Have you ever heard the quote “Man is the measure of all things?” This is a Greek one attributed to Protagoras, the pre-Socratic philosopher. As many other wisdom sayings out there it can be interpreted in different ways.
Protagoras' quote is definitely anthropocentric, however, which means that the Universe has been created for the well-being of humans so we can do whatever we want to our planet Earth.
You may not realize it, but this human-centered idea has been really, really influential in Western thought. Think about it for a moment, everything we do is driven by our desire to get more and more, to become kinda like gods, isn't it?
“Man is the measure of all things” was a popular ancient saying that used to work OK in times of Julius Caesar, but it isn't valid anymore — it is literally KO nowadays.
Let's face it. There is an awkward limit to growth that we are unwilling to accept, and that's why we'll die off soon, just as the Greeks and the Romans did thousands of years ago.
Main Differences Between LAMP and MEANon 09/13/2016
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The film The Coming Convergence came out the year after you updated this wizzley. It describes catastrophes predicted in ancient scriptures about environments becoming ruinous and people becoming extinct.
Would you happen to have read or seen anything about The Coming Convergence?
Nature goes through a cleansing process between each sunset and sunrise. It perhaps has its smaller-scale counterpart in people experiencing that self-cleansing of blood, muscle, organs, tissue every morning around 4 a.m.
Wouldn't it seem like the two self-cleansing processes could stop a sixth mass extinction that particularly focuses on humans no longer existing? It still would seem possible to me that climate change can be lessened in its effects if we stop littering air, land and waters.
Some science fantasy books, graphic novels and movies have among their characters bionic people who have fabricated parts and people-like robots.
Would that be what we leave behind -- in the event of a sixth mass extinction -- or would we not have the time -- within 10 years, by 2025-2075, by 2100 -- to invent or perfect either of the above two scenarios?
Revisiting your wizzley called to mind something that I'd meant to include in my reactions with the first reading.
Does the sixth mass extinction consider animal species as going extinct but -- apart perhaps those in water bodies -- not plants?
An alternative to extinction is a large population decline,which may vary in severity across the world. After this decline there may be an as yet unpredictable number of survivors. I think that as there is a decline in male fertility across the world this decline may be quite slow and steady. But who knows.
GeorgeBass, Thank you for the list of indicators that warn us of human extinction. It is particularly perplexing to me about the amount of stray plastic interfering with land and water life forms.
This month I re-visited a DVD on "City Beneath the Sea." Do you think that living on the sea floor is possible and that people will behave in more eco-friendly, sustainable ways there or on Mars?
Thank you so much for your comments.
Nice article. I find here on Wizzley articles on conservation, solar power, or any other earth saving idea is read multiple times. If you have not yet found Stumbleupon, it reaches many more readers. Keep writing. I see this is but your second. You have a good start.
None of us knows the future. Acts chapter 1 has Christ saying that it is not for us to know the times and seasons that the Father has appointed by his own authority,and on this belief I totally concur. But consider, when the Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door they ask me do I believe in the end of the world. I say that I do, and then they ask whether it will be soon. I answer, "I don't know. It might be five minutes, it might be a million years, but as I am well over sixty, if it does not happen in the next thirty years or so my interest is purely academic. "
In the Lord of the Rings Tolkien has Gandalph saying, " It is not for us to know all the tides of the world, but to do our best in the times that we are living in, keeping our fields free of weeds so that those who come after us have clean fields to till." With this profound truth I am content.
I am going to live as greenly as possible to do my best for the Earth in the time that I have available to me, and after that, unless we are reincarnated, there is nothing that I can do.
Good article, I wish everyone was as conscientious about global warming and the trash they accumulate and add to land fills. I have always taught my kids to think about what they use, want, buy in the regard as to what they will then contribute to waste, trash and carbon foot print.