Thread: Should humanity have an end goal?

I'll be the odd one out here and say we don't NEED an end goal (I don't really think in our current state we could handle accomplishing an end-goal. We're goal-driven; whenever we accomplish a goal, we begin to work on the next one.)

If we had to have a MAJOR, time-consuming goal, I would say since it's likely we won't be able to spread our influence very far from the earth for quite some time, we should attempt to get our race to thrive on the earth (our only home for that "quite some time"). Once we're able to live in on the earth sustainably, focus on something else big, like terraforming Mars or reaching another solar system.

The problem with that is, we aren't making any progress towards providing a liveable future for the humans who are going to be accomplishing some sort of "end-goal".

TL;DR version: World's going to shit, can't have humanity's end-goal without a healthy, thriving humanity!

Survival is pretty key, so I'd say humanity's end goal should be based on survival.

I guess I'd say to maximize our observation and understanding of the cosmos (everything). Next coolest goal would probably be to search in the hope that there's a way to travel to other solar systems and galaxies due to some misunderstanding in current human physics so that we can observe other planets with life. Find medical ways to make us live for a longer time. Try to interbreed with extraterrestrials?

Humanity will progress whether or not you worry over it. That is simply the way of things, they change. Things improve through adversity and variate arbitrarily without it. We do not need to focus humanity on an end goal. The moment now will deliver us our goal now, and it will always be that way.

to create our own universe, and move humanity into that one, thereby giving us complete rights over everything in it because we are the creators of it.

Originally Posted by Abra

Anyone read Asimov's Foundation series?

Yes. It's awesome.

I think the end goal would be a giant, universal supercomputer using almost all available mass and energy, and we'd start living in virtual realities. We would upgrade and eventually completely replace our human bodies with a technological substrate. The majority of intelligence would be AI, although in terms of raw data, there's not much of a difference between AI and human intelligence.

This is termed the "Technological Singularity" if anyone's interested in reading about it. Some people think it will happen within our lifetime, but it's almost certain to happen eventually.

Originally Posted by Radioshift

to create our own universe, and move humanity into that one, thereby giving us complete rights over everything in it because we are the creators of it.

What if this were already the case?

There's no ultimate goal. The short term goal is to advance - anything we can. That goal is always there and it's the only one we need.

If humanity were to have an end goal, it would have to be defeating the final boss of the internets.

Originally Posted by Original Poster

The only possible end goal for humanity could be an end of humanity.

Well, then!

*brushes off hands and loosens shoulders*

Shall we begin?

Originally Posted by tempusername

Well, then!

*brushes off hands and loosens shoulders*

Shall we begin?

It will end by itself eventually. Thus is the nature of infinity. Every single possibility will happen eventually, including the extinction of mankind.

Originally Posted by Original Poster

It will end by itself eventually. Thus is the nature of infinity. Every single possibility will happen eventually, including the extinction of mankind.

If every single possibility was fulfilled then humanity would also continue on forever.

Kill ourselves or die trying.

Originally Posted by MindGames

If every single possibility was fulfilled then humanity would also continue on forever.

No such thing as forever, only infinity. It is not possible to continue forever, I was talking about every possibility. The universe is built to change.

Originally Posted by Original Poster

No such thing as forever, only infinity. It is not possible to continue forever, I was talking about every possibility. The universe is built to change.

Okay, so explain why George Bush didn't get assassinated during his presidency if every single possibility happens.

His presidency was not infinite.

Okay, so you admit that every possibility didn't happen in that case.

No. I didn't. Read my lips. Infinity. In one of existence's potentialities he would get assassinated. But to explain this, I need to explain time. We experience the illusion of time sort of like how you write a math equation one number at a time, but in reality the math equation stands at once. Now think of the universe like the number 0. It is not nothing, it contains within it every single possible equation.

Originally Posted by Abra

But science tells me we live in a finite universe. We could stage the end goal to be completed at the end of the universe. Maybe build a froody restaurant there.

Classic Joke.

As for an end goal...

Survive as long as we can.

How 'bout we spin this a different way:

What should society look like, given a thousand plus years time?

Originally Posted by Abra

How 'bout we spin this a different way:

What should society look like, given a thousand plus years time?

In a thousand years there won't even be a human civilization anymore. Within 20 years we'll have created a virtual human brain (see: Human Brain Project), and 20 years after that we'll be able to make a brain that's millions of times more powerful at the same cost. By that time our society will be dominated by artificial intelligence and human-AI hybrids. After that, technological progress will be so rapid that by the end of this century, civilization as we know it will completely cease to exist. There will probably still be some regular humans at that point, but the pinnacle of "civilization" will be immensely different from today's human civilization.

I for one fear the coming of the great white handkerchief.

I agree with ThePreserver. Without stabilizing the fact that there will be a thriving future in which humanity can continue to advance, what's the point of even thinking about an end goal? Within the next decade there could very easily be a WW3 of sorts, and who knows how much damage that would do to our civilization? As far as I can tell, things are getting worse in this world, and nobody's doing jack shit to stop it. I'm ashamed at what future generations are going to think about us. Theyre going to fucking despise us, and hell, I do too.