faetal on 7/11/2016 at 21:32
Quote Posted by Renzatic
I may be giving us too much credit, but you're giving us far too little.
Not really, I'm basing it on a very in depth knowledge of biology and also what's possible in labs. Those tonnes and tonnes of meat don't come from nowhere, there is a huge amount of input, expertise and materials involved and and the output ain't that great. I'm not saying humans will definitely die off, but it isn't hard to imagine how climate change could do it. You just need to understand how ecology works.
Vivian on 7/11/2016 at 22:12
I think ecological collapse would have to be pretty total to take us out completely. If any large-ish land animals can survive we can scrape through. Not many of us maybe, but we've got some pretty neat tools these days, and we're nothing if not fucking persistent. Even the End-Permian let quite large amounts of large-ish herbivores and carnivores through, enough for viable ecosystems to start getting kicked off pretty much straightaway in the Triassic. It's not like the entire game got reset or anything.
Pyrian on 7/11/2016 at 22:18
If you want to know whether humanity would survive ecological collapse, ask yourself the following question: Are dinosaurs extinct, or birds?
We'd survive. But we wouldn't be the same.
Renzatic on 7/11/2016 at 22:25
Hopefully, we'd end up with horns or tusks or something.
Chade on 7/11/2016 at 23:32
Pretty funny the direction this thread has taken.
Vivian on 7/11/2016 at 23:45
Quote Posted by Pyrian
If you want to know whether humanity would survive ecological collapse, ask yourself the following question: Are dinosaurs extinct, or birds?
We'd survive. But we wouldn't be the same.
Dinosaurs never produced and stored food, manufactured clothing and housing for survival in really sub-optimal climates, developed heating and lighting technology, powered transport, medical technology, long-range communication or even really a language, let alone a written language. We've definitely got a bigger edge than any other large animal species has ever had. We can change our integumental insulation properties, sensory capabilities pretty much at will just by strapping various shit we've made to ourselves. There is no animal on earth that the shittiest one of us couldn't kill given the right equipment. We can completely change the crops we plant and species we harvest, alter huge areas of land to suit our purposes, build huge habitats, all in a matter of years. I think multiple large impactors would be required to do us actually fatal harm at this point.
Renzatic on 8/11/2016 at 00:02
What Vivian said. He knows what he's talking about too. He's a goddamn dinosaur scientist! BONAFIDE!
Pyrian on 8/11/2016 at 01:30
Quote Posted by Vivian
Dinosaurs never...
...Made nukes. All the things we can do
for ourselves are also things we can do
to ourselves.
Renzatic on 8/11/2016 at 01:35
How do you know they didn't?
Trance on 8/11/2016 at 02:01
So the Chicxulub crater wasn't the site of an asteroid impact, but rather the blast crater of a multi-teraton nuclear warhead?
