[Subjectivist]

Why are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.

[dorlomin]

By debating you are forced to focus on what you believe, to muster it into a form you can explain to others and to have it face the challenges of those who disagree. Its a learning tool something akin to dialectic.

[Rod_Cloutier]

I'm an ordinary person in an ordinary job. I want to learn about life, the world, geo-politics, about science, about the enviroment, about limits and about everything available.

Discussion, and interacting with others is also important to me.

[Tanada]

Life is boring in the mental holding pattern. Learn all that is learnable!

[Quinny]

Mainly Learn - answers maybe the other answers sometimes

[Keith_McClary]

Why are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.

Do you mean on Earth or on this website? (Just wondering if it was meant to be a religious thread like How likely is it that there is an 'afterlife'? ).

[Rune]

By debating you are forced to focus on what you believe, to muster it into a form... something akin to dialectic.

What he said.

I've been here since 2004. Different usernames. Not my choice to abandon them.

I read "Hubbert's Peak" by Deffeyes, which seemed compelling at the time, then Heinberg's books, and I accepted the logic for a while but then started having my doubts around 2006. I'lve rea a whole lot of other books on oil too.

I like contentious and debatable issues and this is one of them. I don't think oil is the be-all and end-all of energy. I look at what's happening with small modular reactors, the use of genetically modified microbes, Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, etc and I see real progress tha can't be ignored.

In order tobelieve in a peak oil apocalypse, you have to believe that innovation is impotent in the face of declining easy oil. I have no reason to believe that innovation is impotent.So I debate those that harbor that belief.

Not that there won't or can'lt be some sort of global culling; those things have happened in the past. There is no reason to believe they can't happen again. But I don'lt believe you can predict the future with any degree of accuracy. You can only make guesses based on trends.The future makes present fools of us all.

I don't think there will be an end to civilization, certainly not from an oil shortage. I rather entertain the notion that the Earth itself is evolving and has always evolved, growing in complexity faster and faster. And that human being are just a phase of growth which will eventually usher in some new ubiquitous and awesome intelligence that will cover the entire planet. But that's not a belief; that's a notion I entertain. Who knows what will happen. I certainly don't.

I look at things like automation and robotics and artificial intelligence, which while seemingly showing slow growth, are ceaseless in their development and capabilities. Eventually, machines and machine intelligence will give even the best of we natural humans a desperate run for our money.

Simultaneously, we have a huge and growing global population which isincreasingly interconnected via sophisticated communications. The idea of a Global Brain is now an old idea, but still relevant.

Eventually, there will be no more humans. We will have evolved into something else. No way will civilization reverse itself.

And if hard times come due to resource shortages, or the bubble bursts for some reason, the pace of innovation will only increase, as it does in war time.Just because technological civilization advances doesnLt mean there canLt be another plague, or another WWI writ large.

The planet and its life evolves; maybe one day there will be more effective stepping stone than human beings in whatever Earth is growing towards.

[Shaved Monkey]

Why am I only allowed to pick one?

[davep]

I rather entertain the notion that the Earth itself is evolving and has always evolved, growing in complexity faster and faster

I'm not sure how that tallies with rapidly decreasing biodiversity thanks to human actions.

[careinke]

Early Warning.

[AgentR11]

debate.

Its the only really effective, but cost free way of detecting errors in what you think you already know.

[Subjectivist]

Why are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.

Do you mean on Earth or on this website? (Just wondering if it was meant to be a religious thread like How likely is it that there is an 'afterlife'? ).

I would love to inspire you to faith Mr. McClary, but I suspect you have no interest in it. I believe in live and let live.

I am here to do everything on the list, some days more of one, other days more of another. I do hope that knowing I am an evangelical believer who also believes in the science behind Peak Oil will inspire people here to be more open minded about those of faith.

[Pops]

As some others mentioned, I also find tapping out my thoughts and reading the feedback helps me understand myself and my thoughts better.

[Quinny]

Just reminded me :

When I left Uni there was a guy in my office called John Schlesinger (not the movie guy) whose father was a resident vicar for a large community/home for people with various mental health/disability problems.

He used to invite visiting preachers and one Sunday a passionate preacher gave a rousing sermon to the residents, culminating in the question. Why are we here? With silence from the congregation the preacher shouted louder 'WHY ARE WE HERE?' after a third and final declaration an old guy at the back stood up and said 'Because we're not all there!'

[Keith_McClary]

Why are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.

Do you mean on Earth or on this website? (Just wondering if it was meant to be a religious thread like How likely is it that there is an 'afterlife'? ).

I would love to inspire you to faith Mr. McClary, but I suspect you have no interest in it. I believe in live and let live.

I am here to do everything on the list, some days more of one, other days more of another. I do hope that knowing I am an evangelical believer who also believes in the science behind Peak Oil will inspire people here to be more open minded about those of faith.

I take it you meant this website, not the Earth.

But I would be interested in what your (or other) religions have to say about finite resources. Some seem to think "go forth and multiply" means unlimited growth. Fodder for another thread, or is there an existing thread about this?

(Some other time I will ask you how Elven-kings and Dwarf-lords fit into your evangelicalism.)

[SeaGypsy]

I've been here long enough to have some sentiment about the space shared, time shared in these times of our lives and the world, at a crucial juncture in the continuum which too few share key point awareness to keep comfortable company whilst dwelling on these topics in daily life.

(I think that was my longest sentence ever here )

[Ibon]

Some comments already reflected my views but I would add one more.

I am fully engaged in projects and social interactions that deal with the immediate or at most the upcoming next couple of years. I like coming here to discuss what things might be beyond these normal time frames since it allows me to step back and become an observer.

Same reason I got interested in evolution, paleontology, geology, astronomy, psychoactive drugs, wilderness trips. Same reason I chose to end up in a place where I wake up to the sound of howler monkeys and a million acres of cloud forest.