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Funny planet, this. Whatever happened to the strange ape we spotted here last time? The bloody things were everywhere! Where have they all gone?'

I do not believe that human extinction will be directly caused by the cataloge of disasters we unleash upon ourselves or, with any luck, that are unleashed upon us. It is more that that our irradication was implicit from our inception and is written into the basic architecture of our brains; like a Fermi paradox preservation probability driver.
The human brain is an environment management tool and is in many ways, deeply impressive. It has 100 billion neurons to perform computations and establish combinations of neurons to manifest concepts. It is of note that the most impressively unique part of this brain is known to neuroscientists as the neocortex, which in humans is many times larger than that found in any other species on the planet. This is what helps this clever ape to sanitize its’ environment, produce great creative works, irradiate many human maladies, make the entire geography of the planet habitable and accessible and become a fledgling space faring civilization.
However, there is another component of the human brain, which is rather less impressive known as the Reptilian Brain. This vestigal part of the brain is aggressive, lustful, impulsive; and has vastly more in common with a wild predator species, a small rodent or indeed, a toothy reptile. Because of the action of this reptilian brain, human beings manifest three enormous problems.
Firstly: Tribalism. Humans are always on the verge of developing a murderously violent hatred of all foreigners and insist continuing the ongoing slaughter of vast numbers of them. They can never reliably see the humanity even in other members of their own kind so are just as likely to turn on each other in civil war.
Secondly: Short Term Thinking: Homo sapiens are fatefully prone to short term thinking; even when confronted with reliable data, they can only imagine the near term future – a few years ahead at best – viewing the long term as a chimerical unreal state. Its’ immediate impulses are therefore uncontained which has led to working away to destroy their individual and collective future rather than sustaining their planets’ habitability and enduring civilisation.
Thirdly: Wishful Thinking. Humans have a special fondness for imagining that the world could be a better place than it is. Though capable of great intellectual achievement, our minds are incapable of reflecting on ourselves and cannot bear to submit our precious ideas to rational scrutiny. We prefer to act impulsively or day dream rather than plan properly. Even though we have invented the rigorous scientific method, we prefer not to use it in case our ideas become threatened by it. Humanity has a narcotic desire for distraction and fantasy. The 20th Century atrocities of Marxism and fascism are prime examples of the destructiveness of such Utopian fantasy thinking. Man simply does not want to know himself.
Throughout recorded history, these three flaws were more or less tolerably endured and many institutions were invented in an attempt to attenuate them. Law, sound government, education, philosophy & science, economics etc. It did work to a small degree and although humans wiped out huge swathes of each other in endless conflicts and purges; they did not destroy the species as a whole.

What will now cause our extinction, ironically, is the untrammeled power of the neocortex. This mighty tool has eventually harnessed the power of the atom, contained the elements and given homo sapiens a God like power over the planet; while the human animal overall operates with the reflexes and callous indifference of a crocodile. The cost of its’ mistakes grow ever larger and ever more irretrievable Its’ power is becoming uncontainable as surely as its' wisdom remains intermittent, fragile and impotent. Eventually, this might will out pace our capacity for self-control as we became more and more, nuclear armed reptiles.
There is one thing that might save humanity: Love. Three varieties of love in particular could be most efficacious..
1.) The love of the stranger. The capacity to see the other as like oneself and worthy of the same mercy, charity and consideration as yourself.
2.) Love of the unborn: The concern for those who do not yet exist and never will because of our own actions in the selfish present.
3.) The love of truth: The power and will to resist illusion and lies and confront uncomfortable facts of all kinds.

We do not need to be a disinterested intellect to understand this. Humans are at the very brink and we can see the disaster scenario unfolding right now. The fate of humanity does not lie ultimately with the Law Courts, the Ballot Box or in the corridors of governments. It rests on the ability of humans en mass to master the most short-term, selfish and violent of our impulses that swirl about in the organic matter between our ears. It relies on the ability to compensate for the flawed architecture of the human brain and knowing that we need to.

Century-1 4 Jan 4
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Like all species , an overpopulation of the species will result in environmental damage/collateral damage

humans will evolve to the conditions of the future,

An absurdity compliant notion and exactly the point I make. Wishful thinking and wilful blindness will not save us. The earth's 'Goldilocks' phase, where the conditions for life exist, are extremely fragile and are ending right before our eyes. The Elite's in their prepped underground shelters will just die out a little slower than the rest of us.

We could have done better. Science could have saved us but it sold out to commerce over a century ago so has been worse than useless. Technology is not science. brilliant though it is, innovation couldn't and won't save us.

@Century-1
so be it ..... i certainly won't lose sleep over it

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Very long but also very well written.

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