Do you think the human species could be trying to commit suicide?

I don’t think that we’re trying to commit suicide, at least, in this moment – I just think that some of us are too lazy to realize what is happening and are unwilling to take the necessary steps to make changes.

Darwinism?

The idea that the species is committing suicide implies the existence of a collective mind and collective intent, that spreads throughout the whole species. So, in a word, no.

What we are doing is self-destructive, but it’s not suicide any more than jaywalking and getting hit by a car is suicide. A jaywalker puts himself in danger but doesn’t intend to die.

coughlargehadroncollidercough

Suicide is much too drastic a word for this context, I believe, but it is much more likely that we as humans are addicted to our gadgets or either too afraid to give up the things we’ve known our entire existence. We, as a species, are better compared to the hapless junkie who knows their ways are harmful, but knows not the way to live without them.

Maybe a bit closer to animals getting herded off a cliff?

A follow up question I have, really, is: if this is so and the species seems bent on self destruction, are there effective ways we know from treating individuals who are trying to commit suicide that could be applied to the species as a whole? Something that can bend the mind of our species away from self destruction and towards some kind of self-acceptance and peace?

@ddude: referring to the hapless junkie sounds like another analogy of self-destruction.

Well, it is an analogy to self-destruction, except I meant it was more an unintentional self-destruction than the completely intentional self-destruction which would be suicide.

selfishness + apathy + arrogance

Simple as that and almost impossible to change en masse.

IMHO, no, not taking your question at face value. Suicided, maybe.

More likely, humans are being prepped for or displaced by some variant of a quantum-esque/transhuman evolution. See here, here, here, and here for the basic idea.

I think people are just ignorant and in denial. Thus, they unintentionally harm their selves and their home (the earth), which is, a sad thing. :/

I think that everything balances out in the end. Eventually we will destroy the earth, we will die off. I think that most people have an inherently selfish mentality and if it does not directly and immediately affect them, they do not care. The earth goes through natural cycles. If we don’t kill ourselves off, some huge disaster will eventually, anyway.

No, it’s just that we don’t look very far ahead. (which sometimes comes to the same thing)

No. Just trying to figure out how stuff works. Which, after daily survival, is all humans really do when you get down to it.