Poll: Rate humanity! (on a scale of 1-8)

[Kukakkau]

2 because I can't wrap my head around how bad people are. And I would have put a higher rating but I just finished playing some League of Legends so yeah...

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

5. They're are many kind and good people in the world, devoted to their selfless cause of helping others with a burning passion, while some people commit unspeakable acts of horrendous, wanton violence against each other, making you wonder if intelligence leads to malevolence.

 

[Harlemura]

7.
Compare us to any other species, say lions. What have they done in the past 100 years? Killed a lot of zebra. What have we done? Built the mother flippin' internet.

We're not perfect though. At the end of the day, it's certainly starting to look like it'll be our fault the planet dies. At the very, very least, we're not doing it much good.

 

[Trilbi]

I voted 2 (because as a race i believe we are terrible), but honestly, who am I, or any human really, to judge?

 

[rokkolpo]

8.

It's the stupid, not the evil that ruin this world.
And well fuck'em.

 

[SinisterGehe]

1, Man is a illogical beast that is almost at the line of becoming something more than a animal, but people do not bother to take that leap. They wish to stay under the line and praise their non-existing divine beings. Allow their fears to shade their reasoning. Let their fleshy desires to control their lives. They are afraid to let their mind to take control, they are afraid of taming the animal that lives inside of us all. They are weak, pathetic, stupid, greedy, lazy and ILLOGICAL!

Humanity has betrayed me too many times, only the minority of minority is worthy of becoming something more than an animal - to achieve something greater than flesh, to achieve wisdom, symmetry, understanding, logic - beauty.

(I am not the most positive person on earth... But well, that is what I want and think humanity is... Makes me sad and depressed always when I think of it)

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

5-7, depending on the day. alot of times we choose not to see or don't see the good at all, and i'd like to believe that the majority of people out there are pretty well rounded people.

 

[JoJo]

I chose 8, because for all our flaws I can't think of a single thing in this universe which is greater than humanity.

I can think of plenty, like black holes. If there is something even more powerful out there it fills me with dread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

And now I wont be getting an sleep tonight.

I chose 8, because for all our flaws I can't think of a single thing in this universe which is greater than humanity.

I can think of plenty, like black holes. If there is something even more powerful out there it fills me with dread.

A black hole is more powerful, granted, but greater? Nothing else known in the universe can compare to the human imagination, our struggles, our joys, our pains, our love.

I doubt that humanity is the smartest and most complex life-form in the universe if there are other sentient lifeforms out there (mostly because I'm being optimistic and like to think things can get better then humanity). If there aren't we win by default, though.

I don't deny that there's a good chance there is other intelligent life out there in the universe but since as of speaking there is no evidence of their existance I can give humanity the highest mark of 8. If we do happen upon a species that happens to be better, I may change my grade, but until that day we get to keep the top spot.

 

[Lord Kloo]

Without knowing the true reasons for life the universe and everything I don't think any of us can say if we are doing what is right and whatnot..

But anyway that would be boring so I give us a 4, the halfway house.. this is because humans can take either side of the coin, we have done miracles and there may be more to come but our race has also committed atrocities (although we're only as destructive as nature is..)

 

[Soviet Steve]

8, because when you compare us with fire or pirahas or newborn spiders that eat their own mothers, we aren't all that bad, plus we're the only chance life has to get off this planet before the sun goes.

 

[Arkynomicon]

What about the other life forms on Earth? To say we're the best is like saying Hitler was the best German at the time. As someone else has already said in this thread:

"Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason."

Well, I'm mostly just trying to keep things simple. I also wouldn't rule out there being something more intelligent then humanity on Earth.

 

[mireko]

What about the other life forms on Earth? To say we're the best is like saying Hitler was the best German at the time. As someone else has already said in this thread:

"Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason."

That's just muddying the question. 'Best' and 'good' don't actually mean anything in that context since it renders those terms disgustingly relativistic. As far as we know, animals just don't give a fuck. Dolphins kill their young for no reason at all, then kill each other and have sex with the corpses. Because they're monsters. Sea monsters.

It's such a Victorian idea that nature is beautiful and man is evil. If you believe in any kind of objective or absolute standard of morality, then humanity is the best species on Earth. If you believe in any kind of progress or scientific aspiration, then humanity is the best species on Earth. If you would prefer to live in a body of water and rape corpses, then dolphins are superior, sure.

Of course, that's not to say there isn't some species of greater intelligence that simply hasn't revealed itself or its intellect yet. There could be a whole bunch of them somewhere underground. Cats could be geniuses, by some biological trickery.

But that's a dead end. If you're going to argue that you'll end up being the guy who goes "OH, BUT THIS COULD ALL BE IN MY HEAD! LOL" whenever someone reaches a conclusion. Yes, maybe we're all stuck in Plato's cave and only you see the truth (or something similarly self-aggrandizing), but that really doesn't matter. We can only draw conclusions from what we've observed, otherwise there's no point to arguing or even doing anything at all.

And what we've observed is that dolphins fucking suck.

EDIT: There could still be awesome and wonderful aliens, but even if they master space travel and come here, we won't live to see them.

EDIT EDIT: Looking at this now, I sound kind of hostile. That's not my intention, I don't mean to offend or attack you personally or anything like that.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

4. In my experience, there are only a few people worth associating with, and there can be some really bad people, but there can be some really great people as well. Our ingenuity and creativity are second only to our ingenuity and creativity when trying to kill each other, which works as a point both in favour and against us. Our art can truly be beautiful, but, at the same time, horrid, and can really inspire true emotion and thoughts. However, appreciation of the things that deserve it seems rarer than it should be. For example, quite a chunk of the music that's popular today, not ALL of it, just a substantial part, does not inspire deep feeling or introspection. As human beings, we also shun what's different, instead of welcoming it. Granted, that's not true with everyone, and is becoming much less true in modern society. Furthermore, many people only do things for their own gain and disregard others. As with the previous statement, there are exceptions. However, we are prone to hurt, consume and destroy, even without meaning to. Our reasons for killing can be quite excessive and paranoid, as well, even when diplomacy can be much more effective.

In short, I would rate it a 4 because, no matter how many good things you can think of about people, as well as bad things, there are always exceptions, so we sort of balance out... I would give it a 5 or 6, but our intensely destructive tendencies lower the score.

 

[gabe12301]

But black holes don't have mass. They are great though...

What? Since when? I'll admit I'm not terribly well-informed in Astronomy, but how else would they have a gravitational pull?

It's a singularity. The eccretion disc has mass, but the "black hole" itself doesn't.

blackholes have infinite mass. In fact it's its mass that allows it to create an infinite gravity well. Or at least that's what the science channel told me.

 

[GeorgW]

What about the other life forms on Earth? To say we're the best is like saying Hitler was the best German at the time. As someone else has already said in this thread:

"Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason."

That's just muddying the question. 'Best' and 'good' don't actually mean anything in that context since it renders those terms disgustingly relativistic. As far as we know, animals just don't give a fuck. Dolphins kill their young for no reason at all, then kill each other and have sex with the corpses. Because they're monsters. Sea monsters.

It's such a Victorian idea that nature is beautiful and man is evil. If you believe in any kind of objective or absolute standard of morality, then humanity is the best species on Earth. If you believe in any kind of progress or scientific aspiration, then humanity is the best species on Earth. If you would prefer to live in a body of water and rape corpses, then dolphins are superior, sure.

Of course, that's not to say there isn't some species of greater intelligence that simply hasn't revealed itself or its intellect yet. There could be a whole bunch of them somewhere underground. Cats could be geniuses, by some biological trickery.

But that's a dead end. If you're going to argue that you'll end up being the guy who goes "OH, BUT THIS COULD ALL BE IN MY HEAD! LOL" whenever someone reaches a conclusion. Yes, maybe we're all stuck in Plato's cave and only you see the truth (or something similarly self-aggrandizing), but that really doesn't matter. We can only draw conclusions from what we've observed, otherwise there's no point to arguing or even doing anything at all.

And what we've observed is that dolphins fucking suck.

EDIT: There could still be awesome and wonderful aliens, but even if they master space travel and come here, we won't live to see them.

EDIT EDIT: Looking at this now, I sound kind of hostile. That's not my intention, I don't mean to offend or attack you personally or anything like that.

I just liked the quote, I wasn't saying that dolphins are better than man. But they're not the only ones that murder, humans are quite adept at that as well, so how are we any better?
All I'm saying is that it's pretty damn arrogant to assume that your species is superior just cuz you can't prove otherwise.

But black holes don't have mass. They are great though...

What? Since when? I'll admit I'm not terribly well-informed in Astronomy, but how else would they have a gravitational pull?

It's a singularity. The eccretion disc has mass, but the "black hole" itself doesn't.

blackholes have infinite mass. In fact it's its mass that allows it to create an infinite gravity well. Or at least that's what the science channel told me.

Well, that all depens on the definitions of singularities and mass. The actual answer that I couldn't be arsed to write is that we can't define its mass by our current definitions. It can be considered to have either infinite mass or none at all, but nothing in between. And since infinity is a kinda iffy answer I figured I'd simplify it and just say it doesn't have mass. Sorry to simplify, but this is a thread about humanity and not black holes.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

5, because jerks/bastards/whathaveyou are a visable minority. I like to believe that most of us are decent people.

We lost major points for still tolerating mass production of weapons, letting dictators reek havac until they are no longer useful and because I just had a bad experience at an A&W.