Could the Internet bring the fall of humans?

This shouldn't come to a surprise to any of you, but invade you havn't noticed, there is a lot of insulting and batter on the Internet, ranging from people quarreling about opinions and beliefs all the way done to sending death threats, so I ask. Why do people do this?

Why can't some people just have a polite and civil conversation, rather than freaking out over a difference of opinions?
What does this say about our species? We quarrel with one another, start fights and say hateful things to one another when you don't even know each other, if we can't get along as a species, what makes any of you think aliens would want to contact us?

Not only that, but many people also have trouble figuring out what is a real story and what is hoax, the newer generations are becoming more and more gullible, to the point they believe in a foolish idea completely they dismiss science as a hoax.

Here are just a few examples.

zapatopi.net...
www.bloggersbase.com...
www.storiesofwisdom.com...

If you really want an answer to this question, I suggest reading "The Unincorporated Man". I forget the author, but the premise will surprise you.

reply to post by Anthony1138


Hello, Well it's natural for us to do this, we learn from each other this way. It's an odd process but it's seems to be the only one that has ever worked. Give it time friend People do it off the net and on, hehe way things are at the moment my friend, but the internet is liberating everyone. Egypt is an example of that.

Jamie.

reply to post by pandapowerjamie


You made a very powerful point, it does have pros, the liberation of egypt has given me a lot of hope for the future of the species, because when one country changes the others are not far being (a lot of attenion on Iran)

I still am in the process of adding links to his thread. Lol

reply to post by Anthony1138


Hello, Thank you Appreciate it friend, Also don't forget Algeria Things are flaring up, the internet is an awesome tool and the most powerful thing Humanity has ever created even if it wasn't made for this purpose to begin with, Unite and rejoice!

Pretty sure 4chan and other chan websites are one of the horsemen (is there a moron horse?).

Anyhow, misinformation and fake news has been around since the dawning of civilization (typically governments job..now the sheep control the sheep, so "they" don't have to).
The intelligent people will remain the intelligent and informed, and the gullible will fall for misinformation, be caught up in the flame war hobbys, etc.

The internet is just a representation of humanitys mind. has alot of sex on it, alot of stupid ideas, some boring stats, some ramblings, alot of junk, and no real aim or purpose. The internet is a global brain...the brain of humanity.
The scariest thing about the internet is how close it is to the average brain. micro and macro.

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Pretty sure 4chan and other chan websites are one of the horsemen (is there a moron horse?).

Anyhow, misinformation and fake news has been around since the dawning of civilization (typically governments job..now the sheep control the sheep, so "they" don't have to).
The intelligent people will remain the intelligent and informed, and the gullible will fall for misinformation, be caught up in the flame war hobbys, etc.

The internet is just a representation of humanitys mind. has alot of sex on it, alot of stupid ideas, some boring stats, some ramblings, alot of junk, and no real aim or purpose. The internet is a global brain...the brain of humanity.
The scariest thing about the internet is how close it is to the average brain. micro and macro.

Well Humanity is driven by said "sex". Everything we do revolves around sex, quite amusing.

Originally posted by Anthony1138
This shouldn't come to a surprise to any of you, but invade you havn't noticed, there is a lot of insulting and batter on the Internet, ranging from people quarreling about opinions and beliefs all the way done to sending death threats, so I ask. Why do people do this?

Why can't some people just have a polite and civil conversation, rather than freaking out over a difference of opinions?
What does this say about our species? We quarrel with one another, start fights and say hateful things to one another when you don't even know each other, if we can't get along as a species, what makes any of you think aliens would want to contact us?

I agree with you that there is a lot of bashing/trolling/cursing/insulting on the internet out there. The main reason for this is the high level of anonymity the internet provides its users, which lowers the inhibition threshold. There are simply no drastical consequences when doing unpolite things on the internet, when compared with the possible & drastical consequences in "real-life".

Nevertheless, all the hatred is just one aspect of the internet, there are by far many more (positive ones). When looking at the internet from another perspective, you might see that there are way more intelligent people searching for news, informing themselves or discussing topics in a very polite way. The internet helps many of us to inform ourselves about things that you cannot see in the regular news-stream, above many other things.

The only difference is that most of these inteligent people simply don't spend their time with these unproductive activities, such as trolling/stalking/insulting others or even caring about the opinion of another user who is miles away from them.

The internet won't bring the fall of humans. It just gives those a forum who want to spill hatred all-over the place. It is up to you if you let your opinion getting influenced by those negative individuals, or to decide to ignore all this unproductive stuff, and focus on what is important for YOU!

Sounds like a shill attempt to me,

I'm guessing the solution here is an Internet kill switch?

To me the internet IS the fall of humans.
if the internet went down for good, the suicide rate would rise like crazy.

Maybe if AI's start becoming sentient and plug into the net to cause chaos and download things to make themselves even more intelligent. Otherwise hopefully not.

reply to post by Anthony1138


I'm sorry BUT I have to dissagree with you!
The internet has made possible a lot of things for me!
1.A LOT OF INFORMATIONS IN REAL TIME! (didn't even DREAMED OF that in high-school , about 14 years ago ...)
2.REASONING has always made a difference in everything!
If someone thinks some story is a "HOAX" or not , then that's that!
I HONESTLY think the internet is the BEST THING that "hit" the humanity!
I can't live without the internet and the MASSIVE VOLUME OF INFORMATION THAT IT'S IN IT!
All I can say right now is
THANK YOU DARPA!

I think it will be cell phones, ever read Stephen Kings book "Cell" . Everyone one has one even if they are not talking on it right now they are using it at some time. Little kids are using them, old people are using them and people all over the world have them.

Humans may well bring about the fall of humans but I really doubt its going to be the internet thats at fault.

Its a disruptive technology. The market it disrupts is the information market. This has happened before.

This market used to be rigged by the monarchies and the clergy. Since only they could read and write they controlled what the masses believed, because they controlled the information they received. Then the printing press was invented. New ideas and revolution followed.

Eventually governments got control back through the big docile media conglomerates (or they got the govt). The internet disrupts the control of the information again. Its simply another part of an old cycle.

The panic in the corridors and the fear mongering thats going on is a symptom of the government realising that the people might have access to information that is not appropriately vetted/spun. Shock horror, the press conference may no longer be effective !! You could say 'whats new' since its been around in its current form for about a decade. Whats new is that a generation has arrived that lives and breathes it. Also with social media reaching widespread acceptance even in the older generations the more savvy can spread what they find almost instantly.

Its mostly positive IMHO although it may cause temporary problems as old structures go down fighting. Its an interesting time to be alive.