Do you think humankind can ever change? And if so why?

Only at the moment of destruction can humankind change.

@Samurai Do you not think that people are afraid right now?

I don’t think we will ever stop killing each other, but that it sooner or later it will be highly uncommon.

@naivete Sorry, edited answer, didn’t think it was wise enough.

@Samurai I noticed that :P

Humankind is always changing.

‘i am against religion because it teaches us to be satisified with not understanding the world’- richard dawkins
and thats all I have to say about it.

I think that humankind is always evolving – as issues are solved, more complex ones crop up. Which is not such a bad thing, because if there was nothing to fight for, life would be less purposeful. But douches will always exist, unfortunately.

I suppose there will always be some human’s who are ‘throw-backs’, but the majority will eventually grow up and learn to behave.

It’s not humankind in general that kills people. It’s random douchebags who can’t chill out. I don’t appreciate how the acts of some government officials and random psychopaths get pushed as the guilt of the general populace.

@Anon_Jihad Good answer. I was just thinking that. I don’t know anyone in my family or among my acquaintances who has actually killed anyone.

People can change, but at the same time, there will always be those that bring upon the world nothing but hatred and destruction. I guess with the good, you have to take the bad, too.

We are meant to be as we are: more or less like a plague; we consume all the resources of our planet and once done, we’ll go for the next one.

There are good and bad people (by nature) and it will be the same for the eternity. There will be always people that tries to leverage other’s work, but there will be always good people caring about everyone and everything.

It’s not bad, we just have to asume how we are and try to be a little bit better.

No one said we were going to perfect…

The basic human instinct is to survive. To that end, we will do all manner of appalling things: eating out of garbage cans, lying, stealing, fighting wars, killing in self defense, killing for personal gain. If you can knock out the survival instinct, perhaps we will “embiggify” ourselves enough to not need to kill from time to time. Good luck with that, though, because the instinct to survive is what keeps the species going, even under the most adverse circumstances. Knock that out, and we might as well call it a day.

We’ll know when the Vulcans make first contact. Seriously, I believe in a positive future. No more wars after 2050. A few criminals, yes.

@mattbrowne That’s when the singularity comes about?

@mattbrowne what makes you think this? The Muslims will likely still be killing eachother, and everyone around them, neither leading political party in America has shown even the slightest interest in ending anyway, just starting new ones or escalating, and that is unlikely to change unless Americans rally behind a third party candidate who has views that actually differ from other candidates.

I don’t really think we’re all that bad, but at the same time, I don’t see wars ending. Never mind various uprisings I half expect, half hope to see with the global spreading of this socialist/fascist hybrid.

@Anon_Jihad Muslims will likely still be killing eachother, and everyone around them

Wut?
I think you’re wearing selective vision goggles, bro.

@oratio I’m not suggesting that they are the only ones doing it, or the biggest assholes doing it, but regardless, I believe they will still be doing it, and believed them to be a strong and easily agreed with case for my argument regardless of political view as to whether they’re “terrorists” or some shit.

@oratio – Funny enough, Roddenberry envisioned a unique android in the year 2300 who has trouble saying “I don’t” instead of “I do not” while Kurzweil thinks a superintelligence (which is a trillion times smarter than Data) is just a few decades away and we’ll meet it in our lifetimes, although we can’t understand its intelligence.

@Anon_Jihad – Look at the Catholics in South America killing each other. Many cities in Brazil are essentially war zones. Very often social divisions are not caused by religions.

What makes me think this will be different in 2050? Not only technological progress is accelerating. Cultural progress as well. A lot can happen in the next 40 years. The EU could be a role model for Asia and Africa as well. Handling diversity is possible. Solidarity is possible. Rich countries pay for the infrastructure of poorer countries which eventually become rich themselves and the people will buy products from other rich countries. Good examples and Greece, Spain and Portugal. Germany subsidized these countries. Now people there can afford expensive German high-tech products. The same will happen with Poland, Romania and so forth. This model can be copied. African countries can look at Ghana and South Africa for example.

@mattbrowne Yes. Recent: Myanmar, China, Kenya, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia, Colombia… I we cover the 20th century most atrocities has been committed by christian nations. The world wars and the world wide colonization has been European by origin.

If you look at murder statistics the top ten are all christian. Some of the murder capitals world: Mexico City, Caracas, Cape Town, New Orleans, Moscow.

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Yes, we have to be willing to sacrifice for the third world if there is gonna be real change globally.

@oratio – I visited Egypt in 1986. Cairo is such a peaceful city. The whole country is wonderful. You can go anywhere even at 2 am without being robbed or murdered. There a few percent islamist extremists and sympathizers in the Muslim world, but the vast majority of Muslims are good people. But all we get on the news are the suicide bombers in Pakistan, Iraq etc.

The question presupposes that it is something in “human nature” (whatever that actually is) that needs to change, rather than the circumstances surrounding individuals in any given society or culture that need to change.

Case in point: People in the West are far more likely to fear crime than actually be a victim of crime.

The ultimate determiner of how inhumane we are to each other is not innate, it is economic.

The 7 top deadly sins would have to be eliminated for that to work. Especially
GREED.
Pride
Envy
Anger
Sloth
Gluttony
Lust