Humanity At Crossroads

[Thomas Knierim]

By Alan Boyle, Science editor (MSNBC)
Full Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7103668/

Scientists are fond of running the evolutionary clock backward, using DNA analysis and the fossil record to figure out when our ancestors stood erect and split off from the rest of the primate evolutionary tree.

But the clock is running forward as well. So where are humans headed?

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says it's the question he's most often asked, and "a question that any prudent evolutionist will evade." But the question is being raised even more frequently as researchers study our past and contemplate our future.

[...] Where are humans headed? Here's an imprudent assessment of five possible paths, ranging from homogenized humans to alien-looking hybrids bred for interstellar travel.

[...]Evolution is still at work. But instead of diverging, our gene pool has been converging for tens of thousands of years — and Stuart Pimm, an expert on biodiversity at Duke University, says that trend may well be accelerating.

[...]If the catastrophe ever came, could humanity recover? In science fiction, that’s an intriguingly open question. For example, Stephen Baxter’s novel “Evolution” foresees an environmental-military meltdown so severe that, over the course of 30 million years, humans devolve into separate species of eyeless mole-men, neo-apes and elephant-people herded by their super-rodent masters.

[mctonale]

But the clock is running forward as well. So where are humans headed?

Very possibly.........
self distruction.

[abba]

Evolutionary changes happen in response to pressures to survival. Except for mutations and meteor strikes, they don't happen over a short time-scale - because pressures to survival don't happen (usually) over a short time.

The greatest threat to human survival currently is our fellow man. It is the perceived differences between us that drive our brief bouts with self-annihilation. So, I am not surprised at opinions that our species is becoming less divergent, having less variance from norm. That has been a survival trait for some time. Our brain-power will eventually demand that artificial variances - like geography-related and politics be eliminated as well.

When thinking about the long-term, Man's greatest "escape-valve", space exploration, might also present the long-term pressure necessary for the next evolutionary step. It is well documented that men lose mass and structural integrity on very long exposure to low gravity. True space living on a habitat or on a loooong space flight (a generations ship) will need a breed of man who has become adapted - through technology and evolution - in order to survive.

[Truthbearer]

Abba - in all honesty, we are just not ready for space-travel.
Not enough enlightenment - too much ego.
Just #*&@ up space, like we have this planet.

If it is ego, selfishness and greed that has brought us down.
Then it will be the relinquishing of those, that will raise us back up.

Not just a few, but many - the 'newage' is not a fantasy - it is becoming a reality.
A New Consensus...
of thinking and being.
and it is escalating - not on the usual 'media'
but websites, emails.
People are questioning their values, our governments, and such.
The food we are eating, we know the nourishment is just not there.
The chemicals (sugar included) in everything .. people are starting to question. . and starting to lift the veils on deceptions and dishonesty.
We are learning to raise our awareness.

And, eventually, we will start to learn also, what our planet is doing at this moment.. when all the ice has melted, and some large volcanos become active, her global warming has a purpose - more will 'wake up'.

Earths Evolution, and ours. We will all know before science has it tagged.
Because science cannot acknowledge spirit and soul.
And evolution/Earths Ascension to the next dimension is a soul dynamic, and inevitable.

xx Pat

[mctonale]

I think it is already too late. :smoke:

We may have already done irreparable* damage. The human species and many other species will be wiped out, in just a few generations. :help: :(

: s

*Irreparable because our governments (and we) will continue until it is too late (change is slow as on this scale are consiquences).

[scameter]

to be honest, i find that nanotechnology is the most potentially detremental, and yet potentially helpful, of all emerging technologies. for instance, i have recently read about a nanotechnology called a replicator i believe that could transform the atoms in it's vacinity into anything creatible. now, this is very true. but, the pros about it is that it could eliminate poverty, hunger, homelessness, and many other detrements to humanity, as well as illness, old age, and lost limbs. but, the cons is that it could be used to create things potentially detremental to our society, such as that it could create millions of bombs in a matter of days, it could create viruses or bacteria that could harm us and nature, and it could also cause other ailments to our civilization. so, should they be made or not? they most likely can be, if they are fully supported in research, but should they be made or not? <_<

[Thomas Knierim]

TB: Just #*&@ up space, like we have this planet.

We have messed it up badly. In fact, what humans presently do constitutes nothing less than a mass extinction event or ELE (extinction level event).

Several mineral resources near depletion, the ozon layer is damaged, the world climate is warming while the polar ice is melting. The worst thing is, species are disappearing at a rate of approx. 50,000 per year which means that in 100 years, 50% of all species will have vanished.

Still, I take some comfort in knowing that we are not (yet) powerful enough to destroy the entire planet. Even if mankind decides to blow up itself by detonating all nuclear weapons at once, this will be another ELE (extinction level event) in the history of Earth, perhaps the largest, but life will continue.

Thousand years after the end-time event only ruins will be left of our civilisation. After ten thousand years only few of these ruins will still be visible on the planet's surface. After hundred thousand years most materials we use today, including ferro concrete and polymers will have completely degraded. After a million years only some fossilised structures will remind ensuing ages of the hominid civilisation.

The Cretaceous-Paleogene ELE ended the reptilian dominance of the planet which lasted a whopping 200 million years. Perhaps the present ELE will end the mammalian dominance. :huh:

Here is an overview of the past extinction level events from Wikipedia:

(1)488 million years ago — a series of mass extinctions at the Cambrian-Ordovician transition (the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction events) eliminated many brachiopods and conodonts and severely reduced the number of trilobite species.

(2) 444 million years ago — at the Ordovician-Silurian transition two Ordovician-Silurian extinction events occurred, probably as the result of a period of glaciation. Marine habitats changed drastically as sea levels decreased, causing the first die-off, then another occurred between 500 thousand and a million years later when sea levels rose rapidly. It has been suggested that a gamma ray burst may have triggered this extinction.

(3) 360 million years ago — at the Devonian-Carboniferous transition (the Late Devonian extinction) about 70% of all species were eliminated. This was not a sudden event; evidence suggests that the extinctions took place over a period of some three million years.

(4) 251 million years ago — at the Permian-Triassic transition (the Permian-Triassic extinction event) about 95% of all marine species went extinct. This catastrophe was Earth's worst mass extinction, killing 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, and an estimated 70% of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrate animals.)

(5) 200 million years ago — at the Triassic-Jurassic transition (the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event) about 20% of all marine families as well as most non-dinosaurian archosaurs, most therapsids, and the last of the large amphibians were eliminated.

(6) 65 million years ago — at the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition (the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event) about 50% of all species got killed (including the non-avian dinosaurs) which is widely thought to have been the result of an asteroid or comet impact event.

(7) Present day — the Holocene extinction event. Most biologists believe that humans are currently causing another extinction event. E.O. Wilson of Harvard University, in his book The Future of Life, estimates that at current rates of human destruction of the biosphere one-half of all species of life will be extinct in 100 years. A survey by the American Museum of Natural History in 1998 found that the vast majority of biologists agreed with Wilson's assessment, and numerous confirmatory studies in the years since then – led by the IUCN's annual "Red List" of threatened species – have now produced a scientific consensus on the subject.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event

[Truthbearer]

I, too, have great hopes for the plant and its humanity Thomas.
And your post is very apt - we ARE at a crossroads.

I know many of you here on these boards just dont understand me, nor my purpose .. but its fun to all be so different. And it DOES make the world go round (our differences)

I commune with Earthmother.. and she DOES has a say in her own evolutionary/ascension cycle.. and its all about honour.
And i truly think that now everyone must start to make decisions.. all decisions based on honour, love and Unity.
For ourselves.
For each other.
Nature and Earth.

I know these sound simple concepts to 'save the planet' - but this is where it has all started to happen .. just by the personal decisions we make for ourselves each day.. and to teach our children. (oftentimes the children teach usx)
the high road? .. or the low road.
love? or ego.
honesty? or deception
And many of these decisions, wont suit a lot of people - but we are not on this planet to suit others, or to fit to others standards (that are not so high-standard when the veils are lifted).
We have been slaves to the greed-machine for far too long.. and we even have thought that our lives would less if we were without this or that.
We got the wrong idea of poverty..abundance.. prosperity even - none of them mean wealth.
and even the word 'responsiblity' .. that had us almost enslaved.

I used to work on the precept 'if you dont love doing it - dont do it'.
and it worked for me.. and my family.

And I honestly think, it will be the well-adjusted, happy individual - that may not know a square root from astragalus, but loves nature, life , and a positive attitude - has an intuitive knowing about spirit and soul.

These will be the 'survivors' at the end of the day - because these are the humans Earth desires. She has seen enough of greed and harm - and the mis-use of anything wonderful (for greed and harm), and we are all waking up to that fact.

Because beyond the cross-roads, we will start to have a much simplier life - it is inevitable.

No more mining .. drilling..
No more harm or killing.
Life fullfilling
Love is our destiny.
Long overdue. xx

Namaste
Pat