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What does the Cheetah and the human have in common?

coberst

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What does the Cheetah and the human have in common?

Quickie from Wiki: “The cheetah is a vulnerable species. Out of all the big cats, it is the least able to adapt to new environments. It has always proved difficult to breed in captivity, although recently a few zoos have managed to succeed at this. Once widely hunted for its fur, the cheetah now suffers more from the loss of both habitat and prey.”

The cheetah has adapted to its environment by making itself faster and faster. Unfortunately these adaptations have placed it in jeopardy of extinction because in the process of becoming faster it has lost its ability to protect its kill from other animals. The cheetah has become too specialized and thus faces extinction.

I would say that we humans have a similar problem. We have developed specialization to the extent that we place all of our focus upon technology with little knowledge or appreciation of the human sciences that will make it possible for us to manage this high tech world that we have created.

Both the cheetah and the human species face the same paradox. They both have so finely tuned their adaption to the world that their specialization will mean their extinction.

I suspect that within the next 200 years we humans will most likely bring an end to our species and possibly the end to all life on this planet.

I think that the only way to prevent this is for our species to become much more intellectually sophisticated than it is now; I see little evidence that this will occur. The problems we face today are enormous and while we have the brain power to prevent this we may well not have the necessary character traits to do so. I suspect our species is a dead end species.

Do you think that the human species might extinguish it self within a few centuries?
 

Athenian200

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Do you think that the human species might extinguish it self within a few centuries?

Yeah, it might happen.

But I think what's more likely is that we'll screw up things so badly that we end up ruining most of our technology and going back to the Dark Ages way of life.
 

Feops

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"Technology" is too vague a concept to be overly specialized in.
 

Into It

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I think that the only way to prevent this is for our species to become much more intellectually sophisticated than it is now; I see little evidence that this will occur. The problems we face today are enormous and while we have the brain power to prevent this we may well not have the necessary character traits to do so. I suspect our species is a dead end species.

Do you think that the human species might extinguish it self within a few centuries?

Intellectual sophistocation? Maybe. But only a few of us have bombs. I see the problem as political, rather than revolving around character traits. Character is molded by ones surroundings. Look at the patriots, look at the zealots. Character trickles down from above. The root of the problem is not character. But I have thought of this "specialization" problem before, and it is an interesting view, but I agree Feops in that "technology" is too broad and external to be considered a specialized trait, and that the comparison is not valid for that reason, though it is entertaining.

I also agree with liddle athenian. The future does not look as bright as it could potentially be to me. The book Brave New World, even though it kind of sucked in my opinion :rolleyes:, paints a decent picture of what may come. It may be truly understood at the highest echelons of control that for humans to survive, they must be protected from themselves first and foremost. One body will eventually control all of the superweapons, then the internet will be censored by the World Body, then the internet will be eliminated, (You would be surprised who is ALREADY calling the internet the "most dangerous threat in the world" - and this lie WILL spread.) Crash the finance of every person and business in the Northeastern U.S. and suddenly, with the help of pointed propaganda, paper, analogue, and the ways of yesterday begin to look more and more appealing. We will have physical pleasures and comfort - our advanced technology at this stage guarantees that we will have it cheaply. But we will not grow. And we will not be meant to grow. But we will survive. A number of us, at least.
 

Feops

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Intellectual sophistocation? Maybe. But only a few of us have bombs. I see the problem as political, rather than revolving around character traits. Character is molded by ones surroundings. Look at the patriots, look at the zealots. Character trickles down from above. The root of the problem is not character. But I have thought of this "specialization" problem before, and it is an interesting view, but I agree Feops in that "technology" is too broad and external to be considered a specialized trait, and that the comparison is not valid for that reason, though it is entertaining.

I also agree with liddle athenian. The future does not look as bright as it could potentially be to me. The book Brave New World, even though it kind of sucked in my opinion :rolleyes:, paints a decent picture of what may come. It may be truly understood at the highest echelons of control that for humans to survive, they must be protected from themselves first and foremost. One body will eventually control all of the superweapons, then the internet will be censored by the World Body, then the internet will be eliminated, (You would be surprised who is ALREADY calling the internet the "most dangerous threat in the world" - and this lie WILL spread.) Crash the finance of every person and business in the Northeastern U.S. and suddenly, with the help of pointed propaganda, paper, analogue, and the ways of yesterday begin to look more and more appealing. We will have physical pleasures and comfort - our advanced technology at this stage guarantees that we will have it cheaply. But we will not grow. And we will not be meant to grow. But we will survive. A number of us, at least.

Vague pessimist rhetoric. "Blah blah doom humans suck society sucks humanity will stagnate or backslide blah the ways of the past were better blah".
 
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