ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

[rabot10]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

All of these answers are wildly ahistorical. The human *condition* is wretched, but the *human race*, has demonstrated an extraordinary success - at least until it's overcrowding and resource depletion of this century.

We've progressed from caveman to brutal tribalism, to brutal despots, to early classical republics, to the flowering of the great monotheistic religions, to the spectacular renaissance and the flowering of rationalism, to the supernova explosion of science, to astonishing frontiers springing from that, which open our eyes to the universe's deepest mysteries. We can peer back to the creation and origin of time itself, for heaven's sake, and yet five thousand years ago we were running around in bearskins?

All the people here posting things like "cancer' and "fail" and other such dismissals are making references to the state of the present day human condition - but this does not have much to do with the attributes of the species, which have demonstrated a dazzling rise from brutish animal to an intelligence now raising it's sights up to the universe and challenging it's mysteries.

If we ever unlock a limitless energy source, we will take a quantum jump to the next level for humanity. Of course, the plight of the individual, and even all the races, in this century particularly, is becoming critical and in many places wretched today - - although clearly the plight of the individual has been utterly wretched in many cases throughout thousands of years - but using terms like "cancer", "virus" and "fail" are all deeply ahistorical to our past 10,000 years of very rapid evolution.

I think this whole lot of replies is curiously uncomprehending of the central signifier of human history, for failing to make these core distinctions. Count me unimpressed with the historical awareness all such (depressing) replies.

This is Lukes idea of one word - for god sake don't ask for more lol

rick

[Guest]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

Rick it would be so refreshing to find you posting something intelligent rather than the "and your point is?" crap. If you can't discern a "point" in the above comment about the human species being something more than a virus or a pimple upon the face of the earth, you are as dumb as a rock.

This is Lukes idea of one word - for god sake don't ask for more lol

rick

[Rajiv]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

All of these answers are wildly ahistorical.

True. But I do not live in the past. And I have no personal experience of the past, other than my own selective memory of past experiences. While a study of history is useful, history too is selectively written. Based upon a reading of that selective history, we are sometimes in the danger of falsely glorifying our past.

[don]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

Somebody must have killed Luke's bunny. A horrible Easter trick.

My condolences ;)

and a thank you. I haven't laughed this hard reading iTulip ever

[BiscayneSunrise]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

Lukester,

Your analysis is spot on but the point of this little exercise was to condense your line of thinking into one word.

Sophomoric: conceited and overconfident but poorly informed and immature.

Our history is comprised of fantastic successes and horrible blunders. Likely, our future will as well.

[Jay]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

resilient
.

[BK]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

Hopeful..........that the future will be better

[Guest]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

BiscayneSunrise writes:

"Our history is comprised of fantastic successes and horrible blunders."

Well best to accept whatever small endorsement we can get on the human species resume' here. "Fantastic successes and horrible blunders" at least puts us one step ahead of mere lice infesting the face of the globe.

All you dismal pallbearers for the human race - any species that overruns and completely dominates it's environment has been a resounding "success" - by nature's own admittedly crude parameters. So maybe we wind up a desperate species in the next hundred years - but a really grim future does not provide a yardstick for labeling the past ten thousand years a success or a failure. Can't figure out why everyone's not distinguishing us from an infestation of primitive one celled organisms or a bacterial colony here. :rolleyes:

Lukester,

Your analysis is spot on but the point of this little exercise was to condense your line of thinking into one word.

Sophomoric: conceited and overconfident but poorly informed and immature.

Our history is comprised of fantastic successes and horrible blunders. Likely, our future will as well.

[Rajiv]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

by the law of nature, any species that overruns and completely dominates it's environment has been a resounding success

Just like the reindeer!


See also - The Tragic Story of Human Success

[swannmex]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

predictable

[cjppjc]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

predictable

I wonder if anyone got that.

[Sapiens]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

I think this whole lot of replies is curiously uncomprehending of the central signifier of human history, for failing to make these core distinctions. Count me unimpressed with the historical awareness all such (depressing) replies.

There is a fundamental dichotomy to being human; volition, give us humans the opportunity to defy our corporeal urges and the physical reality into pondering the intangible and aspects of existence beyond our physical constraints. However, that awareness still manifest itself through this corporeal existence, and that in itself begs the question, can we become the ideal while still bound to a physical container?

Sadly, in my personal opinion, I think not. History, even biased, speaks for itself.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

hubris..................

[Diarmuid]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

There is a fundamental dichotomy to being human; volition, give us humans the opportunity to defy our corporeal urges and the physical reality into pondering the intangible and aspects of existence beyond our physical constraints. However, that awareness still manifest itself through this corporeal existence, and that in itself begs the question, can we become the ideal while still bound to a physical container?

Sadly, in my personal opinion, I think not. History, even biased, speaks for itself.

dichotomy

The Greek ideal of humanity, which rested upon the observation that the human being is essentially divided into two parts – a divine part and a merely ‘animated’ one. The tension between the two is what engenders temporal existence.

Plotinus, describes the results of the soul’s fascination with material nature – its ‘fall’ or forgetting of the higher, noetic realm – and its eventual salvation, wrote:
"When a soul remains for long in this withdrawal and estrangement from the whole, with never a glance towards the intelligible, it becomes a thing fragmented, isolated, and weak. … Yet its higher part remains. Let the soul, taking its lead from memory, merely ‘think on essential being’ and its shackles are loosed and it soars"

I think the fire economy places a premium on all things "fragmented, isolated, and weak" and so the cultural decay and associated vices are largely a product of this "withdrawal and estrangement"

[vanvaley1]

Re: ONE word for the human race as a species . . .

dichotomy

The Greek ideal of humanity, which rested upon the observation that the human being is essentially divided into two parts – a divine part and a merely ‘animated’ one. The tension between the two is what engenders temporal existence.

Plotinus, describes the results of the soul’s fascination with material nature – its ‘fall’ or forgetting of the higher, noetic realm – and its eventual salvation, wrote:
"When a soul remains for long in this withdrawal and estrangement from the whole, with never a glance towards the intelligible, it becomes a thing fragmented, isolated, and weak. … Yet its higher part remains. Let the soul, taking its lead from memory, merely ‘think on essential being’ and its shackles are loosed and it soars"

I think the fire economy places a premium on all things "fragmented, isolated, and weak" and so the cultural decay and associated vices are largely a product of this "withdrawal and estrangement"

I'd just like a good soul referee in this match that knows what he's doing.