Do you think humanity will ever change?

[DiscT]

Do we think human nature can ever change? People say the youth will change things but I am in class with these people (23 years old) and the norm seems to be keep your head down and do what you're told. If there is any change, it is gradual and 15 years down the line when you run the asylum for yourself. People say plant a seed that you won't ever see. But what is the point of doing that when the future generations will just cut the tree down and use it for money or land.

You can make the argument that slavery was eradicated, integration has been accomplished, universal sufferage and all that. Revolution, protest and standing up for changing the system. But have these things really changed? Or have the problems returned in another form such as wage slavery, ethnic and gender violence? Have the problems just gone underneath the surface?

 

[SamTam33]

I've never bought into the idea that any up and coming generation would change much of anything.

Who are their parents and what are their parents teaching them?

Are they that much more intelligent and compassionate than the people they came from? Highly unlikely.

Stupid people beget stupid children.

The few exceptions won't be enough to make a difference.

 

[cowie]

I think we will eventually be replaced by the Artificial Intelligence we are creating. At that point, humanity's flaws will be less important.

 

[CentreMid]

I'm inclined to agree with your last point, where the problems are still present but they've just changed forms. With each new system comes new flaws. Personally, I don't think humanity will ever be better.

 

[not-2-b-the-answer]

Nope

 

[AngryDog]

I disagree here. If there's anything humans do constantly across generations is to change. Not always for the better, of course. Sometimes changes end up bringing the absolute worst that humans have to offer. But think of the enormous differences between today's world and 100 years ago where you could die from a simple bacterial infection (and just go and try to be an open LGBT person in the UK in the 1920s). Or even 20 years ago, without a single smartphone. Today we have access to an unprecedented amount of information. This was unthinkable not so many years ago.

Of course there are problems that we as a society still couldn't figure out how to solve (and probably never will) like violence, poverty, inequality, etc. We usually end up making the same mistakes over and over. We are not perfect in any way.

However, as human beings, we can change so much that most people can't even imagine. I don't buy the idea that if you were raised a certain way there's no hope to change how you see the world. It takes time and effort, but it is possible.

 

[HumansAreHell]

I really don't. I think we will always get in our own way. Things like greed and selfishness will always get in the way of a better future. Just look at things like climate change that we have at least known about for a century and major countries like the US still don't fully stand behind it because our politicians would rather pocket more money then have to recognize something that could truly become problematic to the future of our race. I don't think people will ever stop being so greedy. Add that to the fact that people are terrible at communicating, we can't hardly talk about anything without it becoming a fight.

I've never bought into the idea that any up and coming generation would change much of anything.

Who are their parents and what are their parents teaching them?

Are they that much more intelligent and compassionate than the people they came from? Highly unlikely.

Stupid people beget stupid children.

The few exceptions won't be enough to make a difference.

I think as a species we just take too long to learn to be able to fix anything in time and in a lot of ways I think this is why. It just feels like a never ending cycle and I'm not sure people can break out of it.

 

[PainfulPainkillers]

Do we think human nature can ever change? People say the youth will change things but I am in class with these people (23 years old) and the norm seems to be keep your head down and do what you're told. If there is any change, it is gradual and 15 years down the line when you run the asylum for yourself. People say plant a seed that you won't ever see. But what is the point of doing that when the future generations will just cut the tree down and use it for money or land.

You can make the argument that slavery was eradicated, integration has been accomplished, universal sufferage and all that. Revolution, protest and standing up for changing the system. But have these things really changed? Or have the problems returned in another form such as wage slavery, ethnic and gender violence? Have the problems just gone underneath the surface?

Everything in the world has a cycle, the water cycle, the oxygen cycle, the carbon cycle. Humans are also just a cycle, life is a cycle. Perhaps all of humanities decisions are just a continuing cycle, no country has lasted very long in terms of how long humanity has existed. It seems that its just a rinse and repeat process. Just like you said we can look at the past where slaves built pyramids, and they were compensated with food and shelter. Nowadays most people work slave hours and what do they get? Barely enough for food and shelter. Nothings really changed just the technology but the systems at the root have never changed in the slightest. Politics and medias are just distractions because everytime someone new is in office nothing really changes. Overall its better to just find your own corner and exist where you feel safer.

 

[deleted442]

 

[TheSpookyNameGuy]

Humanity can only get worse, it's inevitable.

We are a greedy infantile species, the power that exists now is too great to be brought down, you'd have to liberate the entire planet.

Perhaps if AI goes on a global rampage this scared infantile species will be exterminated, that scenario would bring a smirk to my face truthfully.

Like a bully getting hit by a bus, satisfying.

 

[Terrible00]

It's like a type of slavery that people don't want us to see.

 

[The anhedonic one]

No. The human race is a failed species.
The psychopaths, sociopaths, and narcissists rule the world, the workplace and the schools.
The rest of us are too dumb to unite together and remove all of these insane parasites from society permanently.

 

[Linda]

Do we think human nature can ever change? People say the youth will change things but I am in class with these people (23 years old) and the norm seems to be keep your head down and do what you're told. If there is any change, it is gradual and 15 years down the line when you run the asylum for yourself. People say plant a seed that you won't ever see. But what is the point of doing that when the future generations will just cut the tree down and use it for money or land.

You can make the argument that slavery was eradicated, integration has been accomplished, universal sufferage and all that. Revolution, protest and standing up for changing the system. But have these things really changed? Or have the problems returned in another form such as wage slavery, ethnic and gender violence? Have the problems just gone underneath the surface?

Yes, it can change, but only over evolutionary time. That means, as a minimum tends of thousands of years. More realistically, it probably means hundreds of thousands. In the short term it won't change. However, the way people act in particular circumstances is quite strongly influenced by culture, and culture can (and does) change much faster, on a timescale of a few decades.

 

[Crono]

The problem is the way the universe works. Selfishness, lies, slavery. Unfortunately, people with this behavior have a huge evolutionary advantage. And it will get worse over time, the world will become more and more full of psychopaths. The concept of life, living beings, is something inevitably unfair and has no possibility of being different from that, that's why the existence of life is a cruel mistake.

 

[magician99]

No. It will only get worse. And even if humanity gets better someday, which I doubt, none of us will be there to witness it anyway.

 

[absolomonisgone]

I disagree here. If there's anything humans do constantly across generations is to change. Not always for the better, of course. Sometimes changes end up bringing the absolute worst that humans have to offer. But think of the enormous differences between today's world and 100 years ago where you could die from a simple bacterial infection (and just go and try to be an open LGBT person in the UK in the 1920s). Or even 20 years ago, without a single smartphone. Today we have access to an unprecedented amount of information. This was unthinkable not so many years ago.

Of course there are problems that we as a society still couldn't figure out how to solve (and probably never will) like violence, poverty, inequality, etc. We usually end up making the same mistakes over and over. We are not perfect in any way.

However, as human beings, we can change so much that most people can't even imagine. I don't buy the idea that if you were raised a certain way there's no hope to change how you see the world. It takes time and effort, but it is possible.

Nothing ever changes. It's still the same guy as in 10000 BC only difference being he won't die of typhoid at 20 or other bacteria infection; and he has a lot of information, technology; or can openly be gay, etc. But no difference whatsoever.