h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

is the human race great and amazing or sick and a mistake?

We change everything we ever meet, we have almost killed the environment by making cars and building buildings, which may be more effitian for us but wat about everything else?

The human race is a great and amazing product of evolution (I'm with Darwin). However, if our wisdom and consideration for the planet had evolved as fast as our ingenuity only then we would truly be wonderous

Q

dont forget about war, we are the only race which goes in giant armies to slaughter each other for land, animals each have a small land which is theres, if another animal wants it, they fight, they dont bring the whole population into the fight and lead its race into extinction as has happened with so many great human societies over the ages

In the sense that, so far, we are the most bioloically successful species in the history of life on earth we are a very great product of nature.

In the sense that we are also the most greedy and destructive species, we are, collectively, a bunch of joderals!

Im sorry, but the spelling mistake in the title is like nails on a blackboard to me. Wimper.

As humans being we're pretty impressive. As humans doing we're pretty poor.

You can easily change a subject line flake (see ^ ), although it won't change the name of the conversation as it appears in your conversations list

I seem to recall a natural history doc. which disproved the fallacy that humans are the only species which goes to war... wish I could remember the details

Yeah, we go to war, but we also look build systems to look after our sick and needy. How many other species of animal do that?

The natural order of the Cosmos is chaos. Life is an abberation. Human beings are nature`s way to try to restore everything back to chaos. When we have destroyed the planet and all life the natural order of the Cosmos will be restored. Don`t fight it! Death is inevitable.

Nice.
I've always thought of us as over-evolved lumps of meat with over-evolved intelligence.

We are facinating, amazing creatures.

Our brutality is just an extention of what less intelligent animals do all the time. We devise better and better ways to kill each other, but we also devise better and better ways to help each other. I think its called the 'animal and human' but I can't remember who said it.

And thanks for changing the title.

I don't consider myself to be a religious person, but I've long believed that there are two sides to human nature - the divine and the worldly. It's pretty much the 'Good vs. Evil' debate. At our core we're essentially good. We are noble, compassionate, loving, generous, etc, but whilst in this world we are tempted by greed, jealousy, selfishness, arrogance, hatred.

We have to overcome those aspects of our nature because they easily overpower the good aspects... for most people. Religion provides one way of learning how to do that, but it's by no means the only way. Simply following common decency and treating people the way that your parents and teachers (probably) taught you is a good start.

Our brutality may just be an extension of less intellingent animals, but that's exactly the point - we have the intelligence not to succumb to such brutality.

Q

I think we are a pretty amazing race, really, even though we do do some damn stupid things. As a species we are certainly the most successful at the moment being as we are on top of the food chain (probably).

we are the most evolutionary evolved race on the face of the earth, but in a way, the most primitive

i'd like to see evidence or the rationale behind the idea that we are the most successful species ever.

personally i think its that idea that enables us to think we can ignore that we are interdependant with the rest of nature. we ignore the consequences of our actions, especially ecologically, at our peril.

Ants also go to war... that's one example for you... so we are not alone in that respect... it's just we achieve it with more interesting weapons and spectacular results...

Ant wars are unlikely to lay waste to entire cities/regions...

i dont know much about ants, but dont they just go to war because if they dont both colonies would die out because of food shortage

possibly, I'm not sure... still, going to war over resources is hardly unique to them is it... oil anyone?