Are we destined to fail?

We've all have heard the saying "History Repeats itself". And with this in mind, every single great civilization: The Romans, Mayans, the Aztecs, etc. have all eventually fell. Are us as humans, just destined to live in this constant loop of repeating history and not learning from it, and ultimately driving ourselves to extinction repeatedly?

Well, the first time humans reverted their develompent was during the Bronze Age Collapse, then after the fall of the Roman Empire. Now with the presence of nuclear weapons, we threaten to either wipe ourselves entirely as a race or reverse development and make humanity a bunch of hunter-scavenger communities like in Fallout or The Walking dead (minus the zombies of course)

Originally Posted by Bmble_B

We've all have heard the saying "History Repeats itself". And with this in mind, every single great civilization: The Romans, Mayans, the Aztecs, etc. have all eventually fell. Are us as humans, just destined to live in this constant loop of repeating history and not learning from it, and ultimately driving ourselves to extinction repeatedly?

Most of the civilization that disappeared were wiped out by a greater civilization or an uncontrollable/unpredictable event like a natural disaster. We have something those civilization didn't have and that is the capacity to destroy our self with both nuclear weapons and climate change. But even in the current context a all out nuclear war is still unlikely and we still have time to stop climate change from killing us all. So that leaves a greater civilization invading and killing us and that would be aliens which is also very unlikely to happen because of the great distance and high level of technology it would take.

Originally Posted by mattsmith48

Most of the civilization that disappeared were wiped out by a greater civilization or an uncontrollable/unpredictable event like a natural disaster.

True in some cases. Though in others not so much. The Roman Empire for instance fell due to stagnation and overstretched borders. The barbarians simply exploited that, and thus Western Civilization was plunged into the Dark Ages, which essentially set back civilization hundreds of years.

So that leaves a greater civilization invading and killing us and that would be aliens which is also very unlikely to happen because of the great distance and high level of technology it would take.

Please don't tell me you actually believe that aliens exist (besides @lliam of course).

"Who not learns from history is doomed to repeat it".

I say we've always learned something from the past ... but by doing one step forward and two steps backwards. That's our jam.

I don't believe human civilization will ever fully collapse like it has done in the past purely because we've developed past the point of nations fully collapsing. Even when a nation is all but ravaged and annexed by another (eg. France during WWII) their allies eventually restore it. The closest we would probably get to a collapse of a nation is either nuclear war, natural disaster or, more realistically, a more extreme economic depression like that of the 1920s.

Originally Posted by lliam

"Who not learns from history is doomed to repeat it"

^ this is why they teach History.... There is a difference between hearing what the teacher says and listening to what the teacher is saying... sooo yes if you don't learn from others (past) mistakes you me us we are all doomed to fail.... it's not a matter of if but, when.

Originally Posted by PlasmaHam

True in some cases. Though in others not so much. The Roman Empire for instance fell due to stagnation and overstretched borders. The barbarians simply exploited that, and thus Western Civilization was plunged into the Dark Ages, which essentially set back civilization hundreds of years.

Yeah, but that's not really possible in the context the world is now in and technology.

Originally Posted by PlasmaHam

Please don't tell me you actually believe that aliens exist (besides @lliam of course).

It is very unlikely there is no alien life considering how many stars and planets are out there, just in our solar system we have one planet and four moons that could potentially have life or had life in the past. Now life that evolved to the point they reached an intelligence and technological level allowing them to come here and destroy us, it is possible, but we have no evidence of it so we can't know for sure.

Such an edgy thread. We're stupid petrol monkeys and we're all doomed.

Originally Posted by CosmicNoodle

Such an edgy thread. We're stupid petrol monkeys and we're all doomed.

In all fairness, all philosophical questions carry a certain degree of edge to them.

Every time we've had a step back in technology and civilization, we have always fully recovered and then some. After the fall of the Roman empire and the dark ages, we took an enormous leap forward with the renaissance and the industrial revolution. We have a space station for fuck's sake. And because of the internet and other databases we have documented damn near everything that's ever been witnessed incredibly well. I don't think human civilization can ever be wiped out totally until we're burned up by the expanding sun.

In short, I'm incredibly optimistic about human civilization.

Originally Posted by Babs

Every time we've had a step back in technology and civilization, we have always fully recovered and then some. After the fall of the Roman empire and the dark ages, we took an enormous leap forward with the renaissance and the industrial revolution. We have a space station for fuck's sake. And because of the internet and other databases we have documented damn near everything that's ever been witnessed incredibly well. I don't think human civilization can ever be wiped out totally until we're burned up by the expanding sun.

In short, I'm incredibly optimistic about human civilization.

Apart from AI, nuclear war, dangers from space, biological hazards, or the fact we're all inherently violent animals. Nah, we're good fam.

by the end, I think people will realize what's right and wrong, without mistakes. so yes, we are destined to fail.

They say all empires fall, the roman empire fell, the british empire fell, and soon the american empire will decline or i suppose it already is

I think humans would collapse after we run out of fuels, and technology can't be built anymore, because all of earth's natural resources were consumed. That's when I believe we'll start to see the decline, because of lack of transportation and communication, to where everyone would start to feel its up to themselves to live on, by being selfish and eventually collapsing on themselves. Our population is growing too fast anyway, too. So food might go out unless we start to turn cannibalistic.

Originally Posted by Adarest

I think humans would collapse after we run out of fuels, and technology can't be built anymore, because all of earth's natural resources were consumed. That's when I believe we'll start to see the decline, because of lack of transportation and communication, to where everyone would start to feel its up to themselves to live on, by being selfish and eventually collapsing on themselves. Our population is growing too fast anyway, too. So food might go out unless we start to turn cannibalistic.

Thats another thing my dad told me, that if we ran out of resources, people and countries would start fighting eachother for every little thing

Originally Posted by Fritz

Thats another thing my dad told me, that if we ran out of resources, people and countries would start fighting eachother for every little thing

Welcome to our dangerous future, where its Battle Royale, Hunger Games, PUBG, or whichever you prefer. Those movies n games are predicting our destructive futures.

Originally Posted by Adarest

Welcome to our dangerous future, where its Battle Royale, Hunger Games, PUBG, or whichever you prefer. Those movies n games are predicting our destructive futures.

Gosh i hope not to live in those kinds of futures

Originally Posted by Adarest

I think humans would collapse after we run out of fuels, and technology can't be built anymore, because all of earth's natural resources were consumed. That's when I believe we'll start to see the decline, because of lack of transportation and communication, to where everyone would start to feel its up to themselves to live on, by being selfish and eventually collapsing on themselves. Our population is growing too fast anyway, too. So food might go out unless we start to turn cannibalistic.

We have about 40 years of oil left, cleaner and renewable alternative will have fully taken over before that. For other resources some can be found else where in the solar system. The big one is water and food that are causing problems some part of the world already ran out.

Originally Posted by Fritz

Thats another thing my dad told me, that if we ran out of resources, people and countries would start fighting eachother for every little thing

That's already happening with wars for water and oil in the Middle East and that is helping the local recruiting efforts of groups like ISIS.

I have been thinking, why not try to work on space travel and strip mine barren planets and asteroids. That will postpone our destruction due to a lack of resources. Still, I think we will rather destroy eachother before that