I say unlikely
I say unlikely
I don't know. Let's ask Mr. Owl...
The real question is will it exist 50 yrs from now? There are many that say that our excessive population growth and consumption will kill us. Nature will halt this process with disease and an epedemic.
lets ask sylvia brown
mwwwin wrote:
The real question is will it exist 50 yrs from now? There are many that say that our excessive population growth and consumption will kill us. Nature will halt this process with disease and an epedemic.
Yes. Such savants as Thomas Malthus and Paul Erlich told us the same thing. As of yet, they are wrong. Humans are the most, or among the most, widely distributed, adaptable, and resilient species around. We live in the Sahara, the Amazon basin, Greenland and the Artic Circle, the Great Plains. We'll make it.
Hah I was about to reply with Malthus before I read your reply. Maybe something like 500 years is a good question...
The Huge Manatee?
I think you first need to define "humanity." Obviously there's a much greater chance of a small number of humans surviving to 50,000 years from now than an entire population of billions. While the population may take huge hits from things like disease, starvation, or pollution, there's no way it would wipe out all of us. We're the dominant species for a reason, and if the shit hit the fan for our planet many would die but the strongest of us would pull through. 50,000 years is a very long time in our terms, long enough for entire civilizations to collapse and rebuild many times. So unless we broaden our pool of resources by colonizing other worlds there will probably be a series of growth periods followed by collapses. The height of civilization that we've reached today may never be achieved again though, as resources like oil have been a huge help in getting us as far as we've come and they won't be there the next around.
"The height of civilization that we've reached" We have only scratched the surface. A thousand and then ten thousand years from now man will be astounded when they uncover artifacts and find out how primitive we were in this century.
Only scratched the surface wrote:
"The height of civilization that we've reached" We have only scratched the surface. A thousand and then ten thousand years from now man will be astounded when they uncover artifacts and find out how primitive we were in this century.
Especially when they read accounts of the Bush presidency...
mwwwin wrote:
The real question is will it exist 50 yrs from now? There are many that say that our excessive population growth and consumption will kill us. Nature will halt this process with disease and an epedemic.
i'm always confused when people say that excessive population growth will kill us. the species is more likely to die off because there are too many of us?
"In the Year 2525. If man is still alive. If woman can survive..." Zager & Evans
Only scratched the surface wrote:
"The height of civilization that we've reached" We have only scratched the surface. A thousand and then ten thousand years from now man will be astounded when they uncover artifacts and find out how primitive we were in this century.
Like when they uncover the ancient Letsrun archives.
No. Are you kidding?
If we are still around in 50,000 years, no doubt there will still be people on the street corners holding up signs that say "Jesus is coming soon"
get ugly wrote:
i'm always confused when people say that excessive population growth will kill us. the species is more likely to die off because there are too many of us?
"Too many of us" = not enough food, resources --> leads to chaos. As said earlier, the entire species will not die off for a very long time, but it can't simply continue growing unchecked. Great problems will come when we reach the vague "carrying capacity" of earth.
Stephen Hawking says we'd better get our asses in gear establishing colonies on the moon and Mars.
He's one smart MoFo, so 50K years from now this shithouse will be nothing more than an orbiting, smoldering chunk of wasteland.
Overpopulation is unlikely to be a problem since almost all postindustrial societies have a birth rate crisis at the moment. In preindustrial, agrarian societies, you want to have kids because they help you produce more. In postindustrial societies, kids just cost money. If humans are around in 500 years, I would guess that there would be fewer of us.
Let\'s try FIFTY years, nevermind 50,000
I think so. It may be barely recognizeable, but humanity has a tendency to pull through tough times.
