Will Humans Ever Become Extinct?
Since 97% of species that ever existed no longer exist, stats are not in our favor. On the other hand not all species are of equal importance. Then there is the religious mind-set of many humans that God has given us control over all other species and the environment. Given the advanced pace of scientific manipulation of genes one could argue that soon new humans will be custom created in the laboratory and the ‘chance’ aspect of birth will be eliminated. Maybe not for everyone. but at least for those who can afford it. The poor will reproduce like rabbits and the wealthy will be satisfied with one or two genetic recombination upscale models of humanhood.
I suppose the above human manipulation to improve our own species might be the next stage in the evolutionary process. But observing the kind of issues that prevail in elections and some aspects of human behavior which are entrenched right now in our own genetic genome, recombination genetics seems futile, maybe even reckless. So what follows is in no way prophetic. There has never been any time in the evolutionary process which was predictable. Of course humans weren’t in existence for almost all of the past. Whatever which way we view matters, the existence of humans and their advanced intelligence certainly adds a whole new factor to the evolutionary process.
To an amazing degree humans have altered life on our planet over a relatively short period of evolutionary time. What does this all mean? Everything which follows is based on my own belief that the evolutionary process is controlled by the laws created by God to run this process. The notion that humans will actually themselves assume control over the future is interesting, but my own sense dictates this is an illusionary self serving notion along the lines of human creation of religious sects purported to open up avenues of communication directly between God and the followers of these varied religious sects. It is just hard to logically suggest that we are God’s favorite species. We are, for instance, smarter than our pets and yet we often treasure them to the same extent, if not in the same way, as our own family members. We don’t love our pets less simply because they are not as smart or advanced. One could argue that humans have become too “smart” for us to survive as a species.
In this musing the goal is to identify human specie weaknesses in our current state of our existence. There is no doubt humans have grown bigger, stronger, more intelligent, and created an amazing variety of machines and gadgets to make living more comfortable. At least for some. Right now humans can be roughly divided into those who live comfortably in this newer best of all possible worlds, while the other half live in the ‘worst of all possible worlds’ relatively speaking. That, in and of itself, is troubling about human ability to generate a better world for our own species. Will the laws of nature give way to this kind of self serving control of the future? Our behavior as a species is the problem, not our physiology or anatomy. But behaviors can evolve too as evidenced by the various breeds of dogs with differing personalities. Genetic manipulation could, in theory achieve this, BUT the clock is running down for this sort of thing to ever be engineered by our own species. Everyone supports genetic engineering of dogs but humans is a whole other matter. So this seems a tad far fetched.
Human problems are not in the area of scientific understanding of nature. Our understanding of nature has grown at an exponential rate in the last 200 years. “Wow!” is the only way to view all this. But there also seems, at least to me, some fundamental flaws in our grasp of things. In short we see what we want to see, and we are limited socially by self serving personal, community, national, and global values. Some of these values seem likely candidates for self destruction. These are listed below:
1. We don’t seem to understand that the consequences of human overpopulation applies to our species just as well as any other species. When one listens to political debates taking place in any country, human overpopulation is a non-issue. I don’t recall a single time when this was part of any political debate in our last Presidential election. Apparently it will be ok if the world population doubles again as it has in my lifetime. Some postulate this won’t happen because in a few places human population is actually shrinking. Ironically, this is only true in some of the more advanced societies. The math here is not going to work out. The other irony is that the most prosperous and advanced societies have the lowest population growth. Maybe we will cull those in the third world countries via varied forms of genocide. Some might say this has already started. After all, we now have 75 million refugees living in tent cities and this rises every year exponentially. Survival of the fittest with the least competitive right on big screen TV.
2. Any world-wide adherence to the Golden Rule is fading rapidly. It has been replaced by variations of “family values”——family being genetic, religious, cultural, racial, economic, and national values. This essentially becomes an assault on diversity as a major factor which determines evolutionary advancement. We are not that far from being able to sit down and customize the genetic genome of our next child. What will all this really mean for the future? Is this good or bad? Hard to say or figure, at least for me. It is certainly good that we can replace defective genes which cause us medical problems, or that we can genetically insert genes into bacteria and other organisms to make them produce large quantities of chemicals needed to treat human medical deficiencies or use genetic engineering to create cows which produce more milk or plants to produce better food, etc. But are there some directions here which will be detrimental to the survival of the human species?
3. Humans have little grasp on how to achieve personal contentment. We know individually what we like or want, but we mostly have failed in knowing when enough is enough of just about anything. Once what we like or want becomes compulsive or addictive behavior, contentment is impossible. Donald Trump is the poster boy for this kind of compulsive and addictive behavior which makes him emotionally unstable and angry round the clock toward most everything and everybody. His life is the direct opposite of the Golden Rule. For him the game is to make sure everyone with whom he comes in contact gets the short end of the stick. There always has to be a loser and a winner and he has used this philosophy to become very wealthy—essentially stiffing everyone in sight, declaring bankruptcy several times through shady legal means, and then using bankruptcy as a means to pay no or very little taxes. And to many, if not most, this makes him a hero. He is admired specifically because he can game the system.
4. Humans have invented many machines and gadgets which enable us to have machines do a lot of the work we used to have to do by hand. But somewhere along the line we lost the advantages this presented. Today, instead of working less hours per week, many people——some for advancement in their career, and others to squeak out a living, work several jobs or work far more than 40 hours on one job. The math here is simple. This leaves a lot of people with no jobs at all.
5. Our new attention to ‘family values’ leaves us, at best, indifferent to the plight of the less fortunate. These people are gated off and left on their own except for dwindling access to welfare monies. Those nations which do the best job including minorities in their support, and also manage to achieve the best distribution of wealth so that everyone at least gets a livable wage job will have the best future.The United States is probably already destined for implosion just as almost every previous empire in history. Domestic implosion usually happens for two reasons: the expense associated with maintaining a foreign empire, and a distribution of wealth at home that progresses too far with letting too much wealth be owned by a small percentage of citizens. In the United States today 2-5% of citizens own 90% of our wealth. Actually, more and more of our wealth is being owned by foreigners as time passes. But this musing is not about survival of the United States. It is about what is the destiny of the human species in the evolutionary future.
The first 5 points above apply to most nations of the world.
6. Almost all the major issues which determine the future of our own nation are present these days globally. Gone are the days when any population can just pick up and move en mass to greener pastures.There is nowhere to run these days. For a start, the global trend to use slave labor to produce bargains for the affluent is taking place everywhere under every form of government. Worker wages cannot be protected when some workers somewhere else use slave labor wages to produce products used globally. Without global enforcement of living wage jobs, vast numbers of workers everywhere are dead in the water. Global living wages is discussed at highest levels of governments or international agencies about as much as human overpopulation. Which means it is hardly discussed at all. There is mild discussion of preventing climate changes which science is united in diagnosing, but this is another issue being determined by the gut feelings of a human population in which, outside those scientists who study the issue, well—these people which includes most, including me, could not give a logical scientific description of climate change science for more than maybe 5 minutes. For most people, it is enough to say “Climate change is not new, it just happens. Weather is weather.” I guess they have the first 5 words out of their mouths right, but previous climate changes have wiped out a large percentage of species, and have never been caused by the activities of one species before. All these crises coming at us all at once are understood by only a small percentage of scientists knowledgeable about a particular crisis and yet the general public or head political leaders determine policy based on their own ‘gut’ feelings, or preferred anecdotal/religious beliefs. In many cases the cost to doing any preventive measures is political suicide so the the problem gets kicked down the road.
In theory the human species has the genetic capacity to police itself, and ensure that the maximum number of humans everywhere can achieve the maximum amount of contentment. We are not all born equal, have equal environments, equal amounts of good luck, or equal amounts of support to get over our hurdles in life——but if enough people use the Golden Rule as the basis for their ethics, then we can protect our environment, other species, control our own population growth, put limits on how much wealth can be owned by the wealthiest, and ensure those able to work have work opportunities at jobs paying living wages. It seems none of this is beyond the capacity of humans to understand, but humans are also social self-serving by nature just like all species. While most of the original prophets of most major religions are certainly admirable and ethical, their modern day followers are rapidly diminishing in numbers and those left are fundamentalists on whatever scripture appeals to them, and this basically is based on their feelings at the time Thus, we are left with a huge number of humans left whose ethics toward others is driven by feelings rather than the Golden Rule, science, or facts. Facts become whatever one feels is factual and self-serving. Not a good direction for the human species to go.
Right now there appears to be a massive global inability to see the big picture, to make the necessary effort and sacrifice to level the playing field for all human diversity. The use of violence to solve conflict, personal or group conflicts, is becoming rampant across the globe. We have yet to accept that violence begets violence—almost always. America, for example, for decades now, has roamed the world trying to teach certain other countries a lesson they won’t forget, under the guise of for their own good, and yet with all our atomic weapons, smart missiles, drones, and so on we haven’t won a war since World War II or Korea if a stalemate is a victory. But we stubbornly believe that more atomic weapons, more missiles, and hundreds of foreign military bases will make us winners in all conflicts with other nations. We now believe we can reduce domestic violence by having more and more people armed with guns, even military rapid fire weapons. We refuse to accept that battles anywhere today do not involve uniformed soldiers meeting on a battlefield. Terrorism is the new form of battle against perceived enemies, and this form of warfare is available via cyberspace communication for even small groups of angry people about something or other. Realism dictates that no country can avoid domestic implosion when 2-5% of citizens own 90% of their nation’s wealth. In the United States we have three large ethnic groups—blacks, whites, hispanics—and none of these groups are very much interested in helping each other with their particular problems. Most countries are increasingly operating on borrowed money. Virtually no one suggests these debts be paid off rapidly via a fair distribution of payments by all segments of society in a progressive fashion depending on the wealth of the individuals comprising that society. No, instead the political party that wins demands the members of the losing party get the shaft monetarily while the political base of the winners get tax/benefits relief.
There is this general belief in the United States that if we have enough bombs no country will attack us. True. Our domestic implosion is much more likely to come via three ways. First the growing number of poor living in dangerous and stressful communities with little access to jobs with livable wages, will lead to street riots—not the old fashioned kind—but roving riots here, then there, and eventually everywhere controlled by all the gadgets which let every group be well connected with each other so as to know when to riot, when to retreat, then another group elsewhere riot, then retreat, until the police and national guard troops cannot be everywhere. We have already seen this happen in other countries. The second way, with the same result, may happen when racial intolerance between whites, blacks, and hispanics results in another vicious civil war——this time not with uniformed soldiers on battle fields but with roving riots and acts of terrorism in neighborhoods across the country, street by street. The third growing possibility is that enemies abroad will perfect their ability to hack into our computer systems that control electricity, gas, food distribution, banking, water supplies, and so on—causing a massive disruption in daily life for everyone for perhaps months. The days are long past when a family can just survive by growing their own food in their backyard. When infrastructures and computer controlled services become inoperable, neighborhoods end up being controlled by local thugs just like in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, numerous South American countries, and numerous African countries.
None of these scenarios are limited to the United Dtates. Modern terrorism has empowered individuals and groups everywhere to commit terroristic acts. Right now, there is no way to stop terrorism once it becomes an acceptable means of expressing dissatisfaction. And the more angry government, religious, and police/military get, the more it encourages the dissatisfied to engage even more in terroristic acts. Violence really does beget violence.
So what happens to the human species if all this transpires globally? When infrastructures and computer operated systems are gone, local police and troops will opt increasingly to try and protect their own families, and thugs will rule. Someone somewhere at some point will heave some atomic weapons, and it will be the stone age all over again. Of course I hope none of this happens anywhere, let alone everywhere, but if it does, what will be the consequences for all the species now in existence? Humans never have been in control of the evolutionary process, so the answer is blowing in the wind. Most likely there will be another drawn out evolutionary correction that could last thousands or millions of year. The evolutionary process is never in any hurry. We, of course, are always in a hurry because we have such limited life spans.
Summary: What I think about the future of the human species is irrelevant to the evolutionary process. What I think about any of my Musing topics is irrelevant to the evolutionary process. Humans are not determining the evolutionary process and their own eventual fate anymore than dinosaurs, with their huge physical advantage, determined their fate. God’s laws, which run the process, are independent of any particular species. To the extent this last statement is true there is no reason for me to get into any dither about any of the topics I write about. It’s a hobby. Okay, a weird hobby. But it gives me contentment to ‘feel’ I understand these topics. No one else need feel the same way. Diversity is good. Diversity enables the evolutionary process to work and become progressively better.
Progressively better means, in due time, which is evolutionary time, we will have either an improved human species or a new species in which:
1. The Golden Rule will be the accepted ethical principle of that species and practiced by all members of that species everywhere.
2.There will be capitalism with adequate regulations and limits to anyone’s accumulation of too much wealth.
3. Rivalry between different ethnic/cultural groups will be mostly nonexistent. All will actually treat each other as if they are all God’s children.
4,All will have access to a job which they have the capability to handle, and will be paid a livable wage.
5.Ghettoes will be non existent because all communities will have good health care, good schools, good teachers, good job opportunities, a safe neighborhood, medical centers for treatments of any addictions/compulsive behaviors, and no religious sects to generate any human derived ‘holy scriptures’ for people to think they can communicate directly with God and get personal protections from the laws which govern the evolutionary process—via God interfering on their behalf.
6. Violence as a means to solve conflict will be nonexistence. All weapons of mass destruction will be banned from production.
7.Deficit budgets will be illegal everywhere. No generation will wage war or any other venture by borrowing the money for the next generation to pay back.
8.Every person will be expected to earn their own wealth, inheriting wealth will be obsolete. There will be no genetic cabals.
9.Once reaching adulthood every person will be sustained, if needed by medical situations, via the Government.
10. No one will be bringing to term any child they cannot properly support via birth control or, as a last resort, abortions will be employed. Children will no longer be treated as some sort of puppy mill.
11. Students will spend most of their time learning via excellent computer programs, and teachers will spend half their time working individually with students on their personal lives and personal welfare.
12. Parents will not be free to generate a poor home environment, and when needed trained volunteer adults will be available to ensure every child has good adult mentors whether they be parent(s), volunteer uncles, aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers, etc.
13.The whole intent of this ‘new’ society will be to level the playing fields for all as much as possible.
14.Nations will be extinct and replaced by a global community.
15. To what extent genetical engineering will be operative is beyond my comprehension.
16. In short this new or revised species of the future will be totally organized to ensure the greatest numbers of global citizens attain the maximum amount of contentment.
17.The planet’s environment will be protected from the get go and will be a high priority.
18. What kind of political system will govern all this? That I have no idea.
19. Sacrifice will be expected by all in a progressive manner depending on which global citizens are in a position to contribute how much sacrifice.
20. The reasoning for the above is based on what seems to be progress, since evolution is always about progress.
Thus, the above is what matters for the future, not whether the human species becomes extinct or simply evolves to the above.
Me—my life is at the point where Father Time has directed me to put on my seatbelt and prepare for landing. There will be turbulence for an undetermined length of time and clouds covering the destination, but there is no return and the landing that will be, will be—by chance, just as my birth. After the landing nothing will ever stress me again. The curtain will close, my role will have ended. All personal battles will be over. It was my good luck to have had a minuscule period of time to achieve some modest personal contentment. In the future, on evolutionary time, most members of the most advanced species will achieve some contentment in their lives because this new or evolved species will live by the Golden Rule. This is what is called progress.
