The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Shpongled

Shpongled

Member
Aug 30, 2001
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What do you think about this?

http://www.vhemt.org/

Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense.
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Of course it would make sense, but is it realistic? Could something like this really ever happen? Or is the human instinct to reproduce too overpowering to suppress?
 
It's certainly not realistic, nor is it, I suspect, possible. The problem is one of propagation. The movement relies on voluntary action, and if we could get everyone to agree on something, there would be no need for such a movement at all.

There have been attempts to do this before, and they have never gotten past the crackpot stages. Adherents die out faster than the movement propagates itself.
 
Pentti approves.

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The problem, as I see it, is much the same as the one we have now. Those of us with the ability to see the direction in which we are heading and the desire to do something meaningful to stop it are the least likely to breed out of control. So, basically, if a bunch of us agree to stop breeding, the planet will be eventually overrun by the poor, the stupid, the selfish and etc.
 
I've wondered why in third world countries, stricken with poverty and disease, couples insist on bringing more children into this world, knowing what horrible life awaits them. That's child abuse.
 
Shpongled said:
Of course it would make sense, but is it realistic? Could something like this really ever happen? Or is the human instinct to reproduce too overpowering to suppress?
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Well, it already HAS been happening in the last decades as number of births are dwindling in first world countries, actually shifting the demography in a rather unhealthy way. But it's obviously not down to waiver of reproduction for global health's sake, but rather socio-cultural changes making reproduction less desirable and easier to prevent for very individual reasons (emancipation etc.).

It's an inconvenient truth that the often bedeviled immigration is fundamental to counter the negative developments spawning from an overaged society.

It's a different story for people in countries suffering more significantly from overpopulation. In second and third world countries, the own children are way more crucial for sustaining life inside families (manpower etc.), especially older folks usually solely rely on their children - there are no alternatives. It's a downward spiral.

But, let's just imagine it would be possible to tell people in Angola, Mali and Afghanistan (about 50 births per 1.000 people a year - in comparison: about 13 in the US, 8 in Germany) to reduce the amount of children their giving birth to, it still wouldn't have quite a significant impact on global health and resources because it's the heavily industrialized first world countries playing the leading role in draining resources and destruction of the environment (even if the resources are gathered from poorer countries, they're being exported obviously).

It's up to rapidly developing countries like China and India to step up and take their part of the responsibility to preserve this earth if we'll ever want to see a significant change. But that's not going to happen any time soon. They want their fair share of the emission pie right now and are not going to hurt their own economies - consequently, they're blocking every effort to make consensual moves towards preserving this planet.

I'm not optimistic...
 
Nightshade said:
The problem, as I see it, is much the same as the one we have now. Those of us with the ability to see the direction in which we are heading and the desire to do something meaningful to stop it are the least likely to breed out of control. So, basically, if a bunch of us agree to stop breeding, the planet will be eventually overrun by the poor, the stupid, the selfish and etc.
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This. Sadly, it would be like the movie Idiocracy where the only people left breeding were the stupid ones and it would just doom the planet even more.

"But it's got electrolytes!!!!" :lol:
 
Total crap. The very idea tacitly confirms our primacy, which is part of the problem to begin with. The biosphere will be fine regardless of when we finally leave it alone.
 
derek said:
Total crap. The very idea tacitly confirms our primacy, which is part of the problem to begin with. The biosphere will be fine regardless of when we finally leave it alone.
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This exactly. The planet will be A-OK.

15,000 years from now, the dominate species on this planet will not be Homo Sapien Sapian. It'll either be some sort of technological post-human, or a species of hyper-evolved insect. Those seem to be the only options.

Either way, Earth will be teeming with life.

just not urs!
 
I saw one of those CGI dinos/future monster shows on Discovery once and they said in the future the world will be ruled by giant landwalking octopi.
 
Glad that some people agree with me. Whenever I rattle on about the lifespan of the planet and how insignificant our time here really is, it never really registers. :)
 
Well, it's not so much a question about "Will the earth still be fine then?" than "Will earth still be fine enough for US?".
 
slashvanyoung said:
Well, it's not so much a question about "Will the earth still be fine then?" than "Will earth still be fine enough for US?".
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Well, you've got to remember that humans are magnificently adaptable creatures. It's really the hallmark of our survival--and to bring it farther back, the survival of mammals in general after the asteroid winter.

Really though, I can't see us ever completely going away any time soon, even in the event of nuclear holocaust or complete climactic catastrophe.

Our financial systems may collapse, social-civil war may erupt, drone and cyber war may kill millions, even a magnetic polar shift may render our entire technological systems useless, but unless some sort of biological warfare kills all humans, at least some of us will survive.

How long our digitally dependent manually-retarded asses survive is another matter altogether.


I do hope the rapture comes soon and sweeps away the fundies though. Then we might stand a better chance.
 
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