@ratta,
There is much talk of goals, of what we should do, of what is wrong and what is right implicit in this conversation. At the same time progress has been shown to be a mockery of what it is held to be, but the truth of progress isn't realized here yet, though I do not know why.
In order for progress to exist, a direction must be chosen. In order for a direction to be chosen, one must have an overarching goal in mind. To choose a goal, one must appeal to their individual dogmatisms and preferences implicitly,i.e. there is no overarching goal which is logical, logic is a device by which we attempt to follow the path we ahve chosen, it is our compass, but we have to first choose a direction for it to be of any use. Once we choose a direction, logic can supply a route to the end insofar as we can use it properly and in an unbiased form, or so we suppose(in actuality logic might fail us at some point, certainly binary logic does). We come to points of ideological transit where logic holds no influence, and we must work around it. Here is a question which we have not yet treated; "Assume there is a system, and you have a set of actions in this system which, if you follow, you gurantee man's survival indefinitely, but you must submit totally until you die, would you do so?". Well, would you? Would you give freedom up for survival? Is it not the case that in the end we are slaves to survival anyway, or can the urge to be free overcome the urge to survive? Is it better to die free or live forever a slave? If there is a system by which we can gurantee our survival, then we would indeed be slaves to it if our goal is to survive first and foremost. There may be some leeway, some room for choice, but ultimately we would be slaves to a mechanical god who gives us ultimate security for total submission.
Is it worth all of this to preserve the race? To ensure our immortality? What about to ensure that we live the longest possible time as a species? Is it better to die out as nature would dictate, or to fight to survive as best we can? Why? Well, because of a consensus at best.
There is no gurantee for the ultimate survival of humanity, but we are a species driven by instinct and fear, as all beasts are. We cling to our conventions and our contructs and they crumble to dust as we struggle to hold them up. We build our towers of gold and they melt in the hot fires of truth for they are false. We run from the abyss for it is black and we do not know it. We cannot know it. We build ships to sail above it but they rot and splinter with time for they are false. We all fall into the abyss in the end. None of us knows, but we need to know, fear makes it so. Man's fear runs deep, man's insecurities are many, man wishes for stability but is cast into chaos from birth.
Thus, man does what is instinctual. He uses his environment to survive and tries to understand it better so that he can see how it might suit him. He is leery of what is new and not understood, but is quick to accept a percieved safety. Away from the jungles he secures his fate in a tower of stone because he can, because he craves control, because he is afraid. All we have is derived of our animalistic tendencies, and adherence to logic is another one of these, though the degree to which we submit to it is unique to us as far as we know. We are a fearful bunch, weaker than our predators but we have an advantage, we have our wits and we can make ourselfs powerful, so powerful, beyond imagniation. When we have become beyond all of the animals, the apex predator of our entire ecosphere, we turn on each other for things trivial and superfluous. We raise concerns for things which once would have not been considered yet now we cannot live without them. We fight and bicker over innane drivel and kill over words spoken by fools. We create our own corruption, in this sense we are pure, yet we have lost perspective, we have become slaves to comfort along with fear and we create our own prisons.
An idea:There is freedom in insanity, true, stark raving lunacy. If it is of the right type. If it give release from our fears by locking us into our minds, where all things are and many more become at the snap of our finger. When a joyus madness hits, we have fun day in and day out and not a care in the world, and we sit docile in our straight jackets free from our external ties, free to roam our self created worlds which we can change as we see fit. This is ultimate freedom, as close as we can get anyway.
... for example, that we're not just interested in saving humankind from extinction, but that we want to save human civilization, as well ... and maintain the quality of life associated with current levels of energy usage ... and save the planet while we're at it ... and ... ... ...
