Philosophical question: Spinoff of Mayan doomsday thread
 

So this post by bowener got me thinking (the bolded part is the section I'm talking about)...
And I got to thinking about that point and was simply going to respond to the original post, but this is such a rich question that I think it deserves its own thread.

So let's assume 2012 hits and some sort of gradual decline of civilization begins, whether it be through a sudden change in climate, breakdown of communication satellites, whatever. It's recognized by society as incoming destruction, but nobody knows when it's going to start destroying life.

So let's say you're recently married/united in love/whatever with a spouse (opposite sex necessary here). You know what's coming, but you look around and don't see an exactly unfriendly environment to raise a child.

My question is, is it fair to the child to be conceived at this point in time, where likely at some point in its life, it will have to suffer through an armageddon-type world? The chance of survival is not so great (maybe 20-30%) and if survival is achieved, life will be extremely tough, lonely, and horrific.

The issues at hand are furthering the human race in the face of a likely world-wide catastrophe, as well as fulfilling perhaps your own ambitions as a human on this earth-- to raise a child.

What will it be? Deal? Or no deal?

That particular child, in question, may be the one that leads the entire human race out of the quagmire and desperation.
That's all I got.
I've been thinking a lot about that, cuz I'm kind of in that situation myself.

Titan hell? That's an actual place?

I think it's arrogance as a species. Until the sun goes, or until there's a catastrophic impact of some kind, there's no real armageddon, no apocalypse. We may end, human-kind, and other species may end, but the earth will still be here, and the earth will go on. Eventually it will repopulate, in some way.

As for kids, I'll never have any, but it doesn't have anything to do with a sense of foreboding about the future of the species. It's just not something I've ever really wanted, and I'm getting to the point in my life, age-wise, where it's too late.

It was when I created the username 8 years ago.

TEbow can stop the end of the world. Just ask him.

So are the hardships they'll almost certainly encounter in that life worth it? Being raised in human society under a roof with A/C to living in the forest with barely any tools of your own? Perhaps no human contact?

I don't know, that sounds pretty much like my life. I got no complaints.

No a/c would suck though.

People will breed. It's human nature. Maybe we'll even survive a cataclysm.

Or maybe reality's like Azimov's Nightfall, and we're just seeing a cyclical part of human history that we aren't cognizant of. We rise, we fall, we rise again, we fall again, over and over.

I didn't want to turn this thread into an excuse to quote the great sci-fi authors.

Thanks a lot, nerd.

I don't think anything would change quickly enough for us to realize it.

In the grand scheme of things, humanity's like a parasite... we're here and dominant. Too smart for our own good, really. We keep figuring out how not to die... meanwhile we're multiplying like crazy.

Something's gotta give. Either, eventually, we move to other planets... or we **** up our home to the point that it kills us off. If we did find some way to "save the enviroment" or survive the natural cycles (ice ages, etc), eventually... there'd just flat out be too many of us.

In any case... the "world" and life will be here... long after we're gone.

Hehe.

As a Yankee that has lived in the South for the past 19 years, I have heard on numerous occasions from lifelong natives that the advent of A/C was the end of the South. That enabled people from up north to come south and live comfortably during the high heat and humidity of the summers.
Don't know if it's true, but I'm damn glad I have A/C.

Well, it kinda leads right into that genre...

Makes ya think.

Okay, fine, I'll play along.

*Spoiler alert: I reveal the ending to this book. Don't read it and complain*

In Robert Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold, the situation that Hugh and Barbara find themselves in when they return to their own time post-nuclear blast is kind of what I'm talking about. Would anyone really want their child to be raised in that sort of environment?

Everybody in this thread is correct. The earth WILL continue and life will find a way to continue whether it be human or not. I'm speaking MORALLY... is it right to raise a child with that kind of knowable future for them?

There are times I wonder why I doomed my children to this world. Then I think, maybe they will be the ones to solve the problems.