So, if it turns out that humans are exterminated by our own technological inventiveness, I think that will definitively answer to your question "no." — T Clark
But hey, it's their life, their choice, right. Besides, pollution is fun for children, innit! — baker
there is no reason to suppose that technology will increase linearly forever, or that there is not a point at which a society would conclude that more technology does more harm than good. — Echarmion
the amount of suffering that can plausibly be alleviated by technology in the near future, not least the suffering related to aging and death by disease and old age, easily justifies continued progress. — Echarmion
Civilization and agriculture started 7,000ish years ago. That started an exponential increase in human population, which is now slowing and expected to slow more. — T Clark
The info I can access has exponential growth starting not earlier than around 1200CE. Before that the curve looks pretty straight. — Banno
For countless ages the hot nebula whirled aimlessly through space. At length it began to take shape, the central mass threw off planets, the planets cooled, boiling seas and burning mountains heaved and tossed, from black masses of cloud hot sheets of rain deluged the barely solid crust. And now the first germ of life grew in the depths of the ocean, and developed rapidly in the fructifying warmth into vast forest trees, huge ferns springing from the damp mould, sea monsters breeding, fighting, devouring, and passing away. And from the monsters, as the play unfolded itself, Man was born, with the power of thought, the knowledge of good and evil, and the cruel thirst for worship. And Man saw that all is passing in this mad, monstrous world, that all is struggling to snatch, at any cost, a few brief moments of life before Death's inexorable decree. And Man said: `There is a hidden purpose, could we but fathom it, and the purpose is good; for we must reverence something, and in the visible world there is nothing worthy of reverence.' And Man stood aside from the struggle, resolving that God intended harmony to come out of chaos by human efforts. And when he followed the instincts which God had transmitted to him from his ancestry of beasts of prey, he called it Sin, and asked God to forgive him. But he doubted whether he could be justly forgiven, until he invented a divine Plan by which God's wrath was to have been appeased. And seeing the present was bad, he made it yet worse, that thereby the future might be better. And he gave God thanks for the strength that enabled him to forgo even the joys that were possible. And God smiled; and when he saw that Man had become perfect in renunciation and worship, he sent another sun through the sky, which crashed into Man's sun; and all returned again to nebula.
"`Yes,' he murmured, `it was a good play; I will have it performed again.'"
Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. — Bertrand Russell, A Free Man's Worship
So, if it turns out that humans are exterminated by our own technological inventiveness, I think that will definitively answer to your question "no." — T Clark
the narrow section in the middle that those who call themselves ‘scientists’ today primarily concern themselves with — Possibility
I don't recall seeing any of that in Europe. — baker
But there are distinct China haters who've been promoting the idea that the Chinese made the virus and let it out. — baker
China hater = Trump lover? — baker
Then it's not science. — Banno
What? — Banno
What's he supposed to have done? — Banno
funding for the gain-of-function research that (most likely) escaped from a lab and caused the covid pandemic has now been traced to none other than Fauci — fishfry
looks to be crap to me — Banno
He said we should wear two masks? Shock! Horror! So what? — Banno
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