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[DoomRulz]

Technology is supposed to be good and beneficial, but humanity puts a morbid twist on it.

Morbid twist aside, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I'm not sure what your end point is. Anything can be used to achieve evil ends but that doesn't make something inherently bad.

[BANE]

Or I could tell it to the child who was recently saved by advances in medicine, allowing him to be cured of HIV.

Which will never see mass production unless it'll turn a profit.

HAHAHAHA!

[Gate]

Or I could tell it to the child who was recently saved by advances in medicine, allowing him to be cured of HIV.

Which will never see mass production unless it'll turn a profit.

HAHAHAHA!

[Aspie]

Technology is supposed to be good and beneficial, but humanity puts a morbid twist on it.

Morbid twist aside, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I'm not sure what your end point is. Anything can be used to achieve evil ends but that doesn't make something inherently bad.

It does when we constantly use it to do inherently bad things. There is no natural law stating that for everything good and wholesome we create, we should also make something detrimental and threatening to someone or everyone. But we do anyways.


My point isn't that we should get rid of technology. To Hell with that. I'm just exhibiting some technology as a medium that channels human nature.

Technology isn't bad, we make technology bad. Purposefully, remorselessly, and ambitiously, we abuse the things we create.

And somehow that takes away from...? What exactly?

Really, nothing. Me and Doom are having a discussion on human nature. There is no additives or subtractives, we're just discussing motives and the reasons behind them.

[ScardyFox]

Sounds like sweeping math though. Because something bad can come of something somehow that negates what good can come of it? You're talking about how flawed humanity is. Perhaps you drop another epiphany on us that we all need air to breath and food to eat. Or maybe that Jason Momoa is the best pick for Drax

Spoiler

eat it, he was hired

[close]

?

Yes - we all know humanity is flawed - there is no such thing as perfection, what we choose to do with our flaws and the desire to move past them is what counts in reality. Not a Utopian ideal that can never be reached. Seems like you're simplifying seeing as motives cannot be quantified across the scope you're describing.

[chupacabras acheronsis]

most of the benefits we reap from technology come from the urge to compete in destructive capability against eachother, and wouldn't have come to be otherwise. Thats the only thing strong enough to push us to innovate, survival. Is it really our fault our biggest competitor is ourselves? We struggle for resources and territory the same way we ever have and its ever been in our and the planets' history, in that sense being of the same species or the same nation is irrelevant when we are from different ecosystems and biospheres. You cant change that.

Someone gets screwed in the end. Tough shit, but thats life. Being comfortable and safe enough to ponder that is as good as its gonna get.

Or maybe we're a shitty evil species and you should come to terms with that. Get in the mindset.

[KirklandSignature]

most of the benefits we reap from technology come from the urge to compete in destructive capability against eachother, and wouldn't have come to be otherwise. Thats the only thing strong enough to push us to innovate, survival. Is it really our fault our biggest competitor is ourselves? We struggle for resources and territory the same way we ever have and its ever been in our and the planets' history, in that sense being of the same species or the same nation is irrelevant when we are from different ecosystems and biospheres. You cant change that.

Someone gets screwed in the end. Tough shit, but thats life. Being comfortable and safe enough to ponder that is as good as its gonna get.

Or maybe we're a shitty evil species and you should come to terms with that. Get in the mindset.

I agree,


We polute, we kill beautiful creatures that have equally worked just as hard in trying to survive up to this point, and we needlessly kill each other in pointless wars.


In a topic not at all related, Are humans preventing cats and dogs from evolving further? both species are fairly intelligent and I wonder if in the next few thousands of years will see them evolve into sapient creatures. If one branch of mammals can, why not them? Is this flawed logic in thinking that since primates evolved sentience, they can as well?

[Cvalda]

Are humans preventing cats and dogs from evolving further? both species are fairly intelligent and I wonder if in the next few thousands of years will see them evolve into sapient creatures. If one branch of mammals can, why not them? Is this flawed logic in thinking that since primates evolved sentience, they can as well?

Dogs are already very smart.

What makes you think cats would ever get to even dog level?

[ScardyFox]

most of the benefits we reap from technology come from the urge to compete in destructive capability against eachother, and wouldn't have come to be otherwise. Thats the only thing strong enough to push us to innovate, survival. Is it really our fault our biggest competitor is ourselves? We struggle for resources and territory the same way we ever have and its ever been in our and the planets' history, in that sense being of the same species or the same nation is irrelevant when we are from different ecosystems and biospheres. You cant change that.

Someone gets screwed in the end. Tough shit, but thats life. Being comfortable and safe enough to ponder that is as good as its gonna get.

Or maybe we're a shitty evil species and you should come to terms with that. Get in the mindset.

I agree,


We polute, we kill beautiful creatures that have equally worked just as hard in trying to survive up to this point, and we needlessly kill each other in pointless wars.


In a topic not at all related, Are humans preventing cats and dogs from evolving further? both species are fairly intelligent and I wonder if in the next few thousands of years will see them evolve into sapient creatures. If one branch of mammals can, why not them? Is this flawed logic in thinking that since primates evolved sentience, they can as well?

Well, now that you're involved in this discussion I am out.

[Vickers]

Are humans preventing cats and dogs from evolving further? both species are fairly intelligent and I wonder if in the next few thousands of years will see them evolve into sapient creatures. If one branch of mammals can, why not them? Is this flawed logic in thinking that since primates evolved sentience, they can as well?

Dogs are already very smart.

What makes you think cats would ever get to even dog level?

I've seen some very intelligent cats who can do amazing things. They just require a lot more patience with training.

And if a domesticated cat runs away from home, they're much more capable of surviving on their own compared to a domesticated dog. This is obviously all to a degree. Can't stop shitty humans from doing shitty things.

[maledoro]

What makes you think cats would ever get to even dog level?

Cats and dogs have different sets of skills and different types of intelligence. They're not on the same scale.

[Crazy Rich]

Yea, I had a cat with extra toes, because of him there would be dead bats on my property in the morning. No way a dog can do that.

[Cvalda]

Cats and dogs have different sets of skills and different types of intelligence. They're not on the same scale.

Kirkland was directly comparing to human intelligence, which dogs are very simpatico with.

Cats don't exhibit any of the complex social behaviors that lead to that kind of intelligence, though. They are solitary animals for the most part. Humans and other apes, dogs, cetaceans, parrots, etc only developed the way they have through social dynamics which spur thought development.

[OpenMaw]

We polute, we kill beautiful creatures that have equally worked just as hard in trying to survive up to this point, and we needlessly kill each other in pointless wars.

Many other animals pollute just by existing in their natural habitat. They also kill, and enslave, and do horribly sadistic things to each other. Pack animals, hive-minded insect colonies. Even the beloved dolphin that so many will point to as the shining example of a species closing to our level of intelligence practice infanticide and rape regularly.

I'd go in the opposite direction. The human race is the only species on planet that has been able to actually stop and ask the question "Is this wrong?" We're the only one. The very fact that we have the capacity to condemn ourselves is demonstration enough that we as a species are not evil. For all the senseless slaughter and brutality to be found in our species there is also something you seldom see in the large scale in other animals. We save our sick and injured, we create animal preserves and protected lands, we replant forests, we have hospitals and members of our species solely dedicated to helping other animals. Billions dedicated to feeding starving populations, billions in medical research.

In a topic not at all related, Are humans preventing cats and dogs from evolving further? both species are fairly intelligent and I wonder if in the next few thousands of years will see them evolve into sapient creatures. If one branch of mammals can, why not them? Is this flawed logic in thinking that since primates evolved sentience, they can as well?

No, because that's not how evolution works. You cannot prevent a species from evolving except to destroy it outright.

You notice how things like the flu seem to need new vaccines every year? Even though we already created vaccines and built up an immunity? They adapt. They evolve. Split off. It's nature.

[maledoro]

Cats and dogs have different sets of skills and different types of intelligence. They're not on the same scale.

Kirkland was directly comparing to human intelligence, which dogs are very simpatico with.

...but different?