Very sweet video

[anachronistic]

And I also find it funny that we are considered the smartest beings on this planet.

When we go out and destroy our ozone layer. We go out and cut down cypress tree's which are Louisiana's best defense against hurricanes. We continue to tear down forests despite the fact that tree's help absorb the massive amounts of CO2 we pump into the air. We upset natural ecosystems, we cause species to become extinct every day, we will sell our souls and our planet for what...? For survival? To ensure continuation of our species? No, for money. Something so utterly worthless yet so important.

The only reason humans appear 'smarter' than some animals, is because humans depend on each other. Take a random person from LA and put them in the wild; chances are they will not survive. Most of humanity has devolved into a bunch of civilized, circumcised monkeys. Put them up against a tiger.... not even a tiger... a bobcat. I will bet you the bobcat would win.

Many animals are stronger and have many more defense mechanisms than the millennial human... chances are, if you can't out smart them, they are going to kill you.

[Aegis]

The only reason humans appear 'smarter' than some animals, is because humans depend on each other....Put them up against a tiger.... not even a tiger... a bobcat. I will bet you the bobcat would win.

^- This here is an example of our critical thinking at work. We haven't really specified what "smarter" means, but we're going to measure it by putting a human in a cage with a bobcat. "There you go human, prove you're smarter than the bobcat...Go!"

[Aegis]

'wing...I will never, ever understand you.

[anachronistic]

: how come?

I didn't say put a human in a cage with a bobcat... what I meant, was, if a human encountered one of these creatures in the wild... then...

Simple concept. I'll pm you when I have it fully written out and on my website. Clearly, if you were 'smarter' than the bobcat, you'd be able to trick it into your submission. But no, how about we give you (no, not talking directly to you Aegis) a 12 gauge... yeah, then you might be able to defend yourself, if you can manage to pull the trigger... while you may not know a damn thing about how the device operates, or how it came to it's current state.

I'm guessing most humans would piss their pants and start crying... either that or try to run away, and get mauled to death. Some would try to climb up the tree, only to discover that their predator can do the same.

I guess you could read a few books on how to defend yourself... or maybe take a shotty with you wherever you go. But take all that away. Put a human in an environment where he or she has to rely on his or her instincts. What would happen? I think the chances of survival would be quite low - and this disgusts me.

[IndiReloaded]

And I also find it funny that we are considered the smartest beings on this planet.

When we go out and destroy our ozone layer. We go out and cut down cypress tree's which are Louisiana's best defense against hurricanes. We continue to tear down forests despite the fact that tree's help absorb the massive amounts of CO2 we pump into the air. We upset natural ecosystems, we cause species to become extinct every day, we will sell our souls and our planet for what...? For survival? To ensure continuation of our species? No, for money. Something so utterly worthless yet so important.

Well, if its any consolation, it is extremely unlikely we will utterly destroy the earth. Even our most powerful weapons, all detonated at once, can't do that. Worse case is that we make it completely unlivable for ourselves and we die off as a species. But some life will remain & will fill the niche we leave behind. Its happened before. Remember the earth grows in terms of millions of years, and we are an incredibly young species by that reckoning. The dinosaurs existed much, much longer than we have, tho ppl forget that fact while discussing our 'superiority'.

There's a great timeline graph that illustrates the existence of humans as a fraction of the earth's total age (and other species). Its quite sobering to view it from that perspective (we are a mere sliver). I'll try to find it (unless someone else finds it first).

[IndiReloaded]

Here's the link, please look its quite interesting:

[url]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Geologic_clock.jpg[/url]

[DoesntMatter]

I think the time is long overdue to start making Mars a habitable planet through human intervention

Oh and BTW, the Phoenix recently revealed that there IS water on the Martian surface Cool eh?

[Aegis]

The thing is, unlike us, the dinosaurs were too stupid to pro-actively hurt themselves as species.

...and water or ice? Ice, I assume?

[IndiReloaded]

Humans are expansionist. I used to think we could change our ways, but I don't think we have the self-control or even desire to limit ourselves as a species. We really are quite viral in a lot of ways, which isn't surprising given how much of our genome is made up of viral elements.

The only way we will survive as long as the dinosaurs is to get off the planet, agreed.

[DoesntMatter]

Necessity is going to force change in the future. There just needs to be that element of motivation (necessity) for it to happen. Right now, the need to change things like controlling the population (China finally got one thing right) and not using alternative energy just don't have a pressing enough reason to yet. When gas prices double what they are now, THEN there will be change in energy consumption patterns (finally). I too, though, wish their could be some more proactivity

And what you said about humans having a virus component reminds me of what Agent Smith said to Morpheus in the Matrix, but that isn't true. Our behavior IS very much like most other living things, you continue to reproduce until you find an equilibrium. Clearly we haven't hit that equilibrium yet. And viruses get a bad rap for being a model for our expansionist behavior. The lysogenic cycle of a virus is THEIR equilibrium, they don't just kill everything they infect

[Aegis]

I think the real concern is that due to technology, we'll hit that equilibrium point far sooner than we realize and by the time we do, we'll be in lol...a world of shit. :p

[DoesntMatter]

Naw, the concern is that we're gonna shoot up far past the equilibrium point

[Aegis]

Yeah, that's what I mean

[Tone]

Well, if its any consolation, it is extremely unlikely we will utterly destroy the earth. Even our most powerful weapons, all detonated at once, can't do that. Worse case is that we make it completely unlivable for ourselves and we die off as a species. But some life will remain & will fill the niche we leave behind. Its happened before. Remember the earth grows in terms of millions of years, and we are an incredibly young species by that reckoning. The dinosaurs existed much, much longer than we have, tho ppl forget that fact while discussing our 'superiority'.

There's a great timeline graph that illustrates the existence of humans as a fraction of the earth's total age (and other species). Its quite sobering to view it from that perspective (we are a mere sliver). I'll try to find it (unless someone else finds it first).

Yeah I know all about that.

I just watched a program on National Geographic not more than a week ago talking about how the earth will be fine. Even if we complete deplete all natural resources and exterminate all other species (except the cockroach of course) that life will find a way. They also talked about even if every nuclear weapon went off at once the earth would be alright.

The earth will be fine, we on the other hand will not.

That's more what I was focusing on... the fact that we are bringing our own demise onto ourselves.

[IndiReloaded]

Well, if we are lemmings running towards a cliff, Tone, I just hope there's a few of us that can fly when we leap off. Huzzah for manned spaceflight, is all I can say.

But, from the perspective of life on earth, its really 'shrug', I'm afraid. DNA will keep on dividing and spreading, thru us or not.