The last 5 years, there have been tech breakthroughs in many sectors; electrical cars (and self-driving), bitcoin, CRISPR (for gene therapy), graphene, 3Dprinters, drones, smartphones/web2.0, etc. The combined possibilities of all these things will accelerate automation, thus productivity & efficiency will sky-rocket.
If only we could get the greens to think straight (instead of crypto-commies) the world could be both energy-independent (no Russia, OPEC) and prevent climate change through shale gas, nuclear power, etc. There's also reason -- not just hope, real progress -- to believe hunger, cancer, poverty will be solved in the coming generation. While many envision a jobless world, because of robotics, I see people working in much shorter workweeks in much less stressful circumstances.
I've never believed politics to be anything other than its original Greek meaning: the struggle over the power over the state, leading mostly to self-interested actors maximizing privileges for themselves and their clients.
Tech, however, delivers.
The future will be bright.
(This post was last modified: 03-28-2014 04:06 PM by Maciano.)
03-28-2014 04:04 PM
The following 1 user Likes Maciano's post:1 user Likes Maciano's post TonySandos
hunger ?? not really a problem- the problem is typically corrupt governments and wars that disrupt communications, trade, farming, fertilize, etc.
poverty ?? mostly solvable - the worst of it typicall caused again by extremely bad government that destroys or does not respect rule of law and prevents or disincentivizes people to be productive with what they have.
cancer ?? the cures or very effective treatments for most cancers already exist and have since the 60s at least. But they are not allowed out by the pharma-foundation cartel: the belief is that cancer helps maintain population and a cheap accessible cure will aggravate a perceived problem with over population.
But YES ' I agree with you overall - the future will be bright
(This post was last modified: 03-28-2014 04:19 PM by kdolo.)
I don't disagree with the spirit of your post, I think optimism is the way to go (without losing a healthy amount of skepticism) But I believe optimism should only relate to ones immediate life.
Your optimism towards climate change, poverty, hunger, and cancer plays somewhat into the liberal-leaning "save the world" narrative. Careful, that's a slippery slope. Not all of us are convinced that climate change is influenced by man.
We have all the resources and then some to end world hunger. The problem is not resources or abundance. The problem, as you identified in the closing of your OP, is politics. You seem to discount the significance of politics but it's greater than you can imagine. The very structure of most people's existence is determined and dictated by the political state.
Your glorification of automation means loss of jobs. It also means creation of new jobs. For every action, there is an equal and converse reaction. It's not all rainbows and unicorns.
Be optimistic, but also realistic.
"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."
On that note, we're headed towards a future where getting a new appliance means purchasing the schematics online with a cryptocurrency, downloading it, and manufacturing it using a 3D printer. Shit, I'm sure we'll live to see that technology completely obsolete. And with each new wonderful technology, we'll have a generation that sits around and gripes about how the younger generation takes it all for granted and are getting lazier and more disrespectful while the older generations talks about the "good 'ol days" and how young and innocent things used to be.
"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."
Overpopulation is going to be the thing that gets us. The rate might be low in this country, but in China or India, it's a hit to the standard of living.
Uncle Hank from Requiem for a Dream is my spirit animal
All prediction of the future is futile and premature. It doesnt matter if it is positive, negative or otherwise.
All current extrapolation of what the future will be, are based on present science and technology....and that is naive... why?...because there is a real possibility of a singularity, a technological/scientific black swan that makes all future prognostication silly and stupid. Human genetic engineering is such a singularity.
Why do i say this?
Let me start this way:
I used to read sci fi. i especially like sci fi from decades ago. It is funny how their projection of the future(our present age) is completely different from what eventually materializes today. I enjoy reading and seeing what they get wrong and right... what their thought process were like.... From h.g. wells to arthur c clarke to a.e. van vogt. or isaac asimov, etc...
Not just the sci fi writers... i like reading journals and excerpts from scientists from ages past to see how they imagined their future(our present) to be... how right and wrong they are...and what is their thought process in reaching whatever conclusions they had...
My conclusion: It has always been, it will always be -- the future will be different from whatever we imagine it to be.(which is part of the reason i have zero patience for the doom/gloom whining about feminism, race, and other political nonsense.)
Until blackbody radiation breakthrough happen with Planck's equation... Newton/Liebnitz calculus... Einstein's space/time... advent of molecular biology by watson/crick and jacob/monod ... I remember reading how people used to see the world(scientists included) ....
In fact, there was a time that the US patent office was recommended to be shutdown because there is not a new invention that could be invented. How wrong they were!
that was how limited their views were. How limited is our present views today?
Technological breakthroughs has a way of making total fools of social science predictors.
The problems with historians is that most are not technologists...so they focus on world actors e.g, napoleon; and not on the technology that allows napoleon to do what napoleon did.
Which leads me to effects of genetic engineering of humans... a field that the chinese are tampering with...
Most of the technological extrapolations of the future that i have seen are based on what current humans are doing... not on what super-humans will do. That is a major distinction. What will a superbrain human do? Trying to imagine what a superbrain human will do, is like a monkey trying to imagine what a human will do. There is no way we can imagine what a superbrain is capable of inventing, scientifically or politically or socially. And I am convinced that one way or the other, either through genetic manipulation or freak evolutionary accident, a superbrain human is coming. On that day, we as a species are obsolete.
the Chinese tampering with human genetics could cause two things: inadvertently unleash a devastating genetic plague on humanity or (b)inadvertently results in a genetic superbrain human. It only take one such superhuman intelligence to render all our current science and technology literally obsolete overnight. The seismic shift will be insane.
The day we cooked up a superman... is the day we become monkeys again...
It goes without saying that there is no way we can control such a superbeing. it will be like a bunch of monkeys thinking they are capable of raising and controlling a being that is total combination of leonardo da vinci + julius ceasar + Mozart + plato + Isaac Newton + nathan rothschild + William James Sidis. Not a snowball's chance in hell.
I am not sure the future is all roses and rainbow and beautiful humming birds...neither is it going to be some hyper-liberal paradise of lindy west's imaginings...it is going to the shite we havent seen before.
Regards,
Nemencine
. A year from now you will wish you had started today.....May fortune favours the bold.
03-28-2014 05:53 PM
The following 2 users Like Nemencine's post:2 users Like Nemencine's post TonySandos, bacon
player
Beta Orbiter
Posts: 117
Joined: Dec 2011
Reputation: 5
(03-28-2014 05:53 PM)Nemencine Wrote: All prediction of the future is futile and premature. It doesnt matter if it is positive, negative or otherwise.
All current extrapolation of what the future will be, are based on present science and technology....and that is naive... why?...because there is a real possibility of a singularity, a technological/scientific black swan that makes all future prognostication silly and stupid. Human genetic engineering is such a singularity.
Why do i say this?
Let me start this way:
I used to read sci fi. i especially like sci fi from decades ago. It is funny how their projection of the future(our present age) is completely different from what eventually materializes today. I enjoy reading and seeing what they get wrong and right... what their thought process were like.... From h.g. wells to arthur c clarke to a.e. van vogt. or isaac asimov, etc...
Not just the sci fi writers... i like reading journals and excerpts from scientists from ages past to see how they imagined their future(our present) to be... how right and wrong they are...and what is their thought process in reaching whatever conclusions they had...
My conclusion: It has always been, it will always be -- the future will be different from whatever we imagine it to be.(which is part of the reason i have zero patience for the doom/gloom whining about feminism, race, and other political nonsense.)
Until blackbody radiation breakthrough happen with Planck's equation... Newton/Liebnitz calculus... Einstein's space/time... advent of molecular biology by watson/crick and jacob/monod ... I remember reading how people used to see the world(scientists included) ....
In fact, there was a time that the US patent office was recommended to be shutdown because there is not a new invention that could be invented. How wrong they were!
that was how limited their views were. How limited is our present views today?
Technological breakthroughs has a way of making total fools of social science predictors.
The problems with historians is that most are not technologists...so they focus on world actors e.g, napoleon; and not on the technology that allows napoleon to do what napoleon did.
Which leads me to effects of genetic engineering of humans... a field that the chinese are tampering with...
Most of the technological extrapolations of the future that i have seen are based on what current humans are doing... not on what super-humans will do. That is a major distinction. What will a superbrain human do? Trying to imagine what a superbrain human will do, is like a monkey trying to imagine what a human will do. There is no way we can imagine what a superbrain is capable of inventing, scientifically or politically or socially. And I am convinced that one way or the other, either through genetic manipulation or freak evolutionary accident, a superbrain human is coming. On that day, we as a species are obsolete.
the Chinese tampering with human genetics could cause two things: inadvertently unleash a devastating genetic plague on humanity or (b)inadvertently results in a genetic superbrain human. It only take one such superhuman intelligence to render all our current science and technology literally obsolete overnight. The seismic shift will be insane.
The day we cooked up a superman... is the day we become monkeys again...
It goes without saying that there is no way we can control such a superbeing. it will be like a bunch of monkeys thinking they are capable of raising and controlling a being that is total combination of leonardo da vinci + julius ceasar + Mozart + plato + Isaac Newton + nathan rothschild + William James Sidis. Not a snowball's chance in hell.
I am not sure the future is all roses and rainbow and beautiful humming birds...neither is it going to be some hyper-liberal paradise of lindy west's imaginings...it is going to the shite we havent seen before.
Regards,
Nemencine
03-28-2014 09:05 PM
The following 1 user Likes soup's post:1 user Likes soup's post TonySandos
I've never believed politics to be anything other than its original Greek meaning: the struggle over the power over the state, leading mostly to self-interested actors maximizing privileges for themselves and their clients.
Tech, however, delivers.
The future will be bright.
The future will be dark.
Tech is delivering a tyranny that makes 1984 and Brave New World look like a Brazilian Carnival.
That struggle for power you reference is leading the hive-mind of the most powerful and wealthy "self-interested actors" to move to suppress the mass of people who are increasingly useless to them.
Their privilege and fear of "terrorism" is imposing increasing surveillance and control on most of us.
03-28-2014 09:15 PM
Sombro
True Player
Posts: 1,952
Joined: Dec 2012
Reputation: 18
Human nature is devolving away from Western Civ. Mothers/Fathers/Parents no longer know how (or bother) to raise their children to be independent. Bubble-wrap for everyone or we'll sue.
Western birthrates are plummeting -- Europe is far ahead of the US in this respect, except for Muslim birthrates there.
Garbage education. Garbage entertainment/media. Useless "news."
Too many multiculti/sharia oxymoronic contradictions. Will come to a head sooner or later, somewhere.
Extrapolate this and what do we have 20 years hence?
Primates with high tech, basically.
Sorry to be a buzzkill. I learn to have a laugh at it.
03-28-2014 09:19 PM
The following 1 user Likes Sombro's post:1 user Likes Sombro's post Samseau
Home
RooshV.com
Search (Via Forum)
Member List
![[-]](images/collapse.gif)
The following 1 user Likes Maciano's post:
A reason for optimism 
![[Image: problems-with-movistar-network_1.jpg]](http://www.panama-guide.com/images/articles/problems-with-movistar-network_1.jpg)
