A QUESTION ABOUT HUMANITY: Which Do You Belive Applies?
Do you believe in this "love will save us" thing or more the "hate will break us" stuff?
Are we screwed?

I don't mean minor screwage, but I mean, royally, and truly, beyond repair type 'screwed' and that we're headed downhill and it's just a matter of time before we wipe ourselves out?

Or do you believe that somehow, Humans will fix this?

Where are we now? Today?

Where do you see us ten years from now, a hundred, a thousand?

Human history comes in cycles.
The powerful consolidate their power until it's absolute, and having absolute power, they abuse it. They dehumanize anyone speaking against them. Those who have the intelligence to see what's wrong with the world either decide that everyone else is right, or that you just can't change the world drastically, it's not right. Or they speak up and no one listens.
Example: the African slave trade. People convinced themselves that africans needed them, that they were doing a service to them! And the people who knew it was wrong either decided, that's just the lot of the African. It's not pretty, but that's the way it is, because what else are you going to do? Kill slave owners? Good Christian men who are guilty of no other sin? They decide it's just not right to spill the blood of the "innocent." So they let it pass, hoping Africans will one day get the treatment they deserve, or they SPEAK, rather than fight. And the problem with that is that no one listens. Of course there were probably some who did try to free the slaves by force, but you can see how well that worked for them, and they were probably executed for their "crimes."
But eventually, dark ages like this come to an end. Eventually people get invested enough, or intellectual enough to widely reject ideas like slavery, or the feudal system, or whatever it is. And they build a new world order and things get drastically better. For a time. Everything is great until the new civilization peaks, but then, people get tired of the upward climb. People don't really want progression. They want security. They want everything settled, favorably, so they can look back on their triumphs and be content. But eventually "normalcy" begins to appeal to the masses, and then vigilance and progression are tossed aside and the people with the most interest in power are the ones who want to build a legacy, not of greatness, but of power, influence, pull. This is what happened to the United States. A Golden Age, followed by a lackluster decline into a nation completely different from what it once used to be. And eventually democracy and liberty will crumble. Maybe they'll never "officially" leave for good, but they'll decline further and further until everyone decides the Constitution is just an out-dated piece of paper written by a bunch of old men who were really clever for their time, but didn't know a thing about the world today. And the United States at least, will enter another dark age. And the cycle repeats.

Ignorance, blindness, lack of interest, badness. Then out of all that, reason, justice, vigilance and greatness return, but eventually it all falls apart and we're left back at the beginning.

So in that way, we're both doomed and safe.
There will always be more atrocities and failure in the future, but there will also always be more success and brilliance. I suppose until something changes drastically, we'll just play out this same cycle forever. Life, death, rebirth, death, rebirth, death, rebirth...
I think it's more likely than not, that eventually the cycle will be broken, and I think it will most likely be for the better. The end of this cycle would probably be our final destruction, like if humanity went extinct, or lost the power of the brain, or devolved or something, or it would probably be the establishment of an actual utopia. A civilization without a downfall or flaw with the vitality to renew itself eternally. Like a sort of philosophical and sociological perpetual motion.
Since I believe the latter is actually really simple, I think that will come before our destruction. So, I guess the simple answer to your question is that I think a human will build a utopia, and everything will be perfect and there will never be another dark age.
But that's a very arrogant view and I expect you to be skeptical.

I do believe humanity is heading for the better. But eh, at a very slow rate. It takes time for people to really understand the mistakes of the past. Well, i suppose if you don't head for the better, then we're screwed. I don't care though, if that's how it is, that's how it's gonna be.

I can't tell which way we're headed. I mean on the one hand, yes we got rid of slavery, but on the other hand, we have new ways of torture and delivering death--bio weapons, for example. o_O' I mean whomever engineered those sprays must've been pretty sick in the mind, no?

And way back in the day, zomg a beheading was such a bad thing..but now we send people to the electric chair to save space in our prisons, much the same way we send cattle and pigs in. It's "normal" now. -.o'

But on the other hand...we do have a more "aware" community..I just think we're somewhat uncaring now that there's so many people. It feels like not just animals, plants, the rest of the environment..but that people have become "disposable" or "replaceable" to one another.

I keep wanting to hope for more though. I see a lot of leaders on TV saying this or that or they'll change this or that for the better, etc...but then they don't..and that's a huge letdown. Dunno. I want to believe we can do better but if I base it on evidence alone, it seems we're kinda going downhill by lots, on a global scale.

I believe in 50 years or so we are totally screwed... I hate to admitt it but from the movies i've watched and the proof that they have shown in them it shows that humanity is going towards the end.

We can probably stop it if we do something about it now before it gets too late but that is up to the government and such. If the government wasn't so keen on making money and took a look to see what they were doing to our world they would probably put an end to it, but all they care about is how much cash their raking in.

Originally Posted by bestway2

I believe in 50 years or so we are totally screwed... I hate to admitt it but from the movies i've watched and the proof that they have shown in them it shows that humanity is going towards the end.

We can probably stop it if we do something about it now before it gets too late but that is up to the government and such. If the government wasn't so keen on making money and took a look to see what they were doing to our world they would probably put an end to it, but all they care about is how much cash their raking in.

Money isn't our problem. I assume you're talking about the United States government. It occurs to me I have no reason to believe that.
And if you're talking about England, or another nation altogether, I'm not so knowledgeable. But in the United State at any rate, I don't think the biggest problem is money. Yeah, record debt, and lots of inappropriate use of money, but I think it's a much bigger problem that the United States, the country founded on independence, freedom, liberty, democracy, all that stuff, tramples on people rights whenever it pleases.
If you suggested to people in the United States that they don't deserve their rights, they'd tell you that they would kill you before giving them up. And yet we have government surveillance of the populace at their discretion, torture at their discretion, arrests and detainment of anyone who is suspected of terrorism, which means at their discretion, marriage right denied to homosexuals, the fact that you just can't seem to be elected president if you're not a white christian man, the fact that the government can actually shut down gas stations for having prices that are too low, or for giving out to many discounts, and what does anyone do about it?
Nothing.

I don't know. I guess climate change could be traced to economic sources. It seems to me like people could make more money by facilitating the transition though. Everyone needs to buy a new car, every gas station needs new equipment, everyone needs new replacement parts, and so on.
I think it's very possible that in the next fifty years we'll see another collapse of the current system. But I doubt it will be the final gasp of humanity or rational thought.

Well i theink Allucard said most of it in the first post. money and power go hand in hand. but the states do seem to be on a decline from what it used to be. we are sinking. debt, bad money choices. people in charge making decisions that affect the masses making it harder for the lower income to get by. as point minumum wage for a full time worker barely gets you a roof over your head, health insurance and food. you need either two full time jobs to make enough to survive or get others to live with you. people turn to credit cards to buy things they cant aford and pull themselves further down into debt and can hardly get themselves back out of it again. people make money on the backs of laborers who just dont make enough. and this is living well?

The government hides facts from the people. one of which that probably everyone knows of now is global warming. for a long time they covered it up because they found it inconveniant that changing their ways would just be too hard to do to make the states an echo friendly nation. and now that temperatures are rising and more storms are brewing they are saying. oh look maybe we were wrong and only now things are changing. now we have cars that run off of other sorces that gas. People are speaking up about that atleast and trying to make a difference.

So all in all we probably are screwed. we go through renasaunces and dark ages. we will continue to pass through them until we ultimatly kill ourselves off.

Between all the unnecessary building,the so called child experts who tell us to "never strike a child" and the stupid politicians. Not only is society screwed, the planet is doomed. People have such a "I'm the only one who matters" attitude that manners are becoming a thing of the past and I blame all the so called child experts who tell children they are special and tell parents to basically not discipline the children, people feel they are special and don't have to follow rules or be polite to anyone. The politicians claim they care about the "little people and the environment but, all they really care about is lining their pockets. And then all the unnecessary building among a million other environmental concerns are killing the planet.

Where are we now? Today? We are in a rather sorry state. We have come to rely on technology more then humanity. We have come to be a society that is rude and doesn't give a damn about its fellow man. We have come to be very self independent and everyone else can pretty much go to hell in our own minds. At least this is what I see....its rare to see a simple kindness such as helping an old lady carry her groceries to the car...its more likely that she would be pushed in the mud then actually reseving help.

Where do you see us ten years from now, a hundred, a thousand? I believe humanity can fix themselves but on there current path I believe they are headed for there own distruction. If in fact we live to see a thousand years from now, and I doubt we will, I belive in our current downward spiral we will all live alone with our machines.....people will be obsolette.....

I think it's pretty clear that we've been on a downworld spiral throughout our existence on earth. On a positive note, we are becoming more accepting of one another and our differences. But on a negative note, we've also come to accept more negativity and innapropriate behavior. We make advancements in technology, but these advancements take their toll on our lives. What some people don't realize is that thesee computers and cell phones and MP3 players we use waste precious electricity and generate radiation, which can cause us to develope cancer. There is a limited amount of water left in the world, and we are wasting it. We are poisoning ourselves and our planet. Many believe that if we don't change in the next few years, our planet has less than a hundred years left.

A downward spiral throughout our existence on Earth? I'd certainly like to hope there's at least SOME optimism left for humanity. Like here in America; sure, there's racism and religious prejudice, but you can still see people of all different walks of life living together, working together, and being respectful of one another. Which is certainly better than what we used to do; lynch mobs, burning people at the stake, quartering them (particularly lovely), impaling them, shooting them, raping them, for what? All because they were different in some way, right?

Sure that still happens today in many places, but you have to realize that the opposite is also happening, you know? Even though there's still nations with centuries of hatred for one another, there are also plenty of examples of peoples with long, nasty histories between them reconciling, and cooperating with one another. Look at black and white people in America. We've gone from slavery, to separate but equal, to there just may be a black president on the horizon.

Anyways, I don't think all hope is lost :P

Unless humankind can pull out of the reoccurring cycles of history, we are, in fact..screwed. >.>

Throughout history there's been a period of enlightenment that turns corrupt and falls to a state of darkness before rising into the intellectual boom again. I personally think we still have a century to go, if mankind can make efforts to preserve the ecosystem while continuing to create and innovate.

It depends on what time scales you're giving us.

Ultimately, if we don't develop sufficient technology to escape the Earth before some big disaster happens, we're stuffed (and then we're reliant on not being stuffed somewhere ELSE in Space!) Big disasters could include a pandemic, a meteor, the sun burning out (I reckon we'll be dead or gone by then anyway, a meteor's more likely), the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way getting hungry... xO Some weird quantum thinger that... Well, a meteor is the most likely. I don't think global warming could knock every human out (I'm pissed-off enough that we're getting to other organisms with it, but we're more adaptable...)

...I don't think we can last forever, and will probably a civilisation that goes poof rather than lasting, most probably, from how I see things now.

I kind of see the possibility of us forming space colonies after the sun collapses... like becoming interstellar scavengers, like in Titan A.E.

Hmm.. humanity (in my opinion) isn't heading to a good start.

Yes, I said start.
This is the only 2nd millenium.
There are probably many more to come.

In about a billion years, the sun will exploded.
Not only because of old age, because of our resources.

We do not pay attention to them.

Global Warming is effecting us badly.
So is polution.

Once the aliens make their attack (which might be VERY soon) we'll be having war between mankind and space. Which we will overuse our resources, and then start to bomb in different places, and then kill half of the people on our planet. The aliens will like, brainwash most of the unites States (mostly because of our wealth and power over most things), then we'll become slaves to them. Then the overpopulated countries in Asia won't be hit as much as us. Then they'll help up regain our power while the aliens are probably going to plan a big explosion oevr everything. If they succeed, then we'll all die and perish. Then the aliens will take be the new generetaion. We would be "somewhere" else.

So, my prediction is that mankind will end because of careless-ness and karma.

OR
Global warming will effect us so badly, that all of our natural resources will become waste, and we won't have enough oxygen to breathe. [:

OR

What Berginyon said. We will probably be all over the galaxy.

A new possible lifeform will be discovered, and aliens would just be the thing of the past. They'll be like we are now, normal.

So, yeah.
I have made my point.

I'd like to believe we can get out of the explosion range of the sun soon enough...but you know what?

With the stupid politics and bickering and tardedness of humans..I think we might actually not make it. We'll be like, "ZOMG OhShiz! WE GONNA DIE!!!" And then ppl will frantically be trying to build things..but we'll have procrastinated too long and be screwed and probably get blown up a few years later because we won't have sufficient technology developed to escape the black hole our sun will become.

x.x'

But...that is long term.

I'm curious about short term. I mean..will we even make it to be in a position where we're worried about the sun?!