[fixermark]

Never in the history of mankind have we had the ability to go halfway around the world in one day, or hold a conversation with someone halfway around the world with mere seconds of latency.

Never in the history of mankind have we had weapons capable of annihilating a city with one shot.

Never in the history of mankind have we accessed enough energy and matter to change the balance of the global atmospheric gas concentrations.

This is a time in human history where "never in the history of mankind" things should be given serious consideration.

[justaguyhere]

The things that you listed are scientific achievements. What I pointed out was human behavior, power struggles etc. These are two different things.

A Thousand years ago, various groups of humans were trying to control other groups of humans, with stronger groups setting rules and weaker groups following them. Today we're doing the same. A Thousand years from now, we'll likely be doing the same.

[fixermark]

Unlikely. Because if we don't come up with an alternative strategy, there is insufficient incentive for the strong to refrain from using the things I just listed against the weaker groups---or the weaker groups to use them first, preemptively, on the assumption the strong cannot be trusted.

We go that road, and in a thousand years, we won't be doing much of anything because we'll be an extinct species.

[gotocake]

That seems a likely outcome and a grim, if satisfying element of the Great Filter hypothesis. In the meantime idealism is generally suicidal. How many people cheered the Arab Spring, only to recoil in horror when the most predictable thing ever happened in its wake? We need to solve the problem of risking our own extinction, but if it isn’t clear yet, we need to do something new, not just volunteering to be hacked to death by the next strongman.