Do you think the human race will survive the next 100 years without massive changes to society?
Put me down as a “no.”
yes. we are one of the most resiliant animals on the planet, constently morphing into a higher consciousness. We are the only animal in history to be able to heal our own selves of illness through outside means. I doubt Mr. Ed can figure out how to make penicillan.
no.
further more, I think this decade will see a lot of people losing their lives.
Very turbulent times ahead, I think…
Oh, and Antiquarian: we’re aslo the only species that changes nature to suit us, instead of the other way around.
It’s one of the big reasons why the planet is so f****d up at the moment.
so put me down for a big fat no
It looks to me as if the two of you are in agreement, or at least do not contradict each other.
Massive changes in society fit in quite well with morphing into a higher consciousness
At least I agree with the both of you.
The environment is going to change one way or the other. There will apparently be a scarcity of fossil fuel. Perhaps replacement energy will come along, but that would work in a different way (for example, AFAIK current airplanes cannot work on nuclear fission). Without fossil fuel, no plastics. These will lead to further changes. So even considering this single factor, lots of changes which will probably lead to changes in society.
I would have said that we’d be fine, and then I got to grad school and started teaching classes. And having seen my students in action for a few years now, I weep for the future of the human race. Sorry.
Yes, but I am not saying that there won’t be problems ahead.
Call me an optomist.
Hamsters ate my first attempt, so here’s the short version:
The way things are is not sustainable. I think the 21st century will be as big as the 20th, and I can’t make a guess as to whether it will end better or worse. I’m not as optimistic as Arthur C. Clarke, and I’m not as pessimistic as the line from the Leonard Cohen song: “I’ve seen the future, brother, it is murder.”
I believe, though, that there will be the same mix of happy and unhappy people then as now… maybe fewer people, with a standard of living we wouldn’t like, but people will still call it living.
Yes, the human race will keep going - it would take a hell of a lot to wipe out the species, and nuclear war isn’t as likely anymore. The real question is, “will there be a second ‘dark ages’ within 100 years?” Sometimes I wonder if this is what the Roman citizens in Britain felt like when the Empire started showing cracks…
I think that there’s a big difference between our “species” and our “culture”. I think our current consuming culture, Takers to use an Ishmael term, is doomed if things progress as they are. (Sidenote, if you haven’t read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, do so. Now. )
However, there are plenty of indigenous cultures of humanity that operate on a wholly different philosophy than the majority. They do reach an equilibrium with their surroundings. Hopefully after we’re gone, they’ll still be around.
I was just talking about this yesterday. The Romans had gladitorial combat to keep the mob happy while the empire fell into ruin. We have reality TV.
Yes, we’ll keep going.
I believe at every stage in history, people have generally believed that things are terrible, and that the end is near. We have never been correct in that belief, and I don’t think we are correct now.
Cheers, Bippy
Maybe a Depression type era for a while with fossil fuels running low and nothing to adequately replace them fast enough etc. I think the race will still be “living” but I don’t know how well the living conditions will be…
bernse, you’re an optimist. 
I think you’re onto something, Ally424. Perhaps the most probable future for the human race isn’t any spectacular die-out or event of mass extinction, but a slow chipping away of quality of life. In some ways, I think I would prefer a mass extinction where a few are left alive to repopulate, and possibly do it better next time.
Uh, Bippy, not to turn this into a pit but…
I believe at every stage in history, people have generally believed that things are terrible, and that the end is near. We have never been correct in that belief, and I don’t think we are correct now.
NEVER? Well… ok, define ‘the end’. Guarantee the Holy Roman Empire is not what it once was, these days, dude. q;}
IMnsHO? We’re doomed… doomed ah tells ya… dooomed!! hahahahahahaha! Doomed!!! Front-row seats to the end of the world, baby!!!
I believe mankind will survive, but humanity will not.
Too many irreversible trends.
Phnord Prephect I was being a little limmited defining the end as a total break down of society. But I could argue the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ is thriving, as it is still influencing the entire western world and much of the eastern world as well. There were the great civilisations of south and central America (before the European invaders) that were lost so the doomsayers were at least partially correct at some time, but even then they probably expected some cataclysmic end when it seems that disease and poor crops rendered their cities uninhabitable, and so the ppeople moved back into a more rural existance. (this is from memory of a tv science program from years back).
P.S. great username
Cheers, Bippy
I think will stumble along, not out of any particular optimism, but rather just out of the Copernican principle. Throughough history, there have always been people who have decided that these are the End Times, that the latest technological advance will be the Doom of Us All, that women working outside the home or the gyrations of Elvis Presley or the hypnotic allure of the Nintendo machine spell the End of Civilization as We Know It. And it’s an attractive notion. It’s thrilling to think of troubled times ahead. It’s perversely exciting to think that we may be the Last Generation.
In other words, we get a kick out of thinking that we’re special.
Well, I happen to think that we’re not special. I think that the evils displayed to us by our televisions are not any more acute than in any other time in history. While we fancy that the depravities we revel in are original and daring, you can surely find many instances in history of greater perversions. Are our youth significantly stupider or more lawless than any other generation? Perhaps, but by what standards to we judge? Yeah, we’re destroying the environment, but this has happened in the past, albeit on smaller scales. And what did we do then? We adapted, changed technologies, or, if all else failed, moved away. The Signposts of the Impending Enviornomental Collapse have been around for decades, and either we’ve taken measures to forstall Imminent Doom, or we’ve figured out how to cope.
In general, humans suck. People who realize this fact fear for our survival. But humans have always sucked, and the world hasn’t yet come to an end. On average, we’re dumb as a sack of doorknobs and we’ve always been too big for our britches, and it’s always been that way, and it probably will be for quite some time.
If I had to bet, I’d give us another ten thousand years, at least, as a species. Thinking about life a thousand years from now, it boggles my mind to think what our culture will be like in the year 3000, giving the advancing rate of technological change. And when will the Next Big Religion come along? What revolutionary ideas will it introduce? Will somebody think of a systme better than democracy? Will the scientific method be supplanted by a superior way of figgerin’ stuff out?
Or will a rock the size of Rhode Island hit the Earth next week and kill everything but the cockroaches and the amphibians?
We are still in our infancy. (As our infantile behavior attests readily enough).
Put me down for a grand on “human race good for another 250,000 years”. Probably several million.
Yes!
The Inuits and other people used to living in extreme cold (and other natives) will survive. They aren’t as dependent on technology as us. Tribes in Siberia live in very extreme conditions. I don’t think we are affecting their lifestyle much. If we die out, they will live.
Other than that, if we do not change we will die out. However, we are on a path towards change. So we will survive.
No, we’re totally screwed.
Don’t know. Don’t care.