Would you press the button to make humanity go extinct?

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Warning: this post contains ideas that some people may find irritatingly optimistic, as well as some big, long-term ideas that some may find ludicrous. Please set your mind to “open” before reading further 🙂

I often hear people entertaining the thought of making humanity disappear from the universe because, as a species, we are causing a lot of suffering, to ourselves and other sentient beings and the planet. One thought experiment goes like this: if you could make humanity painlessly disappear with the pressing of a button, would you press it? Or, slightly reframing the experiment so that you can make an abstraction of your own responsibility: would you stop someone else from pressing the button?

button

In the animal rights/vegan movement, more people seem to be in favor of human extinction than among the general population (just my anecdotal experience). That’s not hard to understand. People become animal rights activists and/or vegans because they have learned about the horrible suffering humans inflict on animals, for food, clothing, research or entertainment. It is tempting to think that the planet would be a better place without Homo sapiens, and given that in our thought experiment, no humans would really suffer (it’s just a matter of an instant, and no humans are left to deplore the new situation), we might say: where’s the harm?

Now, from the viewpoint of the notoriously tricky field of population ethics, there’s a lot of stuff to say here. Apart from the consequences for other species and the environment, we could talk about whether the universe in general is a worse or a better place with humans gone. If there is, on average, more value than disvalue in humans’ lives, it might seem that the net result is negative. But if there’s more misery than happiness, this could be good. We could also think about the value of future people being born. They will obviously not be born if we let humanity go extinct. I won’t go into this minefield here, because I do not have strong opinions about these issues, because I can’t seem to wrap my head around them, and mainly because here I want to touch on some other factors.

These are the reasons why I would not press the button.

1. Humans may do a lot of damage, but they’re also wonderful.

We all know the horrors that we cause in the world: to other people and annually to 65 billion farmed animals (excluding fish). We screw up our environment and use a lot of finite natural resources. There’s no need to write a long and depressing list here. However, we can also focus on all the good that we do. Never in the history of our planet – or, as far as we know, the universe – has there been a species that invests so much time in making things better for others. Look at the millions of people active in the non-profit sector. Look at those trying to help the weakest and the poorest. Look at all the beautiful things we do. Seeing Homo sapiens in this light, it becomes really problematic and unfair to just call us a shipwreck of a species that only does damage.

2. Humans still have a lot of potential to improve.

In many ways our history is just beginning. Moments ago we were mere apes in trees. We developed culture, learning and education only recently. We – in the richer countries at least – only recently managed to create comfortable environments where we no longer need to worry about food and shelter, so that we can spend more time on other things. Violence is declining and this era is, counterintuitively to some, the most peaceful era in history (read Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature). We’re still expanding the circle of our moral concern. We’ll probably have to work less in the future and will devote even more time to creating change for ourselves and others. And there is the promise (at least for techno-optimists) of future technological advancements that can help us have a huge positive impact on ourselves and our planet.

3. Humans might be able to help other species further down the road.

In the future, given more moral growth and technological improvements, rather than having a net negative impact on other species, our impact could become net positive. Arguably the biggest source of suffering for animals is nature/the natural condition. Animals die by the billions because of hunger, disease, parasitism, the climate, predation (see my post The extremely inconvenient truth of wild animal suffering). Maybe in the future, we can limit some of this suffering. The same applies if at some point in our more distant future, we bump into sentient life on other planets. Chances are there is suffering there, and if by that time we have advanced enough morally and technologically, we may be able to help. Of course there is the chance that some other species in our corner of the universe is already at that level, thus making our own progress less important. But certainly in the event that we’re the only “advanced” ones around (in this region of the universe), it becomes very important that we survive and grow to help. It would be a pity if everything we have and everything we are was lost, and the universe would need to restart with another species to reach our level of development. Lots of time and lives lost.

As you see, I’m thinking a bit ahead. And why not? Some will believe this is speculation and science fiction that has no relevance for the problems and suffering at hand. But if we don’t destroy ourselves, we have to assume we’re going to be here for a long, long time still. And in that time, a lot is possible.

We’re on our way. We’re children still, growing up, getting better. It’s going to take ages or millennia, but we humans might just turn out to be the best thing for the universe. Let’s not press that button just yet.

126 thoughts on “Would you press the button to make humanity go extinct?

  1. Thank you for this interesting article. I am torned between these 2 sides of thinking; wanting the distinction of the human race to give the animals and this planet peace and time to heal and at the same time knowing all the good a human being is capable of.

    1. well, the thing is, i don’t think animals have peace with or without us. with us, they maybe may have more chance of some kind of peace in the long run

      1. I get your point, but when seeing and knowing all the horrors humans are inflicting on the animals it is difficult to embrace the idea that they would not be better off without us. As the state is today one is wondering, can it get any worse? But its important to remain positive and to believe in a better future, that thing can and will change for the better, that is the reason why I’m vegan. The work you do together with many of us is the hope for the animals.

      2. I really can’t be so optimistic. The idea that humans might eventually make other animals’ lives better strikes me as being as far-fetched as the idea that the domino effect will eventually make everyone vegan.

        If I have a disease, I don’t let it fester in the hopes that it one day might get better. I have it taken care of, or I suffer and possibly die. A button like the one in your thought experiment sounds like an antibiotic, to me.

        1. I’m Gale, and I agree with you Salva, you logic makes SENSE.
          I hope humans go extinct and they suffer at the depths of reality,
          I regret even BEING a human..

      3. I can’t let the tens trillions of other humans on this globe disappear, neither can I completely stop eating meat because of the fact that i am a human being. so I had decided to not bring any more human being into this world. And I’m 42years old now ,and with all the emerged problems that humans caused themselves and this globe , I see the decision I have been sticking to is really good and wise.

    2. I would happily push it and I’m not vegan. I just hate humans and want them all gone.
      They have no potential and certainly have no role to play other than as fertlizer and food.

      1. I agree! Humanity is a stain on life itself all it does is take and give nothing back. Death is the only solution.

          1. The root of our problem is the survival instinct. Survival instinct = psychopathy = stupidity = every problem on earth.
            I don’t see any way to change or modify this instinct that is in every living thing in the universe. And I don’t think any living thing anywhere in the universe will ever be able to get past this paradox and create a lasting, advanced, peaceful, civilization.

            1. There is one way(coming to a mathematical understanding of the concept of “Infinity”, and its consequences, tends to quell the survival instinct), but it requires a level of intelligence beforehand that most people dont have, and it also causes some pretty crazy existential depression, so in the end its not very feasable.

          2. Agreed! Homo sapiens should become extinct. All the harm we’ve done to the biosphere far outweighs the good we have done or could do. We need to get lots of people together to figure out how to make us go extinct given that most humans will fight against it.

    3. Veganism is clearly a form of mental illness. You want the animals to have nature but apparently have never been in nature. The world is a never ending buffet. Seems to me you have a gripe with the creator, whichever, natural selection or god. The bottom line is that living within reason is reasonable, and killing an animal is not outside of the realm of reason considering literally all animals die and will literally kill each other if left alone. Maybe if humans embraced their nature to hunt and eat meat, we would be less inclined to be hunting and harming each other and all other things as a result…or does your soybean sized brain unable to comprehend these facts? Which mind you are irrefutable. It has been proven conclusively that you need animal fats and proteins as a human for optimal health, and there has never been a society or civilization of vegans. Our digestive tracts secret HCl and are not designed to handle fermentation. Other animals you claim eat plants do not eat things like vegetables which are all man made, or ripe fruits because sugar is toxic due to fermentation in the gut, which causes the inflammation leading to disease. Animals eat unripe fruit because they ferment the fiber into saturated fatty acids – the very thing you claim is harmful to health yet ALL animals literally convert their food either into fat or consume protein for energy, and not sugar. In fact the only reason an animal would eat sugar is to get ATP from alcohol production during gut fermentation, not because sugar garners the most energy, because it does not and this has been proven.
      Literally either humans need to accept their nature, or everything should just go extinct because if you people sing the praises of the never ending miserable buffet of life, then you are clearly psychotic.

      1. Advancements in science has made the need for animal products obsolete, at least in terms of continued abuse. And the good ol’ appeal to nature fallacy.

        You can go first, moron.

      1. Yes, at age 6 I realized how everything is so screwed up POLLUTION was my anger. That was in 1957 I am 69 now.

    4. Life is all about perspective
      Some are lucky to have good lives
      Others grow up in a life of hell, rapes torture beatings, some are children and some of those children are abused by their immediate family members
      It never stops, every second of our lives millions of humans are living in hell
      I would not hesitate to press it
      Do these poor souls a favour and end their misery
      We really are nothing more than chemical scum that think far to highly of ourselves purely just because we have the ability to actually ‘think’
      I imagine death is just like before birth, peaceful pain free nothingness
      From a religious perspective it would seem we were created by the devil not god
      One thing is most certain, the Universe will not miss us once we’re completely gone because all we have done so far is ruin one of its beautiful planets
      I believe there is other life in the Universe which are aware of us and want absolutely nothing to do with us evil greedy idiots

    5. The Elite rich are sick with the cancer of the world..GREED POWER..END IT THIS PLANET other wise your offspring will be there slaves.. slavery hasn’t gone any were

      1. Terrific comment !

        I agree along with millions of other individuals. Studying history has shown me that it’s, always, just a handful of the worst individuals ever born. Then a repeat of the same, just another pile. Furthermore, a great hinderence of the masses in everyday life.

        These individuals don’t have any pleasure being extremely rich. Controlling reality of billions is their game. Wars etc.

  2. Thanks for the warning. 🙂

    Have to admit there are days when I’d push that button in a heartbeat. And given my generally pessimistic/misanthropic nature, there are times I’m more than glad to be old enough that I won’t be around forty years from now to witness the continual destruction we humans inflict on others. But, that also means I won’t be able to witness possible massive change in attitude and behaviour that could benefit all species. So I guess my answer for now is no, I wouldn’t press it myself, but I also wouldn’t stop anyone else from doing the deed.

  3. To play along as if such a button existed, I would not push it, but I would not prevent another person from pushing it. I am clearly not an optimist though 🙂

    Human beings have an odd evolution in comparison to other organisms – even among other populations of humans. Imagine if the Native Americans had progressed as rapidly as the Europeans. Would the outcome of the settlement of North America have been much different if the Native Americans had advanced weaponry? Many people treat the Native Americans as great stewards of the Earth. I think that would have not been the case had they been able to reach the industrialization stage as the civilizations slowly advanced. Regardless, it’s easy to applaud and/or denigrate human beings since we created the setting for our existence over centuries (language, religion, science, math, politics, philosophy, etc.).

    Ecologically, we are nothing special on this planet. Aside from detritus (which even then we deprive the decomposers through incineration and embalming), we don’t contribute much although we certainly benefit from all of the biological and ecological support services. If humans were to go extinct, aside from domesticated animals (which we create), the only organisms that would go extinct along with us would be a species of head lice and a couple demodex mites that live on our hair follicles and in our pores.

    I think it’s a slippery slope to over-glorify our progress and assume that we have the potential to improve the conditions of wild animals – especially when we caused most of the suffering through deforestation that is necessary to make room for growing human populations. Currently, do dogs, for example, have it much better than wolves? Certainly my dog lives longer, likes technology like the car she rides in to go to her favorite spots, eats processed kibble and anything else, sleeps in a climate controlled house on a fluffy pillow protected from predators and parasites for the most part! In the context of the situation that we are dealing with, with the over-population of domestic dogs and cats, certainly it makes a difference, but in nature dieback exists for a reason – it’s simple carrying capacity and natural selection. I would argue the wolf has it better than the domestic dog, regardless of suffering, purely based on numbers. We can understand and justify nature because it’s not a rationalizing organism, but we really cannot justify breeders, whether puppy mills or small, pure breed dog breeders. So we created a problem that we are now tasked to address and solve – with huge expense, resources, and energy. Couldn’t one argue that if we had just left wolves alone that we would not have to spend billions of dollars to rescue, care for, and euthanize domesticated dogs? Obviously, we have to deal with it because it is a real issue, that currently exists, and it does no good to dwell on what should have been done so long as it’s not repeated.

    A lot is certainly possible depending on how long human beings will exist. There is no magic number for carrying capacity, so it’s all speculation. We can assume suffering will always exist and that humans will create and solve problems that we thus created. We’ll also continue to advance medicine to increase lifespan and populations, but not in astronomical proportions as some people imagine.

    I’m not anti-humanity – obviously, I’m using a computer, I was not crippled by Polio because I was vaccinated, my mother and I survived birth when I would have died pre-1900’s, etc. I don’t shun technology because I pretend to be a Luddite whose job was eliminated by the “machine” or live “off-the-grid” trying to make my living off the land to make less of an impact. I certainly take refuge in wild areas because I like getting away from cities, mundane work, and people (especially during election time here in the United States – ick!).

    1. The bottom line is that most humans are selfish and self serving they care nothing for the problems of there own nevermind the animals or environment the sooner we are gone the better it will be for the planet and animals.

      1. Then you’re caring about animals. Thats why you want to destroy it.
        We care what we love. And that is NOT our fault.

  4. Another wrench: what happens to the animals in our homes, shelters, farms? Unless they are magically transported to a place all their needs will be met, pressing the button creates more suffering for the animals currently alive, locked away, unable to escape, and destined to die of starvation or thirst. If they would somehow be as well off as they would be in the wild, we don’t get to check out. I cringe at the thought of my dogs left all alone, with no one to let them out of the house or yard (they have a dog door; but the gates to the yard have locking latches).

    1. Well, in my imagination, if such a button would exist, the possibility to, before pushing the button, arrange for all animals to be set free, would also exist (“magically transported to a place all their needs will be met”, like you say). Both of the options are equally unrealistic so why just not use our imagination. In any way, we already hit the button every day by destroying the planet and its inhabitants slowly but surely. And according to the movie “Demain” not so slowly…

      1. well, that’s YOUR thought experiment, and it is different from mine. it’s not because they’re both unrealistic that they’re the same and are instrumental in uncovering the same values and assumptions 🙂

  5. If someone said “yes” to this…..what argument would they have for not pressing their personal red button?

    1. I would happily accept myself being included in the humanity extinguished by the button press. My own death frightens me far less than what human beings do, every day.

      1. But would you push your personal button now? Since veganism is based in the moral choice and action of the individual, why not extend that individual morality into at least eliminating your own awful human impact by eliminating yourself.

        Folks, this idea of pushing a button and removing humanity is like genocide at the level of species-cide. Why not introduce global compulsory sterilisation instead – at least people would get to live out their own lives? After all, what could be wrong with people being detained against their will and operated on without their consent? How would that be worse than murdering them (which pressing the button would be)?

        My view is this – as humans we all have a basic duty to other humans, not because other humans are necessarily nice, not because we will never be in conflict with other humans but because we rely on other humans. It won’t be the rainforest or a non-human animal that might feed you if you are starving, it’s going to be another human. Sure, it could have been humans that caused your suffering in the first place, but as I said humans ain’t necessarily nice.

  6. Wonderful article which I hope is widely read and shared. If we could tune the button to take out all the misanthropes and pessimists, then I’d hit it with a hammer. 😉

  7. There’s to many “might”, “could” and “potential” in there about possible human development. It’s not going to happen, at least not fast enough, so I’d press the button.

  8. Hey Tobias, nice piece! What do you think about the risk that humans expand suffering to places where currently there’s no sentient life? For instance, prototypes of insect farms that could work outside earth are already being developed.

    1. yes, of course there is that risk. not just re. insects. i mean, spreading just *ourselves* to other planets at a moment when we’re still too primitive (or when the environment is too hostile) to guarantee a decent level of enjoyment for all beings is a big risk in itself. i would prefer we only spread among the stars (or planets) when we have reached a certain level of moral maturity also.
      so i guess you can just as well be pessimistic in all this, but i think i choose to be an optimist 🙂

    1. Lol. Please, you could never stop me from pressing that button. I’m too powerful you’re but a mortal to me.

  9. If I have such a button, I’ll use it as a form of blackmail. See how much humans are willing to pay me for their lives. Hell, I might tinker with it in such a way that if someone injures or kills me it will go off automatically. Humans haven’t changed, they just got better at controlling their urges and hiding their sins in general but deep down they’re still “monsters” who will take advantage of their fellows if they know they’ll be able to get away with it.

    1. Nice to read somebody with similar views. It’s just to bad such a button doesn’t exist cause I would press it without hesitation.

  10. Seams like we keep finding excuses why not to press the button…egoistic parasitic destructive virus, this is who we are as species..a virus killing its host…And we keep celebrating birth of the babies, all wrapped in pinky happy chappy accessories..Its another consumer born!! Monster human..that will make more humans that will consume more plastic, cut more treas, eat more cheese from tortued cows held in captivity…we are disgusting pretending to be nice and conciuous…Stop having babies!!

    1. They will never change, my dear. They are souless, empty hylics.
      Read the Sumarian Creation. Or current 218. This world was never meant to be created.
      We are, as you said, parasites.

  11. I’m 27, from all I’ve learned about humanity I have a strong belief that humans are the absolute evil on Earth. I’d press that button at this point with no second thoughts.

  12. Alluding to the supposed benefits of humans continuing to exist, we can’t really do anything other than imperfectly attempt to solve the problems that we cause by our very existence. We don’t add any value; merely make a mess and then clean up part of it. Therefore, it’s a no brainer to me, I would hit the button. But not only for humans, but for all sentient life. Sentience is the problem, not merely human sentience,

  13. All humans aren’t absolute evil. I would guess about 30% of humans are evil, the Birther KKK types, and about 15% of humans are genuinely decent people, and the rest go with the flow no matter if that flow is genocide, mass rape, or even child molestation. The real problem lies in the fact that most humans are soulless lemmings with no real capacity for empathy or honesty. All the human obedience experiments show that 85% of humans are lemmings who can be easily goaded within minutes into committing genocide level atrocities. Humans will disregard and even denounce obvious truth to fit in with their reference group like desperate witless rodents.

    The probem is we have too much mechanical intelligence compared to our social intelligence. This means demagogues can easily create violent extremist groups to exclusively serve the demagogue’s desires and whims. Some people’s morality tends to be infnitely morally relative such that when someone else has darker skin, they are accused of being foreign born in Africa, but when the reference group leader is a known and infamous child molester, suddenly child molestation is being compared to behaving like Jesus, but only for the reference group elitist. Birthers have virtually cheered on Roy Moore molesting a 14 year old American. And what do the rest of us moral people do about it? Nothing because society is structured so that elitists can violate anyone and anything without compunction and without the slightest punishment. If Roy Moore molesting a 14 year old is worthy of Birther applause then what act would Moore supporters think crosses a bridge too far? Roy Moore said the victims of 9-11 deserved to be murdered by God because Moore doesn’t like gay people having any rights. Roy Moore suggested that America’s slavery days were America’s best days. Our darkest and most evil chapter in US history, Moore supporters celebrate as being a utopia ..so long as it’s “others” hanging by nooses in front of burning crosses, others forced to him out of burning skyscrapers.

    Too much of the human population is downright evil and there aren’t enough decent folks to stop the evil doers from committing atrocities. We are a species that could save Earth life from a comsmological disaster, but instead, humans are jeapordizing life on Earth to further pamper already over-pampered billionaire sociopaths. The evil doers among mankind could pose an existential threat to other species on other planets if we gained enough technology to become an space faring species. One terrorist nut bag flies one small spaceship to a double digit percent of the speed of light into a planet of “infidels” and life on that planet could be made extinct. The only way we would not be a universal threat to life is if Birther types simply did not exist, or were cleverly bred out of existence. Instead, globally, the Birther/sociopath type of sycophants are increasing in numbers while moral people who defend the meek are murdered by the evil doer powers that be. People who follow the Golden Rule are slowly being eliminated from the human gene pool by design so that the infinitely corrupt elitist sociopaths can manipulate, defraud and oppress the masses with greater ease. It’s why Hitler want after “liberals’ with the same zeal as he went after Jews.

    I think the better way than simply a button to make humans disappear, too many messes left around to poison the planet, would be to press a button eliminating human fertility. That way all the humans alive can live out their lives and within 100 years we could wind down our species to leave a small as possible footprint for the next sentient species, the one that could save life on earth from the dying of our star or large astronomical impact. We have far too many evil dupes in the population compared to those who would fight the evil dupes and the evil dupes have far more gall than the defenders of mankind. How many German citizens just went about their day whole train loads of Jews were being transported through town to death camps? Far more Germans ignored the atrocities than the number of people who defended the Jews by stopping the train and holding the scumbag Nazis who were participating in genocide accountable.

    Amd we can forget about humans evolving Golden Rule morality. Humans commit the same atrocities throughout history from thousands of years ago to today. I have been to a US mega church whose pastor ordered the tens of thousands of church members to buy guns because the time for Conservative Christians to commit genoicde on liberals is coming soon, that they are the Sword of Jesus and after they murder every last liberal, liberal Christians included, then Jesus will return and reward the genocidal criminals with glorified bodies immune to aging or disease or discomfort. The county sheriff is the head of security at this church so forget the cops coming to our aid, they will be coming to commit genocide as well. This happened less than 10 years ago, same lame propaganda as the Nazis used, the same promises of a gleeful genocidal utopia, same abominated religious justifications, same animal different time period.

    Humans are evolving into Birthers as tyrants murder non-Birthers by the millions, soon to be billions.The same people who dupe themselves into believing Obama was born in Kenya and that the Parkland shooting survivors are actually crisis actors and that Planet Pizza was a den of child molestation (child molestation being bad when liberals are falsely accused, but holy when Birther elitists are molesting American children). These Birthers are inheriting the Earth. Humans who follow the Golden Rule are the ones clutching their throats being murdered by poison gas or by barrel bombs. A Syrian version of a Birther has a much longer lifespan than the Syrian Golden Rule follower and that is playing itself out across time and space.

    The end of humankind would mean an end to genocide, an end to mass instuitional rape, and end to extortion via torture and threats to family members. Birther types have no compunction, no consistent sense of right and wrong, for they are infinite moral relativists. The good things decent people do will always be overshadowed by evil doers acts of villainy and people who won’t lift a finger to stop an atrocity. Tens of thousands of years ago humans probably had the capacity for reason above lemming-like obedience, but consider the lives lost in the Crusades, the Inquisition, evil doers murdering people who follow the Golden Rule from our earliest recorded history. And what we will be left with is sociopathic alpha apes and witless sycophantic beta apes who will exterminate anyone who possesses a consistent moral code.

    Evil doers also breed like rabbits as per their orders, so the promotion of Birthers reproducing is happening full steam ahead while good people and their children are being killed. It’s why Birthers are so adamant about disallowing rape victims the right to abort the rapists baby, because that rapist’s baby is most likely a natural born Birther. However, if reproduction gets in the way of a Birther elitists profits then Birthers are fully in favor of abortion, like that famous anti-abortion eltist, Tim Delay, who fought tooth and nail to outlaw abortion for American women whole he supported a brothel in the Marianas forcing the woman whom they kidnapped into sexual slavery to have abortions against their will. Tom Delay’s wife was paid 900K dollas with the promise of then Speaker Delay to order the FBI to stop investigating the sex slave traffickers, and what major “pro-life” campaign had the slightest problem with Delay’s moral relativism? NONE. Pro-lifers, by their silence support women being forced to have abortions against their will so evil doer elitists can keep the sex slave revenue streaming like a roaring waterfall.

    Where in the bible did Jesus say it’s perfectly acceptable to force women to abort to make corrupt elitists filthy stinking rich? Where in the bible did it say Roy Moore molesting a 14 year old girl against her will is behaving in a holy manner? It doesn’t. All Birther types’ version of religions are buffet religions, pick and choose in the most hypocritical manner and self serving manner imaginable without the slightest bit of guilt. We can’t beat those people. Humans are on their way to evolving into the worst kinds of evil doers and hypocrites.They’ve made fantastic inroads into calling every genuine act of evil their side commits as being ‘fake news” while they spin the most seditious and pernicious of terrorist emboldening lies and call it real news. Truth is utterly irrelevant to those kinds of humans and their belief in anything is solely predicated on whether it fits the narrative theor reference group are trying to spin. They are the very worst kind of liars, the bearers of false witness.

    Most of us can understand someone lying to get themselves out of trouble, but those who spew lies to incite thousands of death threats and dozens of terrorist attacks are the very definition of evil. Good human beings will become extinct and then maybe humankind will devolve into stupid but violent tree swinging monkeys without the need for language. Since Birther language has no truth in it, it can’t have a consistent meaning either.

    If you want to know what the future of humanity will be like, just look at Trump and his Birther minions. Look how Birthers applaud child molestation, applaud bigotry, applaud seditious lies, applaud sexual assaults so long as the perp is a Birther and the victim is not. It’s not just ignoring an inconvenient unsavory truth, its framing an ugly disgusting truth as an act of holy contrition. There is no crime that Birther elitists could commit that wouldnt be reframed by Birther sycophants as the holiest of moral behaviors, not child molestation, not slavery, not terrorism, not sexual asaault, not even high treason. And merely speaking this truth could earn the speaker a few thousand death threats against the speaker and even their family. I would wager my last dollar that the parents of Parkland shooting victims have received at least ten times as many death threats for telling the truth of what happened than Roy Moore has received after local knowledge of Moore being an unrepentant sexual predator became nationally known. We can see from that one case that Birthers will survive even thrive in such a corrupt system while non-Birthers and their families will be murdered. Consider how Birther government figures will not call the KKK a terrorist group but they call the animal rights animal acitivist a terrorist for videotaping a Birthers gleefully breaking the law by torturing farm animals.

    I would rather see all of humanity go extinct than to have humankind devolve into infinitely moral relativist fascist sycophants. Birthers and their evil actions don’t deserve to be the future of humanity, but that is sadly the irrefutable case. Hopefully their stupidity and corruption will mean Birther humans will never leave Earth, but instead, rot in their own filth until they too become extinct by their own evil ways.

    If Birthers somehow bootstrap real science and stumble into becoming a space faring species, I hope an extraterrestrial species will save the galaxy from Birthers and wipe Birthers off the face of of the universe. Imagine how many MAGA hat wearing terrorists would just love to bomb a peaceful alien species into oblivion for the sheer thrill of committing genocide. I imagine all of them would and the Birthers are the ones now ruling most of the world.

    1. Strike me as somebody with mental illness. I like how you equated birthers and KKK. Even though Hillary Clinton is by no means a KKK member but she certainly is a birther. But I get it in your fantasy world everybody’s either one of the good people or an evil Nazi. You’re incapable of seeing folks with your own side and you’re incapable of seeing goodness with the other side. If you really feel like there are too many humans you should start with yourself

  14. Yes, humans have potential to improve in regards to how they treat non human animals, but in the end, the animals would have still been better off if humans never existed. Improvement of life for chickens entails giving them a patch of grass or killing them more painlessly, but they are ultimately still prisoners and still dying for human benefit. They can’t roam free or live without the danger of being exploited for humans to be able to eat meat. Sure we’re “improving,” but what we’re really doing is trying to clean up the enormous mess we have made, that would not be there if humans didn’t exist to begin with. In the end we still view are species as different and therefore as rightful rulers of the earth and exploitation of other living beings for our fulfillment. Yes, we help other humans, but humans in general already have decent lives. We’re helping people who are impoverished to have a more western lifestyle, which is the problem to begin with. The better lives people have the more the environment is degraded and the more animals ultimately suffer. So I wouldnt say that humans helping other humans is for the collective good, but ultimately goes back to only looking out for humanity, regardless of the consequences for everything less. These days people argue that we are improving because we are using “sustainable” practices. People consider this equivalent with caring about the environment, but in reality it’s that people have finally caught on that resources are finite and that we would run out if we continued to squander them like we do. If forests were infinite, we’d have no issue with killing trees so that we can continue to have Starbucks or make disposable plates. Humanity is only making a compromise for self preservation, not because they care about the environment. This is not to mention the fact that humans kill animals for entertainment and unnecessarily for food, given that they can go to a supermarket and buy meat from one of the millions of animals we harvest. Or the fact that people don’t recycle despite wide availability of a means to do so. Ultimately, any “good” that we say we are doing is basically cleaning up our centuries of disregard and exploitation. This is more of a responsibility than it is “good.” So yes, if press the button in a heartbeat.

    1. Long and descriptied but accurate anybody who is willing to see humanity for the plantariy infection that we are is good in my book.

  15. Nope. Humans are a mistake that should have never evolved. They’re a worthless, evil, terrible species. Always have been, always will be.

    >> Humans may do a lot of damage, but they’re also wonderful.
    The damage and suffering humans have caused in the past, do cause in the present, and will continue to cause in the future, is exponential compared to whatever good is hiding beneath the breadth of human disgustingness.

    >> Humans still have a lot of potential to improve.
    Nope. All current attempts at social progress are either met with majority backlash or are just unable to make a dent in society. I have zero faith humanity will improve in any meaningful ways, and even if by some off chance they do, it’s going to take a looooong time, as in centuries or even millennia of undoing human awfulness. I’ll be dead by then, so why should I be happy that humans may be a slightly less evil species centuries from now?

    >> Humans might be able to help other species further down the road.
    LOL Again, any progress towards animal rights and stuff will only be make noticeable societal changes by the time I’m dead. I’m vegan so I don’t personally contribute to animal suffering, not because I believe humanity will ever change.

    And as far as aliens, go… Yeah, I pray for any life-bearing planet that has life less technologically advanced than us. History repeats itself, and humanity is a disease that will destroy any planet it infects.

  16. Fuck that humans are shit. Just show me the kill switch and I will throw it on humanity in a heart beat with pleasure. The only thing we can depend on government sellout hypocrites for is to create radiation,atomic,biological,chemical weapons,machine guns,prisons,medicate us to death,steal our fucking assets and children. And throw there threats around saying you had better do what you are told or the above circumstances will become part of your life.Government say they support justice, human rights,freedom,freedom of speech anti slavery the abolishment of discrimination and prejudism. Government dictators dictate there will be a world free of murder,genocide,free of arson vandalism and theft. But government are the exact opposite of everything they promise. You’re not to kill but government do it for a thrill. Equality is all fine and dandy as long as a government and judge get to assess your mental health and judge you.because Government have to be superior to the majority that must be inferior. So much for equality. Government are the exact opposite of everything they promise to be.in other words major fucking liars along with all humanity that support the cunts because humans are sooooo stupid. Shit country from hell Canada invaded my life when I was 5 years old and burned my father’s house tried to kill me and family,sank his house boat,stole a 1963 Corvette from my uncle,stole a 1973 GMC truck from my great aunt. In 2016 the cops invade my home and stole my name change certificates and bill of sale to my 1986 z28 streetrod camaro. Can’t prove ownership of my camaro anymore.the bullshit fucking psychiatrists and judicial worker shit all over my files. Is the ultimate excuse government use to deny me justice,human rights,freedom,freedom of speech,honor,valor,dignity,pride. The philosophy of government is if they slander me enough,telling lies. With hopes to enslave me,or frame for my complaints about shit country from hell Canada they don’t have to take accountability for themselves .I’m am a very famous hated person in society world wide. I have solid black tattoos all over my back neck head lips and arms. Lie number 2 is fuck race from hell humanity refuses to admit that I am famous. This is defamation of character fuck country Canada is victomizing me with. It to is a lie and a crime fuck nation Canada and this shit government are victomizing me with.the mutiny fuck race humanity have waged against me is a crime. But if I complain to a government shit creature.this fucking ass hole country and government tell me I’m delusional and imagining that I am famous. Meanwhile the government cunts like to slander me calling me criminally,insane liar and a faggit.problematic situation of humanity and there fucking government liars is me and humanity hate eachother.I would not get humanities slimy DNA on me. Nor would humanity let me get my DNA on them. Because me and humanity are enemies.I have not had sex in the past 20 years and fuck mouth Canada and this shit government seem to think it’s alright to sexually harrass me spill shit out of there faces saying I am a faggit.breaching LGBTQ rights and sexual harrassment are crimes humanity and this shit government love committing against me. In actuality given that I am victim of entrapment and sabotage and a conspiracy of silence to rob me to say a damned thing in opposition to the fate I can’t escape rapped in red tape what will become of me. Sticking my dick in a mouse trap would be a far safer and more pleasurable sexual experience than having sex with a human with the political shit humanity is using to govern and control my sex life with. So why the fuck would I ever want sex with a human peice of shit again.well I don’t. But still fuck race blows smoke about my sexual immoralities that have not happen once over the past 20 years.. But the government’s view point on this is if they call me enough dirty word they don’t have to give me human rights,justice for the crimes Canada committed against me and my family. They could possibly frame me but would prefer to use me as an expendable slave at some shit paying job.Meanwhile with every thing government and fucking human liars have said about me my family cut me out of the wills.I inherit no farm land from my grandmother,great aunt,cousin,father,and uncle. I don’t inherit my father’s construction company,and used car dealership. Nor do I inherit my uncle’s fas gas franchise and 6 duplex. Brilliant government solution beat me off to a $15.00 per hour job and use me as a stepping stone.while my family dump 10,000 times more than what I’m expected to make in a lifetime of slavery,out of my inheritance into this economy. While my fucking government and country pocket my inheritance and commit 10,000 crimes against me. And humanities excuse to refuse me justice and human right is go out and call me dirty words. Well fuck you and your government Canada. You’re are a worthless useless,stupid country. That I hate more than Hitler hated Jews. And I don’t want to be judged by any shit government of nuclear murders. Which is in a nutshell how all government’s shit creatures stole owner ship of all humanity and the planet during world war 2. And said you better do as your told. Surrender your mind,voice,and thoughts to the government supreme beings.In addition I never asked any government cunts to come into my operating room the day my mother gave birth to me. Forcing my parents to commit fraud against me. Saying to my parents you must create a legal fiction name for me and put it on a bond,stock,copyright stating that my parents sold me into bondage to be owned by government.my parents also signed the citizenship papers for me to have Canadian citizenship forced on me.I was just a baby when my parents spoke on my behalf stating I agree to being stolen and owned by government.I never asked government to come into my operating room when I was a newborn baby screaming at me they own,and control my mind,body,and soul on the day of my birth.screaming shut up do as I’m told,don’t have sex,obey the law,pay my bills,get my ass to slavery.I have no use for government stupidity. It’s the government’s fault they shared the weapons of mass destruction with terrorists. The government’s invented the fucking things and used them in war first.hydrogen and hydroxy and the machines to make these fuels were were invented during world war 2. Hydrogen and hydroxy are made from water. They’re are very environmentally friendly fuels. It’s easy to make hydrogen and hydroxy and the machines used to make these fuels. Water will never run out like fossil fuels.you shouldn’t have to pay more than $3000.00 for hydrogen and hydroxy to fuel your cars for a lifetime. But government insist on ripping you a new ass hole selling diesel,gas,propane at an insanely high price. Hydrogen and hydroxy are the most logical choices to fuel you cars. But government want to rip you off instead. And if government incur the same wake of disaster and damages to there reputations that I have as a result of them calling me dirty words.good! I hope government fall. They should give me the right to choose to fire all government from governing my life to shit on the ballot forms at the elections. But they don’t. I would be happy as fuck to be abandoned on a deserted island, never to see another human ass hole for the rest of my days.but that’s humanity and this fucking government and there need to attach themselves like a wart to my ass. They promise no discrimination ,prejudism and then go out and breed it against me with there blasphemy. Humanity especially government are hypocrite,liars and the exact opposite of everything they promise. Justice,human rights,freedom,freedom of speech are dead and the truth is not a defense.

    1. Yep humanity truly has earned extinction. Just to bad there isn’t a way to make it happen sooner than later.

      1. I personally think ‘love’ is just homo sapiens propagation method of getting humans to stop hating each other and destroying long enough to mate and therefore reproduce. Lol.
        And yeah, I’m another button masher for sure. None of this hokey ‘humans are wonderful’ (with lame examples of said ‘wonderfulness’) is gonna convince me that we’re a species worthy of inhabitating this beautiful planet.

    1. Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep better at night cause lying to ourselves is what humans do best we are a people that exists only to serve our own selfish desires and needs love is just one of the tools used to get to an individuals goals faster anybody who thinks otherwise is sad and deluded.

    2. I’ve felt intense love for many, and promise you that pushing the button is better, for the sake of love. The quality of life that humans have is so poor, and the quality of life they create for animals and plants is so painful and wretched, that humanity will sigh in relief when it realizes it is finally over. There’s no need to kill out of hate. One can kill out of love far more efficiently. The red button is a love button – that is why it is red.

  17. I can’t help but notice the “humans do so much good for other humans” reasoning. It stands out. Once again it shows only the egotism that humans have. “Oh look, we help ourselves” Yay, bravo. Our potential is limitless… When it comes to depravity and destruction. I pose this question; what have humans done that is great- not taking into account achievements that only benefit us or our egos? Great as in, for all of life! For the earth, that gave life to all living things. There may be small groups out there that attempt to make a difference for a better earth, only to be snubbed out by a mass populas that could care less. This planet is the only thing we need to survive, and we are killing it. Anyone who differs with that opinion is a brainwashed, indoctrinated narcissistic human empathizer. Hope is an illusion our minds play to convince us that what we are doing will be okay. I wouldn’t push ” the button” as that entails some type of bomb that would inevitably destroy everything… Unless it’s a reset button, then yes. But more so, there needs to a virus created that only effects humans and we all fucking die. So be it. We are a cancer cell that has gone malignant. Fact.

    1. I agree. I love art and music and think it’s a great and beautiful thing that humans create… But… It’s only great and beautiful to US. It benefits nothing else. Our beautiful architecture, our Great Wonders, our inventions that show off our intelligence… Again. It only benefits our species. And even if it used to help animals/nature in some way, it’s always just cleaning up problems we caused in the first place. So yeah, humans create some cool things but look how much we destroy.

  18. I can’t help but notice the “humans do so much good for other humans” reasoning. It stands out to me. Once again it shows only the ego that humans have. “Oh look, we help ourselves” Yay, bravo. Our potential is limitless… When it comes to depravity and destruction. I pose this question; what have humans done that is great- not taking into account achievements that have only benefited us or our egos? Great as in, for all of life! For the earth, that gave life to all living things. There are small groups out there that attempt to make a difference for a better earth, only to be snubbed out by a mass populas that could care less. This planet is the only thing we need to survive and we are killing it. Anyone who differs with that opinion is a brainwashed, indoctrinated narcissistic, human empathizer. Hope is an illusion our minds play to convince us that what we are doing will be okay. Hope is a religion. Religion is insanity. I wouldn’t push ” the button” as that entails some type of bomb that would inevitably destroy everything… Unless it’s a reset button, then yes. But more so, there needs to be a virus created that only effects humans and we all contract the virus, and seize to exist. So be it. We are a cancer cell that has gone malignant. Would any other creature share our opinions of ourselves? Would the plants and mycelia?

  19. In. A. Heartbeat. What we do to each other and other living beings–and we’re supposed to be intelligent and morally reasoning animals–is unconscionable. Humanity is a cancer. Wherever we go, devastation follows. I’d eradicate us all in an instant. Of COURSE we’re in love with ourselves, so this is an unpopular opinion. I’m sure if syphilis or cancer could voice their/its opinion, they’d be in favor of continuing. And spreading.

  20. I’d still press the button cause when all else fails and its normal then anything on the planet dies out also I want to see what species is going to be smart enough to see our ancient ruins. Also because I was sent here for a reason

  21. “One thought experiment goes like this: if you could make humanity painlessly disappear with the pressing of a button, would you press it?“

    Painlessly? No.

  22. Hm. I’ve worked in a wildlife park for years and I can tell you that there’s a reason we humans are such selfish bastards: we come from the animal kingdom.

    I love animals and will do anything for them, but animals are absolute bastards to each other. Give them the chance and they’ll pull the rug out from under each other. Elephants will utterly destroy an entire forest and cause extinctions by themselves, like hippos will also remove fresh grass for antelope to share. The most brutal place on earth is a forest, where trees and shrubs compete for the sun, leech and parasite on each other mercilessly. And don’t get me started on the insects. Its not harmonious at all. Its a war. The only reason why animals don’t go on a rampage is because evolution has selected the cautious ones to survive, because fighting is also dangerous to them. Evolution and nature are horrendously harsh, and its no surprise that it is has come to be like this, considering the harsh planet that we live on, and the even harsher universe just 100km above our heads.

    Now considering we were borne form this hell, its amazing that we can be peace-loving most of the time. Sure, the occasional war, but that’s nothing to the constant death on the savannah. The only difference is that we’re smarter, and more effective at killing… so when we do it, its pretty devastating. Humans are at least aware of the damage they’re doing, and are in fact stopping themselves gradually from destroying their habitat. this article is proof of that. They need to, it’s their ass if they don’t. The earth doesn’t care, its been through much worse. The Permian and Cretaceous extinctions were just a few of the big ones, but many MANY species went extinct without a big bang. Extinction is normal. It sucks for the species, but its normal, that’s how life operates. Life comes back to fill the gap. Its like a bush fire or volcano destroying a large piece of land, only to become lush and fertile afterwards.

    Honestly, our plight for saving animals and being kind to them is only for ourselves and our guilty conscious. I’m down with it, but it is selfish. We need a thriving ecosystem to survive, we need cute and furry animals to look at, we feel guilty… but nature doesn’t give a rat’s ass. One meteorite and all of our worries, including Panda bears, are entirely gone. That is nature.

    The fact that there is such a thing as a biosphere is a freaking miracle, and that intelligent life came out of it is even more amazing. It is so amazing that we cannot even comprehend the odds and therefore think we’re so special and therefore some kind of guardians of the galaxy or something, when in fact we’re just animals… very clever ones. Our behavior is nothing special. Put a bengal tiger in an african park and it will murder entire herds of antelope just because its not used to such an abundance of prey. They’re just programmed to do that.

    If we really want to save the planet, we first need to cut the crap and come to terms with why we should be doing it: for ourselves. We need to protect animals because if we don’t, we’ll kill our own habitat. Nature enforces harmony, and if you don’t respect it, you’ll kill yourself, just like an elephant will kill a nature conservationist because they happened to accidentally stray into their personal space. Nature is ruthless, we need to learn humility and realize that even with our intelligence and virtuous opinions, nature really doesn’t care about you. You need to adapt… or die.

    On the other hand, would I press the button? hell yes. Humanity is so full of itself, thinking its above animals and that they should protect them. Let humanity go extinct so that animals can carry on peacefully killing each other… in harmony.

    Again, I love animals, but they’re anything but cute. I respect them because they mean business. We come from them, we should learn from them and understand that we’re no better, and that its a freaking miracle that we can even comprehend the notion of helping another species.

  23. Hand me that button.
    Before you do so, kiss your ass goodbye.
    People are bastards.
    The fewer bastards in existence the better.

  24. I would press the button, twice.

    The argument that other species need us is superficial. We need them. By domesticating the dog, we lost our VGN, or Jacobson’s organ that allowed us to detect minute smells and pheromones. The dog is our sniffer. We have given up our animal instincts to computers, and our hearts to fake progress.
    JR Tolkien would cry at this world.
    Rodents who have learned to use us for easy food pickings, would revert to normal. Cats would lose their purr because that is only made for humans to trick them into loving and protecting them (trust me, it works like a baby googling at you). Insects would take over the homes All fungus, trees and plants would take over the land. New life would spring into being through this new world. The water and earth would begin to heal.
    Humans were suppose to be the Ents, the “good shepherd(s)”, but our neocortex, the thing that separates us from our animal selves, and that allows us to be creative. It also allows us to be liars, murderers, greedy, conniving, power hungry, and willing to destroy our own world. No other species we know of on this planet tries to kill itself unless under our control. For every animal saved, two seem to go extinct. Every feel good moment of a dolphin saving a drowning kid, a gorilla carrying a wounded child, a dog saving its owner or even another dog, there’s a guy kissing his girlfriend after they slaughtered a giraffe or an elephant.
    We had our time. Now it’s their turn, again. Which world do you think will be cleaner, prettier, and more magickal? Yes, I would press the button, or put Thanos glove on, and snap my fingers out of existence.

    1. It is March 2020, and I never felt my words so apropos. The Coronavirus is decimating our species. The air actually smells better, and more animals are coming out from hiding in my neighborhood. All is quiet on this western front*.

    2. It is March of 2020, and the Coronavirus is decimating humans. These words above were never so apropos.

  25. The idea of destroying existing human life, however painlessly, is hard-wired to be emotionally disturbing for most people (myself included) even if rationally justifiable. So if the thought-experiment was changed slightly so that instead of pushing a button that extinguished existing humans, you were able to somehow alter the course of evolution so that humans never evolved in the first place – I wonder how much that would this change how people viewed it. I’d be interested to know what you all think.

    1. yes, never to have been is obviously different then stopping someone when they are already alive.
      still, i would hold on to my argument: i think natural selection doesn’t provide the best algoritm for happiness and wellbeing, and many creatures in the wild are often struggling and suffering, also without humans. So my hope is for one species to rise above that and reach technological and moral maturity to help all the other species. If that’s not us, we have to wait for millions of years for another species to rise to that occasion.
      I’m aware many people will thing this is naive science fiction, but I don’t think it is, if you take the long view and assume that life might be around for millions or even billions of years, and is not just here but on many other planets

  26. Hi Tobias,
    Have you heard of Antinatalism? If so, what do you think of it?
    I’m referring to philosophical Antinatalism that considers all procreation (human and animal) to be a negative thing.

    1. The problem that I have with the normal version of Antinatalism (as I understand it) is that if everyone were to suddenly stop having children it would condemn the existing population to great suffering as the population aged and society eventually collapsed, which sort of defeats the purpose of Antinatalism which is preventing suffering. So we’re stuck with running on a treadmill that we can’t ever get off. A softer version of Antinatalism that I personally subscribe to is what I described above which is it being preferable that humans never existed in the first place. Not very practical though!

      1. One day there will be a generation which will have to suffer mass extinction, prolonging the cycle would merely be selfish and destructive. What’s 7 billion people in the face of all the sentient life which was and is to come?

        Also, that logical (philosophical) type of antinatalism is also called Efilism.

        1. Seems that only self-hating folk of Western Euro heritage desire such a biological cataclysm. I know such a person myself- Badflower her fav band
          (Vegan espousing political-ethnic cleansing espousing-
          ”Kill em all song relating to Trump supporters.’ Vile and disgusting filth.

      2. I’d like to think that humanity could come up with a way to plan for the population decline and make it easier (or maybe even pleasant?) for the last generations. Advances in AI/robotics may make this more feasible.

      3. “that if everyone were to suddenly stop having children” is not a vector of attack against the philosophy, as antinatalism does not suggest everyone should, in fact, stop having children immediately. Even if they did, the harm caused per result would far outweigh the potential harm in future generations. If one truly understands what it is about, one would realize this.

        The very immediate prohibition of baby-making is not what antinatalism advocates. Philosophers aren’t that out of touch with reality.

  27. I would, as they say, smash that button. Would there be peace? Maybe, maybe not, but there would be no one deciding it, it would just happen as a natural course of events without, like leaving a flower outside, it may rain, it may not but it will be the natural course of things without interference. May we live long and die out. At the very least people need to adopt A LOT more, I dont get why people have an obsession with their ‘Genes’, I know all the environmental arguments but people never seem to listen anyway, so think of the kids living and breathing and eating already who need families but people choose to get bloody IVF and waste all this money instead for their Genes rather than adopt even gay couples who have more of a reason some may say to adopt still choose to get a family members egg or sperm for a surrogate instead of adopting and just want to create more human life. Uncontrolled growth, if we were cells, we’d be cancer

  28. I owe humans /especially government nothing for stealing,owning, kidnapping and wrecking every second of MY life. And every life form on the face of the planet is subject to the same or worse. I never invited government into my operating room on the day of my birth so they could scream in my ear. We owe and control your mind body and soul, shut up and do as you’re told,get your ass to slavery, don’t have sex, pay us 10,000 times more than we pay the people in wages or pension. Swallow the poisioness chemical drugs doctors prescribe to you. Or be sabotaged. I didn’t choose to be a citizen of Canada. My country put a leash around my throat. All so the king life sucking, soul sucking tape worm politicians that crawl in my bowels and eat my life can sit on there thrown with there bullshit God complex and lies ruling and judging the people. But still ain’t proved God exists. Did’nt the word liar come into every humans head when they think of there religion & aliens every thing and every tall tail humans represent.And when you kill a man you’re a murderer, kill many and you’re a conquer. May as well be a conquer when survival is futile. Button pressed! Let me at them I’ll splat them with pleasure!

  29. Without a moments hesitation. Seriously, fuck this species. I used to think that our art and science made us worth saving, but no longer. It’ll be sad for Shakespeare and Einstein to be forgotten, but if it means that pollution, exploitation, greed, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, fundamentalism and capitalism go as well, it will be worth it.

  30. I very much wish someone would push the button and destroy humanity. It is the only hope for the planet and all other forms of life.

  31. hell ya start from me ….no button…… i wish some one create a virus which attack human reproductive system so that they wont b having any kids and with in 100 years all humans will b vanish from earth

  32. If such a button existed, there’s no power on earth that could stop me from pressing it and I wouldn’t have to think about it for even one second for all the reasons expressed by others in this thread

  33. I would be pressing that button sooooo much and so fast until we would all cease to exist! No question about it and I wouldn’t be even giving a millionth of a millisecond of a second thought to it! If only such a magical device to end humanity would be invented. One can only dream and hope!

    If anyone really pauses for a second and thinks about it… what’s REALLY the point to our human existence and to anything that we humans do?? Where there is a beginning there will eventually and undeniably be an ultimate end to humanity. Be it through either our own personally caused ignorant ways of demise through self destruction (nuclear war, climate change, over population, etc..). Or.. Eventual dramatic outside factors such as the fact that the Milky Way galaxy will one day cease to exist. Nothing does last and live forever! Especially with the dramatic rise in population, our planet will not be able to one day sustain the quality of life for everyone! Maybe now is the start of that beginning of what is to be the further unfortunate future for many humans. That’s when more dramatic conflicts will undoubtedly arise with more people competing to exist! Ever see what happens at a store on a Black Friday when inventory supplies are low, everything is on sale, and there are hundreds of people lined up outside? Chaos! All because most people are ultimately selfish in their thinking and reasoning.. Just Me! Me! Me!

    If everyone stops and thinks about that idea for just a second! Many people live for just the heat of the moment and make impulsive decisions based upon their own selfish decisions. They just don’t care to think about what kind of impact their decisions will ultimately have on others or the planet and all other living creatures. Many humans take things for granted and in the process act selfish and hostile and create many unnecessary problems worldwide. All while not stopping to think for just a while and to realize one true fact that none of us can ever cheat… This being that… We are all going to die someday soon eventually!

    So please people.. stop being a$$h0le$ to everyone and to the planet. It’s also ok to not breed and overpopulate a planet that is already soooo scarce with resources for others. Bigger does not always equal better! I am single and I once raised a good question to a friend on why he wanted to have kids.. His reply was that he “wanted something to be left behind after he is gone”. My reply was.. Go to the bathroom.. do what you need to do.. don’t flush the toilet.. same kind of effect to that “logical” way of thinking. Something would certainly be left behind.

    Life is based on survival.. In order for you to have something better, someone else somewhere has to give up and pay for it. So what’s the point of experiencing life and going through all of the BS along the way? When we die physically everything dies with us!

    So someone please create that magical stop human existence button and give to me! I will put it to great use for us all! I certainly promise! 🙂

  34. I am not an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a realist. I know the bright side and opportunities of human beings. Yes i agree on what you say, yet in realistic view, good people and empathetic people are out-numbered by these apathetic, selfish, greedy, and prideful people. I know that we have the upper hand to take care of nature and animals. Yet only few has that mind set. Most people value development. They are willing to destroy nature for military facilities, etc. They are willing to annihilate animals just for meat. There are more i want to say, but this won’t handle it. I have suffered depression and anxiety, and became psychotic, by trying to convince myself that there is still good in humanity. I still believe it though, but everytime i come across of human cruelty to animals. My mood would change drastically to lunatic. Oh how i wish the world ends now!
    I really don’t wish that humans go extinct, but like i said good people are out-numbered. And as what you have said, we can give them a better life-the animals, since nature cause them more troubles. But that is way too impossible to happen, look at these people who loves money. They are willing to destroy everything just for their own comfort and entertainment. Also, it is hard to unite the world. We all have a different perspective in life. Unless if you brain wash them, there is a possibility. But in reality, only God can save nature, animals, and us humans.
    Pardon me, if my comment is jumbled. My neighbor has been keeping a dog outside their house tied up for 2 days now. Only eat once. It pains me so much that i can’t do anything. I am only a teenager, and this is a province place. No such thing as animal control and people here eat dog meat. Making me wish negatively again against humanity.

  35. Kurt Vonnegut said in one of his last works that the epitaph of humanity should be “They Didn’t Like It Here”.

    The trends don’t lie. Humanity is destroying the planet at an increasing rate. But with the growing clamor over COVID-19 defenses cramping the bar scene, humanity clearly is too impatient to wait for the final destruction of the human habitat. They want to rush into the waiting arms of the Coronavirus and be taken away from life as fast as that can be arranged.

    It looks to me like the final Darwin Award needs to be awarded to the entire human race – if there’s enough time.

  36. I’m with all of you who would press the button without any hesitation. However, it is also important to me that cruel humans, all of them, should die very slowly and extremely painfully …for them to be winked out of existence is not good enough for me …they must pay for their unbelievable cruelty, depravity, perversion, sadism. For homo sapiens, this would be quite a high percentage, much higher than many might want to admit. I’m willing, even hoping, to pay my share for that which I owe, and right now would be a fine time to get started. But please may the button include this caveat!

  37. I would push the button. I would prefer one that wiped out all those with ambition or as i call it greed averice and selfcenterednes.
    As long as i can remember i have viewed the human species as apes that got just intelligent enough to destroy the planet and not smart enough to move past its near parasidic nature.

    In most walks of life there are those that are non-nominal they think about the consiquences of their actions both in short and long term ex:
    Step on the gass to get that orange light or just coast and relax.Buy biological/local and more expensive or buy cheap and wholesale.

    For most examples the harder choise means sacrificing something for yourself. I myself have few wants or needs, i never had that “oh i want that” feeling. But this is for me both a bit of nature and nurture. If you are born with a high achivement desire and your parents (like most do) enforce that then you are bound to have a harder time doing the universally “right” thing.

    It has been said time and time again. If you want change to happen begin with yourself. True enough, if you dont do anything yourself then nothing changes. The problem is that for the most part our sociaty is structured in a way to hinder this. If you dont push your agenda or upstage your fellow worker or executive you get overlooked for promotions, and to get ahead takes the “i want, nay I deserve that” mentality. You dont see masses of americans voting for an independant that has not made any overt effort to appeal to the masses. Nor do you see a free thinking vegan yogi lead a tech corp as Ceo (unless he became the former after achieving the latter)

    Historicly leaders become leaders because they think they know best, have power/money have drive and form a network of powerfull connections. Exactly the person you dont want leading anyone if your primary goal is balance and peace.

    But lets say we have our ideal leader. She/He is forced to lead by election he/she did not chose. They prioratise enviromental balance over comfort, peace over military, eqality over greed and will ensure that any major decision made is in the best interests of the 50 generations following having a healthy planet and happy lifestyle.
    Basic first steps to ensure a good stable environment.
    Lets make this a world government since the current political climate is to convoluted for broad ideals anyway.

    Extermination of cirminal element. your 12y old steals a ..whatever. Lethal injection. (after vetting if it was the parrents that failed the child or the child that failed, if the former kill the parents and reeducate the kid) 2-3 generations of that without anyone abusing the system and crime is all but gone.
    Ban all non sustainable farming or production methods.
    Set a cap on the ammount of children a couple may have (1 for now 2 when stable environment)
    Create a standardized quality of life. If you study hard and work hard your only payment above the standard living quality is that you have personal sadisfaction.
    Put the non-workers to work. I am ofcourse talking about the type that could work but do anything in their power not to including abusing a welfare system.
    Terminate non-viable humans. Yeah you love your kid with down syndrome but the rest of mankind does not need the drain and the tainted DNA in the pool.
    Etc etc etc.. Some good things anyone can get behind, and some things that make some folks skin crawl.

    Non-acceptance of these or other ideals for a stabalized human condition would lead to civil unrest and any responce justified or not would only make things worse.

    The problem is as always human nature.
    Ambition and drive are needed for progress, but those same qualities lead to greed and hatred.
    Would an emotionless state work, i supose, but the end result would not be worthy of existing if its all bland robots.
    I do not think an actual balance can be made by passive means. the human species would need to both individually and collectively recognise all our flaws and force ourselves to work against our own nature to achieve balance. (ergo. choose leaders that CAN lead but do not want to and have no personal agenda) willingly abstain from indulgances and personal benefits over others. Reject “power” for its own sake and embrace the lesser lifestyle.
    The only people that i know of globaly that have achieved any mesure of this are budist monks and even they tend to falter every now and then. And a planet full of monks isnt going to unlock the secrets of the universe or achieve anything but “spiritual” heights.

    It all boils down to what we are. Animals. Our primary goal Procreate. How to attract a mate- Be the most desirable. wealth power and good looks gets you a long way in that department and so people, Rob, steal, lie and flatter their ways over the backs of those they can get on top of to do this. Usualy deluding themsleves intoo thinking that this was because they enjoy it or liked it or they deserved what they got.

    As for our fellow animals. I like my meat. I also like to know that the animal i eat did not suffer while alive. Basicly Treat others like you would like to be treated.
    And lets not kid oursleves If plants had audible voices and would scream in pain the cow would still eat it regardless, and it does not care if the plant it is chewing on will die from its actions or not. We have the advantage of understanding the plight of a fellow creature and as such if we want to believe ourselfs to be inteligent I persoanlly feel we need to be aware of how we act toards those that we subjugate. Wether its food pets or beasts of burdon but not abstain from this any more than a liones should stop hunting baby gazell.

    And since I do not think that mankind as a whole will ever be capable of overcoming its nature I would push our hypothetical button. And lets be realistic, creating a virus to preform the action of said button is becoming easyer and easyer so eventually some bio engineer will see the light and create a virus to do just this, if not at the least a good persentage reduction. I do hope to see it happen one day. When i first heard of the “lethal” covid strain I had my hopes up but sadly its mortality rate and persistance is far too low for me to consider it an actual “killer” virus. But fingers crossed ladies and gets for our friendly virolagist that can get a 100% infection 10 week incubation and 70-100% mortality virus/prion/bacteria/spore in play at several major airports in a single day.

  38. The question isn’t is mankind good and responsible enough to be a good steward of the environment and of his own existence. The question is will good and decent humans allow our planet’s future future to be destroyed in order to pamper the most vile of narcissistic and sadistic elitists. All the supposed “advancements“ are in full retreat globally. Lying has become more rampant than ever before with the greediest and most putrid of humanity spreading lies to stop any efforts to address climate change. We have half of an entire nation in the US who rabidly applauds their dear leader for raping and molesting married women and children. We have almost half a population who spew the most disgusting forms of bearing false witness lies that the election was stolen when Traitor Trump just in fact lost in spite of all of his lawbreaking cheating and fraud. I heard tens of thousands of Trump supporters rabidly applauding Trump saying “better a pedophile than a Democrat! SNARK! SNARK!” We have that Dirty Rat Duterte in PI bragging that he wants to GANG rape white nuns but seeing how Rodrigo thinks he’s such a stud he said he wouldn’t take sloppy seconds, nope, he’s first in the nun rape train! And 70% of PI people support Duterte’s murder of even two year olds who that little brown loaf of extent called drug dealers, dealing from their diapers apparently.

    PI already deserves to have its human population exterminated. 70% of PI support Duterte proving PI is a nation of ride with the worst kind of vermin. Russia, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Myanmar, all have atrocities being committed in the name of the most heinous and bigoted of tribalist lies and hubris.

    And what do the decent folks who have the capacity to live responsibly do? They allow this all to happen. Their own lives are on the extinction line and the decent and good allow the most vile and demonic of vermin, like Trump supporters and Kim Jong Un supporters to commit the most heinous of atrocities without the slightest bit of accountability.

    The only way humanity will survive is if humankind exterminates the stupid and proudly evil magical-thinking vermin who believe that if you pretend a lie is true with enough zeal, like the Birther and Qanon scum do, then that lie magically becomes true by Th e powers of make believe. These kinds of subhuman vermin are the engine of destruction and despair we see in the world. Their leaders are infinitely more evil but their leaders are powerless without their sniveling jackbooted, excrement swilling maggots holding them up. Ideally an extermination would start with the sadistic narcissist leaders lives and maybe that would be enough but I doubt it because new Hitlers and Trumps are born very day and thousands of suckers are born by Qanon and Birther type of scum.

    So, since decent people don’t have the stones to do what is necessary to save human civilization, the next best outcome is human extinction by any method even nuclear war. Eventually radioactive fallout will become a non-threat but runaway carbon release could end life in Earth except for very simple life. Since the good and decent people don’t have the spine to do what needs done, we will have to pray for a release of a bio-WMD plague or full blown nuclear war to save intelligent life on Earth.

    I would mash that button if the sadistic Trump, Putin, KimJong Un, Hitler, Treeyoes and their jackboot licking vermin should feel teeth gnashing pain at the evil they’ve perpetrated on humankind for eons. I want to hear their screams of agony from outside the Solar system because they deserve it. There is no such thing as hell and the Lake of Fire, but if it did exist almost half maybe even more of humans belong in eternal torture for being the universes most vile and putrid of evil, bearing false witness liars who derive ejaculatory glee at the death, terror and despair that the fascist excrement-eaters perpetrate on us REAL humans by using their terrorist emboldening lies, rape, child molestation, pillage and plunder.

    It’s hard to tell who is one of these subhuman verminous worms until a scumbag elitist demonstrably more evil than Satan comes along and takes power, like Traitor Trump, or Vlad “Novochok” Putin, Godfather of the worlds largest global child sex trafficking cartel, the Russian Mafia. Then the vermin slither from under excrement covered rocks and expose themselves for who they really are, mankind’s worst enemy, enemy of the entire universe.

    Knowing how most liberals and progressives think, selecting out the vermin for extermination won’t work. Liberals are too busy inviting Nazis and Klansmen into Liberals’ Kumbaya circles. Progressives think that if you have a child raping Nazi terrorist who attacks America, and attacks freedom, honesty and morality that if you invite that vermin to a liberal drum circle everyone will get along. It reminds me of Rodney King poking up his head during his brutal beating by eight cops pleading “can’t we all get along?” No! We can’t! Subhuman Trump vermin can’t get along with anything.

    Here is what will happen. Fascist subhuman vermin who proudly rape children, lie, steal, defraud, betray America will keep killing and raping Americans for the “ooooo! liberal tears, delish!” sadistic glee until there are no decent and honest folk left. The only apes who will be left will be only the subhuman vermin terror apes, Trump supporter types, who rape their own children and who will destroy the biosphere for all intelligent life. Or, Putin type scum will start a nuclear war due to some sniveling ego butthurt from losing an election and even subhuman vermin will all go extinct. It’s possible that as plant life dies in mass quantity that the rising CO2 and lower O2 might devolve humans into going back to the trees due to large brains requiring too much O2, thanks to Trump Birther and Qanon hypocrite type of vermin. Trump and Putin vermin have a head start for lower O2 Earth since they don’t have actual brains as such, more like ganglions that consume Birther excrement for energy.

    I know good and decent people and they DO NOT have the stomach to save human civilization by exterminating the evil Nazi lying sacks of gutter filth but those Nazi excrement-swilling Trump supporters want to rape and murder every liberals’ every child while making the parents watch, then Trump’s Nazis will rape and murder the “liberal“ women while making liberal men watch their own spouses and children being brutally raped because that’s what Trump vermin are all about. Nazis didn’t hate Jews for being Jewish. Nazis hated Jews for being too liberal, to loving and empathetic. Knowing liberals, liberals will march to the ovens and even hold the door open for each other. Liberals will not defend even themselves much less the planet.

    I would press that button for painless extinction for all but I don’t think excrement swilling fascists who have caused all the worlds problems deseve to not suffer pain. If I was God I would wipe our all the Nazi vermin and subhuman filth and sentence them to gnash teeth in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. Those who relish the suffering of others like Trump and his verminous supporters do deserve infinite torture to see if they like the taste of their own tears as much as they claim to love the taste of liberal tears. I find liberals annoying but I don’t want to rape and murder them for glee like Birther and Qanon vermin do, and I don’t want to lick anyone’s tears and that’s because I am a real human being capable of consistent morality. I would stand in for Satan just to see Qanon and Birther vermin writhing in the Lake of Fire, to see justice FINALLY served!

    The worst sin isn’t being gay or having premarital sex, or being brown skinned. The worst of sin is bearing false witness to incite hatred and terrorism like Trump, Birthers and Qanon vermin do in spades. The worst of sin is raping and stealing children for sex market like Trump and his BFF Ghislaine Maxwell and Birther Messiah Roy “the Kid Diddler” Moore have perpetrated time and again.

    Let me give an example of the type of evil I am taking about. Qanon vermin all tell the bearing false witness, terrorist-emboldening lie that there’s a super secret pedophile ring consisting only of Democrats while those same sniveling lying Qanon vermin rabidly applaud Trump and Roy Moore raping American children! AL GOP leadership, Qanon scum themselves, say when Roy Moore rapes American children, it’s not illegal or even immoral, it’s just “GOP child marital training y’all!” Qanon scum all get on their knees in order to felate Roy Moore so the Qanon vermin can taste what the insides of a child taste like and love vicariously through Roy Moore’s serial child molestations! Roy Moore not only rapes children with full Qanon support, he also bragged that America DESERVED 9-11! And what do liberals do to stop all of this? Write a tersely worded letter to the Editor? What should liberals do to stop this? How about JUSTICE! Kill off the treasonous pedophile sadist cult, put the Nazis into the ovens and gas chambers for Qanon and Nazi sacks of excrement aren’t even close to being human! They won’t be missed by anyone not even Satan.

    If humankind contained no idiot vermin who pretend the Qanon and Birther style lies were true, mankind would have evolved space travel tens of thousands of years ago. Qanon and Birther type vermin have held back humanity at every opportunity. But, since you libbies are OK with Qanon raping and murdering your children, and spreading covid like a bio-WMD killing over 100 9-11s of dead Americans, just let the Qanon, Nazi child rapist worshipping vermin to continue to destroy everything good on this planet. At least you will think your “Karma” is in tact.

    This is why I know all humans need to go as soon as possible because at the macro scale people are either like Qanon, sub human vermin and excrement swilling evildoers or they are pansies, cowards, cream puffs, “can’t we all get along” snowflakes like Biden and really most left wingers. There are too few people who will stand up for morality and honesty toe to toe with terrorist VERMIN like Qanon, Nazis, KKK, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah.

  39. Just detonate the entire planet, or at least exterminate all life on it. Would save some alien real estate company the time and space bucks. None of the creatures of this planet have made any major contributions to the universe of any grand importance, so it’s no big loss if all of us go. Humans are pretty bad (they did invent twitter afterall), but animals and plants aren’t really doing much for their cause either. Don’t even get me started on fungi. Vaporize it all and bask in the lovely glow.

  40. Humans can never do any good. Our mental wiring is incapable of true sacrifice. Religious dogmas are the first problem, followed by religious mindsets related to science and other group thinks. Technology can not save us, as it does more damage than good. Industrial manufacturing understood early on during its peak that they could manufacture far more than could be bought or used, so they used marketing scams to convince people of things they didn’t need. Skip ahead to today and we have entire groups, organizations and the like dedicated to swaying public opinion and censorship of individual opinions. My research is no more or less validated than a doctor, lawyer, or other person, layman or so called professional. Things like capitalism, which humans clamor for, are illogical, as in order to capitalize something else must take a net loss – the opposite of equality. Meanwhile they scream about equality, when not even biologically are we equal, not in gender nor in nationality or race. Once humanity will admit to their debauchery and delinquency, such as admitting homosexuality is inherently wrong, regardless of your supposed feelings, which when they are emotions, are not true feelings, the different between me poking you (feeling) and me telling you that you are fat or stupid (emotion, not real). When humanity gets over the emotional appeals and other logical fallacy, maybe they will stand up to the petty tyrants and kill their enemies with no regard. Until then we will have problems, appealing to ignorance, such as an Ape in the sky who, somehow, is justified in judgement of beings it made, all the while it is already on record as wiping out everyone other than one single family.
    Your move, Judeo-Bolshevik socio-capital-commie-nazi reptile-brained intersexed vermin!

  41. All of you are full of yourselves if you feel that you, personally, are willing to play God. Who by the way does not exist.

  42. Humanity deserves annihilation immediately without hesitation.
    In fact in October of 2013. All surface life on the Earth was three seconds away from extinction. A half hour later again all life on the surface of Earth was spared by a few seconds.

    The velocity and the traveling motion of the Earth. Factually ( I don’t know what to call this kind of luck ) saved all surface life twice within an hour.

    We have the HD photos of the events. This is empirical evidence.

    So, for the last eight years.
    We are debating

    ” HOW WILL THE ENTIRE WORLD POPULATION REACT. KNOWING THAT ALL SURFACE LIFE WAS A FEW SECONDS AWAY FROM EXTINCTION TWICE WITHIN AN HOUR & HAVING THE ABILITY TO VIEW IT ? “.

    ” CAN THIS BE USED TO CHANGE THE WAYS OF HUMANITY ? “.

  43. What I said is coming out regardless. Seems you people most definitely need a shock.

    Oh yeah something like what I said would be on the news in order for you to believe lol. If that’s the case !
    YOU FAIL AGAIN.

    Can’t handle reality ?
    What’s knew ?

  44. It would make me as giddy as a school girl to press the button to make the world go extinct. Cat’s are better people than people. It’s unfortunate the cat’s will be innocent bystanders of the button I press for the joy of vengeance on my human backstabbers, saboteurs and traitors.

    1. I would. In a heartbeat. Including myself and everyone I know. I so held on to the last bit of hope inside of myself for the sole reason that I desperately don’t _want_ to hate other people the way I do. I was a much happier person when I could still “believe in the good in people”. But the way humans treat animals, and the planet we live on, and the way so many just don’t care (I think that is the worst) I often find myself wishing that humans would suddenly just all die, or that someone could come up with some poison that only affects humans and makes everyone infertile and distribute it into the drinking water of all major cities in the world or something like that… I just want animals to be rid of us. I find myself barely being able to feel empathy with people unless it’s someone very close to me anymore: everyone are just monsters in my view. I would push the button in an instant.

  45. I would press the button, humans are so horrible. I would love to press it if there is a button.

    1. Same, humans have caused much destruction and harm to the planet and animals, animals shouldn’t be treated the way they are now. I would press the button.

  46. Reading these comments I feel better knowing there are not only people just as screwed up as me but even way more!

    So here’s my take, I’m not a Vegan and I do believe human beings suck with a few exceptions. I believe humans are just another animal species living on the planet. Are true point is to survive, that’s it, there is no other grandiose logic to it, no virtue signaling or projecting or real self sacrifice unless it is for a real loved one or your fate is absolutely sealed and you have the constitution to save others in the face of your own end.

    The real problem with humans is over population. So back to the button, if that button ended say 1/2-2/3 of the human population randomly, with no one immune from the possibility, not even me pressing the button because that would make me just another tyrant dictator in the world(left, right, or liberal Democrat). It doesn’t take a genius to know that you can’t fit 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. But to say that we are harmful to other animals because we eat them while there are animals that eat us is just plain stupid. Now, who’s up for giving the planet and humanity another century or two, where’s the button?

  47. I would push the button in a heartbeat. Humans as a species are narcissists. We kill and destroy. We lie and steal. Capitalism is a great example of humans greed. We are also a stupid species, damned by our creator to repeat history. Half of the world believes in a creator who kills and destroys and watches its kids be raped and murdered with zero intervention. That’s what half of our species looks up to as a God. The few of us who want to make a difference end up getting murdered by people who poison the population to make them sick, easy to brainwash, and easy to profit off of by making us addicted to bad food, poisoning our food and water, and then healing symptoms instead of the causes. Humans are hopeless as a species. This God of there’s gave us “free will” but then also won’t step in to stop the population from getting poisoned, effectively removing free will because now serial killers brains won’t fire correctly; we have to protect society, but the serial killer did not have free will – it’s brain just stopped working properly because of the poison and trauma. Someone gets raped as a kid and ends up being the one who’s going to do the raping. The .1%ers rule and those who actually pose a threat to them are murdered, over and over again. Humans are responsible for the extinction of millions of species. We cannot avoid going to war and turning back time to a worse stage. The only people who would disagree and have hope are privileged people who do nothing to fix the problem. Oh, but I eat vegan. That’s still doing nothing in the grand scheme of things. Assassinating these 0.1%ers who through all of written time has held the entire human population back, is the only way to move forward. That or killing off 100% of the human race… not doing so is just another example of our species’ narcissism.

    1. Very good comment. I’ve thought the same for quite some time. However, all life on the Earth’s surface was three seconds away from total extinction. A half hour later we again came extremely close. Couldn’t come any closer except for impact.

      This was in October of 2013. We have HD photos from a University. Couldn’t have asked for better photos.

      It was the velocity & traveling motion of the Earth that saved all of us twice within an hour. These photos are not some little white dot with a black background. They’re magnificent showing an object about three times the size of a super Moon. Beautiful, fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

      One of our team members committed suicide. Five left all suffering from severe P.T.S.D. So that said, it’s exceptionally difficult bringing this news to the world. We have named the object SORROW.

      We know that this is quite exceptional. There will be no negotiations with media, government or any corporation. This will not be exploited.

      Any suggestions are appreciated.

  48. I am not torned. I wouldn’t push the button because humans are trash, and they need to suffer on this ball of hell for as long as they can, because they deserve it. Just giving them the death sentence, is the easy way out. They need to writhe in pain, facing their extinction, while all the famous celebrities and rich people are mocked after to their deaths, leaving not even the hope of a legacy to feel good about in the final hours of anyone’s death. Gfy.

  49. Your premise is flawed on it’s three main points:

    1. Humans may do a lot of damage, but they’re also wonderful.

    This is at best based on personal experience, and not every human shares even remotely the same personal experience. This statement is based on hope and optimism, not truth or reality. If they, humans, were ever wonderful, then it’s been a downhill slide since that time. Otherwise, no, humans are not wonderful in any way to speak of. Humans choose to fundamentally believe in scarcity, greed, entitlement, and runaway holier-than-thou-ness…does that sound wonderful to anyone?

    2. Humans still have a lot of potential to improve.

    I agree with this statement, however what has potential ever mattered to anyone or anything? It is action and manifestation of ideas that cause “improvement”. As the world currently stands, there is little to no action or manifestation of ideas due primarily to the action of control of all humans via money and the gross inequality of financial holdings. Furthermore, in all of my own life, any “potential” I have had has mattered NOTHING to any other human, ever. What I know or could learn, matters nothing. What I am capable of doing, matters nothing to anyone. Therefore why would I come to the conclusion that potential is worth anything at all? It’s not worth anything to anyone else, that is crystal clear. You would be the ONE person on earth who finds some value in potential. That doesn’t make you wrong, necessarily, it just makes you utterly alone in your purported “rightness”.

    3. Humans might be able to help other species further down the road.

    I can’t help but laugh and laugh and laugh at this statement. Human beings are flat out incapable of helping themselves, let alone anyone or anything else. The only “help for ourselves” comes in the forms of thievery, or lying, or false truths designed to mislead and take advantage of others. The human race is a species hellbent on self-destruction…how can you think we could be capable of helping others? That road does not exist. Period.

  50. You all have it wrong, and I will tell you why :-
    You think that you / we are the centre of everything, but we are not, Life has a beginning and an end, this includes us, other living things and the world….yes the world will end anyway when the sun goes supper nova, maybe the sun is too small to go supper nova but when the sun dies this planet will also die. So just live the best life you can, even under difficult circumstances try to make the best of it because your not coming back for a second chance.
    As for the animals we farm and consume :- They would not be alive in the first place if it was not for us breading them, therefore, as the saying goes, it’s better to have love and lost than never loved at all….likewise with the farmed animals, it is better to have lived than not all. I know their lives can be short and live /die in harsh conditions, but you can’t get into there brain / thoughts, you do not know what they are thinking, they don’t know any differance, they don’t know any other type of life, so how can they compare what is good and what is bad. They must feel scared, frightened, and sad I am sure of it, but this is their lives and this is how they will live it. I should think it’s like a wild zebra being approached / hunted by a lion, the zebra is always on edge never free and never safe.
    If I had control over the farming of animals and how they died it would be so so different, the respect that I have for them would be at the forefront of everthing, a bit like the American Indians and the Australian Aborigines they respected life and life of other animals.

  51. did you give up on your vegan project? I cannot find any posts from 2022 – or are you on an extended vacation despite Covid or are you disturbed by Putin’s war?

  52. (Second try)

    One person here said “To play along as if such a button existed, I would not push it, but I would not prevent another person from pushing it. I am clearly not an optimist though”

    Another person said “Not only would I not press that button, I would gladly prevent anyone from pressing it by any means necessary.”

    At least one of the two believes in “free will” while the other doesn’t and believes in egotistical control. As for me, after what i’ve been through in life that broke me in more ways than one, I’m glad that I have two hands and feet, because not only would I use both feet and one hand to smack, smash, beat and jump down on the button within a second of a heartbeat without hesitation, but I’d also arm myself with a lethal weapon to stop ANYONE AND EVERYONE from “prevent anyone from pressing it by any means necessary”, by disabling, injuring, crippling and killing those who would stop me by any means necessary.

    Humans have gotten too big for our own britches and think of ourselves as superior to others with our greed and incompetence. If humanity goes extinct by its own hand or Mother Nature’s, good! Serves us right! We deserve extinction! We had it coming!

  53. interesting, people talk about MARS, heal earth, cannot figure out our own planet, forget mars, no wonder so many wingnuts hope for alien savior, look in mirror. Look at politics worlwide today, people just want hope, the people in the Rolls do not really give a damn, Hitler proved it, give a chicken farmer a uniform and a gun and I will eliminate the chickens, humans are the funniestcritters.

  54. Interesting choice of words Mr. Steiner with the old Rolls and Hitler shtick! As if the extremist on the other side of that the political spectrum haven’t killed and destroyed more! Mars will not be colonized, aliens won’t save anyone and earth will not be saved unless the human population is drastically reduced or wiped out. It’s a population problem regardless of politics. Energy cannot be created or destroyed only transferred, and resources are finite and limited to the land they come from which is only further reduced with the more people being born.

  55. The sooner the shit stain of humanity is wiped from the ass crack of the universe, the better reality will be. No discussion.

  56. The problem is, that its not necessarily humanity we have come to despise, but its a subset of humanity who we call ‘capitalists’.

    Im an evidence based guy, and if you are aware of the present day Science, its always the capitalists who are causing all the problems we see in the world! Whether IPCC regarding climate change, or the Panama Papers proving the rich cause inequality, our government who the rich elite buy off everyday according to the Princeton U. research on democracy, the raping of the earth for its resources… its all done by capitalists! Unfortunately, most people (including the hypocritical capitalists) mistakenly blame humanity for the troubles we face as a species.

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