Outer Space Thread

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Well said, jim.

Further, a lot of the things that make humans so much 'better' will also be their/our downfall. If, let's say, farming of animals and crops falls on hard times, people aren't equipped to find their own food. Why would we be? We've become reliant on grocery stores for that. (Not saying it's a bad thing, it's just not an evolutionary advantage) And, if farming falls on hard times, it's only logical that wildlife and plants will as well. If farmers, professional plant growers, can't grow plants, what makes you think other humans will be able to? Same for animals. If ranchers can't raise cows, what makes anyone confident that wildlife necessary for meat will be available?

[jim]

As a species our dependency on things out of our control is increasing, and you are right that one day if we wake up and one of those things is broken we are screwed. Which is why I worry about attacks on our infrastructure etc... Can you imagine if we lost some key function - electricity or whatever - in the entire country? If that happened 100 years ago, no big deal. If it happens today, chaos.

[pioneer98]

I disagree that humans aren't better from an evolutionary standpoint than most species. No, we aren't like the tardigrade where we could survive in the vacuum of space on an asteroid or something but it depends how do you measure evolutionary strength. The huge advantage we have is our diversity. Not only do we have huge diversity in our physical properties compared to other species, but we have cultural diversity as well (other species don't even have culture). Cultural diversity is like our first line of defense - meaning if some catasrophe happened, maybe 99% of cultures wouldn't figure out how to survive, but maybe a few would learn a new way of doing things that worked. We already have examples of this - sanitation, STD's/sex education, food safety, irrigation, etc.

If it is a problem that culture cannot solve (like some new airborne supervirus or something), only a couple dozen of us out of 8 billion need to be immune to it for the species to survive. Again, other species just don't have that level of diversity.

If a giant burst of gamma rays baked the planet then yeah, we're probably screwed but so is probably 99% of the life on the planet. Just because we might not survive something like that doesn't mean we aren't better at surviving in general than the vast majority of species. Species that survive mass extinction events are like Hall of Famers. Maybe we're not in the Evolutionary Hall of Fame yet but we're probably at least in the Evolutionary Hall of Very Good.

[jim]

It's like our rookie season, we just started. We are Greg Garcia. I don't think you can put us in the Hall of anything yet.

[jim]

Also - the variation in human DNA (referring to your diversity comment) is lower than most species:

https://www.quora.com/Do-humans-have-a- ... population

Making us more susceptible I would think to one condition changing event.

[Myles]

Right, that's my point. On an evolutionary scale, humans are terrible. I'm surprised we've made it this far, really. But, we still have managed to do *something* regarding space travel/exploration. Is it a lot? Of course not. Look at how stupid we are.

We're smarter than dinosaurs, but that's not saying much.

Still I think your statement about humans being terrible on an evolutionary scale is wrong.
We have evolved to be able to exist in most places on the planet. We have evolved to set foot on the moon, place vehicles on Mars and live in a space station.

[pioneer98]

Someone should ask Elon Musk about Roko's Basilisk.

I had not read about it until now but it's basically The Matrix: Reloaded

[wart57]

Humans don't evolve to fit a climate or place they live, they adapt the environment to their needs.

I live in Phoenix [expletive] Arizona, it was 115 degrees the other day. I was sitting in a nice cool house, drinking nice cold water/beer in the middle of a [expletive] desert.

Humans are a parasite that will not go quietly.

[tlombard]

FYI, I heard that aliens were on their way to destroy humans and take over the planet last month but turned around when they found out that Trump might be our next President. They figured they would just save the trouble and show back up in four years when Trump's already done most of the work.

[wart57]

FYI, I heard that aliens were on their way to destroy humans and take over the planet last month but turned around when they found out that Trump might be our next President. They figured they would just save the trouble and show back up in four years when Trump's already done most of the work.

They decided not to come, they heard Trump was going to build a force field around earth and make them pay for it....