Current vs Future Life

[Rekkie7]

What if you had to make a decision that would effect everyone on earth. I'm not interested in "why" the decision needs to be made or why it's up to you to make it.

1) Human's will no longer be able to reproduce. No natural births, no cloning, no cure. War ends as people come together for the end. There is no more suffering and people enjoy a higher standard of living. The entire human race will be gone within 120 years. By the time any alien races visit our planet there isn't even a sign we were ever here.

2) The population of the earth is reduced to 0.1% of it's current population. You and your loved ones are included but otherwise you get a random sample of human kind with a mixed gene pool. While you got your loved ones, others did not and for a time people are depressed and lonely. After generations on generations the earth population will eventually return. You have killed billions but the species lives on.

So what do you choose?

 

[piracer]

As much as there should be "quality over quantity" from what i can see, i think that our race at the end of the day is one that will always try to survive and fight for its own survival. Interesting questions though.

And come on, i wanna see how long people will play WoW for.

 

[Rekkie7]

I find it interesting that so far it's 4 to 1 in favour of those who value potential life over all the life we have now.

 

[GiftedMonkey]

Great topic!

I chose the first option. Seeing the human race realize what it truly important and come together is a hippy-trippy dream of mine. The Utopian way of living would not leave any lasting legacy, but at least we could say we made the most of it when we still could. Sure, we humans have done some great things to be proud of, but its not like we did a super job taking care of the planet we call home. Besides, is it wise to assume that anything, let alone a fickle species of feisty apes would last forever?

Of course, if no future meant that everyone started behaving desperately, like in the movie Children of Men, I would not want to live in that world.

Oh, and for those who might be interested in choosing option B and having .1% of humanity survive, that would mean about 6,800,000 people, a population somewhere between Washington state and Israel.

 

[Flaming_Tiki_God]

Well, I personally couldn't care less about whether the human species survives anything (honestly, why does human survival matter?), and I would hate to have anyone to suffer in any way.
I pick option A

 

[tigerlily521985]

I think I would go with the 1st option. The lack of war and suffering is very appealing. Also, I would feel terrible for being held responsible for so many people losing their loved ones and probably wouldn't be able to live with myself, so what's the point in putting myself and everyone else through that?

I don't really see the human race lasting for too much longer with how much we are destroying the earth at this point anyways.

Another potential benefit: With option 1, do you think that since nobody would be able to reproduce on their own that maybe all of those kids who need homes would finally get them? That, and all of those people who are unfit to become parents no longer have the potential to ruin a child's life.

 

[Trippysmurf]

\
1) Human's will no longer be able to reproduce. No natural births, no cloning, no cure. War ends as people come together for the end. There is no more suffering and people enjoy a higher standard of living. The entire human race will be gone within 120 years. By the time any alien races visit our planet there isn't even a sign we were ever here.

Ah yes, Children of Men. Good (albeit depressing and unscientific) movie. First off, I feel this choice is far too naive. "War ends as people come together for the end"? Bullshit, I say. Human history has proven time and again that we are a fearful, easily volatile and coerced lot that will do whatever we want to hear instead of what we know is right. War would not end. You would have religious fanatics on all sides claim that it is because of the heathens that God has forsaken us and our future, and this will lead to genocide as each faction tries to cleanse the Earth in order to appease God. Hell, it is happening now and we don't have a 0% birth rate. War would not end; it would get worse if people stopped giving birth.

Also I call BS on the whole "By the time any alien races visit our planet there isn't even a sign we were ever here." You think all our buildings, our monuments, our infrastructure is just going to disappear with us? We are finding dinosaur remains from 65 million years ago. It is here to stay. It may get infested with plant and animal life, but the buildings will still be here long after we are. Hell, the bubble of satellites that surround this planet will be proof that someone was here.

I know this is supposed to be theoretical, but this choice is just magical.

2) The population of the earth is reduced to 0.1% of it's current population. You and your loved ones are included but otherwise you get a random sample of human kind with a mixed gene pool. While you got your loved ones, others did not and for a time people are depressed and lonely. After generations on generations the earth population will eventually return. You have killed billions but the species lives on.

Ah, the Rapture theory. First off, what I don't like about this is that only me and my loved ones are spared, and everyone else is random. Again, going with human fears once people realized that my friends were ok, while another person's wasn't, they'd probably kill me. You know, for being a witch.

Secondly, yes, it would be scary at first, but you'd move on in a few years. I'd try to rebuild society for the better, trying to work in harmony with nature instead of against it solely for the sake of progress and profit. Anyways, considering I have a Zombie survival plan, it goes hand in hand with this plan. I think I'll survive.

 

[TheZoomZoomKid]

Golden Path FTW

 

[MattAY]

I couldn't give a toss about the future if I'm not in it. Unless I had kids...which I dont! So the first option.

Happiiineeeeesss!

 

[clayman637]

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals" - Agent K

Ollie: "As a species we're fundamentally insane. Put more than two of us in a room, we pick sides and start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?" - The mist

I had to go for current life. World peace is a dream of mine and I would love to see everyone come together. But like the first matrix, the "utopia" world is too perfect.

The process of achieving peace is as important as the piece itself. You can't just have peace, there has to be meaning behind it. We need the real world to achieve that process of meaning.

Problem is, short of some cataclysmic Watchmen-ish event I don't ever see us putting differences aside. Someones always going to want the last word or the last kill.

I think we will come together though at some point in the future that I will not live to see. I could acctually write a whole blog about the stuff I'm sad i'm going to miss. I want the future now!

 

[UrbanMasque]

I couldn't give a toss about the future if I'm not in it. Unless I had kids...which I dont! So the first option.

Happiiineeeeesss!

You Individual happiness is all that matters in life - I agree 100%.
How you affect the lives of others is 2nd most important-
-I've always had a question though in regards to those 2 points you made,
[Would having kids limit my possible happiness potential?]
[Is having kids an essential part of achieving that happiness? - That connection with another human life]
[How important is procreation to my ultimate happiness?]
(the act of procreation is great - we're not debating that)

...Just some thoughts I'd like to share.

Answering the Posts original question - Peace and happiness are most important. So option 1. Also, we'd only be delaying the inevitable because at some point the future human race will cease to exist. (whether its 1 year from now or 3000 years. ) We will not go on forever. Which is why your happiness is of primary importance because everything else you do in this life will not matter.

 

[Rekkie7]

I know this is supposed to be theoretical, but this choice is just magical.

I'm not going for realism here. It's simply a choice between having 6 billion people who already have life to finish their lives happy....but the human race will be gone and none of our achivements remembered vs mass death but the human legecy lives on.

I value the lives of the people who already have them, over "potential lives". I'm not saying every life is precious...some people really don't deserve theres but taking a mostly random sample of humans isn't right.

I chose to allow you to keep your loved ones in Option 2 because I didn't want people thinking of the people close to them in either situation. It's about what your capable of doing to the people you don't know.

 

[Rakon]

I'm going B for the reason Trippy wrote. Getting a second chance with the human race would be an amazing thing, and perhaps the second time around we can live in harmony with each other and with nature (did that actually sound THAT hippie?)

 

[AMANIAC]

I'll go for A - it'd be interesting and all of this crap about global warming and recycling would cease to exist as there would be no more generations for it to affect.

 

[NickKmet]

I honestly can't make that decision. I think both have merits as well as detractions.

But, the biggest flaw i see in option one is how many people could really find happiness without the ability to reproduce. That's a real biggy for lots of people.

But really, i can't decide, and i wish there was third option for that choice.

Besides, i don't think any one person should be making these kinds of decisions by themselves.

 

[Lentium]

Option 2, for the lulz.

 

[miak757]

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Also why in 2. does it say that I killed billions? that doesn't make sense.

 

[Rekkie7]

Also why in 2. does it say that I killed billions? that doesn't make sense.

Because your actions have resulted in the death of over 6 billion people to the point under 7 million survive.

Current earth population is around 6.77 billion.

 

[Sodbuster]

Definitely option 2. I want to be able to do whatever I want, which would require there to be many less people in my way.

 

[Flaming_Tiki_God]

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Well technically, it does, but then again, people have different definitions of what "dirty" means.
Oh, but if Gandhi said it... :roll: