• bucho@lemmy.one
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      9 months ago

      Not even anywhere near that long. There have been humans for probably more than 200,000 years. Probably more. It gets confusing when you go back that far. But our written history only accounts for maybe 10,000 of those years. So 5% of total human history, if we take the minimum estimate of what it takes for us to be human. We have no evidence to support the fact that human advancement even lasts as long as written history. I mean, shit… the Romans had central heating and cement, and then they died out and we forgot how to do those things for 1,000 years. Our knowledge, and the acquisition of same is not exactly linear. Lots of fits and starts over the course of the various human civilizations that have occurred.

      • topinambour_rex@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        An important thing, about Homo Sapiens, is if we got the look of homo sapiens 200000 years ago, they still had the same brain volume and shape that their predecessors. It tooks some time for reach the modern brain volume/shape. Then previous homos steps was important too, in the discovery they made. So it’s quite reductice to limit humanity to homo sapiens.

  • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    The shit that we’ve shot into space, and the signals we have broadcast will be our only legacy. The Voyager probes with their golden records are our best shot right now at letting something else out there know we existed.

    • A_Menace_To_Society
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      9 months ago

      How exactly do you know that? The universe is going to be around for a while, and we just evolved and have just started to understand the universe. I find it absurd to think there isn’t at least a chance we colonize a significant part of our region of the milky way.

      • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The check list of shit to-do to colonize something not on earth is pretty long. We still have to

        -Find a more reliable way to get to space than sitting on an explosion.

        -Figure out how to make faster ships so we get someplace cool in a reasonable amount of time. (Generstion ships are hard)

        -Figure out the life support requirements for long term voyages.

        -Figure out how to produce all required items on said colony (Looking at you STCs from 40k)

        -Figure out how to come back to earth without packing twice as much fuel. (Or not, hopefully we don’t fuck things here up that baddly)

        Finally, there is a time limit to get this shit done. Either climate change or kessler syndrome will punch our ticket and there will be no humans outside of our unfashionably small blue-green mud ball.

        I applaud the optimism, I cant say that I have the same.

      • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        I mean as of right now. Of course we have plenty of opportunities to leave a greater legacy. But on the cosmic scale, we’ve barely done anything to leave a mark.

  • irmoz@reddthat.com
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    9 months ago

    It seems a bit obvious that the answer is “no”. It has to matter to someone, and when we’re gone, who is left to care?

  • JayObey711@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Just because there are no longterm benefits does not mean that your short term existence is pointless. Find pride and a reason in what you do for yourself and don’t wast your time thinking about what could potentially be in 500 years. Only your own experience is real and meaningful to you.

  • bucho@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    Depends on your definition of “long-term”. The biggest accomplishments of Man have been acknowledged for maybe 10,000 years at the very extreme limits. 10,000 years is not even a drop in the bucket of geological or celestial time. So it very much depends on your perspective.

    • bucho@lemmy.one
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      9 months ago

      What happened 11,000 years ago? I mean, we’ve got some pottery fragments. Other than that, ???

        • bucho@lemmy.one
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          9 months ago

          … Ok, fair. 11,000 years was the wrong cut-off date. 12 - 13,000 years would have illustrated my point better.

          • topinambour_rex@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            A movie, it’s titled 10000bc. You should check the wikipedia article. There isn’t huge events, more plenty of average ones, like the start of pottery.

  • redballooon
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    9 months ago

    Well, there’s the Anthropocene. That has to count for something.

    • CountZero@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s only depressing if you’ve convinced yourself that you’re something more than an intelligent ape.

      If you think about it from the perspective of an animal that had no concept of time, space, ethics, or philosophy just a few hundred thousand years ago, then we’re actually pretty impressive.

      We probably won’t have any significant effect on the galaxy, but we sure have an effect on Earth.