Amen. (I say this with no sense of irony; maybe the universe is self-correcting after all, how do I know?)

What, everyone?

Expecting an apocalypse, are we?

Paul4747 I'd say the odds have become significantly worse. Reliable sources of information report extreme weather and ecological collapse. Once the resources get scarce enough, nuclear war could easily do the rest. Timelines for a less dire outcome are dwindling.

@racocn8 There are still a lot of us. People are tough and inventive. The Earth would have to actually become uninhabitable on the scale of "it's a different planet" to kill everyone, even taking into account wars, ecological change, etc. And we already know how we could live on other planets.

Humans are persistenent cusses, you've got to give us that. We may be collectively our own worst enemies, but we're also brilliant at surviving when the chips are down.

I'm an optimistic pessimist. No matter how bad it gets, I think we'll find some way through as a species.

@Paul4747 I appreciate your perspective. I wish that I could see more in Humanity that signified being worthy of survival.

@racocn8 Look at it this way:

300 years ago, slavery was legal in almost every nation in the "developed" world. White Europeans made no bones about travelling to other lands, purchasing some of the inhabitants from other inhabitants (one thing about the slave trade is that the traders didn't do the work of kidnapping themselves, they farmed it out to indigenous peoples who would kidnap and sell their traditional enemies; so, yes, my ancestors shared in that guilt, but at least it wasn't 100% them to blame, pretty much everyone got their hands dirty). The majority of women in the entire world were not considered fit to own property; many were regarded as their closest male relative's property. Almost nowhere above the tribal or town level of government was democracy even considered in most of the world, and where it was, certainly not in a form where every individual had a voice. Death from what we consider routine illnesses was common, as was seasonal hunger. If you wanted heat in the winter, you burned wood or coal which you had hauled in or chopped yourself.

Now much of the world is free of slavery (although not enough of it) and democracy is common (although not common enough). Disease and hunger could largely be eradicated with the technologies we have; it's only a matter of gathering the will of the world and overcoming the greed of the few nations who both produce and waste the most, as well as overcoming the prejudices both the givers (we) and the receivers (the developing world) have built up through our history together. Putting aside religious dogma will be a huge stride forward, and will take just as long as putting aside capitalist dogma. But the social evolution and revolution of the last 3 centuries, and especially the last 100, has been astonishing. Who is to say that we can't go even further and do even better in our next 50 or 100 years?

@Paul4747 I am impressed with the strides in recognizing and working to recalibrate the valuing of minorities, be they non-whites, women, or LBGT. While we advance, however, we seem to take great strides backward. I believe we may be in danger from severe changes in the weather. The last ten years seem significantly different from what went before. That could result in extreme displacements of population. Covid could get worse, or another, new virus could emerge. A lot has already gone on and I don't believe the country is passing this stress test. Things could go in a completely different direction. I hope you're right.