Quote:
Originally Posted by ravens_cry
Homo Sapiens is a successful species, in as much as the species matters evolution-wise. As far as I know, we are have the highest population for our weight class, which means lots of individuals have been reproducing. And therefore, we are a success. We aren't a plague a 'virus' to quote Agent Smith, we are just good at this whole 'be fruitful and multiply' thing. However, neither are we the Big Dude in the
Skies gift to the universe. We are just. . .us. Manipulative (tool using) Intelligence is but one path to success, and as is obviously not a common one. Many species have come and gone, most likely we will too. And I don't mean in some billion of years from now 'Heat Death' type death, don't flatter yourself, it could be in a few million years. Who knows?
We are like the man whose goal was to be immortal. He was asked how that was going.
His response?
"So far, so good."
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However, we haven't been successful for very long, yet. It may be that our ability to manipulate our environment will soon exceed our ability to avoid irrational or unexpected catastrophies of our own making and thus put a quick end to our evolutionary experiment in increased intelligence. It could happen in an evolutionary eyeblink, a few tens or hundreds or thousands of years - in fact, if we last a million years it would be a huge success - if we can survive that long, we can probably survive much longer. The jury is still out on this, and we don't know when they will return to render their verdict.