• fizzle@quokk.au
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    12 hours ago

    Ironically, life generally has those cancer cell characteristics.

    Is there any population of anything that will self govern it’s resource consumption? Or is all life limited by resources and / or predation?

    • the_q@lemmy.zip
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      12 hours ago

      The difference is surviving species reach equilibrium typically. Humans won’t do that in a capitalist system.

      • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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        11 hours ago

        We are the equivalent of an invasive species with no natural predators. Sure, some animals would happily eat us like polar bears and orcas, but we don’t live in the Arctic and we don’t swim in Orca hunting grounds.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        11 hours ago

        Most organic life lived in a decent amount of equilibrium for millions of years before us … dinosaurs lasted about 60 million years before they got wiped out be an asteroid. They probably could have lasted millions of more years if they didn’t get affected by anything.

        Our closest ancestors appeared about two million years ago but they weren’t anything like us today. Our most modern ancestors that are exactly like us are only about 50,000 years ago. So, we’re still very, very new to the game of life.

        We shouldn’t be so surprised at our ‘success’ yet. We’re a pretty young species and we may yet figure out a way to wipe ourselves out sooner rather than later and give the next sentient species a chance to restart a new civilization without us.

        We are just another iteration … whether or not we last is anyone’s guess. But at the moment, the odds don’t look so good.