Knowing what you know today, would you shut down the world in this situation?

[ProgKing of the North]

You've got a point and I don't have much of a counter point other than to say hitting the big button and just turning off the lights for a few years might be the more merciful option rather than waiting for then 100 years collapse into barbarism or worse yet the day when humanity boils over and wrecks the planet with pollution or nuclear war.

yeah but I'll be dead in 100 years so why should I give a fuck?

 

[Y2K Baby]

Hundo P yes. And not just to put a stop to degradation but to return people to a world where our actions and abilities have meaning and value. It makes me sick knowing that thousands of man hours a month are dedicated to choosing, photographing and reporting on Kim Kardashians choice of clothing. Not because I hate her or the people with so little going on in their lives they care about her but because I hate I hate the void inside them, I hate the creators of that void. I would gladly give up everything to see a world where nobody had room for that sort of thing in their lives.

You're posting on Kiwi Farms, faggot.

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

You've got a point and I don't have much of a counter point other than to say hitting the big button and just turning off the lights for a few years might be the more merciful option rather than waiting for then 100 years collapse into barbarism or worse yet the day when humanity boils over and wrecks the planet with pollution or nuclear war.

And what sage are you to declare that we are living in the last days (a thing that, again, has been declared since the first days)? Who are you to decide that for all mankind?

 

[nagant 1895]

Then you hate human nature. Our oldest documents show that there was no fundamental difference between the mind of ancient man and the mind of you or I. The Greeks were infamous for idle gossip and fashion. A bronze merchant in Babylon was an infamous cheat and hoarded the tablets of complaint sent by his marks like precious stones. Egyptian priests cut admonishments on the idleness, drunkenness, and gambling nature of the youth into the chambers of the Great Pyramid. You could take all that has been made since we first walked upright and shatter it and you will still not free mankind of its flaws.

I won't say you're wrong. I've read a lot of history myself and I know you're right about the vapid nature of people. But the Greeks met their end, the Romans met their end and so it goes on down to us. I just think it would be better for that end to come swiftly and in the form of a total power outage rather than environmental collapse or nuclear genocide.

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

I won't say you're wrong. I've read a lot of history myself and I know you're right about the vapid nature of people. But the Greeks met their end, the Romans met their end and so it goes on down to us. I just think it would be better for that end to come swiftly and in the form of a total power outage rather than environmental collapse or nuclear genocide.

Things begin and they end. That isn't some horrendous crime; that is the nature of things. And what you say is like saying that an old man will die eventually, so we should just kindly put him down now rather than risk his death of cancer "for his own good".

 

[nagant 1895]

yeah but I'll be dead in 100 years so why should I give a fuck?

No reason really unless you're big into having your genes live on forever. It was a hypothetical question and I answered.

 

[Y2K Baby]

Things begin and they end. That isn't some horrendous crime; that is the nature of things. And what you say is like saying that an old man will die eventually, so we should just kindly put him down now rather than risk his death of cancer "for his own good".

Please don't enable his autism

 

[ProgKing of the North]

No reason really unless you're big into having your genes live on forever. It was a hypothetical question and I answered.

'twas a joke fam

 

[mr.moon1488]

Things begin and they end. That isn't some horrendous crime; that is the nature of things. And what you say is like saying that an old man will die eventually, so we should just kindly put him down now rather than risk his death of cancer "for his own good".

Are we really talking about ending society though? Society would likely rebuild all of its lost technology very quickly.

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

Are we really talking about ending society though? Society would likely rebuild all of its lost technology very quickly.

Given how few specialists would likely survive the collapse into anarchy, unlikely. You would at best be looking at a second Dark Age.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Given how few specialists would likely survive the collapse into anarchy, unlikely. You would at best be looking at a second Dark Age.

Doesn't this imply then that our society has become weaker, and people have just failed to notice it?

 

[Just A Butt]

Are we really talking about ending society though? Society would likely rebuild all of its lost technology very quickly.

The nature of your original question implies a large purge of the population.

What makes you think the average Joe knows how to turn on a power plant?
Especially given that a vast amount of our knowledge-base is digital now.

What will the sheep do when google don’t work no more?

Edit: more or less sniped

 

[ProgKing of the North]

Doesn't this imply then that our society has become weaker, and people have just failed to notice it?

If we haven't noticed it is it relevant?

 

[nagant 1895]

Things begin and they end. That isn't some horrendous crime; that is the nature of things. And what you say is like saying that an old man will die eventually, so we should just kindly put him down now rather than risk his death of cancer "for his own good".

Right now humanity has a power it's never had before, the power to destroy themselves not just intentionally, not just accidentally but to do so out of laziness regarding the built up momentum of a century of really bad ideas. If we can pump the brakes on climate change and deforestation and overfishing then great, but I'm note hopeful. I'm not resigned either but in the context of the OPs question I'd still hit the button.

 

[Vorhtbame]

No reason really unless you're big into having your genes live on forever.

If it all falls down a hundred years from now, a person can have descendants to four generations in that time, and many will survive. But if you push the button today, you will probably kill their only heir and end the line entirely.

If we can pump the brakes on climate change and deforestation and overfishing then great, but I'm note hopeful.

Hardest hit by pushing the button: first-world countries, which contribute to these things least, as we have developed these technologies so as to avoid doing them.
Relatively untouched by the button: developing and underdeveloped nations, which account for the extreme majority of these problems you mention.

It amazes me how hard you work against the solutions to the problems that worry you most.

 

[mr.moon1488]

If we haven't noticed it is it relevant?

If a cheating husband doesn't know his wife is cheating, is it then just not relevant?

Outside of this, mental illness is now commonplace in the western world today. Half of the population has just checked out of society, and I doubt 90% of the people in this thread could name their next door neighbors. Often times the worst problems are ones that you don't see.

 

[ProgKing of the North]

If a cheating husband doesn't know his wife is cheating, is it then just not relevant?

Outside of this, mental illness is now commonplace in the western world today. Half of the population has just checked out of society, and I doubt 90% of the people in this thread could name their next door neighbors. Often times the worst problems are ones that you don't see.

Mental illness always existed, it's just finally being recognized now

I know my neighbor's dog's name, does that count for anything?

 

[mr.moon1488]

Mental illness always existed, it's just finally being recognized now

I know my neighbor's dog's name, does that count for anything?

It's always existed, but it's never existed to this extent. We can verify this is not just purely a matter of better documentation, by looking at the rising suicide rates. The demographic most impacted by these rising suicide rates, are white males, and white males are largely the ones checking out of society.

 

[Boxy Brown]

My neighbor's name is Dennis, he's nice.

 

[Y2K Baby]

The demographic most impacted by these rising suicide rates, are white

No, they're probably living in basically any Asian country.