positive vs negative. That is, it is just as likely that we will evolve in ways that we now would believe to be negative, as we are to evolve in ways which we now feel to be positive.
LadyLuna said:Can't argue with science!
Okay, so we're evolving towards healthier. Or at least, humans in part of the world are doing so. But those all point to isolated. I demand country-wide studies, spanning the next four generations! In every country!
But seriously, that's the only way we'd know for sure about the rest of the world. In an isolated population, yeah, it's easy to track that. But when there's a whole country to choose from, and so many of the people in the country are obese and/or retarded... The argument that those with more kids will influence the genes of the next generation holds true. But not all of that is due to natural selection when there are so many methods of birth control available that let a woman decide if and how many children she wants.
I understand completely. I very much was not wishing to draw you into a debate. To do so for myself about bio/life sciences would not be unlike a one leg man entering an ass kicking contest. :-DRosemary said:Er, I was going to just PM you Camstory but I don't know if everyone else feels same way as you, so I'll just post it here :lol:
The only reason I am using the pull-out method is because this particular debate is going to be incredibly time consuming (and I've done it about 5 times already on other, more science-oriented forums/articles, lol!). That's all! No hard feelings or anything, I promise