Humanity in peril, by Fred Vargas : the end of an era

The Lounge General Discussion
#21

Socialism has also flaws as like capitalism. Any kind of ideology has flaws because all them includes human factor. Humans are nature’s mistake and what differs them from other mammals is their destructive survivalism. Imo thats called selfishness in modern times which causes corruption and thats where every -ism falls. Basically there’s always going to be a nutjob who will ruin the most utopic setting just for his own good.

Btw, this is all coming from my gut, not relying on any academic papers etc. Also im drunk lol

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#22

Resources such as precious metals and minerals used in goods will be recycled from previous products, electronics technology is changing so rapidly that it is likely that we won’t need nowhere near the resources anyway.

Things like graphene and biological circuits could be to silicon as the transistor was to the vacuum tube.

AI and large scale cyber attacks could prove to cause problems, a lot of people who think about such things seem to agree upon this.

#23

Absolutely our instinct to one up each other is at the core of this. One’s instinct to advance oneself without any thought of the consequences is humanities flaw. For example I own an IPhone I have no idea who’s suffered for me to get my hands on this device, on the contrary I was super stoked to get it. I too have a bugout bag and my children are aware of the distinct possibility that the crap can hit the fan. People are so complex it feels like we are on the verge of collapse but everything sticks together. I remember in NYC 2016 we lost power for almost two weeks and you would of expected chaos on the streets but quite the opposite happened. People banned together and helped each other. I have faith in the common people not so much the elite. They’ll sell us out and go hide in a bunker.

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#24

So Behringer is the apocalypse.
I better get the D while I can still enjoy it.

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#25

I think the SOMA Pulsar-23 will bring forth the apocalypse . That thing is gonna be wicked!!!

#26

Geologically we have a phenomenon of tectonic plates seperating along ocean margins. Here, volcanic vents, such as white and black smokers produce a constant and near infinite supply of rare earth metal and minerals from the Earth’s mantle. This is how deposits are created over millions of years that we mine within the Geological stratigraphy. A future technology to tap these vents may be a resolution.

http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2005/a2/finalwebsite/environ/geo/ventchem.shtml

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#27

Deep down most of us know what has to be done to avoid disaster - but our consumerist overlords have become so highly skilled at manipulation that it could almost be said that we no longer have any choice in the matter.

So as an environmental engineering student I tend to swing from feelings of misanthropy, through the nihlism zone and end up with the desperate need to try and help fix things on a regular basis. And then back the other way.

With a federal election being held today, i expect to be sitting somewhere between misanthropy & nihlism for the next little while.

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#28

We live in a invisible cell and we don’t even realize it.

#29

We re talking whales, oil and rare earth minerals but the shortages and extinctions are also in more mundane but equally essential places, example: there s so much concrete being used in building that sand resources are running out. Some are predicting sand wars besides water, oil and food.

And perhaps the most striking to me: we re planning commercial flights to Mars but we don t nearly understand what is in the soil right here on earth: insects. It s becoming increasingly clear that the population is falling rapidly but biologists don t really know how much there is/was and keep discovering new species all the time. Their role in the ecology must be essential but little is known.

On human nature: yes egoism is an obvious trait, but what heartens me is that when someone has an accident on the street bystander s reflex reaction is to help out instantly. So we also do care for our direct surroundings. If only we could become more aware of the global impact of our actions and behavior…

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#30

Sounds like Douglas Rushkoff… I’ve heard him talk about something like that recently. He did a good podcast with Russell Brand (if you can stand listening to Russell Brand :slight_smile:

#31

Instead of tapping even more sources, we should start to recycle the ones we already Used, and also make a complete Turn for our Worldwide and national economies and Stop wasting even more.
E.g. instead of pumping 1000 Billion US Dollars into the millitary (every year) the NATO states could Pump that Money into helping other countries and into Projects to fix their own environment Problems.

Economy must become a non waste Economy. We should only produce what is really needed. Who needs 3000 different Smartphone Models? Hell who even needs a Smartphone anyway? Most people dont.

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#32

The current record for spinning plates is 108. To fix things on this planet of ours would be the equivalent of 1 human trying to keep spinning 10,000+ plates! Most are going to get broken but if he sticks at it, there will be some left to keep on spinning in a fairly manageable, if exhausting, way.

Everyone has a quite valid opinion on what needs to happen to improve our fortunes. It’s unfortunately just not human nature to make such global changes until on the absolute cusp (or a little beyond). That shouldn’t mean you should stop trying. I’m much more conscious of my household recycling (for example) - far more than I used to be when I had the attitude of “recycle wheelie bin is full, I’ll just chuck all the cardboard in the regular waste wheelie bin”.

So, keep on doing your bit when you can but anything more is like trying to hold back the tide. Sad but true. I’d rather not let that get me down. In a majorly perverse way, I’m actually a little disappointed that I won’t get to live to see the days when humanity finally really does sort itself out on this planet and grows up a bit. Would be wonderful to witness us maturing.

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#33

I wish I could share your optimism

#34

Well, if it did all end, so what? I don’t mean that flippantly, and I say that being a father of two, but if we did reach a point of no return then so be it. Humanity have shown countless times how to face into and triumph over adversity though. Perhaps we’re like a cat with nine lives and our time is up? I prefer to think not though but I certainly don’t believe I will see anything definitive either way within the rest of my life time (40-50 years if lucky).

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#35

FTFY !

#36

Ok. If it is a joke, i don´t get it. Sorry. Me not native english speaker is.

#37

Related to waste of ressources maybe ? Who knows…

#38

I’ll have to wait for the english translation to read the Vargas piece but from the description it sounds like a genre of doom writing that has also brought us theories that we don’t have enough food, we don’t have enough trees, we’ve run out of oil, etc. Meanwhile, in actuality at least 25% of the food grown rots away, any dolt can plant more trees for free or very little money and oil is half the price it was a decade ago due to abundance. Missing from the equation: ingenuity and innovation.

I saw video awhile back about Swiss company, Climeworks AG, with a plan to fight CO2. They accomplish this by pockmarking the environment with large, noisy machinery that scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere and compresses it so that it can be bottled and resold. The bottled CO2 is then sold to farmers where it is used to increase yield. I highly doubt this system can make a net positive effect since the CO2 is captured and released back into the air.

And this is where we are with “green tech”. Much of it is make work nonsense. I’d rather have a grove of trees in my back yard instead of this noisy monstrosity which in reality is nothing but virtue signalling industrialization.

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#39

I’m not going to get into political discussion, and do not discourage the important need to recycle. The notion of claims in this book is we will run out of mineral resources. For existing geological deposits this is inevitably true. However the underlying mantle represents a near infinite amount of many types of these minerals, which may be leveraged at some point in the future. Black and white smokers potentially provide access to this source. Cost, technology and climate related risks the current barriers.

#40

More than one

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