Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
The irreconcilable acceptance of near-term extinction (guymcpherson.com)
5 points by sirteno on Aug 24, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments



I'm clearly not the audience for this, as I think the case for near-term extinction of the human race is far from obvious or even likely.

Author sounds like an extrapolating drama queen. Humanity adapts, as does life.


A quote: "I have absolutely no interest in attempting to persuade anyone of this conjecture being either true or false."

Be that as it may, you may want to think about how people respond to a rational appraisal of our present circumstances. Remember that evolution and natural selection are at work in the modern world, in human society. So, given that, your audience can be segmented into two groups:

* First, those who are intelligent, compassionate and responsible enough to take remedial action, i.e. stop having children. What? You thought there was some other solution to the looming environmental catastrophe? There isn't -- the relentless mathematics of population increase cannot be bargained with or ignored.

* Second, those who are not intelligent, compassionate or responsible enough will more than make up for the actions of the above class of people by creating the entire future human species. The result is that, as things on Planet Earth get worse, the intelligence and perceptiveness of the survivors will continue to fall.

The above is the simple version of present reality, but it cannot be used to rationalize eugenic or racist policies. We're all in this together and the problem is not which children, it's the fact that there are too many people -- of all kinds -- having children without thinking.

We're victims of our own biological success, and it appears nature has a sick sense of humor.


very felicitous summary of what i think about mankinds exponential growth in population. sad but true story.

there is a movie addressing this topic, which is called "idiocrazy". it's the funny version of a sad truth.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: