Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Fuzzy_

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The moment the last human dies, Earth stops being 'good' or 'bad' because those are human concepts. So with no humans left to judge the quality of Earth, the whole point of this project is moot (and intellectually infantile).

It's just an idea, brah.

This type of poorly thought-out environmentalism is really just the best example of human arrogance and anthropocentrism. The Earth has been changing for billions of years, with or without us. Now humans decided that Earth is supposed to be the way it was when WE first evolved and we need to do everythign in our power to turn it back into that?

What is truly arrogant is speciesism: the idea that humans have the right to decide what is best for all animals -- human or otherwise. Our phylogenetic evolution has granted us this power to control our environment, but our ontogenetic evolution grants us the ability to control this power based on moral judgements. We can simply decide to stop destroying other animals in order to make our lives more comfortable. Fuzzy gets your point about evolution: humans are as natural as any other animal, but are we more entitled to live? Is preserving the Earth's natural resources and wildlife really a useless, sentimental value or does it actually benefit us?

One of the arguments in this thread is that, from an anthropocentrist perspective, we've ruined the Earth. From a Biblical perspective, we're the shepherds of the Earth and have a responsibility to govern it well. From an ethical perspective, one could argue that the intrinsic value of the Earth is collectively higher than the intrinsic value of humans. From a moral perspective, to quote Stan Lee: "with great power comes great responsibility."

Your change-is-natural argument is ironic. Humans have been mostly shells until very recently -- objects created by a well-developed structure of complex molecules. DNA created our bodies and our minds, and we were improved through selection to be better DNA propagators. We have since turned the tables, and now we can manipulate our DNA. Cybernetics has been around since Plato, through democracy, but will take on an even bigger role in our emerging technocracy. Just as DNA created us, only to be subverted by us, so will the intelligent objects we've created subvert us and inherit the Earth. Fuzzy won't be around to see it happen, but still loves the irony.
 

aninnymouse

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Heaving read about the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement before, I'm not sure that they really think that this will happen.

It's sort of like religion is supposed to work, like an Idealism. I think the idea is that we try to not pass on our DNA, we try to minimize our use of everything, and our impact on the planet.

Not everyone is going to, so not everyone is going to die, or go extinct. It also enumerates many things that one can do to ease the burden on the environment.

The problem is, there ARE too many people for the planet, and the limited resources, and said resources are very poorly distributed.

It's the snowball effect, like wankstaboi mentioned. People are living longer, due to advances in medical care, infant mortality is less, Technology has enabled people to live in harsher environments, and all of that has led to a massive increase in people.

However, the environment is trashed, there's all sorts of chemicals in the water and atmosphere. There are several gigantic garbage zones in each of the world's oceans, and in many places, virtually all the seabirds have some plastic in their stomachs.

Sustainable production is almost non existent, and many things that are either produced green, or gown organically are outrageously expensive. $20 per pound of Grass fed, organic Beef? Hell NO! And why should it be $20 per pound? I dont' get that.

Basically, we need to rethink our role in this planet, and what we are doing for the future, because, quite frankly, in 100 years, this world may not be here.
 

Fuzzy_

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Michio Kaku: The von Neumann Probe (A Nano Ship to the Stars)

"Realize that a very small tabletop accelerator can accelerate electrons to near the speed of light, so it wouldn't take much for us to accelerate nano molecules to very, very fast velocities near the speed of light using electric fields. Now these probes would be different from ordinary probes. They would be nanobots. They would have the ability to land on a hostile terrain and create a factory just like a virus. That's what viruses do. They replicate. One virus can create maybe a thousand copies, then a thousand, thousand copies and then a million, billion, trillion and all of the sudden you have trillions of these things propagating through outer space. And how would you do it? One possibility is to use the field, magnetic fields around Jupiter. Calculations have shown that you can whip around Jupiter using what is called the Faraday Effect to whip particles to perhaps near the speed of light."
 
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Michio Kaku: The von Neumann Probe (A Nano Ship to the Stars)

"Realize that a very small tabletop accelerator can accelerate electrons to near the speed of light, so it wouldn't take much for us to accelerate nano molecules to very, very fast velocities near the speed of light using electric fields. Now these probes would be different from ordinary probes. They would be nanobots. They would have the ability to land on a hostile terrain and create a factory just like a virus. That's what viruses do. They replicate. One virus can create maybe a thousand copies, then a thousand, thousand copies and then a million, billion, trillion and all of the sudden you have trillions of these things propagating through outer space. And how would you do it? One possibility is to use the field, magnetic fields around Jupiter. Calculations have shown that you can whip around Jupiter using what is called the Faraday Effect to whip particles to perhaps near the speed of light."

Yup, magnets. Can't be done without magnets. Amazing things, without them not much mechanical would move.

New invention... Magnaray. Everyone, strap on your steel helmets, a circling large magnetic satellite will pull you all off the surface of the Earth into the vacuum of space. Clean, quick, with no harm to the planet.
 
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"Guided by love"? Really? I think it sounds incredibly pessimistic, obsessive and depressive. Dooms-day scenarios never enthrall me. And frankly, I think you sound depressed. Call me.
I have to say, I absolutely agree. What a load of defeatist bollocks.

'We can't solve earth's problems, so let's not even bother trying and give up immediately.'

Personally, I can't wait to pass on my DNA - and afterwards teach my offspring how to cherish the earth, and help to make it a better place for people and animals to live in. :smile: So there.
 

Drifterwood

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I do not hate humanity, like other posters here, but I do think that our extinction will probably not be voluntary and in the meantime our stupidity may make you wonder about the justice of living.
 

rbkwp

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I do hate humanity

for the way we have mistreated each other, probably how we have treated and abused ourselves over the years, and when the demise of Humanity happens, be well deserved .. in my books, by my reckoning ..
as to when .. who knows .. and if never, well all power to the successive Generations.
 

tbrguy

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