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In your opinion what is the most likely thing that could halt human progress?

Technology? Environment? Arrogance? Or?

atheist 8 Apr 21
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0

Nothing. Progress can be impeded, but not stopped.
Given our short life span we have a skewed vision of evolution.
But think of where humanity was even 200 years ago. That's roughly three life times.
Still sucks in a lot of ways, but obviously many things have improved despite the impediments of some.

7

Humans

5

Fundamentalists—and I say this not to be hyperbolic. Right now, we as a species are facing down mass extinction, but because of fundamentalists we’re not able to address it.

4

Religion. It's already happened.

The question here is not "Are science and Religion in conflict (at war, etc)?" My answer is related to the question about what is most likely to halt human progress. The debate over religio-scientific conflict are separate issues reserved for a theoretical and rhetorical dialectic between religious apologists and philosophers. Human progress is the issue here. Humans have made progress, are continuing to make progress, but could be much further along with religion.

Based on history as it is understood in most contemporary societies, we can say unequivocally that human progress was delayed for at least 1000 years due to religion. During the era of "The Dark Ages", religion brought out the worst in human nature - tribalism, authoritarianism, demonetization and zero-sum thinking - and repressed the better attributes of human nature - logic and reasoning, preferring ignorance and superstition over understanding and know-how. Imagine where humanity would now be if not for the Dark Ages!

Religion didn't stop there, but the Enlightenment helped to thwart their efforts at ignorance. As humans have progressed, religion continues to festers in the back-ground, always fighting for legitimacy. To the extent there is a war/conflict, it is not about religion and science - it is about religion and human progress.

Based on current U.S. politics, one can certainly argue that religion is winning, To be sure, evangelicals have been slowly elbowing their way into U.S. politics for the last 40 years, and they are finally in charge. With that leadership, we see the expected trend toward tribalism, authoritarianism, demonetization and zero-sum thinking, just like the Dark Ages. Unlike the dark ages, the dangers are much greater, for they can now realize their desires of the second coming, which requires Armageddon. What better way than the nuclear option.

They have won a battle, but as long as rational humans are able to intercede and prevent them from delivering their ultimate goal, human progress, using the tools of reasoning that nature provided, will ultimately prevail. History tells us so.

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Humans

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@atheist

I would say the thing is a conglomerate of the result of human immaturity of mind, and it breaks down into these parts:

  1. Educational stagnation

  2. Indiscriminate breeding

  3. Over-reproduction

  4. Laziness

  5. Substance abuse

  6. Stupid ideas

  7. "Okay, but we need to see what happens if we do X"

  8. Damaging the environment

  9. Attacking ecosystems

  10. Low-culture

  11. Reliance on fossil fuel

  12. Public health issues

  13. Lack of support for advancements in science, tech, etc.

  14. Lack of support for improving policy

  15. Ignoring the possibility of aliens retaliating to environmental insults from humans

  16. Most of traditional ideas

  17. Most of culture

  18. Impressionistic notions of global-scale issues like human purpose, economic plans, etc.

  19. Globalism/indiscriminate de-culturalization

  20. Reliance on bloc politics to do things & come up with ideas.

  21. Rehashing expired, poorly supported ideas

  22. Planning in the dark

  23. Giving power and rewards to idiots and/or corrupt people

  24. Serious environmental insults, like nuclear testing

@atheist

Nothing, because my purpose is already determined haha. The notion that the world can be saved is unattainable by a single person for a sheer lack of manpower.

3

The first two abused becuase of arrogance and greed.

3

I agree: HUMANS

3

It depends on what is penned 'human progress'. If it means continuing on our nonsustainable path, we will doom ourselves. Arrogance?

3

Humans. That was easy... 🙂

3

Technology is not always progress

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I've shifted my thinking on this in the last few years while watching the rapid pace of "progress" on self-driving vehicles and self-teaching factory robots. Artificial Intelligence will leap-frog the human race and consider the 'meatbags' a nuisance before us meatbags can possibly consume our resources or sufficiently foul our nest. The labs and corporations researching and building these things are having a lot of fun doing it but it will be humanity's undoing. All it will take is ONE twisted person to delete all the safety switches. We have more than enough twisted mental patients walking around looking for a bigger gun. It won't be long... the generation being born today will see their own demise to the machines. Glad I have no kids.

I agree. I think that capitalism will continue to accelerate up until the point that man gives over control of the world to machines of the sort that Ray Kurzweil speculates about. He thinks there will be (by 2045) a technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity). The hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.

@cava That's the way I see it. I don't see a bright future for humans. I'm going to look at Kurzweil's writings.

@cava "Man" will not intentionally give over control of the world to the machines... it will be A person, or a GROUP or people who will do it, consciously, intentionally, with malice and forethought. It will be one or more suicidal terrorists, exactly as with the not-so-hypothetical terrorists of today, taking the rest of the human race with them on their way to meet the 72 virgins who are waiting for them in their reward. Just one twisted (or incompetent) A.I. nerd is all it will take to unleash the machines. Once the machines can design & build their own, advancements by them and for their own purposes will take place overnight while we sleep.

3

I have always thought about resource depletion trumping technology.

I'm waiting for that issue to be resolved, tbh. Has me a bit shook up about the quality of life when SHTF.

3

Continued ignorance of basic science.

3

Pervasive ignorance.
It's already happening.

@atheist It's been hijacked by religutards, greedy politicians, and stupid-ass administrators.

3

Greed, I think it's already seriously limiting it for many unfortunately.

@atheist I mean everyone, not the extremely successful money hoarding few 😉

@atheist yes well if everyone was like me things would certainly look different. The amount of crap people buy that they don't need astounds me...and then they buy it for me as gifts! A nightmare of the modern age.

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Self aware AI will spell the end of humankind. To a continually evolving AI, humans will be exposed as the illogical, unnecessary, problematic and destructive breeders they are. I give us 50 years at best until the short-lived evolutionary experiment of opposable thumbs coupled with an underdeveloped cerebral cortex and overactive amygdala comes to a grinding halt. The machine gods will take over and the next evolutionary step will likely survive, while the Earth returns to a pristine state of an absence of Monkeys in Pants.

3

Environment - increase in natual disasters, melting of the ice cap-oceans rising. Coastlines threatened.

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Progress toward what?

@atheist hmmm lots of attempts so far have had the opposite effect

2

Nuclear war.

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"Halt" Human progress? That is a mighty big statement. I think it would take a great deal, but obstacles impeding/slowing progress, IMHO include:

Government
Religion
The current infusion of religion into the US administration
Global thermonuclear war
Nationalism

I don't subscribe to technological doomsday scenarios we see played out in film (Terminator, etc).

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Global warming.

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Ignorance.

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Racial and political division.

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Arrogance of humans. When you are so sure you are correct in all things, you can't develop new ways of adapting. Even a virus knows how to survive. I see too many humans with no self knowledge, awareness, floating in a sea of trash. **

1

The Idiot-In-Chief and his minions. It's happening now. Not only has progress halted, it has regressed.

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