Are humans only the larval stage?

[Quintessence]

That's a little pessimistic, what about all the wonderful things humans have achieved because of technology. And all the amazing positive futuristic technologies that could make the world and humanity a better place.

I'm not sure but I imagine thousands of years a go, pagans where using all sorts of technologies to make the world a better place.

I don't believe in "better place" salvation nonsense, especially technological. More than any other factor, the gods of technology so many worship are responsible for the present sixth mass extinction and environmental crises - climate change, air pollution, microplastic pollution, etc. It has done vastly more harm than good considering a mass extinction event can easily be considered the ultimate form of destruction on a planet, short of blowing the planet itself up.

 

[Madsaac]

I don't believe in "better place" salvation nonsense, especially technological. More than any other factor, the gods of technology so many worship are responsible for the present sixth mass extinction and environmental crises - climate change, air pollution, microplastic pollution, etc. It has done vastly more harm than good considering a mass extinction event can easily be considered the ultimate form of destruction on a planet, short of blowing the planet itself up.

Okay fair enough, I agree as a result of technology there are certain negatives with the way humanity is travelling, I for one have been banging on about climate change for decades but I have faith that things will be okay.

And never forget about the fact that now you can live an extra 30 years, visit the other side of the planet easily, contact people from all over the world, understand your moods and have information available to make a judgement on the your course of action locally and globally. The positives are great and endless.

All because of technology.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Humans do not have a larval stage.
However evolution still has a long way to go as it is a continuous process. Though it is a process that can lead to extinction if it is not fast enough to keep up with environmental changes.
Should mankind still exist in a million years time, it could be very different to today.
It might easily have regressed rather than advanced as a species. A fork in the process could easily lead to a new species taking our place as leaders in the worlds ecosystem. In the same way that modern man replaced Neanderthals and other branches of humanity.
Change or extinction is a certainty.

Individual Humans have no more permanency our than a house fly.
Our heritage exists only in our offspring.

 

[Quintessence]

Okay fair enough, I agree as a result of technology there are certain negatives with the way humanity is travelling, I for one have been banging on about climate change for decades but I have faith that things will be okay.

And never forget about the fact that now you can live an extra 30 years, visit the other side of the planet easily, contact people from all over the world, understand your moods and have information available to make a judgement on the your course of action locally and globally. The positives are great and endless.

All because of technology.

I would happily erase all of humanity's self-centered and self-serving technology if it meant ... I dunno... not having tens of thousands of counts of genocide of various species and ecosystems. But apparently I'm weird like that.

​

Since 1992, with the exception of stabilizing the stratospheric ozone layer, humanity has failed to make sufficient progress in generally solving these foreseen environmental challenges, and alarmingly, most of them are getting far worse (figure 1, file S1). Especially troubling is the current trajectory of potentially catastrophic climate change due to rising GHGs from burning fossil fuels (Hansen et al. 2013), deforestation (Keenan et al. 2015), and agricultural production—particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption (Ripple et al. 2014). Moreover, we have unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years, wherein many current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of this century.

​

World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice

Twenty-five years ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists and more than 1700 independent scientists, including the majority of living Nobel laureates in the

academic.oup.com

​

I'm not at all optimistic about the trajectories here. Most scientists who study this aren't. The data are bleak. If humans are in some "larval" stage we are basically marinating ourselves in pesticides and will kill ourselves and our world before we butterfly.

But we also aren't giving up. I went into conservation biology - restoration work in particular - for a reason. Someone has to clean up the technofetishist messes. I would just prefer if the fetishists would, I dunno, knock it off? Restored ecosystems are never as rich and wonderful as the ones that were annihilated under the boot of these allegedly fantastic technologies.

 

[John D. Brey]

Are humans only the larval stage?

If so, the larval stage of what?

Perhaps groups of humans, sedentary and packed together in communities, cities, and webs of electromagnetic communication, are already beginning to form a network as far beyond thought as thought is from the concerted swimming of spirochetes [motile bacteria]. We stand no more chance of being aware of the totality of such a form of group organization than do the individual components of brain cells – microtubules, the putative remnants of spirochetes – understand their own mission in our human consciousness.​

​

Lynn Margulis, National Academy of Science, National Medal of Science, Darwin-Wallace Medal, wife of Carl Sagan, mother of Dorian Sagan, quotation from Microcosmos, p. 153.​

John

 

[Madsaac]

I would happily erase all of humanity's self-centered and self-serving technology if it meant ... I dunno... not having tens of thousands of counts of genocide of various species and ecosystems. But apparently I'm weird like that.

​

​

World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice

Twenty-five years ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists and more than 1700 independent scientists, including the majority of living Nobel laureates in the

academic.oup.com

​

I'm not at all optimistic about the trajectories here. Most scientists who study this aren't. The data are bleak. If humans are in some "larval" stage we are basically marinating ourselves in pesticides and will kill ourselves and our world before we butterfly.

But we also aren't giving up. I went into conservation biology - restoration work in particular - for a reason. Someone has to clean up the technofetishist messes. I would just prefer if the fetishists would, I dunno, knock it off? Restored ecosystems are never as rich and wonderful as the ones that were annihilated under the boot of these allegedly fantastic technologies.

Yes, I see what you mean and you are right.

If we keep treating the Earth in the same way, humanity will be in bigger trouble. Everything is out of balance.

However, is technology our best bet to deal with our problems?

And, we are allowed to enjoy some of the amazing scientific wonders that have been created

 

[Aupmanyav]

Yes according to Meher Baba "The transition from sensation to reason was one such step; the transition from reason to intuition will be another."

Babas, not just Indians, always come up with silly predictions.
Perhaps we are doomed because of our intelligence and egos.

 

[Quintessence]

Yes, I see what you mean and you are right.

If we keep treating the Earth in the same way, humanity will be in bigger trouble. Everything is out of balance.

However, is technology our best bet to deal with our problems?

And, we are allowed to enjoy some of the amazing scientific wonders that have been created

I don't believe technology will be humanity's savior, as I've probably gestured to before. Not because it is hypothetically impossible, but because humans ensure it is practically impossible. We don't have a culture that respects the land, that respects limits, that respects the other-than-human world. At least not in my country. We killed that culture - the indigenous people whose land we stole from them. In other countries it is different - ones that haven't been usurped by greed and consumerism. Who didn't do genocide against their indigenous traditions and populations. They are few and far between but they exist. I read stories like this one and they are the ones that give me hope:

'Anything that can be built can be taken down': The largest dam removal in US history is complete – what happens next?

The Klamath River is free of four huge dams for the first time in generations. But for the Yurok tribe, the river's restoration is only just beginning – starting with 18 billion seeds.

www.bbc.com

More of this. We need so, so much more of this.

 

[Madsaac]

I don't believe technology will be humanity's savior, as I've probably gestured to before. Not because it is hypothetically impossible, but because humans ensure it is practically impossible. We don't have a culture that respects the land, that respects limits, that respects the other-than-human world. At least not in my country. We killed that culture - the indigenous people whose land we stole from them. In other countries it is different - ones that haven't been usurped by greed and consumerism. Who didn't do genocide against their indigenous traditions and populations. They are few and far between but they exist. I read stories like this one and they are the ones that give me hope:

'Anything that can be built can be taken down': The largest dam removal in US history is complete – what happens next?

The Klamath River is free of four huge dams for the first time in generations. But for the Yurok tribe, the river's restoration is only just beginning – starting with 18 billion seeds.

www.bbc.com

More of this. We need so, so much more of this.

Yes, unfortunately in Australia we have done the same and our attitudes need to change to turn it around.

The indigenousness people of Australia were one with the land and hopefully we can learn more from them.

Working with Indigenous Australians for Conservation | The Nature Conservancy Australia

Working in this way keeps traditional knowledge alive, makes the conservation work more successful and helps the transfer of knowledge from elders to young people.

www.natureaustralia.org.au

However, I think we have gone too far and will need 'science' to help rectify the problems we have created

 

[Tinkerpeach]

Are humans only the larval stage?

If so, the larval stage of what?

We will have to see what evolution has in store for us but we definitely will change into something else.

We will be colonizing planets pretty quick (in evolutionary terms) so I imagine that will play a role in our change, lower gravity or whatnot.

None of us will be here to see it of course.

Interestingly I read somewhere that if humans disappeared that many scientists believe rats would evolve to become the dominant species on the planet.

 

[ChristineM]

Are humans only the larval stage?

If so, the larval stage of what?

We are still evolving,

Who knows what we will become.