New study on mass extinction of species

[abaris]

There's plenty else out there looking to gut us at any given moment, we are all safer with each other, objectively, rather than without each other...and that takes into account war and murder and all sorts of nasty shit.  That's who we are.  I'm not a fortune teller, though, so...leave that to those interested.

Yeah, sure, could be another dino killer coming to get us. But, as far as I am aware, we are the first species, who could get the job done without any outside help.

[The Grand Nudger]

We're also the only species we know of that can bridge the gap when our biology fails.  If we get hit by a moon sized rock tommorrow, we're all done, all of us, all life...and that means that human beings had their talons on the gold ring when it all ended.  The kind of war needed to annihilate us as a species would leave little to nothing in it;s wake...no...not even the roaches.  Again, we are on the podium, because there just isn't much time left, geologically and evolutionarily speaking..until it's lights out no matter what for whatever remains on earth (remember, we're well into the back 9 between the dawn of life and the end of a habitable earth)....and even in this....we're among the lucky few that even have a -chance- of avoiding that, however slim.

It;s not so much that I think we're super-awesome, as it is that we were advantageously placed on the gate.

[Anomalocaris]

Dinosaurs stretched their -dominance- out for 135 million years.  We, as a single species, are -slightly- more capable than they ever were (even adding all of their success together), and we're what, 2 million years and change in, at the most generous of estimates.?  

But the dinos weren't as well equipped and willing to destroy their environment as we are. So lights out will probably happen a lot sooner than within 1 to 2.8 billion or even 135 million years.

Dinosaurs didn't change their environments faster than they could adapt to it.  Rather the environment was change under their feet, in a space of just a few hours, by a large Boulder from the sky. 

Be it as it may, the required time span over which species of dinosaurs would evolve to adapt to large environmental changes of a magnitude comparable to those following asteroid impacts is probably to be measured in millions to tens of millions Of years.  So they had no prayer.  

But I imagine technology and our organization power gives us the ability to adapt to similar magnitude of environmental change over perhaps a couple of hundreds of years.   That speed won't save us if another big asteroid hits.    But the current environmental catastrophe we wrought is not anywhere close in magnitude to the chixalube impact, and its effects on the climate and biosphere will likely take several hundred year to play out.    So no, I don't think we will get our comuppance for instigating this current mass extinction.

I think progressives too flippantly underestimate when chips are down, how difficult we humans are to completely eradicate.

[Anomalocaris]

There's plenty else out there looking to gut us at any given moment, we are all safer with each other, objectively, rather than without each other...and that takes into account war and murder and all sorts of nasty shit.  That's who we are.  I'm not a fortune teller, though, so...leave that to those interested.

Yeah, sure, could be another dino killer coming to get us. But, as far as I am aware, we are the first species, who could get the job done without any outside help.

I think you underestimate how clever and adaptable humans are when put to the task.   We are vastly destructive, yes.  But we are even more annoyingly difficult to eradicate completely.  I don't think we have the power to eradicate ourselves.

[abaris]

I think you underestimate how clever and adaptable humans are when put to the task.   We are vastly destructive, yes.  But we are even more annoyingly difficult to eradicate completely.  I don't think we have the power to eradicate ourselves.

We would have to work together for starters. A dino killer on the horizon or the very remote possibility of an alien invasion might just do that. My concern is rather that we keep on bickering between each other until time runs out.

[The Grand Nudger]

We -do- work together, and yes, that's including and accounting for wars and murders and all of the nasty shit.  Hell, we work together to do the nasty shit, wouldn't even be possible if we didn't. I think we'll probably be bickering with each other regardless, until our time runs out, whatever time that is.

[Anomalocaris]

While human capacity to kill each other might seem great, it has not been as great as human capacity to make up the losses. During both world wars, the massive casualties not only didn't decrease the world's overall population even temporarily, they didn't even appreciably dent the rate of population increase over the very years during which those wars were fought.

[Secular Elf]

We -do- work together, and yes, that's including and accounting for wars and murders and all of the nasty shit.  Hell, we work together to do the nasty shit, wouldn't even be possible if we didn't.  I think we'll probably be bickering with each other regardless, until our time runs out, whatever time that is.

Yeah, we probably will. As nice as it was to see it depicted on TV, the Star Trek version of humanity's future may be just a pipe dream. I personally thought we would be on Mars by the year 2000. Now I am wondering if I will ever see it in my life time.

[The Grand Nudger]

Of course Star Trek is a pipedream.  Think "Halliburton in Space".  Gotta put your coin in the slot if you want the oxygen to keep comin.

[Secular Elf]

First, watch the video.  If you cannot see it in your country, click on "Show Content" below to unhide a bit of the text that is relevant.  For others, you should watch the video first, as the hidden text is a bit of a spoiler.

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"...  Originally there where many varieties of birds on earth. Some have become extinct, the great auk, the passenger pigeon and the famous dodo bird have all disappeared. Actually they didn’t exactly disappear, they were simply killed off, but of course, this is nature’s way. Man merely hurries a process along whenever he can be of help. ..."

http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/feature-articles/hitchcocks_trailers_part2/

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Love Alfred Hitchcock!

Looks like CBS will be airing a movie that tips its hat to The Birds and goes beyond it:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/zoo/video/7D506...e-trailer/