Right now we seem to be living in the Electronic Age. A boom in technology that transforms essentially every aspect of our lives. What the hell could be next? After this? Something even more wild? What are we capable of?

The "we're fucked" stage?

The dehumanization age.

Either humanity is unable to advance, so we gradually lapse back to barbarism,  or we advance, but only by getting rid of old comfortable conceits about what being human means.

(January 29, 2019 at 9:17 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: The dehumanization age.

Either humanity is unable to advance, so we gradually lapse back to barbarism,  or we advance, but only by getting rid of old comfortable conceits about what being human means.

So, in other words, we just lapse back into barbarism.

(January 29, 2019 at 9:18 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(January 29, 2019 at 9:17 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: The dehumanization age.

Either humanity is unable to advance, so we gradually lapse back to barbarism,  or we advance, but only by getting rid of old comfortable conceits about what being human means.

So, in other words, we just lapse back into barbarism.

Getting rid of comfortable conceits about what being human means is not the same as barbarism.

(January 29, 2019 at 9:20 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:

(January 29, 2019 at 9:18 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: So, in other words, we just lapse back into barbarism.

Getting rid of comfortable conceits about what being human means is not the same as barbarism.

Or maybe I meant that getting rid of said comfortable conceits about what being human means is ultimately a pipe dream and not going to happen.

Extinction age.

(January 29, 2019 at 9:23 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(January 29, 2019 at 9:20 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: Getting rid of comfortable conceits about what being human means is not the same as barbarism.

Or maybe I meant that getting rid of said comfortable conceits about what being human means is ultimately a pipe dream and not going to happen.

Why? The eternal meaning of what it is to be human has changed as often as the whether. The only difference is people normally aren’t always so conceited about the whether of the day being the one eternal immutable meaning of weather.

Bio.  The third green revolution.

(January 29, 2019 at 9:56 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:

(January 29, 2019 at 9:23 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: Or maybe I meant that getting rid of said comfortable conceits about what being human means is ultimately a pipe dream and not going to happen.

Why?   The eternal meaning of what it is to be human has changed as often as the whether.   The only difference is people normally aren’t always so conceited about the whether of the day being the one eternal immutable meaning of weather.

Maybe it would have been better if we defined the comfortable conceits about what being human means that would have to be gotten rid of before I said it was a pipe dream.

If we're talking about the sort of green revolution Khem supported, as good as that sounds, for it to really have any real effect, well, I'm sure you remember the IPCC report a few months ago that said if we drastically reduced carbon emissions in the next few decades, we could mitigate the effects of global warming. They said it would require "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." And, of course, Trump, president of the country with the biggest production of carbon emissions behind China, more or less said, "Fuck that." Yes, one of the nations that really needed to pull their weight in this decided they didn't give a shit.

If you're thinking of the sort of "we must love one another or die" sentiment that W.H. Auden expounded upon in 1939, well, all you need to do is look at the news and see that (at least on a macro level) we've made our choice. And it ain't "love one another."

Honestly, I've had a deep abiding pessimism about humanity's chances towards self-improvement and self-destruction since I was a preteen, and the last few years have done nothing short of galvanising it. Sorry, Nom, but even if we do manage to make things better for ourselves, I know we'll find some way to fuck it all up somewhere down the road. I know this because that's what we've always done.