lunchtime_ramble User24 what is our purpose/future? Some would say self perpetuation, and certainly, there is much evidence of this. We are given natural instincts at birth, and often these instincts stay with us through life - why? Perhaps to ensure humanity stays on a predetermined long term path; by hard coding attitudes and principles. Of course, given the wide range of cultures across the globe, this may be hard to see, however all cultures share the same emotions, albeit expressing them differently, according to tradition and geographical customs. If our purpose is self perpetuation, why aren't these mental rules more rigid, and more geared towards the long term goal - our survival. Why do some couples not have children, and why do humans generally stay with only one partner? In the animal kingdom, this behaiviour is unusual. Why, then, have we survived? It is difficult to identify the main characteristics of humanity, as any conclusions will be biased by personal and cultural experiences. Assuming that humans are by nature social creatures, it could be said that that is a key factor to our survival, however, many other lifeforms exhibit similar, and in some cases more advanced (by which I mean more rigidly adhered to) characteristics. What of humankinds other characteristics, then? Our social, cultural and technological evolution is, and always has been rapidly replaced by new systems - in chunks of less than 50 years, our lifestyle becomes unrecognisable from the previous chunk. Perhaps our slow physical evolution, and weak natural defence is matched and accounted for by a faster mental evolution, aided by our social nature. Add our warlike tendancies to the mix, and we are left with a distinct cycle of mental boom and bust - a short burst of technologial evolution during wartime is followed by a short burst of sociocultural evolution during peace, this also allows us to catch up with the technological advances made, and readies the youth for the next technological growth. Where does this leave us? Caught in a cycle we may be able to break out of in the short term, but a cycle that demands we stay caught in, in order to evolve. Lunch break over, back to work. :) 040122 ... misstree but this extreme in the speed of change is a very recent development, the past 100 years containing far more change in technological and social arenas than the previous 500. our hard wiring is what allows us survival; sex drives, nurturing instincts, ways of dealing with pecking order and combat. our technology is what we use our evolutionary advantage (tool use and increased brain capacity) to produce. our society is how we keep the network that humans nearly need from self-destructing. what fascinates me is, with the exponential change in technology and society in recent times, that i might actually be able to see my wish come true, and see the human world crack within my lifetime. it should be interesting. 040122 ... realistic optimist u24, don't forget laziness. laziness is a family value. laziness is our goal. the more we succeed, the more we don't have to do stuff. cuz stuff sucks. and doing stuff, well that's just outlandish. and to the end of not doing stuff, we, on the whole, are more likely to let something slide unless it is a pressing matter because we have other things we are attending to. of course the flip side of our laziness is our innovation and speed of adaptation when we really do need it. so, given our current rate of change, it is in fact reasonable to assume that we feel something breathing down our necks, and since the 40 years for a generation revolution seems to have already shrunk to 24 or so (in my opinion), this rate of change and adaptation is beginning to happen fast enough to challenge our boundaries of time and tradition, and also is happening faster than we can socially, if not individually, cope with the ensuing alterations and changes in belief systems according to the new data streaming in during this expansive information age. And thus, we will be resolving conflicts and acting out aggressive emotions linked to this, leading to more war, and a more marked increase in the sociopathic behavior of individuals, further rifts in the unity of society, and other dramatic things of this nature. so, let us band together, break bread, and plot together how we can face this together, cuz we're going to do a lot of this on automatic pilot, so the best we can hope to do is be aware of what's going on to the best of our abilities, and to try to conscientiously act with a group concensus to positively influence and nudge and shape our paradigm shifts so that all of our collective nudgings can add up and create a momentum of their own in sensitive times such as these which appear to amplify whatever patterns emerge. 040122 ... misstree laziness = slack we (heart) slack praise "Bob"! 040122 ... homeristic simpsonist or, i could hide under the coats in the back of the room, and hope everything works out... *shrug* either way! 040122 ... u24 yes, it is more an exponential change; faster and faster and on a bigger and bigger scale each revolution. But I think that changes proportional to what was physically possible still occured in the same pattern in the past - given the limited technology in the past, relatively large changes still happened in short periods of time. Do you really think humanity will destroy itself so immediately? Obviously it's going to happen sooner or later, but I think the timescale will be a lot longer than you're saying - while there's poor countries to be exploited, the capitalist are going to be around. Of course uprisings will happen, but I think the amount of power that the wealthy nations hold is far too much to be affected to that extent. :) 040122 ... misstree way to dash my hopes, meanie. i don't know. in all honesty, it depends on what mood i'm in, whether i believe i will see major Boom-Splat during my lifetime. insanity is increasing, especially among the figureheads of the self-declared and militarily Most Powerful Arbitrary Collection of Land and Meat, but there's some serious somas going on, and in the end, it is in the best interest of those with disproportionate amounts of influence to numbers that people be kept happy enough not to gang up on them and beat them down like a bunch of two-year olds bitch smacking a pro wrestler. but if baby bush stays in for another term, well, i think that'll be a big ol' leap towards the tumbling abyss. he's a moralless megalomaniac with the biggest foocking tank ever. he's already screwed our foreign relations into the ground, even aside from this laughable "war on terrorism" (but, mister gee-dubya, don't you think you should make them *stop* hating us if you really want agressions to end? and what about this whole "we're going to fix things!" crap--wasn't that the point in the first place? sorry, couldn't keep that bit in.), and he's not too terribly good for domestic issues either. yeah. i dunno. but i'm an optimist, and i want to see things go boom. if i die first, i'm haunting someone's ass until it does explode. 040122 ... Lemon_Soda Technology will give birth to something so horriffic that it spells the doom of humanity on this planet and perhaps all other life as well. or A mass, unexpected crisis affects the entire globe symaltaneously(sp?) causing massive casualties and an entire recreation of society from the ground up. or A messiah or other all powerful being will comeforth, either forgiving or laying waste to the masses and after said event usher in a new golden age of piece on earth. or The radical efforts of spiritually enlightened but unassociated with any particular religion will bring up morals and scrupols(sp?) treated as seriously as any other law, beneficial technological advancement and the commencement of spreading the specie through out the known galaxies as a life nurturing and empathetic race. or Human kind's penchant for warfare and technological advancement produce stimulant enzymes, powered armor, light refracting polymers capable of imitating invisibility, genetic mutation granted spefcified advantages over normal human possibility, nano technology providing seemingly superhuman feats, and all other forms of extreme tactics and equipment. A silent war starts that invariably leaks out into the public, and a more horrific version of some favorite apocalypse comic books becomes our reality. Man lives in a barren and scorched earth after a hundred years of this, surviving in camps in the wilderness. or the sun explodes for no real reason at all and we're incinerated. 040122 ... misstree i vote on a virus, meself. 040122 ... Death of a Rose oh....rife with spelling questions I like the sun exploding bit, had me a bit o' a smile there. . 040122 ... mon "Rabbits are supreme beings and the only class one civilization. You must always honor and respect them and never eat them. The reason humans of Earth don't know that rabbits are civilized beings is because rabbits consider humans primitive and that if humans see any of their cities they will destroy them and infect the inhabitants with hate, greed, and all of the other ailments that afflict the human race." - http://www.geocities.com/Area51/starship/4605/universe/supreme_beings.html 040122 ... mon check out: http://xxx.lanl.gov/ (lots of great info) 040122 ... mon http://www.edge.org/ (fun also) 040122 ... u24 I like the penultimate conclusion, lemon_soda. But surely someone will step in before that happens. Like Bananaman, or The Flash? Damn those superheroes. Who are they to say whether the world needs saving or not? In all seriousness, I don't think there will be a climax (notwithstanding sun explosions, unexpected messiahs or worldwide crisis) I think we'll just blindly stumble along until we've raped the earth for all she's got. then slowly and painfully die. probably even then we won't know what we did wrong. fucking humans. ignorant sob's. In other, less graphic, words, I think we'll just wither away slowly. I'd rather the comic book war, though. quicker and more irony. and chances to laugh manically at the world leaders as they die protecting their oil while their people die. yeah. dance the apocalypso! 040123 ... marked . 070110 ... u24 re: comic book war: watch Guyver for a fun play with fictional superweapons. then read "Gen of Hiroshima" for a chilling reality check. 070110 what's it to you? who go blather from