Hacker News Reader

Comment by loceng | Hacker News Reader

Not sure why you're being so downvoted, must be people who haven't read Darwin or know about mass extinction from things like floods and meteorites - like that wiped out most dinosaurs.

If we don't get society under "control" - and not through the ideological-tyrannical effort underway globally currently - but through voluntarily taking action through adequate organization of listening to and following competent leadership (voting with our dollars, say by buying a Tesla vehicle, etc) - then we'll probably destroy most humans/life on Earth anyhow and whatever survives will be able to continue to evolve; and maybe, if any humans remain, they'll be wise enough to pass on and successfully counter tyrannical forces that exist within the human genome.

View on HN

> voting with our dollars, say by buying a Tesla vehicle, etc

Buying a Tesla is not going to save the climate. Not even if everyone does it. We need transportation options that scale. That means density, bikes, buses, trains. It means anything except personal 2+ ton motor vehicles.

Your flippancy about mass extinction leads me to believe you aren't internalizing any of the suffering therein, or the loss.

Extinction happens, and, more broadly, death happens. However, we don't stand and deliver a eulogy composed of "idk, people die, no big deal" at a family member's funeral. Immense loss imparts grief.

What exactly did I say that made you think I don't take life seriously?

From all I can see is you incorrectly simplified what I said to a strawman argument of '"idk, people die, no big deal"'.

The reality is over the last 10+ years, without going into any details, I've been working towards and exponentially being closer and closer to helping humanity survive and change course as quickly and efficiently as possible; the current issue is a lack of adequate communication and organization, and properly designed tools, systems, and protocols - along with most major existing systems having been captured partly or fully by bad actors who seem hellbent on destabilizing society to prevent them from being held accountable, as well an attempt to gain full control over everything and everyone.

But being a realist is important if the odds are unknown, like how Elon is aiming for and where all signs point to him being successful creating a colony on Mars far sooner than later as a backup plan, backup site for humanity - when even 5 years ago that wasn't even on anyone's radar; seeing exponentials, as Elon has said, are very difficult for people to see - but that is where hope, along with automation and technology leveraged and utilized for good, in the right organization for the right purposes, is what can very quickly right the spaceship called Earth; unimaginably quickly - that even those who see and setup these systems following foundational principles will be surprised by their speed of development and uptake.

The post is about the experience of grief in response to internalizing the scale of earth and the negative human impact thereon. You responded to a post that implicitly shrugged off the negative impacts as inevitable or necessary with "I don't know why you're being downvoted," in essence, supporting the response.

I wasn't making a straw man, or simplifying, I was pointing out a lack of recognition that said grief is kind of the topic at hand.

Side note, saving humanity on Mars is cool and all, I'm totally for it, but in the event that actually happens, all of an entire planets lives and ecosystems will be destroyed. Exploration is aspirational, but, as a "backup plan," Mars is an incredibly bleak and sad future to rely on.

It's just literally not true. Species can evolve without their predecessors going extinct?

Fair enough, my dislike of downvotes had me not carefully reading his short comment that I clearly skimmed.

I gather that tyrannical forces are something our species will continue to deal with for our evolution.

I'd counter that tyrannical forces actually spurs humanity in the right direction. I say this because I have notice over the years that our species have been dealing with this problem since the birth of mankind. This is an observation, not a plug for tyranny.

Tyranny generally results in stagnation. It’s a bottleneck. All the power and decisions reduced to a single individual or group of individuals leaves no room for experimentation and growth. Progress becomes single threaded instead of parallel.

Indeed, it kills creativity and passion.

Part of yin-yang cycle.

We've been in a yin-dark ages cycle, relatively slow moving, and will be moving into yang cycle - fast, exponential change. The technological innovation and distribution of technology via automation and capitalism has overlaid the relative stagnancy of this current cycle making it appear to not be a dark age, when clearly, with any critical analysis things are far worse than they could or should be.

Sadly, it's the mad pursuit of said dollars that seems to be the primary driver behind our voracious appetite to consume nature.

Good thing then most of the riches in the near future available will be from space exploration and mining, that may then redirect the greedy to direct their resources to that endeavour?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com