What everyday occurrence makes you think there is no future for humanity?

What everyday occurrence makes you think there is no future for humanity?

[ 12/September/21 ]

That really is not a powerful question.

Humanity has been around for something over a million years, in our modern form for over 100,000 years, so that is some evidence of a probability of a future.

Sure, people make mistakes. Some people have killed some other people over history, but not everyone has killed everyone else.

Sure many people are using overly simplistic models of the complexity that does, beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt, actually exist. And for many such individuals the simple models they have of reality classify everyone not known as “friend” into “enemy”. Such people cannot accept or appreciate diversity or liberty, as their models are too simple and rigid. And that has to be balanced by the fact that all models seem very probably to necessarily be simplifications of whatever reality actually is, so we all suffer from that at some level, and in some contexts.

And if you actually get to know people, then the vast majority are actually interesting and cooperative – even if they find themselves embedded in corrupt and exploitive systems at some times.

So it easy to find ways in which failure seems inevitable. That is the easy way in a sense, because if one does that then it absolves us of the responsibility to make an effort to make a difference, because we have already justified to ourselves that such effort is wasted.

In this sense, the question is itself destructive.

Reality seems always to have been that we can make effort, and such efforts can make a difference, and reality is complex, and nothing is guaranteed.

It is the making of effort that matters – always; at whatever levels, and to whatever degrees, that we are capable; each to the best of our own limited and fallible abilities.

So asking that question is destructive in and of itself, unless it is done in a context in which one uses the answers to develop and implement strategies which mitigate the risks you have seen.

As someone who has been consciously engaged in such risk assessment and risk mitigation for over 60 years, it seems to be a never ending process, and it has its own interests and rewards.

And I am cautiously optimistic that humanity has a very long term future.