I believe it would be the human race disappearing

What would it be in your opinion?

I imagine someday, someone, or a group of people, wiping us, it would be kinda sad, but i guess we can't deny that it would be for the good of our host and its other guests

I guess that achieving that would be wisdom, and not doing it would be egoism

One could say that achieving this would be like giving up*, betraying the others

*But giving up on what? On more discoveries? entertainment? enjoyment?

I guess by posting this thread, i kinda hope someone would change my mind, but i guess this is just how it is

I will always prefer to be sad and afraid than lying to myself, i hope

Edited May 5May 5 by raphaelh42

Best… for whom, or what?

What’s good for the fox isn’t necessarily good for the rabbit.

What would be the best thing that could happen to the Earth?

Maybe that's not really the right question. No offence. The Earth will die at some point when our star goes SN and turns into a white dwarf.

The Earth was created by the universe and at one point was just meer clumps of dust and bits that gradually grew together to create the Earth which was then a rocky ball of lava and fire for a while.

So whatever we as humans, do to it, it won't be worse off than it originally was and thinking universally, perhaps the Earth was created so that it can be destroyed to carry on the creation/destruction/creation cycle of the universe.

You can't make an omlette without breaking the egg.

So we aren't the worst but we don't seem to be helping ourselves with all the damage we are doing.

If we want to survive as a race then we need to find a way to planet hop & in the meantime we need to stop ruining our planet as there is no planet B. yet...

12 hours ago, raphaelh42 said:

I believe it would be the human race disappearing

No hope at all, huh? What if, instead, humans realized we're Earth's caretakers rather than its rulers? What if we all grew up knowing that our best chance of success lies in the biodiversity we see on only one planet, this one? What if we wised up and started trying to preserve life instead of using it up?

I think that would be the best thing that could happen to the Earth for the species that live here.

14 hours ago, raphaelh42 said:

I believe it would be the human race disappearing

I would suggest looking at population growth to suggest otherwise.

2 hours ago, Sohan Lalwani said:

I would suggest looking at population growth to suggest otherwise.

I don't think raphaelh42 is saying humans ARE disappearing, he's saying it would be best for Earth if they did, somehow. I could be wrong but the title seems pretty clear.

16 hours ago, iNow said:

Best… for whom, or what?

for the planet Earth (health, cleanliness...)

8 hours ago, Imagine Everything said:

So whatever we as humans, do to it, it won't be worse off than it originally was

I struggle to believe you really don't see that what we humans done and do to it, is worst than if we have never been there

8 hours ago, Imagine Everything said:

So we aren't the worst but we don't seem to be helping ourselves with all the damage we are doing.

It seems to me that it's obvious that we are the worst, or can you name another species that is worst than us regarding degrading the planet?

Regarding helping ourselves, I see a lot of things done to reduce our impact, such as recycling

7 hours ago, Phi for All said:

No hope at all, huh? What if, instead, humans realized we're Earth's caretakers rather than its rulers? What if we all grew up knowing that our best chance of success lies in the biodiversity we see on only one planet, this one? What if we wised up and started trying to preserve life instead of using it up?

I think that would be the best thing that could happen to the Earth for the species that live here.

Recently I accidentally saw a video of someone doing something that makes me feel very sad and angry, that made me lose like 0.5% of the last percent of hope I had/have

When i think about it, i know there is much worst than the video I saw

In the past I did bad things too, I believe nothing is nobody's fault, but just cause and effect

I guess the 0.5% of hope i have remaining, is that I know people can change in good, even if they were monsters before

But anyway, imo the human species evolved in a way that makes it too much different of the other species on the host

A way that is bad for the host and the other species

Right now i realize i see humans maybe like a cancer

Consuming its host

And the animals would be the bacteria in harmony

I don't know well about cancer, but I know it can kill the host, I also heard that rarely, it can go away without taking drugs, i guess it's caused by some protection triggered by the host

---

I like the idea of being Earth's caretakers, I guess my 0.5% of remaining hope dreams that someday, we will provide more good than bad

I also like the idea that in a very long time, we will find other planets, with life forms, and we would help them

---

Edited May 5May 5 by raphaelh42

5 hours ago, Phi for All said:

I don't think raphaelh42 is saying humans ARE disappearing, he's saying it would be best for Earth if they did, somehow. I could be wrong but the title seems pretty clear.

I see

1 hour ago, raphaelh42 said:

Right now i realize i see humans maybe like a cancer

Including yourself?

Why don't you perform good deeds to not be like cancer?

4 hours ago, raphaelh42 said:

for the planet Earth (health, cleanliness...)

If we wanted to determine whether we were making progress and to see if our efforts were worth or paying, what sorts of things could we measure to compare the current state today against the future state later? How would we know earth was better, worse, or the same?

4 hours ago, raphaelh42 said:

It seems to me that it's obvious that we are the worst, or can you name another species that is worst than us regarding degrading the planet?

Cyanobacteria wiped out much of the life on the planet during The Great Oxidation Event and brought on one of the earliest ice ages.

When you are in the middle of chaos it is often difficult to step back and look at events in the context of the larger picture. Humans are doing the earth no favors now but you are looking at an extremely small event in the history of the earth. Had the cyanobacteria been exterminated due to how it was impacting life on earth, none of us would be here to ponder this question.

6 hours ago, raphaelh42 said:

Right now i realize i see humans maybe like a cancer

Forget analogies, humans aren't a cancer. What we are, at the moment, is the only species on the only known planet that hosts life that is aware enough about the universe to actually do something to save the planet if necessary. We're the only species who can leave the Earth. We're the only ones with the altruism to care for the rest.

We haven't done the best job of keeping our greedy members in check, but if we could, I think the average human would rather live with nature than constantly fighting it.

Also, I don't think you've done enough to show that humans are bad for Earth itself. We've been less than good for our own environment, and other species we share the planet with, but Earth itself doesn't really care. It doesn't care that the weather is nice, or if the air and water is clean, or if humans all died out from disease. It's a big old planet that has undergone many changes, and only really fears other planets and suns.

11 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Forget analogies, humans aren't a cancer. What we are, at the moment, is the only species on the only known planet that hosts life that is aware enough about the universe to actually do something to save the planet if necessary. We're the only species who can leave the Earth. We're the only ones with the altruism to care for the rest.

Let's hope we don't leave or die off too suddenly. Given the maintenance and decommission requirements of nuclear reactors, warheads and spent fuel depositories, a sudden departure would be catastrophic. (and I'm not really factoring in the large tanks of toxic chemicals, piles of coal ash, and other goodies that will eventually spread death across the landscape)

19 hours ago, m_m said:

Including yourself?

Why don't you perform good deeds to not be like cancer?

Yes i meant the human species, I try to achieve projects to leave more good than bad

---

17 hours ago, iNow said:

If we wanted to determine whether we were making progress and to see if our efforts were worth or paying, what sorts of things could we measure to compare the current state today against the future state later? How would we know earth was better, worse, or the same?

I guess we could measure these things:

The amount of sectarian/religious people (and then what comes from it such as wars and limitation of the mind)

The amount of pets (and then what comes from it such as sadness and pain)

The amount of produced toxic materials (and then what comes from it such as diseases)

Maybe i could find more item if thinking longer

So I guess if comparing such data each x years, we could know if it's getting worst or not

---

@zapatos I didn't know about Cyanobacteria, if i understand correctly, it killed some early life forms, and allowed the new ones to appear, imo that's an interesting way of wondering that if something that can appear bad now, maybe it will allow to produce good tomorrow. I don't mean that what the Great Oxidation Event caused is good, neither the opposite

In the end it's difficult imo to talk about what is good and bad, of course something like killing for fun is bad, although i guess there is no physical formula to prove it but it's like common sense/obvious, i guess. But in the long term so many things can come from a bad or a good event, that in the end, maybe something that seemed bad at the beginning, will be considered positive later, at least what result it caused, and even later, we would change our mind again..........

---

16 hours ago, Phi for All said:

We're the only ones with the altruism to care for the rest.

I agree but we also are the only one with the malice to do the opposite, seems to me

But is it malice or lack of knowledge...

Regarding Earth's well-being, I meant environment and other species, and why not even ourselves...

---

@TheVat In the past i thought that if we disappeared suddenly, all other life forms would disappear because nuclear power plants would explode, but recently I understood that this and the other elements you mentioned would not be enough to destroy all of them, i hope that it's indeed the case and that it will never change

Edited May 6May 6 by raphaelh42

On 5/6/2025 at 11:00 PM, raphaelh42 said:

Yes i meant the human species, I try to achieve projects to leave more good than bad

I think, you should do more good, so that you don't have to disappear.