Mankind

This is a little something to ponder that I had posted in another group.

Since it's beginning the earth's physical and atmospheric makeup has been in a constant state of evolution. There have been ice ages and periods of warming, as well periods of higher and/or lower oxygen content. There have been volcano's and earthquakes(far exceeding anything we experience today),as well asteroids impacting the earth, and this all has served to change earths makeup allowing for the existence of differing life forms, and when they have reached their potential, send them into extinction, paving the way for a species more suitable for the changing environment. What we have over looked is that the earth itself has a lifespan, does that mean the end of mankind as we know it ,opening the door for a more advanced species? Is earth just a starting point for the human race, is man's future out amongst the stars living in self sustainable colonies??? According to a study published in September, the earth can support life for another 1.75 billion years providing nuclear holocaust, an asteroid ,or some other disaster doesn't intervene. Stephen Hawkins(a noted theoretical physicist) said in a a lecture on black holes for BBC such a disaster is imminent ,that it is but a matter of time and we must tread lightly for it will be at least a hundred years before we have advanced to such capabilities technologically. Even if there appears no disasters the earth will in the next 1.75 -3.25 billion years travel out of the solar systems habitable zone into the hot zone. Is colonizing space the first stage to extinction of mankind as we know it, allowing for a human species more suitable for life amongst the cosmos???

Your views please........

Re: Mankind

Civilization is much older than we think and much older than scientist have predicted. Thus humans may have walked amongst dinosaurs and experienced ice ages and floods and here we all are still kicking butt. For sure in the future we will suffer somesort of catastrophe and for sure as a species will carry on and survive

Re: Mankind

Tis so funny how the resiliency of the human species is so overlooked, but I do realized tis largely to a belief in a Deity and the Deities perceived control of the species life. Taking into account the species day to day decisions on his/her direction in life, completely disputes the theory of a Deities intervention. This is not to imply a Deity does not exist, just that man was designed in such a manner physically and intellectually to pave his/her own destiny . The species potential is endless and his evolution(physically and intellectually) throughout the species existence only stems to support my theory.

Re: Mankind

I can't help thinking we will kill ourselves off with no help from anyone else before long and the world will carry on without us in a far healthier way.

Re: Mankind

Unless the sun goes supernova, or Yellowstone Park erupts, or we destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons.

Before we,

Invent faster than light space travel,

Find a habitual planet,

Build a large enough fleet to transport a viable colony,

Get there and start the process all over again.

We may have a chance. But do we deserve it ?

Re: Mankind

The Earth has a lifespan? Really?

This may just be an exercise in terminology. The Earth is pretty much a closed system. There are a finite number of atoms and those atoms are being constantly changed into different forms/elements in the chaotic conditions.

When you say the Earth has a finite lifespan what is probably meant is that the Earth in its current form has a lifespan, just like humans have a lifespan in that specific form. It is not going anywhere, it's atoms will always be here, but they may end up in a different form.

If enough of those atoms are Hydrogen and Oxygen bonded together as water, and if the sun keeps providing its gentle warmth, then the conditions for life will always be here.

Humans, imo, are not evolved from this Earth. The true "mankind" life form of this planet were the Neanderthals but I believe they were overtaken, overrun by a foreign life form that was seeded on this planet by others. We are the aliens here.

The scenario of a planetary catastrophe occurring and a race of people fleeing to the stars has already happened. That race fled from Mars to Earth a long long time ago, leaving behind their cities and rivers and pyramids for all to see.
The colonisation of Earth took place about 17,000 years ago imo and is recorded in the Masonic tracing boards together with the whole story regarding the star system in the vicinity of Pleiades.

Humans have lost the knowledge of their origins and ancestry and instead have been fed a load of absolute cobblers. We don't belong here, which is why everything we do is not in harmony with Nature. As the film The Matrix suggests, we are a virus, a plague that spreads across the planet, ransacking its resources until they are gone, and then moving on to the next area to rinse and repeat. In the end, Nature will deal with us. Nature will outlast us by many trillions of years.

Re: Mankind

The Earth will cease to exist with the warming and expanding of the sun as its nuclear reactions slow towards the end of its life. That is if you assume it survives anything else which could happen in the meantime, such as asteroid impact or other astronomical event which could destroy the Earth - or destroy it sufficiently to make it uninhabitable.

There is no question that one day, the Earth will cease to exist.

Atoms don't suddenly change, that requires energies of Supernova proportions. Pretty much the entire Periodic Table consist of elements which were (and could only be) the product of stellar explosions. The fusion of just Hydrogen to Helium produces energy to drive the sun. You can't have nuclear fusion beyond Iron - for that you need a sun to explode.

Water is essential for life, but it is not its sole component. It requires Hydrocarbons and Amino Acids to form life and create the complex chains of DNA. Just because you have water in an environment does not automatically mean its habitable.

As for the nonsense about aliens from Mars...written by someone who wants to sell bad science fiction books. Sorry - there is no evidence.

Re: Mankind

That is all well and good, evolution is ok, provided you don't forget the Fun in Fundamental along the way.

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Looking around at most of the humans I see, they should have been terminated at birth. Finding a more advanced species surely will not be difficult

Re: Mankind

I'm with Realist a fair way on this: everything is linked to everything else. We have been given such an amazing life force and yet take it all for granted. It doesn't really matter much to me what the human race will eventually morph in to or where we might travel to. Barring a total wipe out in the next hundred years we could exist as a species for who knows how long. I'm rather more concerned how I will behave and change in the time I have left, thereby exhibiting one of the main failings of the human race - selfishness (or a instinctual survival mechanism?). 'To boldly go to where no man has gone before' - and to wreck the f****** place .