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How Would People Act?
- Thread starter Jimmy
- Start date
an anarchist
Your local loco.
People already are aware that they individually will only exist for like 80-100 years if they are lucky… and everyone still acts the fool.
Beat me too it..
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
I didn’t say individual existence I said all of existence
an anarchist
Your local loco.
I answered the OP
Now you believe that all of existence is only around 80-100 years. Do you have more -
?
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
I thought you knew that.
Alien826
No religious beliefs
Interesting idea. Towards the end of the time, there would be no point doing anything that would benefit later generations, so probably people would try to spend all their money as it couldn't be left to their children. Come to think of it, why have children when their lives would be so limited? Why take care of the environment if it's all going away? The last year or so might be an orgy of crime. Why fear punishment if it will end in a couple of years?
Overall I would expect a very hedonistic way of life.
At the same time, I would expect a lot of new religions promising survival after the "end". Like now, yes, but with more certainty of final death.
I'm assuming that everyone knows that existence will end at a particular date. It would have to be very firmly established or people would just not believe it.
Overall I would expect a very hedonistic way of life.
At the same time, I would expect a lot of new religions promising survival after the "end". Like now, yes, but with more certainty of final death.
I'm assuming that everyone knows that existence will end at a particular date. It would have to be very firmly established or people would just not believe it.
That's a little cynical, isn't it? Or maybe I don't understand what you mean by "acts the fool?" I wouldn't describe majority of the folks I know in such terms.
an anarchist
Your local loco.
Perhaps it is me being cynical… People don’t act optimally I think, just in general. But I am trying to be an optimist, so I appreciate you pointing out the cynicism. Can definitely me projecting my foolishness on others. But maybe not, the world can be said to “be on fire”.
What is optimal, and is that necessary?
One of the lessons learned by studying biology beyond high school - especially evolution - is that "optimal" is never the point and also unnecessary. It was never "survival of the fittest" and has always been "survival of the fit enough." But American culture has this obsession with both purity and perfection, which skews our understanding of things. In its wake is perpetual dissatisfaction not just because "optimal" is functionally unachievable but also subjective or derived from personal values which vary from individual to individual.
As an illustrative story, when I moved in to my condo I set about healing the lands here. That meant restoring native plants that used to be here and there have been all sorts of obstacles that have made the results less than "optimal" due to circumstances well outside of my control. The soil here was destroyed, so while I had lovely purple prairie clover in the first couple years, it noped out and hasn't been seen since. I can only restore a small section of the area around my condo because the association prohibits a more proper full-yard restoration. But in spite of all this, there's functional habitat around my condo that wasn't there before which serves the greater-than-human world. In spite of not being "optimal" the frugivorous birds love hanging out in my dogwood shrubs devouring the white berries, I get frogs hanging out in the safe wet recesses by the downpouts, I hear the chorus of insects who have made the restoration their home in the warm summers, and a deer straight up decided to sleep in my little prairie! None of that would have been here if I hadn't worked to heal the lands. It's not optimal. It won't ever be optimal in my lifetime. But it works and it serves the intended purpose.