Perspectives...

[Makalakumu]

Take a look at this picture and play around with google earth. Zoom all of the way out and zoom in on your home. Think about it. How does this affect your perspective?

For 100,000 years, mankind has been confined to Earth. This era has been a lengthy and interesting saga of groping towards rationality and material command, amid endless wars. The most interesting thing about this is its fragility. We have been confined to one rocky world in a far off po-dunk corner of our galaxy - completely dependent upon a thin membrane of water and a smear of organics over the planets surface. The slightest disturbance could have wiped us out before we even got started and that would have been that. In fact, 70,000 years ago, this nearly did happen. A single volcanic eruption, Toba, changed the climate so drastically that only a few hundred of our ancestors survived...we were a hairsbredth from extinction. Now, we are here. We see this picture and all of this progress amid the semi-collective groping of the Earth. My my, these are interesting times...

 

[elder999]

In fact, 70,000 years ago, this nearly did happen. A single volcanic eruption, Toba, changed the climate so drastically that only a few hundred of our ancestors survived...we were a hairsbredth from extinction. Now, we are here. We see this picture and all of this progress amid the semi-collective groping of the Earth. My my, these are interesting times...

Cool pic, but Ambrose's Toba catastrophe theory really only posits a few thousand people, based on mitochondrial DNA sampling....

thanks, though-from where I sit, every day we're a hairsbreadth from extinction......

 

[bushidomartialarts]

our only chance is to take it to the stars. spread out all over the galaxy. mine the rings, colonize so many planets that not even a global catastrophe will so much as slow us down.

maybe i've been reading too much heinlein.

 

[Flatlander]

from where I sit, every day we're a hairsbreadth from extinction......

And, where's that?

 

[mrhnau]

And, where's that?

if you want to be a fatalist, you can see extinction around every corner... Iran w/ nuclear weapons, bird flu outbreak, some new virus/bacteria, etc... outreach into the stars will take a while, but its the only true "seperation" we have in this culture. unless you hide in a cave you just can't keep away from the rest of society...

 

[elder999]

And, where's that?

See here .

I currently work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where I do boring science stuff, and a few things that I can talk around, and a few more things that I won’t (CAN’T) talk about at all, though I’ve told enough that you can probably imagine what those are.

:uhohh:

 

[michaeledward]

our only chance is to take it to the stars. spread out all over the galaxy. mine the rings, colonize so many planets that not even a global catastrophe will so much as slow us down.

maybe i've been reading too much heinlein.

Perhaps you have, indeed.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

our only chance is to take it to the stars. spread out all over the galaxy. mine the rings, colonize so many planets that not even a global catastrophe will so much as slow us down.

maybe i've been reading too much heinlein.

Impossible to do!!

 

[Carol]

Dang, I left the lights on again.

 

[Don Roley]

our only chance is to take it to the stars. spread out all over the galaxy. mine the rings, colonize so many planets that not even a global catastrophe will so much as slow us down.

maybe i've been reading too much heinlein.

Or Pournelle. If you like Heinlein, you will like Jerry Pournelle as well.

This planet is small and vulnerable. One comet and we could be all gone. It would be nice to know there are colonies outside of our gravity well that would have a chance after that type of thing.

 

[Flying Crane]

if you want to be a fatalist, you can see extinction around every corner... Iran w/ nuclear weapons,

How about "anyone with nuclear weapons. Iran, The US, Russia, India, Israel, Great Britain..."

 

[FearlessFreep]

Dang, I left the lights on again.

"I can see my house from up here..."

 

[Flatlander]

See here .

:uhohh: [/size][/font]

Ahhhh.....

 

[Phoenix44]

1. Iran doesn't currently have nuclear weapons.

2. The U.S. is the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons in a war, and the only country currently considering using them again.

It's horrifying.

 

[Hand Sword]

The results of which is whty everyone else has or is getting them, and why they've never been used again, thus far.

 

[Hand Sword]

As for the original post, we are always a hair away from extinction, natural, or otherwise.