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Comment by it_does_follow | Hacker News Reader

In my darker moments I've come to believe that accelerationism is the only viable pathway to save the planet, since nothing short of civilizational collapse seems to be capable of seriously reducing our carbon emissions.

From that perspective this is great news!

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The 'planet' doesn't need saving - the planet is fine. No matter the damage we do to the planet through our predatory ecosystem exploitation, it will recover in a few million years. The most difficult step - the one that took almost 2.5 to 3 billion years, was eucaryotes and multicellular life. It's pretty unlikely we can do enough damage to undo that, even if we nuke the whole planet. The planet still has some 3 billion years until the sun turns red and that's plenty of time for another species to have a go at sentience.

It is human civilization that needs saving.

I've also been hoping for the same thing. The faster the current system falls apart, the less painful it will be. The years of daily grind combined with a feeling of hopelessness is what hurts people the most and causes lasting resentment.

The problem is that with the current system falling apart that will be it for modern human civilization. I wouldn't be surprised if the technological level fell back a few hundred years.

Our civilization is too interdependent with no place being able to sustain any level of advanced technology on itself. We traded all the resilience we had for "efficiency". Our current system is very brittle and if it fails, it fails globally. Expect hundreds of millions to die if it does.

I disagree with this. IMO, it's just propaganda that the elites use to maintain control. Look at all the economic 'miracles' in Germany, Japan, South Korea, ... Pretty much any time a developed, highly educated country had fallen, it managed to return to even more prosperous levels than before.

I have issue with the massive cost in other peoples lives you seem to be ok throwing away with such pronouncements.

We have to FIX our system, not make it worse. The reality of trying to force our entire civilization to commit mass suicide is a slow horrible intensification of all that is wrong with the world.

Please do your part to spread the word to your fellow nihilists. (by definition, not my opinion nor an insult)

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