I know it's been beaten to death, but maybe we are just Viruses.

Civilizations collapse, planet hopping, nuclear devastation. We try and we collapse over and over again for what seems like infinite, but there's always that one in a trillion chance of that one civilization who actually solves all their world crisis, become immune/ adapt to anti-viral drugs. be able to hop planet to planet, cell to cell, infecting galaxies, universes and eventually learn and control all the physical limitations of their own universe, shut down the brain, kill the host body and override the system?

a reply to: Richsac89

Well a weed is only a weed when it grows someplace you don't want it to be. This is arguing over semantics if you ask me.

a reply to: Richsac89

You're right every civilization collapses. That what we're supposed to take way from this life experience. The trick is once you find that out, do you continue to support the system, be a part of the world systems, be of the World?

You should be happy its been given you to know this. Before you were just toiling along, doing your part. Now you have a choice.

a reply to: Richsac89

It's just as likely that we're totally awesome and your just missing it. Crime and murder have decreased significantly over the years. Medical care and general knowledge of the world is at an all time high. There are less people starving now due to advances in agriculture. Space exploration is going comercial instead of govt controlled. What's not to like?

a reply to: Woodcarver

We still have power hungry threats in the world; North Korea & ISIS. The world nations are still armed in nuclear weapons. We are in constant threat from anti biotic resistant bacteria and WW3. There are still many threats that can send us back to the stone age so we are not that safe yet

a reply to: Richsac89

I just looked outside and i didn't see any of that #. We definately do not live in a eutopia, but isis is not a direct threat to me. Billions of people DON'T die every day. Billions of people are leading fairly happy lives. Super bugs have always been around. We have even eradicated some of them. We def have a better chance nowadays to combat one if it did take off.

I'm doing alright.

Well, do you believe in the lost advanced ancient civilization theories like Atlantis, Mu, and the high-tech civilizations described in Vedic texts with flying machines and all?
Apparently some researchers found remnants of catastrophic nuclear type destructions that some say may be the results of an ancient nuclear war as told in some of those Vedic texts.
If they are true, and if life in this planet obeys the same laws of the universe, everything has a beginning and an end, the eternal cycle of life and death, as above so below etc...
Then, yes, we are but only one small part of the Whole.
Not to say that I don't believe we might be able to leave our planet in the future, or eradicate disease through scientific advancements (although it's hard for me to imagine humans giving up war).
We are still part of the Whole, and if the Whole had a beginning, it also has an end.
My two cents, anyway.

a reply to: Richsac89

Okay. I admit it. I am a plague.

a reply to: Woodcarver
That's exactly the problem though, woodcarver. It is a great irony of our age, that we can have instant communication with anyone around the entire world and yet we still live so disjointed and disconnected. Because ISIS isn't a direct threat to you, you get to ignore it? reminds me of a quote 'First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.'

Sure, billions are living fairly happy lives- well, at least it can be said that billions are living like happy sheep, staying within the confines of the pasture their shepherd told them it was ok to go- many billions just eking out an existence slaving away to the man and spending their limited share of entropy to further somebody elses career and pockets so they can go and buy food from the man to feed their families, who live in a house owned by the man, who you still have to pay....

Most today are living in social slavery wiothout ever really realizing it. The education system, in America at least exist solely to fill the minds of impressionable youth with utterly inane and useless knowledge, guiding their learning to be as 'safe' as they can, where 'safe' means your dumbed down, ignorant, trusting and incapable of thinking for yourself. even if this part of the system isn't completely successful, then you move on to the biggest part of the slavery mechanism- The Man tells you that if you want to have the things you need- food, water, shelter, clothes, transportation that you will have to work for it. But, as if that wasn't ridiculous enough, you have to workto earn a chit that you then have to trade in to get what you want... If you want to live comfortably, you almost cannot do so without helping The Man enslave humanity in some part of the process.

As if that weren't ridiculous enough, humanity has degenerated thanks to the closed system of slavery the man has implemented, that now its not a social thing, but a cultural thing to go out and get enough of the mans money as you can to go out and get what you want, the point is to accumulate all this stuff and for what end? I'm a 21 year old homeless kid because I have judged this world and found it wanting... I don't know much, but I DO know that life is not something to do in somebody elses service, that a life of working a job and chasing bills is not one that I will lead...

I kinda drifted off topic there, but my point is that super bugs, isis and all the like are merely the symptoms of a much larger societal cancer. you can stop as many wars, kill as many tumors as you want, but if you don't treat the underlying cancer there will only be more tumors/wars... 'I'm doing allright'- is the motto of today, and it is this motto that has allowed the cancer to spread so far and wide... 'im ok, in this situation' forgets that there is more to any one situation to consider than just that immediate situation... I'm ok right now, but halfway around the world from me there are kids who are starving to death right now, and The Man tells me that its ok, because im not those hungry kids, to just keep filling my pockets and shoveling food down my gullet? # no, # that. Its 2016 and theres kids dying of starvation while in huge buildings all across my country there is food just stockpiled and going to waste in megastores, tossed away in a dumpster after the package has been sliced open so its irrecoverable by the local homeless...

reminds me of another quote I half remember, to lossely paraphrase 'the burden of the end of the world lies not with those who piled the wood and stoked the fire, but the far more numerous populace who stood idly by and watched these men pile up and stoke the fire and did nothing, only afterwards cryin g out for somebody to put out the fire'

a reply to: 5leepingWarrior

Been there my friend. Life is full of great ironies.

The Paradox of Our Time

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology has brought this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to make a difference, or to just hit delete...

Virus-"an ultramicroscopic (20 to 300 nm in diameter), metabolically inert, infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts, mainly bacteria, plants, and animals: composed of an RNA or DNA core, a protein coat, and, in more complex types, a surrounding envelope."

Nope. Homosapiens are not viruses.