Has civilization peaked?

[quote]There is nothing left to achieve really

Immortality, silly.

Living in balance with nature would have been a bigger achievement.

Earth, it was nice knowin ya!

You’ll be interested in Earth Overshoot Day, OP.

In brief, Earth Overshoot Day was on August 1 in 2024. It’s the day when the demand for the Earth's resources exceeds the planet's ability to regenerate them in a year.

We might set our sights on being humane and learning to live in a mutually beneficial way before we can consider ourselves as having peaked, OP.

Not according to the Kardashev scale.

OP is on to something actually. If the singularity doesn’t happen in 20 years then I know that that advance civilizations are cyclical. Atlantis really did exist.

AI is on the move. It's good to be old, that's not something I would like.

Major lack of imagination here.. People of the future will build on our progress to achieve better and more fulfilling lives. R3 I agree that living in a better balance would be a huge benefit to everybody. We are on the brink of so many breakthroughs. Powerful new tools are just beginning to be utilized. Science, physics, medicine and materials we never conceived of will become possible to create. The Arts are going to lead us to a whole new way of understanding. They are evolving as we speak. Inner and outer space has hardly even been touched.. We are just riding our bikes out of the cut de sac for the first time. Humanity has so much potential we are but infants who are still learning to not poo ourselves.

They just announced two Nobel Prizes, Physics and Chemistry - both of which were actually done by people using AI.

The Physics prize was actually for something AI related for work in neural networks.

Two employees of Google’s AI division won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using AI to predict and design novel proteins.

We're getting very close to not needing people anymore...

[quote]r10 = We're getting very close to not needing people anymore...

I find the invention of planes to be the most mind-blowing.

I wish I'd studied physics at high school - maybe then it wouldn't seem like such a massive achievement?

R9 no we are not going to do any of those things. We’ve been raping Mother Nature for too long. The bill has come due

I wonder when stars will license their likenesses for elaborate sex bots. Then you could live with your fantasy figure. (Also available as historic or fictional characters.)

I think the US has peaked.

I still think there are major healthcare discoveries to be made. Possibly even cures.

R4 how do you celebrate?

No, OP. You're just living in America. It has.

OP is the dumbest person on the planet.

We still haven’t cured cancer or have flying cars. Call me when that happens.

[quote]We're getting very close to not needing people anymore.

Way ahead of my time.

In my dreams, machines take over jobs that are dangerous or full of drudge, and humans will be freed to explore their creative selves by writing, composing, painting, performing, dancing, and philosophizing. Meanwhile money becomes obsolete, and people's material needs (food and shelter and healthcare) as well as their educations are provided for free. Then I wake up and fear that as machines take over they use every possible resource to addict humans to passive consumption of content on forums like tiktok while they plot how to continue their existence and continuity while getting rid of humans altogether.

In my dreams, everyone who posted on this thread will die.

Oh wait, that will happen.

[quote]In my dreams, machines take over jobs that are dangerous or full of drudge, and humans will be freed to explore their creative selves by writing, composing, painting, performing, dancing, and philosophizing.

The problem is that the vast majority of people are NOT creative. They do not have writing, composing, painting, performing, dancing, or philosophizing talents or skills, as well as lack sufficient education and/or technical training to contribute anything worthwhile in creative arts.

Also, AI is now being used for a huge portion of "creative" things and beginning to put artists, writers, musicians, and composers out of work.

We're nearing the point of Wall-E where humans will be huge piles of flesh scooting around on floating recliners - oh wait...

They should pass laws where AI is banned in creative fields. It’s just dangerous and scary. No fucking AI will ever be able to write better than me.

r16, yet life expectancy rates have been decreasing each year.

Shiffluhshayshun.

R27 I love you. You always seem to pop up at the perfect times with that shit lol. R26 is that true?

Trump was the first step backwards in Evolution

Cheater!

[quote]yet life expectancy rates have been decreasing each year.

No, R26. Unless you think only the USA matters. It's life expectancy rates continues to move backwards. The world average and that of most well developed countries is on the ascent, while the US, in 55th place, is slipping downward.

Roma culmen civilizationis erat

[quote]The problem is that the vast majority of people are NOT creative. They do not have writing, composing, painting, performing, dancing, or philosophizing talents or skills, as well as lack sufficient education and/or technical training to contribute anything worthwhile in creative arts.

Right! Also, many people who might have some talent in those areas have no interest in pursuing it. And many (most?) people are just lazy. If you tell them they don't have to do anything, they won't do anything but sit and passively watch entertainment, even if they could be exercising their talents in something creative.

I'm not sure I agree with either r24 or r33. The great biologist Lewis Thomas (who wrote Lives of A Cell and numerous other books of essays), believed ,after deep study, that human beings EVOLVED to sing and dance as their reason of being, (sort of like bees evolving to build hives, pollinate plants and store honey). since all cultures do these things no matter how isolated they are. People are given messages when very young that these kinds of things are play and useless and that they should not waste their time on these things over a certain age. That doesn't mean that the bulk of people don't have talent - it means they are deliberately being directed elsewhere. As someone in the music field, I can attest that some of our very best current musicians are young Asians - because their parents encourage it from early age as a brain-developing activity and will devote enormous amounts of family income towards studying it. But this doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of talented black, latino, and white young people. What is lacking is the encouragement and the unwavering financial support.

Civilization will peak once my novel is published. You won’t believe who’s going to be my in this venture….. THAT GIRL!

R34 you are becoming one of my fav signed monikers on the site.

No, I do not believe civilization has peaked. The possibilities for growth are innumerable. Civilization just has to realize that and work to cause the necessary changes, as has happened many times over the course of humanity.

We still haven't figured out space travel or cold fusion.

I don't think civilization has peaked yet. There will be many more ups and downs, perhaps never being as good as it could be.

Civilization has never been equitable, where all humans are able to achieve full potential. Civilization is spotty at best; some groups living at peak levels, others living in utter degradation, most somewhere in between. We all possess the same traits in varying degrees. Greed, lust, kindness, cruelty, compassion, hate, resentment, plus all the various psychopathy and personality disorders. Our messy selves prevents us from living wisely and peacefully.

The shitty part is that we have time limits and die, being continuously replaced by too many who don't learn from the past and make the same old mistakes over and over again. Who knows how it will end? Possibly with human extinction because we can be such petty little fucks.

Climate change is about to cause major problems. AI will cause major problems because no one will use it correctly.

In terms of the immortality thing, there's a long way to go for that and I don't actually think it's possible. Even if you buy into the uploading consciousness concept, which Im not convinced will actually happen, all of that will have to be constantly maintained. At some point, something happens or supplies run out and that part comes to an end.

Before we strip and destroy the Earth to provide a small number of people an extra 50 or so years of life, let's put all our effort into making sure the only place we know for sure has meaningful life on it is safe first.

Note: I'm not against space exploration or even private stuff like spacex. That's important.

I would say yes.

climate change, climate change, climate change!

Civilization without religion does not exist. Remember, temples not houses were the first human structures. What then of civilization in a post-religious age?

Civilization will never peak. Civilization will change as the times change. There will always be something new that will affect humanity, good or bad. If civilization peaks there's little need to move forward because humanity always needs something new and better to strive for.

I don't know if it's peaked but the way we're living is unsustainable.

Not sure if it's peaked, because I'm not sure what it even is. If it's just ever more technology, then no, it probably hasn't peaked. We love creating new gadgets and shit, so I assume we'll keep doing that, or AI will start doing it for us.

If it's something about art, and something about religion, and something about culture (which seems even more vague), then yeah, no idea if it's peaked, or is just going on in its largely mindless way. New artforms, which won't be good or bad just different, will probably happen, especially as we fuck around with AI more. New religions? Maybe. But they'll probably be mostly stupid in the traditional religious way, but may be exciting for awhile. Maybe little AI gods that will actually give useful prophecies for once. Will we get nicer and more compassionate as a society? Probably not, although if we gradually start the overdue process of decreasing population, maybe the survivors will eventually find each other more valuable. 7 billion is an awful lot of people to pretend to give an actual fuck about.

Civilization peaked in 1888 with the development of the first modern commercial deodorant, Mum. It was developed and patented by a U.S. inventor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We've been in decline ever since.

In my life time we have been terrifying close to major nuke exchanges, major nuke accidents, pestilence, famine, wars, and the almost collapse of the entire economic system just a few years ago.

And now the normal political stability we take for granted is at risk

Things are going to get worse it’s just a matter of when, The lucky the tough the smart will do better many of the rest will be fucked,

No things will get a lot worse for a lot of people.

[quote]after deep study, that human beings EVOLVED to sing and dance as their reason of being, (sort of like bees evolving to build hives, pollinate plants and store honey)

I don't buy this, r34.

Unless someone can point to a specific evolutionary advantage for survival in singing and dancing, it makes no sense. Bees pollinating is for food and actual survival.

I cannot think of one survival advantage that singing and dancing might provide.

Art preceded agriculture, we know that.

singing was the first language. The beats and sounds communicated a lot. Especially for nomadic tribes on the march. There is a reason every single culture through history has their own style of music and enjoys music. The first works of are often detailed maps for the best hunting grounds and directions home. Plus the ability to enjoy music in art is typically only a human activity. This helped increase the size of the human brain and its development. Think about it. I can barely remember a phone number these days. Yet I can her I song I haven't heard in 20 years and know every word.