Category Archives: Transhuman News

(Courtesy of Harvard University Press)

Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber are the authors of The Enigma of Reason, a new book from Harvard University Press. Their arguments about human reasoning have potentially profound implications for how we understand the ways human beings think and argue, and for the social sciences. I interviewed Mercier about the book.

HF: So, many people think of reasoning as a faculty for achieving better knowledge and making better decisions. You disagree. Why is the standard account of reasoning implausible?

HM: By and large, reasoning doesnt fulfill this function very well. In many experiments and countless real-life examples reasoning does not drive people towards better knowledge or decisions. If people start out with the wrong intuitive idea, and then start reasoning, it rarely does them any good. Theyre stuck on their initial wrong idea.

What makes reasoning fail is even more damning. Reasoning fails because it has a so-called myside bias. This is what psychologists often call confirmation bias that people mostly reason to find arguments that whatever they were already thinking is a good idea. Given this bias, its not surprising that people typically get stuck on their initial idea.

More or less everybody takes the existence of the myside bias for granted. Few readers will be surprised that it exists. And yet it should be deeply puzzling. Objectively, a reasoning mechanism that aims at sounder knowledge and better decisions should focus on reasons why we might be wrong and reasons why other options than our initial hunch might be correct. Such a mechanism should also critically evaluate whether the reasons supporting our initial hunch are strong. But reasoning does the opposite. It mostly looks for reasons that support our initial hunches and deems even weak, superficial reasons to be sufficient.

So we have a complete mismatch between, on the one hand, what reasoning does and how it works and, on the other hand, what it is supposed to do and how it is supposed to work.

HF: So why did the capacity to reason evolve among human beings?

HM: We suggest that the capacity to reason evolved because it serves two main functions:

The first is to help people solve disagreements. Compared to other primates, humans cooperate a lot, and they evolved abilities to communicate in order to make cooperation more efficient. However, communication is a risky business: Theres always a risk that one might be lied to, manipulated or cheated. Hence, we carefully evaluate what people tell us. Indeed, we even tend to be overly cautious, rejecting messages that dont fit well with our preconceptions.

Reasoning would have evolved in part to help us overcome these limitations and to make communication more powerful. Thanks to reasoning, we can try to convince others of things they would never have accepted purely on trust. And those who receive the arguments benefit by being given a much better way of deciding whether they should change their mind or not.

The second function is related but still distinct: It is to exchange justifications. Another consequence of human cooperativeness is that we care a lot about whether other people are competent and moral: We constantly evaluate others to see who would make the best cooperators. Unfortunately, evaluating others is tricky, since it can be very difficult to understand why people do the things they do. If you see your colleague George being rude with a waiter, do you infer that hes generally rude, or that the waiter somehow deserved his treatment? In this situation, you have an interest in assessing George accurately and George has an interest in being seen positively. If George cant explain his behavior, it will be very difficult for you to know how to interpret it, and you might be inclined to be uncharitable. But if George can give you a good reason to explain his rudeness, then youre both better off: You judge him more accurately, and he maintains his reputation.

If we couldnt attempt to justify our behavior to others and convince them when they disagree with us, our social lives would be immensely poorer and more complicated.

HF: So, if reasoning is mostly about finding arguments for whatever we were thinking in the first place, how can it be useful?

HM: Because this is only one aspect of reasoning: the production of reasons and arguments. Reasoning has another aspect, which comes into play when we evaluate other peoples arguments. When we do this, we are, on the whole, both objective and demanding. We are demanding in that we require the arguments to be strong before changing our minds this makes obvious sense. But we are also objective: If we encounter a good argument that challenges our beliefs, we will take it into account. In most cases, we will change our mind even if only by a little.

This might come as a surprise to those who have heard of phenomena like the backfire effect, under which people react to contrary arguments by becoming even more entrenched in their views. In fact, backfire effects seem to be extremely rare. In most cases, people change their minds sometimes a little bit, sometimes completely when exposed to challenging but strong arguments.

When we consider these two aspects of reasoning together, it is obvious why it is useful. Reasoning allows people who disagree to exchange arguments with each other, so they are in a better position to figure out whos right. Thanks to reasoning, both those who offer arguments (and, hence, are more likely to get their message across) and those who receive arguments (and, hence, are more likely to change their mind for the better) stand to win. Without reasoning, disagreements would be immensely harder to resolve.

HF: Despite reasons flaws, your book argues that it in the right interactive context, works. How can group interaction harness reason for beneficial ends?

HM: Reasoning should work best when a small number of people (fewer than six, say) who disagree about a particular point but share some overarching goal engage in discussion.

Group size matters for two reasons. Larger groups are less conducive to efficient argumentation because the normal back and forth of discussion breaks down when you have more than about five people talking together. Youll see that at dinner parties: Four or five people can have a conversation, but larger groups either split into smaller ones, or end up in a succession of short speeches. On the other hand, smaller groups will necessarily encompass fewer ideas and points of view, lowering both the odds of disagreement and the richness of the discussion.

Disagreement is crucial because if people all agree and yet exchange arguments on a given topic, arguments supporting the consensus will pile up, and the group members are likely to become even more entrenched in their acceptation of the consensual view.

Finally, there has to be some commonality of interest among the group members. Youre not going to convince your fellow poker player to fold when she has a straight flush. However, its often relatively easy to find such a commonality of interest. For example, we all stand to gain from having more accurate beliefs.

This article is one in a series supported by the MacArthur FoundationsResearch Network on Opening Governance. Neither the MacArthur Foundation nor the network is responsible for its specific content.

Earlier posts in the series:

The Trump administration detests the Congressional Budget Office. Heres why its important.

After the surprise of 2016, heres how pollsters can do better in predicting election results.

The U.S. census is in trouble. This is why its crucial to what the nation knows about itself.

Most forensic science isnt real science. Try telling that to the criminal justice system.

Hungarys government wants to shut down its most prominent university. That may be backfiring.

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Most of what you think you know about human reasoning is wrong. Here's why. - Washington Post

Here's what you should know about the search in Bucks County. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

Authorities said they havediscovered human remains in a search for four missing men in Bucks County, Pa., and identified one of the bodies as a 19-year-old who disappeared on Friday.

District Attorney Matthew Weintraub saidin a midnight news conferenceWednesday that investigators found the body ofDean Finocchiaro among human remains discovered in a grave more than 12 feet deep on a rural property in Solebury Township, where they have been searching for the missing men since last week. Cadaver dogs led investigators to the hole, which Weintraub identified as a common grave.

The revelation cameafter authorities named Cosmo DiNardo, 20, of Bensalem, a person of interest in the case andarrested him for stealing a car belonging to one of the missing men.

Weintraub said he is now classifying the case as a homicide, but we just dont know how many homicides. He did not say how Finocchiaro was killed.

[Police continue searching for 4 missing Pennsylvania men, identify person of interest in the case]

Weintraub did not say whether the rest of thebodies were identified as the other three missing men, but said recovery efforts will resume Thursday morning. The first of the men todisappear, Jimi Tara Patrick, 19, was last seen on July 5. Finocchiaro, Mark Sturgis, 22; and Tom Meo, 21, vanished onFriday. Some or all of them appeared to know one another, authorities said.

This painstaking process will go on, Weintraub said. Were going to bring each and every one of these lost boys home to their families one way or another. We will not rest untilwe do that.

The discovery of the remains marked a grim turning point in the arduoussearch for the missing men, which has gripped this picturesque county, one of the wealthiest in the state.Over the weekend,authorities from several local and state law enforcement agencies along with the FBI launched anextensive criminal search effort, focusingon a sprawling farm belonging to DiNardos parents and located in a rural area about 40 miles north of Philadelphia.

Police had initially arrested DiNardo in February after finding him with a 20-gauge shotgun he was not authorized to possess because of his history of mental illness, according to a police affidavit. Authorities initially dismissed the charges but refiled them on Monday, after the disappearances of the four men.

He was released from custody Tuesday night, after DiNardos father posted 10 percent of a $1 million bail. Then, on Wednesday, authorities arrested DiNardo again, accusing him of stealing and trying to sell a 1996 Nissan Maximathat belonged Meo, according to the Bucks County District Attorneys Office.DiNardo allegedly tried to sell Meos car for $500 to a friend, Weintraub said.

Authorities found the car on Sunday, along with Meos car keys and title, in a garage ona Solebury Township property owned by DiNardos parents, Weintraub said.

Meos diabetic kit, which he never went anywhere without, was also found inside the vehicle, Weintraub said. Relatives told authorities that Meo could not have survived without the kit.

Police found Sturgiss car less than 2 miles away from Meos, according to a criminal complaint.

DiNardo was arraigned Wednesday on felony charges of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stole property. A magisterial district judge ordered him held on $5 million cash bail, saying he found that DiNardo is a grave risk.

We bought ourselves a little bit of time, with the charges and bail amount, Weintraub said. It is my hope that he does not post that, but thats his prerogative.

DiNardo has a history of mental illness, and was previously involuntarily committed to a mental health institution after firing a shotgun, authorities said. Prosecutors said he is schizophrenic, a flight risk and a dangerous person, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, adding that his lawyers claimed he was being targeted for his mental health issues.

A lawyer representing DiNardos parents and the owner of the 90-acrefarm, Antonio and Sandra DiNardo, released a statement saying the family is cooperating with the investigation and sympathizes with the relatives of the missing men, the Associated Press reported.

Weintraub emphasized that while authorities have focused on DiNardo, this investigation is still wide open.

We dont pick a person and then try to build a case around that person, Weintraub said.Thats not fair to anyone. As of this moment, he remains a person of interest. But if others arise and we can name them, we will.

The men who vanished seemed to have connections to DiNardo. Meo and Sturgis first met DiNardo when he was looking to sell marijuana, one of Meos friends told the Philadelphia Inquirer. DiNardo and Patrick both went to Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem. DiNardo and Finocchiaro were both in at least one Facebook page for buying and selling ATVs, the newspaper reported.

Two of the missing men, Sturgis and Meo, were good friends and worked together at Sturgiss fathers construction business. Sturgis told his father he would be hanging out with Meo on Friday night, according to a criminal complaint.

The two friends failed to show up for work the following day, and have not been seen ever since. Meos girlfriend last spoke with him through text messages on Friday night, shortly before 7 p.m. After that, Meo stopped responding, according to thecomplaint.

Patrick, the first of the four to go missing, just finished his first year at Loyola University in Maryland, a Jesuit school. He was on the deans list and had no conduct violations, the universitys president, the Rev. Brian Linnane, told the Baltimore Sun.

He had a very successful year, and he is poised for a great success at Loyola, he said. We want to be with him and his family and hope for the best.

About 50 students, faculty and staff gathered at the universitys chapel Wednesday to pray for Patrick and the other three men. Director of Campus Ministry Sean Bray said the group wanted to storm heaven with our prayers for Jimis safe return, honoring a request from Patricks grandmother, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The families of the missing have also kept a vigil throughout the week near the area searched by investigators, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

At this point, as the hours pass, it seems more and more grim, Mark Potash, Sturgiss father, told the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this week.

He said his son is a skilled guitar player and athlete, and super intelligent. He has three sisters and one brother.

Beitz told the Inquirerhe is good friends with Meo, who he called a talented wrestler and hell of an athlete. Meo, his friend said, isthe most good-hearted, loyal, hard-working young man Ive ever met in my life.

Wil Snyder, 19, who called himself one of Finocchiaros best friends, told the Bucks County Courier Times that Finocchiaro worked a retail job.

Hes a good guy, Snydertold the newspaper, a good friend.

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Authorities discover human remains in Bucks County, Pa., where 4 men went missing - Washington Post

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, with his Google Glass. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

It seems like only a few years ago that we began making wry jokes about the doofus minority of people who walked down the street while texting or otherwise manipulating their phone, bumping into lamp-posts and so forth. Now that has become the predominant mode of locomotion in the city, to the frustration of those of us who like to get anywhere fast and in a straight line. Pedestrian accidents are on the rise, and some urban authorities are even thinking of installing smart kerbside sensors that alert the phone-obsessed who are about to step into oncoming traffic. New technologies, asAdam Greenfields tremendously intelligent and stylish book repeatedly emphasises, can change social habits inunforeseen and often counterproductive ways.

The technological fixes to such technology-induced problems rarely succeed as predicted either. It was, after all, to address the issue of people staring at handheld screens all day that Google marketed its augmented-reality spectacles, Google Glass. It rapidly turned out, however, that most people didnt much like being surveilled and video-recorded by folk wearing hipster tech specs. Early adopters became known as Glassholes; the gizmo was banned in cool US bars, and it was eventually abandoned.

Early adopters became known as 'Glassholes'; the gizmo was banned in cool American bars, and it was eventually abandoned

It is a story, as Greenfield shows, repeated in many different contexts: our visionary tech masters suppose that things can be disrupted by a single new device or service, only to learn belatedly that unexpected things happen when technical novelty rubs up against established social mores, embedded structures of power and money, and sometimes even the laws of physics. There is an excellent discussion here, for example, of how the verification of bitcoin transactions works through the enormous expenditure of energy on computing deliberately useless problems: it is probably doomed asa currency, Greenfield suggests, by simple thermodynamics. Meanwhile, the emancipatory dream of 3D printers enabling everyone to make anything they want is currently economically unlikely, and besides the one thing that is very popular in 3D printing is untraceable parts for assault rifles.

Greenfield calls all these things radical technologies because they could usher in vast changes that lead to very different potential futures: either what is known sexily as fully automated luxury communism, or a dystopia of total surveillance and submission to the networks of autonomous computerised agents that might replace human governments altogether.

Greenfield, indeed, believes that some kind of machine sentience is coming down the pipeline sooner rather than later: in this, he implicitly agrees with the Singularity theorists who yearn for the coming of true artificial intelligence something that historically, like nuclear fusion, has always been 30years away. (Greenfield, though, is rightly perturbed by those thinkers haste to become post-human and shuck off the flesh.) At the end of the book he offers some detailed sci-fi sketches of such possible futures. The bad ones are dismayingly plausible, but there is also a delightful one he names Green Plenty, where material scarcity is a thing of the past, and sweet-natured machines do all the work. (I for one welcome our new robot underlords.) Its very reminiscent, in fact, of the fully automated luxury communism portrayed in Iain M Bankss classic Culture novels. But howcan we get there from here?

By paying intense and critical attention, Greenfield suggests. His book melds close readings of the small experiences of normal life as mediated by new technologies (how, for example, time has been diced into the segments between notifications) with techno-political-economic philosophical analyses of the global clash between Silicon Valley culture and the way the world currently works. Its about what Greenfield calls the colonisation of everyday life by information processing, and this new colonialism, in the authors view, is so far no better than past versions. He gives excellently sceptical accounts of wearable technologies, augmented reality like Pokmon Go (now an inbuilt feature of the iPhones operating system), the human biases that are always baked into the ostensibly neutral operation of algorithms; or theworld of increasingly networked objects, about which he waxes humanistically poetic: The overriding emotion of the internet of things is a melancholy that rolls off of it in waves and sheets. The entire pretext on which it depends is a milieu of continuously shattered attention.

What seem to be potentially anarchic, liberating technologies are highly vulnerable to capture and recuperation by existing power structures just as were dissident pop-culture movements such as punk. Greenfield makes this point with particular force when discussing automated smart contracts and the technology of the blockchain, a kind of distributed ledger that underlies the bitcoin currency but could be used for many more things besides. Despite the insurgent glamour that clings to it still, he points out, blockchain technology enables the realisation of some very long-standing desires on thepart of very powerful institutions. Much as he scorns the authoritarian uses of new technology, he also wants to warnprogressives against technological utopianism. Activists on the participatory left are just as easily captivated by technological hype as anyone else, especially when that hypeis couched in superficially appealing language.

Critical resistance to all these different colonial battalions is based on Greenfields observation, nicely repurposing the enemys terminology, that reality is the one platform we all share. If we want to avoid the pitiless libertarianism towards which all these developments seem to lean unsurprisingly, because it is the predominant political ideology among the pathetically undereducated tech elite then we need to insist on public critique andstrategies of refusal. Radical Technologies itself is a landmark primerand spur to more informed andeffective opposition.

Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Lifeis published by Verso. To order a copy for 16.14 (RRP 18.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99.

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Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield review luxury communism, anyone? - The Guardian

Jakarta-based artist Varsam Kurnia has made clear why he is one of the countrys rising artists.

Hes held a number of much-praised exhibitions, including his first solo one for his graphic novelCeramic Sky, and was recently shortlisted for the Unknown Asia exhibition, which was held by dia.lo.gue and Unknown Asia Japan.

Im fascinated by our experience as human beings so many things, ideas, experiences are encapsulated in this meat sack and more particularly in our brain, the artist explains during his water coloring workshop. There are endless ways to tell our story as human beings and Im trying to find my voice to tell it.

Having studied at the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, USA in 2011 and later through an online art school called The Art Department (now called the Applied Art Academy) for three years, Varsam has developed significant skills for executing his often-complex pieces.

But his restless artistic spirit drives him to continue searching for ways to fully encapsulate the aforementioned human condition in the strongest of ways. The praise hes received is appreciated but it doesnt give him the artistic fulfillment he truly craves.

Varsam Kurnia(Varsam Kurnia/File)

I find it hard to pat myself on the back since I always feel I could do so much more. That proud moment is very short and dries up very quickly. If I still like what Ive made in a week or so, then thats an achievement in itself, he says.

Though there are many names from the art world he admires, Varsam doesnt yet feel like hes found his style yet.

The process of searching is something hes since abandoned, coming to an understanding with himself that sometimes letting things flow naturally is the best methodology. That philosophy seems to be reflected in the specificity he puts upon his influences: works instead of names.

There are many artists I admire, but mostly it is a particular painting of theirs, not their entire oeuvre. I love LautrecsIn Bedand MonetsCreuse Valley[The evening effect] and also Gustav Klimts work. The feeling they evoke is really something else. I teared up when I saw them in person. [Their works are] very different to what I do personally.

As for contemporary influences, Varsam has less trouble mentioning names Benjamin Bjorklund, Jon Foster, Aron Wiesenfeld, Yoshitaka Amano, Magritte, Edward Kinsella, as well as Tim Walker, Florence Welch and Gerard DuBois because they never stay the same.

Moonboy and His Star Guide by Varsam Kurnia(Varsam Kurnia/File)

I do realize that there are [styles] that I tend to convey. I used to be frustrated about finding my style and I tried to replicate or mimic other styles that I found cool and attractive but in the end, I stopped trying and I just paint what I feel is right for the moment, Varsam says, adding that he even ran into a prolonged artistic block.

I stopped painting for a while because whatever I sketched I found wasnt good enough, not cool enough, and such. Which is the worst mistake any artist can make, to stop creating.

Hes since gotten back into it, of course, utilizing his preferred media of watercolor, diluted acrylic and ink. All of which he loves due to their unpredictable nature, which often results in happy accidents (though, he adds, sometimes very bad ones as well).

The dialogue between the paper, the water and the pigment is really fun you feel a mixture of blessing and luck when something so random can end up so perfect.

The moody, sometimes-gloomy, quality of his paintings and illustrations do not come preconceived, Varsam says.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Varsam Kurnia(Varsam Kurnia/File)

It comes, he explains, from his admiration of pieces that contain enough depth to make someone stop in their tracks to observe and scrutinize.

Its not that I plan to make paintings that are dark and moody, they just emerge fully formed like that sometimes. I like colorful paintings too! But a lot of times, the inspiration comes from a book I was reading and I enjoy darker fiction so maybe they interconnect in one way or another, Varsam suggests.

In order to keep doing what hes doing, Varsam also works for commission, often drawing book covers. The different process of engaging with clients has given him new perspectives and even ideas that hes brought into his personal pieces. Hes even managed to mix-and-match his commission pieces with his own work.

Often they interchange with each other. I might find a doodle I did years ago to be a good fit for a job, or a job might inspire a personal painting that can in turn, evolve into a project.

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Artist Varsam Kurnia illuminates the human condition - Jakarta Post

KENT, Ohio Metin Eren wasnt satisfied just digging up ancient arrowheads to learn about the past. He wanted to use them for their intended purpose.

But shooting and shattering priceless millennia-old tips is out of the question, so instead, the archaeologist chips replicas of the stone-age weapons by hand.

We can break em and throw em, he says. Our imagination is the limit.

The 34-year-old Kent State University professor specializes in experimental archaeology re-creating ancient pots, knives and arrows. By testing the replicas in ways impossible with the originals, archaeologists study how tools found in archaeological digs were actually used.

The stuff that we find, its just stuff, says Brian Andrews, an archaeologist at Rogers State University. Stuffs cool, but were not interested in stuff for the sake of itself. Were interested in the human behaviours that went into making it.

Erens experiments focus on making sense of ancient weapons littered across the Americas, illustrating how humans first settled the Western Hemisphere: through careful preparation, long-term planning, and refined technology.

Even though its the Stone Age, theyre still thinking in a very modern way, Eren says.

Already he has cracked one longtime mystery. In the early 1900s, archaeologists found unusually shaped arrowheads in North America, with grooves carved from the base halfway to the heads tip. They first appeared over 13,000 years ago and spread rapidly across the continent, but existed nowhere else. Researchers were puzzled why the grooves were carved, with speculation running from religious rituals to mere decoration.

Thats where experimental archaeology came in. By testing the pressure at which the arrowheads would crack using a $30,000 crusher and computer models, Eren discovered the grooves act as a shock absorber. It allows the arrowheads thinned base to crumple slightly and absorb energy upon the arrows impact, making the head less likely to break.

Archaeologists call it the first truly American invention.

Scientists from Brazil to Britain previously conducted many kinds of experiments with re-creations, and borrowing techniques and technologies from other scientists has been long-standing practice.

Still, Erens lab, only a year old, stands out for its cutting-edge equipment and singular focus on archaeological experimentation, says Briggs Buchanan, a professor at the University of Tulsa.

Metins lab is setting an exceptional example by conducting rigorous controlled experiments, said Buchanan, who has co-authored papers with Eren. Earlier experimental studies suffered from being of variable quality and rarely built on previous studies.

On a Thursday morning, Eren hunches over a pile of flint shavings. Donning goggles, he grips a chunk of obsidian the size of a large pickle jar and cracks a moose antler down on one edge. With a resounding snap, a blade of obsidian chips off.

He examines it gingerly. Obsidian blades are sharp to the molecule, he says, and one nearly sliced off his left pinky in graduate school.

In his hand, hes holding a piece of the puzzle of how humans came to rule the world. By refining their weapons, ancient Americans learned how to adapt to all sorts of conditions.

They knew they were going into unknown territory, and because of that they actually prepared extremely well technologically, Eren says. Understanding this process of colonization is important to understanding how we are today.

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Re-creating old weapons for new discoveries of human history - National Post

Have humans damaged the Earth's ecosystems so severely that we're well on our way to the biggest massextinction since the dinosaurs vanished 66 million years ago? And are we running out of time to reverse the negative impacts of our actions?

Three scientists who have studied extinctions of thousands of species of vertebrates believe so, thoughothers are skeptical of the doomsday-like findings.

A new study published Mondaypaints a grim picture:The populations of nearly 9,000 vertebrate species, including mammals such ascheetahs, lions and giraffes, havesignificantly declined between 1900 and 2015. Almost 200 species have gone extinct in the past 100 years alone a rate of twoper year. The study says the losses are indicative of the planet's ongoing six major extinction events and has cascading consequencesfor human life on Earth.

This is the case of a biological annihilation occurring globally, even if the species these populations belong to are still present somewhere on Earth, Rodolfo Dirzo, the study's co-author and a Stanford University biology professor, said in a news release.

The researchers analyzed 27,600 species of birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles about half of all known vertebrate species and found that 8,851 (about 32 percent) have seen declining populationsandshrinking areas of habitat. A more detailed analysis on 177 mammal species found that more than 40 percent have experienced significantdrops in population. The findings, the study says, mean that billions of animal populations that once roamed the Earth are now gone.

[Earth is on brink of a sixth mass extinction, scientists say, and its humans fault]

The authors describe the shrinking population of species as a massive erosion of the greatest biological diversity in the history of Earth.

Thus, we emphasize that the sixth mass extinction is already here and the window for effective action is very short, probably two or three decades at most, the authors wrote. All signs point to ever more powerful assaults on biodiversity in the next two decades, painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life.

A few examples: There were only a little more than 7,000 cheetahs in existence last year,and their population may drop another 53 percent over the next 15 years, according to National Geographic.Borneo and Sumatran orangutanshave been considered endangered for years mainly because of loss of habitat.

The population of African lions has dropped bymore than 40 percent in the last 20 years. West African lions, in particular, are nearing extinction, with only about 400 animals left. Historically, lions roamed southern Europe, the Middle East, northwestern India and most of Africa. Today, there are only scattered populations in sub-Saharan Africa and a few remnants at Gir Forest National Park in India, according to the study.

The driving force is a steady drumbeat of human activities that result in habitat losses, pollution and climate disruption, among others.

This is the first mass extinction which the cause knows what it's doing and is harming itself, another co-author, Stanford University biology professor Paul Ehrlich, said. When the asteroid hit 66 million years ago, the asteroid wasn't making a choice. Now the driver is human overpopulation and overconsumption by the rich, and that's generally accepted.

For instance, wildlife habitats have been plowed, paved and replaced with buildings, strip malls and agricultural lands, Ehrlich said.

The massive loss of populations and species reflects our lack of empathy to all the wild species that have been our companions since our origins, the study's lead author,Gerardo Ceballos, an ecology professor at the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, said in the news release. It is a prelude to the disappearance of many more species and the decline of natural systems that make civilization possible.

Some in the scientific community disagree with the study's grim findings.

[The world might see a mass extinction of primates if humans dont act]

Doug Erwin, curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, said placing the ongoing extinctions ofanimal species in the same playing field as themass extinction events in history, or the Big Five, amountsto junk science.

Many of those making facile comparisons between the current situation and past mass extinctions don't have a clue about the difference in the nature of the data, much less how truly awful the mass extinctions recorded in the marine fossil record actually were,he told the Atlantic last month. It is absolutely critical to recognize that I am NOT claiming that humans haven't done great damage to marine and terrestrial, nor that many extinctions have not occurred and more will certainly occur in the near future. But I do think that as scientists we have a responsibility to be accurate about such comparisons.

Stuart Pimm, headof conservation ecology at Duke University in North Carolina, said the study unnecessarily raises alarms by saying the Earth is already in the midst of a cataclysmic event. Pimm believes the sixth mass extinction is just beginning, and not well on its way.

It's a little bit dramatic, Pimm said. Yes, we are driving species to extinction a thousand times faster than we should. So yes, there is a problem. But on the other hand, telling people that we're all doomed and going to die isn't terribly helpful.

Ehrlich said the point of the research is exactly that to cause alarm.

I am an alarmist. My colleagues are alarmists. We're alarmed, and we're frightened. And there's no other way to put it, he said. It's largely a political and economic problem. We have a government that's doing everything they can to push these things in the wrong direction. We have economists who think they can actually grow forever in a finite problem.

Others agree with the authors, saying the study's findings are bleak and rightfullyso.

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said the researchers accuratelyshow that population losses are not just confined to a certain geographic area or within certain species of animals.

What they show is it's a mass, global phenomenon, Suckling said. I think they made the case very strongly that we are right now in the sixth extinction, and if we continue the trend we're on, we're going to be looking at 50 to 75 percent of our species lost over the next hundred years.

Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity, agreed with the researchers' conclusion that the window for humans to take action is quickly getting narrow.

The study is right in raising alarm bells especially with our change in climate, Greenwald said. We really need to protect as much habitat as we can now. Our population continues to expand, our consumption continues to expand. We're going in the wrong direction, quickly.

[Cheetahs are racing toward extinction]

The concept of a sixth mass extinction is not new, and the study is not the first to make the case that Earth is already in the middle of it.

Two years ago, some of the same researchers argued that species are disappearing at a rate unparalleled since the Cretaceous mass extinction of dinosaurs. The 2015 study found that vertebrate species have been disappearing up to about 100 times the normal rate over the last century.

On a happier note, scientists point to efforts to save endangered species and their habitats.

We've dramatically increased the area protected by national parks, increased the area of the oceans that's being protected. We have reduced deforestation rate in the Amazon, Pimm said. I'm not trying to say that it's all good news, but there's good news out there.

And there's a chance to save endangered species as long as humans fully commit to it, Suckling said.

Because once they go on endangered species list, they go from neglect or maybe tacit management to very active, focused efforts to save them. And those work, Suckling said. The good news here is that once humans decide to save individual species and we're quite good at it we can actually reverse this negative trend.

Concerned citizens can do practical things like planting native plans in their yard. They can also contact their representatives in Congress to show their support for habitat protection, Greenwald said, though he cautioned that the current Congress isthe most anti-endangered species in history.

The Center for Biological Diversity has tallied 34 pending bills that would weaken protections for endangered species, Greenwald said.

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Earth is on its way to the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, scientists warn - Washington Post