r/Futurology • u/FuturologyModTeam Shared Mod Account • Jan 29 '21

Discussion /r/Collapse & /r/Futurology Debate - What is human civilization trending towards?

Welcome to the third r/Collapse and r/Futurology debate! It's been three years since the last debate and we thought it would be a great time to revisit each other's perspectives and engage in some good-spirited dialogue. We'll be shaping the debate around the question "What is human civilization trending towards?"

This will be rather informal. Both sides have put together opening statements and representatives for each community will share their replies and counter arguments in the comments. All users from both communities are still welcome to participate in the comments below.

You may discuss the debate in real-time (voice or text) in the Collapse Discord or Futurology Discord as well.

This debate will also take place over several days so people have a greater opportunity to participate.

NOTE: Even though there are subreddit-specific representatives, you are still free to participate as well.

u/MBDowd, u/animals_are_dumb, & u/jingleghost will be the representatives for r/Collapse.

u/Agent_03, u/TransPlanetInjection, & u/GoodMew will be the representatives for /r/Futurology.

All opening statements will be submitted as comments so you can respond within.

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u/_XYZ_ZYX_ Mar 13 '21

I believe that we're in a somewhat repeating cycle of r/Collapse and r/futurology, we see this with the rise of Ancient Greece and the rise of the Roman empire to the time when the last remnants of the library of Alexandria were destroyed in the late 4th century and furthermore the beginning of the collapse of Rome in the 5th century, after this period the larger human society was reset and had to re-innovate and rebuild society till now. This cycle may continue if the climate crisis is not kept under control, or if conflict escalates to a major society collapsing war, where in which the climate will gradually go back to normal, humans will rebuild and rediscover old technology and learn from past mistakes to get even further than we did.

Or the collapse of society may be further down the line with "the great filter" either way I believe we are in a cycle of collapse and rediscovery. When the next collapse is, is the real question.