What is the Goal of Humanity?

[Nobel Hobos 2]

There's not one because we're sadly not a hivemind species.

"Sadly"? You know some other people. Are you sure you want to mix your mind with theirs?

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Personally I agree with those saying there's no set goal that everyone objectively shares - it is something that varies from individual to individual.

Well I don't. Humanity as a whole has one goal, which is necessary to achieve any longer-term goal. It is to survive!

It applies broadly too, at the individual level. If you kill yourself, or you screw up and die somehow, there is nothing after that.

[Cameroi]

to avoid destroying itself,
while at the same time, enabling every last individual to enjoy living.

at least that would be the reasonable goal of a logical culture.

humanity though is still in its narcisstic infancy, of imagining the rest of the universe to exist for the sole purpose of being its own sandbox.
hopefully it will grow out of this, before the rest of the universe has to destroy them to protect itself from their doing so.

[Nohle]

That's a lofty, philosophical question. My answer: The question is stupid.

There's no goal. Humanity just is. At least for a little while. Our over-inflated egos struggle with that, but the facts don't really care. We've been around for 100,000 years -- the cosmological blink of an eye. In the near-billion years before us, most other life that's ever existed has come and gone.

We will go away. The Earth will shake us off like a bad case of the fleas. There's nothing to be done about it; there's nothing to be done about how meaningless and empty our existence is. There just isn't.

Take climate change. Save the planet? We can't even save ourselves. We haven't learned how to help each other and care for one another yet. We're gonna save the planet? The planet's fine anyway. You think Coke cans and Target shopping bags are gonna do any real damage to the planet? The planet's been through far, far worse than us: recurring ice ages, plate tectonics, cosmological bombardment, the reversal of the magnetic poles, solar flares, cosmic rays, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, fires, and so on and so on. Environmentalists don't care about the planet. At least not in the abstract. They want a clean place to live. Their own little habitat. They wouldn't want to be personally inconvenienced, after all! But I digress.

So there's no point. Get on with it, do some cool stuff, and die. You got any better ideas?

[Mirjt]

If goal is interpreted to mean purpose, then there is no purpose, we exist that is all.

You might say the purpose or goal of life is to survive and reproduce, but a chemical reaction that is able to reproduce itself and create stable conditions within a membrane is just an accident of nature. As random changes occurred to that chemical reaction over time, the changes that are more able to continue to sustain itself and reproduce continue on, those that don't stop. The development of instincts (broadly, to also include the behavior of non-animal organisms), whether chemical, neurological, or otherwise to make their best attempt to survive and reproduce, obviously was a trait that helped that chemical reaction continue. Only organisms with some level of sentience even care, survival and reproduction matter for all organisms and all organisms are programed to seek that out, but without sentience it is impossible to care if you are successful or not, and those with sentience will likely care about those goals of survival and reproduction. It has no greater purpose outside of simply wanting to survive because if we did not evolve the want to survive we probably wouldn't have survived to be around now.

If you boil that down, then our most primal instincts and needs are our goals, and that would be to eat and have sex (you may also be able to expand it to include sleep, mental stimulation, sensory stimulation, emotional and social stimulation, and to have a functioning and fit body and mind).

Otherwise, the goal(s) of humanity are whatever we want, we exist, we have a high enough degree of sentience, we should just enjoy this blessing. To get the most out of existence, we should probably strive to eliminate all the suffering that we can eliminate, we should probably seek out knowledge and progress and explore as much as our world as we can, we should probably find new ways of experiencing the world, expanding our senses, expanding our minds, expanding the possibilities of pleasure and self-actualization, building connections with each other and the rest of our existence.

If you want to get a little metaphysical about it, we are the Universe trying to experience and understand itself, we are after all a part of the Universe, and we are the part that is conscious and self-aware.

If you want a more spiritual or religious view point:

* From my Abrahamic, Progressive Christian, perspective: God created us because they wanted to create us, we are their creation, their art, their children, and they did not have any other purpose for creating us other than they loved us before we were even created, and our only purpose if there is one is to be loved and to love God and our fellow creation.

* You could argue that we are meant to become one with God, or the Universe, or creation, or to escape the cycle of reincarnation and suffering, or to achieve a state of perfection, or to achieve a state of nothingness and fullness, or to grow into something we cannot yet understand, etc...

[Hurdergaryp]

GENOCIDE, MINING! GENOCIDE, MINING! GENOCIDE, MINING!

Just kidding, but in all seriousness, I would say our goal is to expand, thrive, build up, and conquer and tame that which stands in our way, whether it be nature, another planet's ecosystem, or a hostile extraterrestrial species hellbent on killing us.

Any hostile extraterrestial species hellbent on killing us will be able to cross the interstellar void, making them technologically superior to us. It will be the end of the line for us, but fortunately being reduced to a footnote in the history books of an alien civilization is a highly hypothetical fate.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

GENOCIDE, MINING! GENOCIDE, MINING! GENOCIDE, MINING!

Just kidding, but in all seriousness, I would say our goal is to expand, thrive, build up, and conquer and tame that which stands in our way, whether it be nature, another planet's ecosystem, or a hostile extraterrestrial species hellbent on killing us.

Any hostile extraterrestial species hellbent on killing us will be able to cross the interstellar void, making them technologically superior to us. It will be the end of the line for us, but fortunately being reduced to a footnote in the history books of an alien civilization is a highly hypothetical fate.

Well it's never happened before, therefore it's unlikely to happen soon. Seriously!

If aliens just wanted to kill us, they could have done so any time since life first appeared on the planet. By killing all the life.

It's anthropocentrism to think they would turn up and go "nasty little two legged things, let's kill them" but if they saw dinosaurs they'd go "aww, aren't they cute?"

[Region of Dwipantara]

That's a lofty, philosophical question. My answer: The question is stupid.

There's no goal. Humanity just is. At least for a little while. Our over-inflated egos struggle with that, but the facts don't really care. We've been around for 100,000 years -- the cosmological blink of an eye. In the near-billion years before us, most other life that's ever existed has come and gone.

We will go away. The Earth will shake us off like a bad case of the fleas. There's nothing to be done about it; there's nothing to be done about how meaningless and empty our existence is. There just isn't.

Take climate change. Save the planet? We can't even save ourselves. We haven't learned how to help each other and care for one another yet. We're gonna save the planet? The planet's fine anyway. You think Coke cans and Target shopping bags are gonna do any real damage to the planet? The planet's been through far, far worse than us: recurring ice ages, plate tectonics, cosmological bombardment, the reversal of the magnetic poles, solar flares, cosmic rays, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, fires, and so on and so on.

Worst-case scenario of the climate crisis might kill 8-11 billion people by 2100, but I doubt humanity itself will easily go extinct. AI, whether through catastrophe or integration will be more important. Things like Tom Scott's scenario on "how a YouTube copyright reform can end with an army of insane nanobot swarms that alters our brain structure to mindcontrol the human population" is far scarier.

[Region of Dwipantara]

Purpose of life and life after death is pleasure, that is achieved through fulfillment of human needs.

I mean, being accepted into an eternal sex and drunk party packed with hordes of beautiful virgins, green pillows, and rivers of alcohol is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen.

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

None.
Reproduce, have sex, that’s probably it. Just have fun and don’t think about it, bit of a depressing topic.

[US-SSR]

Don't Kill Ourselves.
Continue Reproducing.
Keep Discovering New Stuff.
Sculpt Moon Into Bust Of Trump.

I like the last point.I'm already imagining which expression to use of Mr. trump

I'd go for the expression on his face when CNN calls the 2020 election for Biden. Otherwise we're stuck with either the shit-eating grin or the constipated cat's ass pout. Hey OP, we need a poll!

[BurritoBowl]

Sit under a tree and smoke a good cigar.

[Hurdergaryp]

None.
Reproduce, have sex, that’s probably it. Just have fun and don’t think about it, bit of a depressing topic.

Fear not the void, embrace it.

[Hurdergaryp]

I mean, being accepted into an eternal sex and drunk party packed with hordes of beautiful virgins, green pillows, and rivers of alcohol is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen.

Thats just degeneracy, has nothing to do with my statement!

Fear not the "degeneracy", become one with it.

[Kasa Tkoth Sphere]

I seem to remember a Twitter post joking once that humanity's "good" is whatever helps us make as many stellar megastructures shaped like dinosaurs with lasers on their heads as possible. In a vague sense, I think this is about right, actually.

Humanity's goal is to do as much weird, amusing shit as we can, and whatever helps us stop wiping each other out before that happens is progress.

[Auristania]

To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.

TO BANG THE GREEN BABES!!!

[Stylan]

It would depend on your philosophical analysis of history.

[Kowani]

There's not one because we're sadly not a hivemind species.

"Sadly"? You know some other people. Are you sure you want to mix your mind with theirs?

Well, if I could ensure my mind came out on top...

[The Alma Mater]

Squirrels it is.

Wholesome vid that serves as evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlKDUIoyZok

[Nobel Hobos 2]

(Image)

Squirrels it is.

Wholesome vid that serves as evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlKDUIoyZok

I kinda guessed he'd like the top one best, but it was very cute anyway. What a man will do for a squirrel!

[Hurdergaryp]

"Sadly"? You know some other people. Are you sure you want to mix your mind with theirs?

Well, if I could ensure my mind came out on top...

It's a neural collective, not a wrestling match for brains.

[Kowani]

Well, if I could ensure my mind came out on top...

It's a neural collective, not a wrestling match for brains.

It is if we want it to be.

[Jykku]

I seem to remember a Twitter post joking once that humanity's "good" is whatever helps us make as many stellar megastructures shaped like dinosaurs with lasers on their heads as possible. In a vague sense, I think this is about right, actually.

Humanity's goal is to do as much weird, amusing shit as we can, and whatever helps us stop wiping each other out before that happens is progress.

Liiiiiiiiike...this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcmBALxDkRY

[FutureAmerica]

Survival

[KITTENPUPPYLAND]

Peace and happiness. As cheesy as that sounds, that is always the end goal. We are granted one life (that we know of), so we have to live it to the fullest. We are here to make us and those around us better. There is no real goal, other than bettering ourselves and finding happiness. And that can look different on everyone. What brings me peace may not be what brings you peace. That's the beauty of it all. What is important is that we find a way to accept our differences and live in harmony.