The way I see it there are a few options. Absent of sci-fi spookiness (religion) we'll call it two options. We'll continue as we are, barely getting by in our current diplomatic situations, perhaps they'll be small skirmishes that are quickly condemned due to atrocities denounced by all nations thus guiding our fleeting peaceful existence. Or someone will screw up big time and all out nuclear war will follow.. I'd like to believe it'd destroy all weapons and technology and current status quos (with the expense of most of humanity) .. but it probably wouldn't. Everyone has their secret weapons and bunkers to go to thus ensuring the systems that nearly destroyed everything can and will reform to exactly as they were if not greater. Being gifted with life is being sentenced to die anyhow, so there's always a perpetual aspect of "being screwed" regardless. It just depends on how pleasurable the experience will be before then. Or.. perhaps not? But that's forbidden on these forums, absent of technological mumbo jumbo.

Where is humanity going? :chin: It looks as though it (humanity) has come a long way from being scattered tribes of hunter-gatherers through subsistence farming communities to an industrial civilization now in the midst of an information revolution.

Unfortunately or fortunately, time will tell, we haven't made as much progress as we'd have liked in other areas, especially in morality and allied domains - we have yet to make a clean break from racism, speciesism, and other isms that, if given an opportunity, could cause widespread mayhem and undo all humanity's achievements thus far.

For my money, I'd say all this has to do with humans being in a transition phase between animals and something else. As animals we're under the influence of our passions and that usually spells trouble. As for what we're becoming, the something else, my hunch is gods - good, fair, just, wise and with the power to bring about positive change in the world.

we haven't made as much progress as we'd have liked in other areas, especially in morality and allied domains — TheMadFool

Good one :up: :100:



As you even said in the OP, we are completely screwed. Probably since the WWII ended back in 1945. We are a civilization (supposedly modern) where the most of the individuals do not care about the principles of the Ancient Greece: ethics, morality, virtues, happiness, democracy, etc...
Now, we live like in a jungle where money is the main goal. Doesn't matter the way you should or have to earn it. You depend a lot of this abstract invention since when we created the Gold Pattern.
The problem is not only the money but who are the ones that looks like to win it so easy. You can see it in their Instagram account or wherever. Somehow many young people think about these "influencers" they have success and this is a big failure.

We are developing a society where a huge number of people want just "quick" things not considering their value or even worse the quality.

So, no... The "famous" ones are not developing ethics or morality because it is not profitable to them. This also happens with books, culture, philosophy, going to university, etc...

Reminds me of a meme I saw: "Hey, what gives? They said there would be a handbasket!"

Anyway, you asked if we are capable of picking a leader. Yes. Some say the moment makes the man, or something like that. The times will produce a leader, and the like. Some times Ma Nature has to come down and slap us in the back of the head to get things going in the right direction. So look for some bad times. But we should be able to turn it around if the old people like me get out the way. I like the underrated movie "Tomorrowland" with George Clooney. Go kids!

For my money, I'd say all this has to do with humans being in a transition phase between animals and something else. As animals we're under the influence of our passions and that usually spells trouble. As for what we're becoming, the something else, my hunch is gods - good, fair, just, wise and with the power to bring about positive change in the world. — TheMadFool

Perhaps one day we'll engineer "gods" (e.g. the Tech Singularity) but they will not be us. If we're lucky they will delay us taking our rightful place among Earth's fossil record by becoming our zookeepers (e.g. the Matrix). We're nothing more than 'godmaker animals' (... Feuerbach, Nietzsche, O. Stapledon, A.C. Clarke, F. Herbert, O. Butler, I.M. Banks...) because, as Sartre quipped, "man is a useless passion" or Freddy "man is a rope stretched between ... over an abyss."

Is humanity, as a species, capable of selecting competent, moral leadership with the will to move this world forward into an age of sustainable environmental stewardship and peaceful coexistence with each other......or are we totally screwed. — Steve Leard

I lean toward faith and hope. To romanticize a potential for a bright future in the hopes that the next generation are wiser than us.

Which is better then to telling your grandkids “It sucks to be you.”

Is humanity, as a species, capable of selecting competent, moral leadership with the will to move this world forward into an age of sustainable environmental stewardship and peaceful coexistence with each other......or are we totally screwed. — Steve Leard

Us, as a species, capable of selecting competent leadership? HA! No. Moral leadership then? HAHAHA no. Just take a look at our current leaders and the long line of idiots preceding them... Either we get despots or systems where a select few feign to champion the interests of the people. There's a reason why its still possible to classify politicians as "populares" and "optimates", even though the days of the Roman republic have long since passed.

Perhaps one day we'll engineer "gods" (e.g. the Tech Singularity) but they will not be us. If we're lucky they will delay us taking our rightful place among Earth's fossil record by becoming our zookeepers (e.g. the Matrix). We're nothing more than 'godmaker animals' (... Feuerbach, Nietzsche, O. Stapledon, A.C. Clarke, F. Herbert, O. Butler, I.M. Banks...) because, as Sartre quipped, "man is a useless passion" or Freddy "man is a rope stretched between ... over an abyss." — 180 Proof

Bullseye! We can, if all goes well, merge with machines - mind uploads, cybernetics, etc. but this'll probably not happen in my lifetime - I envision a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines, a kind of quid pro quo deal. If not that then we should prepare to take, as you said, "our rightful place among Earth's fossil record" for the simple reason that we can't win a war against machines.

We can, if all goes well, merge with machines - mind uploads, cybernetics, etc. but this'll probably not happen in my lifetime - I envision a symbiotic relationship between humans and machines, a kind of quid pro quo deal. — TheMadFool

:up: Posthumans or Nano Sapiens or ...

Posthumans or Nano Sapiens or ... — 180 Proof

If you say so. :up:

Is humanity, as a species, capable of selecting competent, moral leadership with the will to move this world forward into an age of sustainable environmental stewardship and peaceful coexistence with each other......or are we totally screwed. — Steve Leard

As I said to @'counterpunch",

It's self-interest -- yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It's the Golden Rule: Them with the gold make the rules. One of which is pursue self-interest over the short run and fuck everybody else. The golden rulers are remarkably unimaginative. The people who run things are focused on a) continuing to be the people who run things; b) continuing to accumulate wealth because c) money and what it buys is an essential requirement of power d) making sure that would-be change-agents like you and me remain feckless non-entities until death removes us as an item of concern.

For my money, I'd say all this has to do with humans being in a transition phase between animals and something else. — TheMadFool

I agree with the animal part; the transition phase, not so much.

For one thing, what @Steve Leard speaks of, require a great deal of passion. The trouble is that we are not passionate about the right things. Nothing new here. It's been a problem for a while (last 20,000 years).

We do not have time to evolve into better, godlier beings. We either will find a way to solve our present dilemmas, or we will cease and desist.

I agree with the animal part; the transition phase, not so much.

For one thing, what Steve Leard speaks of, require a great deal of passion. The trouble is that we are not passionate about the right things. Nothing new here. It's been a problem for a while (last 20,000 years).

We do not have time to evolve into better, godlier beings. We either will find a way to solve our present dilemmas, or we will cease and desist. — Bitter Crank

Indeed, you maybe right. I'm not making a truth claim as much as I'm trying to offer my own perspective on the matter. I have a feeling that, by virtue of our intellect in general and our powerful imagination in particular, we have, collectively, thought up a future image of ourselves we want to work towards achieving and that future image, going by how much we stress on rationality and how wary we are of our passions, whether such is fortunate or not, either excludes the passions completely or, if not that, relegates it to a necessary evil.

We do not have time to evolve into better, godlier beings. We either will find a way to solve our present dilemmas, or we will cease and desist. — Bitter Crank

:100:

In Turkish culture they have a standard expression one can say if one is asked "Where are you going?" but one is angry or doesn't like the asker, so one says: "To hell!" ("Cehennem!")
I've also seen that some people add "Do you want to come along?"

Nice. I like that.

TheMadFool - For one thing, what Steve Leard speaks of, require a great deal of passion. The trouble is that we are not passionate about the right things. Nothing new here. It's been a problem for a while (last 20,000 years).

I was watching a scene outside of a well known pub in Key West on a public cam. It was like a vision of a bacchanalian hell. Hordes of people moving in and out of the place bumping each other, ranting like crazed apes and behaving as if they had not a care in the world. Not a mask in sight. I swear I could hear Nero whistling. It was then I realized how much trouble we were in.

Is humanity, as a species, capable of selecting competent, moral leadership with the will to move this world forward into an age of sustainable environmental stewardship and peaceful coexistence with each other......or are we totally screwed.

A moral leadership would have to do so with education, voluntary participation, and compromise if they should remain moral. An immoral leadership could do so through tyranny. I don’t think the species is capable of either. But don’t despair! We can rest on the knowledge that the species is awful at predicting the future, and hope for the best.

Perhaps we are watching the fall of 'Merica.

It would be a mistake to think that the fall of 'Merica is the fall of humanity.

We will continue merging with machines until we hit a technological wall or destroy ourselves.

Banno - "It would be a mistake to think that the fall of 'Merica is the fall of humanity."

That is a good point. And I apologize for singling out America as the sole culprit. This lack of consideration for others is happening around the globe. I am curious as to what the members here make of the senseless behaviour of our fellow peoples. Why do we seem to have progressed so far only to have a microscopic virus bring out our most base traits. It saddens me to know that all who revel with such abandon have mothers, fathers, grandparents and children that they apparently are willing to sacrifice for a night out.