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Human Attitudes About Human Extinction

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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We have threads about mass extinctions (overall) and how a future mass extinction might affect humans.

We have a thread about voluntary human extinction (either literally or merely in terms of radical de-population):

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/voluntary-human-extinction.17220/

We have a thread addressing deliberate reduction of current and prospective human populations:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/proactive-human-population-reduction.27083/

However, we don't seem to have a thread concerning humans' attitudes toward the concept of our species' extinction.

As a result, I'm starting this new thread concerning what we think of the prospect of our own extinction.
 
The item that triggered the establishment of this thread was this recent article. Formal survey research seems to indicate humans are more afraid of a massive die-off or partial extinction than the notion of a complete eradication of humans. Furthermore, this seems to contrast with similar survey results regarding extinctions of other species.

Scientists: Human Extinction Is Extremely Likely
And people don't seem all that bothered by the possibility.

Forget nuclear weapons, biological warfare, and the slew of other ways humanity could cause its own destruction for a moment.

If you take into account only naturally occurring phenomena — supervolcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, and the like — researchers from the University of Oxford recently determined that the probability of our entire species going extinct in any given year is as high as one in 14,000.

Now consider this: In October, a separate team from Oxford published its own paper on human extinction in the journal Scientific Reports — and it found that people don’t seem to see the loss of humanity as uniquely tragic.

The second group of researchers asked more than 2,500 people in the United States and the United Kingdom to rank three possible scenarios from best to worst: no major catastrophe, a catastrophe that wipes out 80 percent of the human population, and a catastrophe that causes complete human extinction.

As you might expect, most people ranked no catastrophe as the best possibility and complete human extinction as the worst. But when asked to think about the difference in “badness” between the possibilities, most people were more bothered by the possibility of losing 80 percent of humanity than losing all of it.

“Thus, when asked in the most straightforward and unqualified way,” the researchers wrote, “participants do not find human extinction uniquely bad.”

When the researchers switched the whole scenario to focus on an animal species, though, survey respondents saw the loss of all zebras as worse than the loss of 80 percent of zebras.

The issue, it seems, is that survey respondents focused a lot on the individual human lives lost in scenario two — and how the deaths might affect those left behind — rather than on the loss of humanity as a whole.

In other words, we tend to think of a world without any zebras as more tragic than a world in which most zebras die. But for humankind, most people believe the reverse. ...

FULL STORY: https://futurism.com/scientists-human-extinction-likely

FULL COPY: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-we-don-t-care-all-that-much-if-humans-go-extinct
 
Hmmm. Guess I must be unusual in that I do care a bit.
 
No, cause id be one of them that dies, maybe something else can get to do that
 
Wouldn't it be normal for the dominant race to be replaced ultimately by something that has out-evolved them? (Putting aside my religious beliefs).
 
I think it is true to say that we can't bear to think much about our own personal extinction, which is a lot more likely in the near future. Hypotheticals, such as 100% or 80% extinction of the race are likely to produce a shrug.

Those of us who grew up in the Cold War years may remember hearing about MAD. This was the assumption underlying our "nuclear defences." During the escalation of tensions during the 1980s, populations found various contrasting ways to deal with their anxieties, from survivalism to disarmament. The more I learned about the aftermath of a nuclear war, the less attractive the option of personal survival appeared!

Would I feel different, if I had children? Parents are often fierce in their assertion of what they feel are the rights and interests of their offspring, however extreme they may seem. Given that those rights and interests are not always conducive to the general good, I wonder if our species has any instinct for survival in the broadest sense. :omr:
 
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I think it is true to say that we can't bear to think much about our own personal extinction, which is a lot more likely in the near future. Hypotheticals, such as 100% or 80% extinction of the race are likely to produce a shrug.

Those of us who grew up in the Cold War years may remember hearing about MAD. This was the assumption underlying our "nuclear defences." During the escalation of tensions during the 1980s, populations found various contrasting ways to deal with their anxieties, from survivalism to disarmament. The more I learned about the aftermath of a nuclear war, the less attractive the option of personal survival appeared!

Would I feel different, if I had children? Parents are often fierce in their assertion of what they feel are the rights and interests of their offspring, however extreme they may seem. Given that those rights and interests are not always conducive to the general good, I wonder if our species has any instinct for survival in the broadest sense. :omr:

A single death is a tragedy, a billion deaths is a big old LOL.
 
Wouldn't it be normal for the dominant race to be replaced ultimately by something that has out-evolved them? (Putting aside my religious beliefs).

Species don't necessarily "out-evolve" other ones, it's more random than that. They may get out-competed, which is not the same thing. Non-avian dinosaurs might still be here were it not for that asteroid and volcanic activity. We appear to be our own asteroid.
 
Depends greatly on how you think we'd go extinct:

Giant asteroid: sympathy, it was no fault of our own.
Nuclear War: whatever, it was out own fault, we deserved it.
 
God, you lot are never happier than when you’re dismal. ;)

Cheer up, it’s not going to happen!

maximus otter
 
God, you lot are never happier than when you’re dismal. ;)

Cheer up, it’s not going to happen!

maximus otter

Maybe not in your lifetime Maximus, but a very real possibility for a few generations down the time line.

Most people don't concern themselves with this question because there is damn all they can, as individuals, do about it.
 
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Can i choose let all the good people live and the bad ones die?

It seems to me this illustrates the apparent results of the study - i.e., that people are prone to express interest in a partial human "extinction" (i.e., a mass die-off of some sort), but can't or won't deal with the concept of a true "extinction" (i.e., disappearance of humans entirely).
 
I'm a cynic. I have never particularly liked the way of humans overall.

I also view people who think that they as a species would never die out, somewhat deluded and hubristic. Somewhere in our human history we have convinced ourselves that we are above every other species and not vulnerable.

That's my pessimistic viewpoint for today. My demeanour is not like this at all in public.
 
I am sad at the inevitable prospect of the demise of the human race. But I can see how it'd be good for the planet...

And, apart from the purely theoretical, what use is the planet from a human point of view if there are no humans on it ?
 
Well if there are no humans on it there would be no human point of view, so who cares, least if all the creatures survive it would probably be a better planet
 
Anybody ever watch Life After People, i think its History Channel, I loved it, bit of everything to do with, well, the title says it all, i loved it

I put this in both threads cause this series covers both,i think
 
There was a time that I believed that the human race and its welfare was sacrosanct and nothing else really mattered. While my "beliefs" have evolved quite a lot (in some ways) since I was little the importance of the race was always the single parameter for judging results and intentions.

This has changed! No longer is doing the right thing and having fun the sole purpose of life for me. Sure, doing the right thing is still important but now the parameter is my welfare and the welfare of those I care about with no concern for the welfare of any future.

I always knew that people are a product of their beliefs but I always had believed that most people want to believe what's real or what is real to them. I believed priests tried to instill proper behavior, cops only wanted to enforce laws made by sensible legislation. I even believe, most importantly, that scientists wanted to believe in reality and were striving to understand the nature of reality. But now I see none of this is true. Scientists are far more concerned about their place in the Peer pecking order and now most don't even accept "reality" as something that exists. They believe the universe is a hologram, a matrix, a reflection of mathematics, a probability, event horizon, independent of cause, or simply a shared experience.

Of course science can get back on track some day; back to experiment and experimental backed theory, but current times with my phone ringing all day long by someone in India who wants to steal from me with the help of Ma Bell and our government and with companies that destroy products in order to enrich the CEO's it merely highlights how bad humans really are. We are truly Homo Omnisciencis and immune to ideas and facts that don't fit our preexisting beliefs. We are immune to logic and operate principally on fear and greed now days where the greediest thrive and the most afraid die.

What's to save? What is the point at all if there can be no God to half the population and no objective reality to the either half? Why should anyone beat himself silly to save us? Why care that humans are probably going extinct in the next century if nothing can be done to save us?
 
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