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Comment by spacebard | Hacker News Reader

How do you contend with the fact that humans dominate every ecosystem we enter? We don't just become the apex predator, we annihilate them all, entirely. Additionally, we find incredibly complex use cases for resources they ignored which increase wealth and prosperity across our civilization. To me, that suggests human intelligence is the most powerful force of survival in the known universe.

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Annihilating the eco system we life in demonstrates that our intelligence isn't that good, and doesn't seem to showcase it's a powerful force for long-term survival.

Of course there are plenty of metrics by which other species exceed humans, even some cognitive ones, and human intelligence in the end might just mean quick world domination followed by a quicker extinction, but the power and planetary supremacy that it endowed humans with in a cosmic blink of an eye is undeniable. No other species even comes close.

Ecosystem-destroying catastrophic behavior isn't unique to humans, either. We are the only known form of life that can bring it about on a global scale, reason about it, and have the potential to consciously avert it.

Destroying and consuming everything on earth for short term comfort and gains isn't what I'd call the smartest move.

It's like burning your bed in winter because you're cold, it sure feels food for a few minutes but then you start breathing in the fumes and wondering where you'll sleep tomorrow

The trick for the species is to get off planet to the infinite resources in the wider galaxy, in which case it isn't short term gains. It might suck for individuals and the ecosystems destroyed.

We can't even live sustainably on the planet we evolved to thrive on for millions of years and people think we'll just terraform a whole or planet/solar system/galaxy...

Living sustainably has little to do with expansion of the species (and population, pretty much by definition). Almost the opposite. Maybe the solution to Fermi's Paradox being discussed is other species do become fully sustainable and thus never spread. Leaving us with the opportunity to devour the galaxy like a cancer.

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