[ucosty]

Having mulled over this idea myself, I thought I'd share it.

If Peak Oil will leave such a drastic mark on society and humanity at large that what we have now, in terms of technological and social progress, represents the peak of our species what is the point in continuing to exist.

Is there any point in self-perpetuation when every generation will degenerate further and futher from our ideals.

Thus, knowing this, would you rather see the world fight it out once an d for all and be completely consumed with an all out resource war (nuclear preferably) or would you rather witness humanity degenerate endlessly?

I really hate the idea that the best we will ever accomplish has already been done, that now we are spent.

[ucosty]

Perhaps badly worded, but in terms of capability for accomplishment, is it worth perpetuating downwards and backwards? What if society stagnates and breaks down without moving forwards? What if our future is nothing more than a mirror image of our past, where people begin to disassemble the world, followed by two world wars and a descent through the tech tree until we aren't even human any more? What is the point if we are destined to become slightly intelligent monkey-like creatures living sparesly on a planet we will know nothing about. What happens when we loose our knowledge and our ability to regain it?

I'm not suggesting that all our progress and technology and archievements have been enjoyed by everyone. I also know that many on this forum harbour a longing for a kind of primal freedom that can only be had in their minds.

[Pops]

"What if" comprises a fairly large range of possibilities.

Perhaps it might be worth a laugh trying to instigate an outcome completely opposite those you are proposing.

Just a thought…

Quit if you like, but I would suggest consulting a professional before you decide to end it all on a personal level - a message board is not the place to decide where your family tree should end.


BTW, the "Point" is to see your children grow - try it; it's pretty cool.

[ucosty]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Quit if you like, but I would suggest consulting a professional before you decide to end it all on a personal level - a message board is not the place to decide where your family tree should end.

[Grifter]

SO you’re not thinking of ending it ucosty. That’s good. You’ve got to fight the fight.

For anyone reading this that is thinking of ending it all, please think of visiting a family of someone who has commited suicide, especially if it was a young person. I have experience of this first hand. It destroys many people left behind. Never to recover emotionally. For those people it is worse than death.

It is IMO, a truly hateful thing to do. This guy was my friend, and it feels strange to speak ill of him. It affected everybody who knew him. His father is a broken man. Still to this day. It happened about 14 years ago.

Edit: Oh I see I missed the point. Man I'm trigger happy.

[ucosty]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grifter', 'S')O you’re not thinking of ending it ucosty. That’s good. You’ve got to fight the fight.

For anyone reading this that is thinking of ending it all, please think of visiting a family of someone who has commited suicide, especially if it was a young person. I have experience of this first hand. It destroys many people left behind. Never to recover emotionally. For those people it is worse than death.

It is IMO, a truly hateful thing to do. This guy was my friend, and it feels strange to speak ill of him. It affected everybody who knew him. His father is a broken man. Still to this day. It happened about 14 years ago.

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grifter', 'S')O you’re not thinking of ending it ucosty. That’s good. You’ve got to fight the fight.

For anyone reading this that is thinking of ending it all, please think of visiting a family of someone who has commited suicide, especially if it was a young person. I have experience of this first hand. It destroys many people left behind. Never to recover emotionally. For those people it is worse than death.

It is IMO, a truly hateful thing to do. This guy was my friend, and it feels strange to speak ill of him. It affected everybody who knew him. His father is a broken man. Still to this day. It happened about 14 years ago.

Edit: Oh I see I missed the point. Man I'm trigger happy.

[UncoveringTruths]

Was humanity serving any purpose before extracting oil?

[Grifter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayame', '
')Not to be disrespectful or to downplay the pain caused by such an event in any way but what kind of state of mind do you think someone who takes such a step is in? Maybe they are in such turmoil and pain themselves that they can't even think of others? Also if such an event was truly 'worse than death' for everyone left behind how is it that they haven't followed suit?

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ucosty', '
')Is there any point in self-perpetuation when every generation will degenerate further and futher from our ideals.

Thus, knowing this, would you rather see the world fight it out once an d for all and be completely consumed with an all out resource war (nuclear preferably) or would you rather witness humanity degenerate endlessly?

I really hate the idea that the best we will ever accomplish has already been done, that now we are spent.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ucosty', '
')...?
What kind of professional do you mean anyway, pops? I assure you that I am not a depressed person.

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UncoveringTruths', 'W')as humanity serving any purpose before extracting oil?

[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grifter', 'S')orry to continue the off topicness. To offer something to the threads new meaning, the purpose is enlightenment.

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('albente', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grifter', 'S')orry to continue the off topicness. To offer something to the threads new meaning, the purpose is enlightenment.

[aldente]

The interesting part is that Terrence McKenna also talks about 'the end of history' in Timewave Zero (not to be confused with with Francis Fukuyamas End of History).

In this concept he argues that if an artificial intelligence (i.e. the electronic one that we currently develop) would be capable of sending a message into the future, then the linear build up towards an anticipated 'end', would not be the single determinating factor any longer of how we percieve our future, instead 'time' as we define it would be a rather obsolete model.

After all, PO awareness is sort of a credit which allows a clearer projection of what the near future holds (at least in the conventional view), nothing more, nothing less. Or how would your live be different had you never heard of PO?

The larger picture still has to be looked for somewhere else.

[ucosty]

I had pretty much forgotten about this thread (shows you how much dedication I have for online discussion). I don't even know what I was talking about. I guess thats what happens when you post early in the morning when the only thing keeping you awake is copious amounts of caffeine.

I still think you are all taking a far too superficial look at what exist nowdays. There is much work to be done and thats exactly the point I was trying to make. What will our progeny be in 300 years time?

I think I have come to understand why we are like we are. People work best under stress and pressure. All the really big things came about during periods of distress. Thats why it was our ancestors that built the infrastructure that we take for granted. The railways and the power grid, all falling apart because of the lack of maintenance. People only work when collectively when we can see an objective or goal that drives us to it.

After all, what is the point of being sustainable? To give our children and theirs the opportunity to have children? What for, if the only thing they will ever do is perpetuate the human species endlessly without even knowing why.

Conservation, powerdown and such are fine survival mechanisms but taken too far and we'll give up any hope of becoming anything. Will the furthest humans have ever gone in space be the moon?

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ucosty', 'A')fter all, what is the point of being sustainable? To give our children and theirs the opportunity to have children? What for, if the only thing they will ever do is perpetuate the human species endlessly without even knowing why.

[billg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ucosty', '
')After all, what is the point of being sustainable? To give our children and theirs the opportunity to have children? What for, if the only thing they will ever do is perpetuate the human species endlessly without even knowing why.

[ucosty]

But that is what we are. People of the material. I am made of matter assembled and biologically attributed function to allow me to live.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hat's a very materialistic way of viewing the human project. The human spirit has no limitations...the real journey is the journey of the soul. The fact that we have traveled to the moon says very little about our maturity and spirituality as a species.

[billg]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ucosty', 'B')ut further still think of how much we have to learn about our environment. Every generation knows more about the physical makeup of the universe than the previous. Do you consider this to be a waste of time?