How Do You Save the World?

hmm,

To answer your question

"I want to change myself to be more helpful, like willing to be of use".

"I want to help the world, because its better than being idle and useless".

"I want to help people because its fun to do so"

I like getting involved with supporting bigger issues, vulnerable members of society, solving problems and to make some friends. I am not suggesting people should go into a war zone and deliver aid and water. But perhaps thinking where one might be useful, assess personal goals. My idea of a goal would be for myself to create a YouTube channel full of animations that actually made a small difference like earning money for charity.

Personally the big change I would make If I was omnipotent:

• Create a symbiosis with the planet
• Animal conservation and re-population
• Positive Propaganda in mainstream media

This website is cool Upriser Website and animation below was inspirational for me because I like Futurism:

i found it funny as all get out (i dont know what that actually means) that the "core values" thread got almost no participation but things like "sithism" and "should we lie?" get multiple pages within hours

people get carried away with causes and mislead by statistics on an every day basis

the only defense any of us have against this that i can see is to define - as precisely as possible - a set of core values and make it ones life long determination to integrate them into ones behavior

everything else is window dressing, and chopping off the heads of the hydra one at a time only to have new devils appear to replace them

Ariane wrote: hmm,

To answer your question

"I want to change myself to be more helpful, like willing to be of use".

"I want to help the world, because its better than being idle and useless".

"I want to help people because its fun to do so"

I like getting involved with supporting bigger issues, vulnerable members of society, solving problems and to make some friends. I am not suggesting people should go into a war zone and deliver aid and water. But perhaps thinking where one might be useful, assess personal goals. My idea of a goal would be for myself to create a YouTube channel full of animations that actually made a small difference like earning money for charity.

Personally the big change I would make If I was omnipotent:

• Create a symbiosis with the planet
• Animal conservation and re-population
• Positive Propaganda in mainstream media

This website is cool Upriser Website and animation below was inspirational for me because I like Futurism:

you are the media

make it a point to spread the propoganda that you feel offers the greatest benefit to the world

Now I have to find the "Core Values" thread. I think I ran into it and was going to write something up, but just wasn't in the mood at that point in time. It does tie into this though. And I think what you, Ariane, wrote is a set of values. It pretty fairly encompasses the reasons you want to do things, and even suggests an avenue. That's pretty nifty.

I agree that the starting point is finding what drives you, but I don't think that it's a static thing you just work on figuring out and incorporating into your life, just because. I mean, of course it can be! And that's really great. But I've always wanted to do something different - something I feel does touch multiple minds and lives.

Still, you have to start with the self. It's usually where most of the urges to help others stem from anyway.

EDIT:

I just realized that this is in the "Science" area though, so maybe we should be focusing on that aspect of this. In that sense I'd say one of the major things I have an interest in (aside from anything SpaceX is doing) are new theories on urban design, especially anything that incorporates a large amount of nature and natural designs, with some in-built system of high-activity social transportation to help mitigate or even remove the use of cars (for non-emergency/industrial uses).

Alos, IBM has invented a new type of solar array using a special cooling system that keeps the chips from overheating, allowing an array to draw in somewhere around 2,000 times as much power as normal. Potentially a collection of these could take the place of a coal plant, and that is REALLY cool.

While I agree with much of the positive sentiment and optimism expressed so far, I would answer your question quite simply.

How do you save the world? You don't. The world will save itself.

We tend to be extremely egotistical creatures when it comes to our place in the grand scheme of things. We are not destroying an ecosystem. We are part of it, and a part of it that can easily die out. We worry about climate change because it will make us uncomfortable. We consider certain chemicals to be "pollution" that exist in massive quantities both here and on other planets. We don't rule out Venus as a potential home because of pollution. We do because the massive amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is poisonous to us and it causes the planet to be way hotter than we can survive. The planets, including this one, are not concerned about flooding or pollution or becoming too hot.

As we watch and learn of the events unfolding in Nepal or look back on similar events like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, it is important to remember that these are catastrophes on a human level. They are normal happenings for a planet. Just as spraying a trail of ants with ant spray is a normal happening for me, the same cannot be said from the ant's perspective.

If we are to "save the world", we need to be honest about it. We see through human eyes. We are selfishly saving the world for ourselves. We can make it a better place for people now, but there will come a point when the world will no longer have a biological motivation to keep us around. It might be a meteor or we might do it to ourselves. All we can do in the meantime is try to be good to each other. It is an endeavor worth our best efforts.

dble pst

@Senan
i agree with much of what you say but my response is that i am totally ok with the idea of changing the wording of the question to "how do we save ourselves?"

the earth itself will recover, sure, and there is a perspective from which it makes absolutely no real difference if any and all of us die painful ignoble deaths - right after watching everyone we love do the same

but thats not what most of us want

so i agree lets be clear about what we mean, but i dont agree with making that distinction in such a way as to imply that conservation efforts and climate change efforts and "not dumping poison into the oceans and the mountains and releasing it into the air" efforts are in any way NOT the right kinds of efforts to make, i think its quite clear at multiple levels that they are

OB1 - it sounds like we are in agreement. I know I come off like I'm doom and gloom and don't care. It is far from that. I strongly believe in living in harmony with nature and practicing conservation. I'm always excited about new technologies that will help us do just that. As an Eagle Scout I was taught to protect what is most important to me, mainly being family and the environment my family lives in. I applaud those who make real efforts to effect positive change.

That being said, I also struggle everyday trying to reconcile these selfish needs with a desire to be more selfless. My ego allows for self preservation, and I don't want to die. I also don't want my ego to drive all of my actions. I want to save the planet, but I don't want to be the guy who says "I can save the planet". I guess you can say I'm walking a tight rope between being one with the universe and still enjoying the convenience of driving my giant gas guzzling truck. These are my conflicting feelings and I know that. :laugh:

ah - my interpreive schema is jaded by my social exposure
ive spent my entire life in what you could call "the religious south" and i have heard all sorts of angles used to try and counter environmental initiatives - imo mostly because the perception is that they are "liberal" causes (as if cancer cares who someone votes for) and therefore are satans evil lies inflicted on the holy by the godless heathen dirt worshippers

seriously, thats the argument lol just not as poetic as i make it sound here of course

yeah i agree with everything you just said
including the tightrope angle

In the spirit of antithesis could I be so bold as to ask the following questions: why do you think the world needs saving? what would you try and save it from?

If your answers are along the lines of the world needs saving from us, because we're destroying it I would argue that's fair enough, but we need to be extremely careful with that line of argument. It has led many to advocate enforced birth control, constraints on civil rights and to argue for immediate deindustrialisation - amongst other things. This is a terrifying example from just a few days ago: here

As H.L. Mencken is quoted as having said "“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” (Ironically - I understand he wasn't actually a great fan of liberal democracy either). When we contemplate saving the world, or saving humanity are we actually contemplating how to save ourselves, or our way of life?

Once again in the spirit of playing devil's advocate this is thought provoking and mostly very amusing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c