• Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Damn, we actually collapsed our environment in the name of profit. This must be the great filter. Its the enticing imaginary bullshit that leads to total obliteration over advancement. The chasing of made-up dragons to make some nonexistent number rise.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      There’s a scene in Sagan’s Cosmos where he’s exploring the possibilities of life elsewhere. He’s in the Ship of the Imagination, looking around at various potentials. He runs across one planet teeming with a civilization, from orbit it had even more lights and connections that our own at night. And then the lights suddenly go out. He discusses how even thriving life can suddenly die and speculates on a few reasons why this one might have, like resources or war or whatever. Summary from memory, I have no idea which episode it’s in.

      In reality it wouldn’t be a sudden disappearance, but a longer decay. The lights shutting off was just to illustrate how easy it is to lose something assumed to be permanent. I’d also recommend the beginning of Revolution to get that same surreal feeling, although the rest of the series was blah.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Ah, Cosmos, I remember watching that when I still believed people were creatures of knowledge and advancement. We’ll never know any of those things cause we spent the last 50 years prioritizing profit over all else. It didnt have to be like this.

        • atro_city@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          What we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants. It is well within our power to destroy our civilization, and perhaps our species as well

          Carl Sagan