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Most likely some day humans will go extinct or evolve to the point on non recognition as humans. Nothing lasts forever. Life is a very tenuous thing. In earth's history there have been several mass extinction events killing all of the larger sized creatures. Of the species that survived, the smaller creatures then slowly evolved bringing back larger creatures once the environmental conditions became more favorable. Humans as we exist today evolved from only a very small group. That implies that hominids just about went extinct back then and repopulated. Most other creatures have much broader genetic diversity than humans. The three most likely causes will be natural climate change, asteroids, and changes to the sun. The sun one day is predicted to transform into a red giant. When that happens either the entire earth will be absorbed into the sun or the conditions for life will no longer be possible on the earth.
An increasing number of papers are published by a gibberish generator. Thus the question to ask is will scientists be extinct soon? - http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/#about
Decoupling IPv4 from Superblocks in IPv6
God, Jesus and Mary
Abstract
Recent advances in interactive models and optimal communication are rarely at odds with spreadsheets. In fact, few steganographers would disagree with the structured unification of simulated annealing and IPv4, which embodies the unproven principles of steganography. In order to accomplish this goal, we propose a novel algorithm for the understanding of forward-error correction (Surveyance), which we use to argue that robots and massive multiplayer online role-playing games can cooperate to surmount this question.
Table of Contents
1) Introduction
2) Related Work
3) Surveyance Synthesis
4) Implementation
5) Results
***
Note the above is gibberish. MIT also made a gibberish detector, hundreds of published papers qualified as gibberish.
Last edited by Zot; 03-04-2014 at 10:19 AM..
Reason: Added missing link, and a coda
This may be far-fetched but what if the human race as we know it is the remnants of a long ago invasion from outer space where contact with the original source of our species has been lost. We are far from a perfect fit for this ecosystem and subsequently we are slowly but steadily destroying the fabric of the ecosystem until nothing is left and humans starve to death on what will become nothing more than a barren rock partially covered with tainted water.
It would explain why humans are the only species on the planet that insists on building cities with artificial substances rather than using the natural surroundings for shelter.
There's something I read that sticks with me (and I'm recalling from memory):
"Humans are the only species, that should they disappear from the earth, all the other remaining species would rejoice."
Food for thought. Is it true?
No.
There are all sorts of species which live happily within human beings, some of which only live on/in humans, and humans have one of the highest biomasses of all species, probably exceeded only by other species that exist in substantial numbers only because humans have domesticated them (such as Bos primigenius, or cattle).
There are larger parasites which have spread the world over because of humans, such as the Norway rat - and this species thrives in urban settings, an ecological niche that it would lose if humans disappeared.
In addition to those mentioned, species like dogs and cats and pigs and sheep and camels and many more are widespread due to humans, and largely dependent on humans to remain as widespread.
Species such as crows and gulls and raccoons and foxes and coyotes and certain species of squirrels, just to name a few, thrive in urban settings and/or have had their ranges expanded by humans. In North American, white-tailed deer are thriving due to humans, even given hunting - we've killed off most of their main predators and human agriculture serves as a vast array of cafeteria for deer.
And that's just the animals. The same is true for many plants.
I'm not suggesting these are a majority of species - far from it. But there certainly is a large number of species that have adapted very well to the presence of humans, and these species would very much 'miss' us.
I wish to ask an alternative question: what's so bad, or so regrettable, about humans going extinct?
Inevitable in a thread of this kind. The human nihilist. Self hating and sage about it. You don't think it regrettable that we will take the whales and dolphins out with us? Another poster has it exactly right. I am not sure of the distinction he makes, but his point: Eradication, if not extinction, is humanity's ultimate destiny. As in, "we're done here". Already. Seriously. All the high flown and Pollyanna posts to the contrary, the ... regrettable truth is... even if we were to undertake the Mother of All Turnarounds, in every one of the myriad things that we as humanity have done to befoul our only home... it's too late. Other nihilists claim that the planet will soon forget we were ever here. I disagree. The earth cannot re-absorb an Interstate Highway System. The byproducts of atomic energy use for power and transportation and also warfare, will be part of this planets future legacy for eons. We will not be forgotten, nor will we be remembered fondly. We need a new forum called 'Great Certainties', this one isn't subject for debate.
H
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