General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn homage to Mother Nature & her weather, presenting the magnificent Siberian Snow Tiger:
@Globe_Pics
Mother Nature bats last.
That is one beautiful feline!
shenmue
(38,503 posts)I ar tiny kitn.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)postulater
(5,075 posts)Imagine seeing one!
TDale313
(7,820 posts)brer cat
(24,402 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Or we lose!
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)But Mother Nature will be around long after we are gone. She will smile fondly of the silly experiment with humans.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)I once heard a lecture by one of the scientists who discovered the hole in the atmosphere and a leading researcher on greenhouse gases. A woman asked, very concerned, what will happen to the earth?
He looked at her very levelly and said, "The world will live on. Just without us." It was a chilling thought. And he went on to explain the adjustments the earth would have to make. We humans would not survive it. But the Earth would find stasis/balance again in a few hundred million years or less. I think she'll be much better off without us.
Hail the era of the cockroach!
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)before robots/computers become autonomous from humans (I think it's called singularity). Robots might survive in a world that is inhabitable for humans.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)For some reason we're real slow with the robots which I find surprising. I think because the corporate model is so focused on greed, the long-term is not being pursued. Big-picture thinkers and visionaries can't swim in the shark tank.
But I do think that humans are a very fragile species. Extremes in temperature, most especially cold, and we're done. We don't reproduce very quickly and only have one child at a time and that child is basically helpless until five or so. We also require tons of calories relative to our body mass and that's going to be the killer. Once the food source is gone, you're finished. And we're damn idiots who overpopulate, over-consume resources, and basically shit where we eat, so there's that.
That's why I vote for the creatures with extreme adaptations, like cockroaches or those toads, that can basically freeze to death or be exposed to very high radiation and in a sense "resurrect" themselves. Or spontaneous regeneration. And don't forget all the hardcore stuff in the ocean that can live in temperatures above boiling and highly acidic waters. Something is going to come from that. Might not be very pretty though.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)you will see that great advances are being made at an increasing rate with regard to robots. They can teach other robots language. Dont count them out. At some point they will be able to replicate. But we kill ourselves off before we can develop them that far. It's a race.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)I will definitely check it out. I know the military works on AI quite a bit behind the scenes. Our philosophy department which had been widely ignored in favor of the money-making schools of business and medicine suddenly got a huge amount of funding. The professors thought it was somewhat amusing that they were being funded by the military. Philosophers! They became part of a team, looking to define what human intelligence actually is. So sad that all that brain power would be harness for dark purposes.
Skittles
(152,967 posts)my dad was a meteorologist; when people complained about forecasts he'd say, "YOU go up against Mother Nature - SEE HOW YOU DO!!!"
valerief
(53,235 posts)Not much to look at, but I could listen to his gibberish all day.
tblue
(16,350 posts)So funny. Didn't know you could have a pet porcupine.
valerief
(53,235 posts)MadrasT
(7,237 posts)WANT.
Oh he is awesome.
I would talk to him all damn day... I have had a couple cats that "talked" quite a bit but that little porcupine is something else.
Heehee.
eggplant
(3,893 posts)eShirl
(18,466 posts)It's a greyscaled tiger pasted into a snowfield that had its eyes colored. Looks about as realistic as a Lisa frank binder.
Besides; There are no white siberian tigers. That's a mutation that is apparently unique to bengal tigers, and is only expressed due to long, long generations of inbreeding. They've got other genetic defects as well.
niyad
(112,436 posts)johnp3907
(3,723 posts)hee hee
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)White tigers do not exist in the wild. If you ever read the history of how the "white tiger" came to be, it would make you a little sick. This is breeding for fun and profit.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)I believe we are but we have forgotten or become artificially disconnected from it.
In the case of the White Tiger perhaps the breed will be stronger because of this "mutant" variety coming from two strains that normally don't interrelate due to geographical isolation.
drmeow
(4,996 posts)unfortunately, from what I understand, white tigers are plagued with health problems (like a lot of pure bred dogs and cats). Because the white is a rare mutation, there is a huge amount of inbreeding (and I believe many of the pups are stillborn).
tblue
(16,350 posts)They're always endangered because people covet those gorgeous coats.
Faygo Kid
(21,477 posts)Hate to clean that litter box. Really, what an impressive animal. Glad to share the planet with it, at least for now.
And oh well, maybe next year, my beloved Tigers.