[alancalverd]

I have taught my immediate descendants the necessary life skills and helped them into useful careers. I hope to transfer enough wisdom and bequeath enough assets for my grandchildren to enjoy life. Might even live long enough to  give a great-grandchild or two some essential clothing. But I can't see how I can or should influence the behavior and welfare of anyone born after about 2050.

Less directly, I do all I can to persuade people to eat less meat, adopt a hydrogen economy, breed below replacement level, despise superstition, question authority, and use science and basic morality to make decisions.  These objectives could indeed make life better for everyone for ever, but my influence is pretty small beyond my immediate friends and family.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

But I can't see how I can or should influence the behavior and welfare of anyone born after about 2050.

You can teach them knowledge universal enough that's likely will still be relevant and useful even long after you're gone.

[alancalverd]

I can't teach people who are born after my death. Anything derived from logic and observation today, becomes authority tomorrow. And you can see what happens when obsolete ideas get edited and misrepresented by perverts - you get religion, the antithesis of intelligence and civilisation.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

I can't teach people who are born after my death. Anything derived from logic and observation today, becomes authority tomorrow. And you can see what happens when obsolete ideas get edited and misrepresented by perverts - you get religion, the antithesis of intelligence and civilisation.

You can write books, or blog, or vlog. You can think through how your current ideas might be falsified in the future, and improve them and make them "future proof". It can only be done if your ideas are universal enough to be applicable across different time scales.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

If there is only one individual human exists in the whole world, the natural resources per capita will be the highest. But is it sustainable?

For the lifetime of that human, yes. But if you want the species to survive you need a mummy and a daddy. And if you want to avoid the dangers of inbreeding, you need lots of mummies and daddies.

Do you care if our species will survive or not?

Should we care about the survival of our species? What should we do instead?

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/sapiens-neanderthal-interbreeding/

The mountains where Neanderthals forever changed human genetics
Early modern humans interbred with Neanderthals ? and scientists recently pinpointed a key site of contact.


Many modern humans carry up to 4% Neanderthal DNA. Scientists have now identified where this interbreeding likely happened. The two species made love (and war) in the Zagros Mountains.

Should we get rid off "contaminating" DNA from other species? How much genetic changes are allowed for our future descendants/successors?

[alancalverd]

Should we care about the survival of our species?

Yes and no. Obviously every normal person cares about the survival of the next generation, but evolution pretty well guarantees that multicellular organisms evolve, so "species" is a time-specific label. A chicken is what eventually derived from  the dinosaurs that survived the cometary impact, and it has very little in common with a diplodocus. 

Should we get rid off "contaminating" DNA from other species? How much genetic changes are allowed for our future descendants/successors?

We are what we are - the concept of "contamination" is meaningless.

Assuming that homo sapiens spread from east Africa, and that migration was mostly one-way, it is likely that Ethiopians are the least "contaminated"  group, with caucasian and asiatic peoples having significantly more bits of other hominid DNA. The fact is that "species" is not a precisely defined term, and it is pretty clear that stirring the gene pool tends to suppress undesirable characterisics such as color blindness or hemophilia.   

Common sense and observation support Darwinian selection: beneficial genetic changes will dominate, and at some point the dominant product will be sufficiently different from its ancestors to merit classification as a new species.

[alancalverd]

You can write books, or blog, or vlog.

Just look how much the Bible and Koran have benefitted subsequent generations - millions slaughtered over thousands of years because of what somebody wrote. The only way to peace and happiness is to question authority and hold everyone to account for what he does, with no excuses based on what somebody else wrote.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

beneficial genetic changes will dominate,

What's beneficial in an environment might turn out to be burdensome in different environment, and vice versa. Diversification is a useful way to get some flexibility to fit with various kinds of environment.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

You can write books, or blog, or vlog.

Just look how much the Bible and Koran have benefitted subsequent generations - millions slaughtered over thousands of years because of what somebody wrote. The only way to peace and happiness is to question authority and hold everyone to account for what he does, with no excuses based on what somebody else wrote.

Or look at Euclid's Element, Newton's Principia, Darwin's Origin of Species. The books may not be perfect, but at least they contain some truly universal ideas which will stand the test of time, and useful for many generations to come. If you don't think that you have a useful idea for the future generations, you can start to search for one. Or you can try to verify or falsify other people's idea.

[alancalverd]

I haven't encountered anyone who has actually read any of those books, never mind all of them.

Useful ideas (geometry, mechanics, evolution) spread long after the books are out of print.

Books full of dangerous corrupting filth (religion) tend to stay in print.  And, sadly, I've met many people who have read at least one of them, and have learned to despise others as a result.

[alancalverd]

Diversification is a useful way to get some flexibility to fit with various kinds of environment.

Genetic engineering tends to reduce diversity and resilience because you can only engineer for the present and the foreseeable future.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

Diversification is a useful way to get some flexibility to fit with various kinds of environment.

Genetic engineering tends to reduce diversity and resilience because you can only engineer for the present and the foreseeable future.

Those perceived tendency in currently existing genetic engineering is likely driven by short term economic motivation.
But you can also deliberately increase genetic diversity, including those which are extremely unlikely to occur naturally.

[alancalverd]

But you can also deliberately increase genetic diversity, including those which are extremely unlikely to occur naturally.

and thus produce another species.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

But you can also deliberately increase genetic diversity, including those which are extremely unlikely to occur naturally.

and thus produce another species.

Perhaps, if the difference are far enough to prevent sexual reproduction. That's not that bad, if the goal is increasing the survival rate of the successors.

[alancalverd]

You are still clinging to the assumption that something derived from humans is worth preserving.

Why do you think that? Ours is the most irrational and destructive species we know. We devote enormous amounts of intellectual and physical resources into finding novel ways of killing the fittest, preserving the lives and increasing the fertility of the least fit, and deluding each other. A "healthy economy" is the one that consumes the most natural resource and creates the most waste.

We are a stain on the universe. The best hope is that our presence is temporary. 

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

You are still clinging to the assumption that something derived from humans is worth preserving.

I little correction.
I'm still clinging to the assumption that some things derived from humans are worth preserving.
Currently, only humans society have the capacity to pursue long term goals, which can reach to the next decades or even centuries. That capacity is what defines consciousness, which is the fundamental concept of the universal terminal goal.
In current state, humans society isn't perfect. It still has many weaknesses and vulnerabilities. But IMO, improving it is much more feasible than restarting a system from scratch.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

ways of killing the fittest, preserving the lives and increasing the fertility of the least fit, and deluding each other.

What's the fittest in one environment may not be the  fittest anymore when the environment changes, and vice versa.
Delusions reduce our chance to achieve our goals, since they lead us to make wrong decisions. Our society need to find ways to effectively identify them and make better decisions.

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

A "healthy economy" is the one that consumes the most natural resource and creates the most waste.

A healthy economy is the one that can sustain the society the longest. Our continued survival should not be taken for granted. Potential hazards must be identified and addressed effectively in timely manner.

[alancalverd]

What's the fittest in one environment may not be the  fittest anymore when the environment changeschanges, and vice versa.

The environment is here and now. Every news bulletin tells us about people killing healthy people to satisfy the perversions of priests and politicians, and the strenuous efforts of doctors to maintain the lives of folk with no prospect of being happy and healthy. 

[hamdani yusuf (OP)]

The environment is here and now. Every news bulletin tells us about people killing healthy people to satisfy the perversions of priests and politicians, and the strenuous efforts of doctors to maintain the lives of folk with no prospect of being happy and healthy. 

Humans have changed the environment much faster than any other species on earth with industrial revolution. The change will be even faster with advancement of AI. The prospect of being happy and healthy will also change.