Where are we going? Are we imploding?
 

We've already done a lot - been to the moon and back.

Sent spacecraft elsewhere..

Invented a LOT of technical devices...phone, radio, computer, MRI device, X-ray, aircraft, ships, cars and trucks, motorcycles,....

All kinds of food and clothing.

Can't say much about our political and legal process.

What next?

Where are we going?

Do we have any real goals?

Seems like we are very divisive - imploding on ourselves now?

This is why I appreciate any semblance to civilised discussion...and absolutely abhor attacks on one another.

What is next - the cure for cancer? What about our society? Do we have a cure for that?

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Space, the final frontier...

I happened to turn my I-Pod loose the other day (play anything it wants).

Imagine, By John Lennon came on. Had not really heard it for years.

I'd like to think we could all find a way to get along, nuclear border disputes and all.

when large parts of your civilization do not believe in reality, you get what we are getting now.

the rest of us are gain knowledge through research, improving lives, exploring and discovering the universe etc etc, and those backwards poeple want to drag us back into a religious dark age with anti-intellectualism, anti-science, sexism, and just your regular xenophobia.

"We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about it?"

"This planet is run by crazy people. Remember what they have to do to get where they are. Their perspective is so narrow, so...brief. A few years. In the best of them a few decades. They care only about the time they are in power. "

i always loved carl sagan's philosophy .... mostly it was "all this **** you are argue about, politics, economics ... none of this **** matters. the universe .... the universe matters"

IMO, US is at a tipping point, with those who believe in science and logic down to approximately 50% of the population.

I have a very depressing view on this:

Every civilization in the history of mankind has peaked and shortly thereafter disappeared, often taking their scientific discoveries and knowledge with them. Ours will be the same. Often the peak of a civilization's growth is signaled by barbarians of some form of another taking over, either by force or by assimilation.

I suspect western civilization as we know it has reached that very peak (perhaps somewhere a while back already), and our political correctness, our accommodating and embracing nature is leading to our values being overrun and a gradual moral/economic/ethical decline.

To reply to your video, with another, .....

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We sure are doomed with the negativity displayed in this thread so far. Who is posting? A bunch of frustrated mid aged and old farts???

IMHO we are in very exciting times, in my lifetime I expect serious progress in energy, water and automation. Automation specifically in traffic. The self driving car will come in just in time for me to take on retirement road-trips, beer in hand. ;)

G

I like your optimism, aigel, but your self-driving car is better than you think. It will let you head on down the road with a beer in both hands. :)

To many people will be the downfall. It is going to eventually cause all kinds of problems that we won't be able to recover from and that will lead to some kind of massive change.

+1

I love the times we are living in. Only thing missing is the fountain of youth SmileWavy

The entire population of the world can fit into the state of Texas, with average, large city population density. The problem is not too many people... the problem is too many stupid people.

bingo

New battles over dwindling natural resources.

New ways of generating power/energy, and new levels of conserving energy.

Hopes of keeping warm/cool and having enough fresh water will occupy our time left as a species.

The population keeps growing, and already the demand for natural resources is too much. 40 years ago you could smell the orange groves in the San Fernando Valley; now they are all gone, replaced by tracts of houses and strip malls. We have huge landfills of toxic garbage that will soon reach their limit and have to be "capped" to hopefully prevent the escape of cancer-causing dioxins and etc. Already people are having trouble finding clean drinking water. If we can't agree that this is a problem, then we can't agree on anything. The rich get richer and the poor have more children. As Molly Ivins used to say, "And so it goes..."

_

We have a society based on science and technology which we created and which none of us fully understands. For thousands of years the natural world surrounded us, we didn't understand it so we established religions to help us deal with the vicissitudes of the world around us. But God didn't create cell phones, lasers, the internet, computers, etc. Now we are surrounded by a different world that wasn't created by God, nobody understands it, and we don't have God to blame when it goes wrong. It's no wonder there is so much stress, fear, and anxiety. We are feeling the foot of pride hovering over us.

population growth would not be a problem if we did not hamper our progress with religion, dogma, and xenophobia.

"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings." - JFK

Very interesting and ironic comments thus far on this thread. That somehow religion and ignorance are implicitly linked, and simultaneously the downfall of society. But oh by the way, we are in a moral downward spiral. Technology is our savior, but engineers tend to be religious. And Christian religion typically puts an emphasis on traditional moral values. OH THE HUMANITY!

I too was listening to my iPod this morning. A very appropriate lyric came through the speakers:

To compete with China economically we must become China.

The best is yet to come!

LOL, this thread sure is going south rather quickly. The negativity is amazing. At least in the western world, we have never had a period of piece that lasted this long Maybe we are a little spoiled / have it too good if everyone can biatch and moan on the internet about the coming end of the world? On a workday nevertheless???

I hope none of you have children. Would not want to hear what you tell them. :)

G

Nĭ hăo?

"learn Mandarin"

This is why I'm glad I'm an old fart..

Well I value everyone's opinion whether or not I agree with them, George.

As long as we don't attack EACH OTHER - why can't this topic be discussed?

Why can't anything be discussed without attacks?

Not picking on you George - but this is one of the questions I pose...are we imploding because we have become so divisive and cynical?

I think every post in the thread has some valid content.

And I appreciate all the posts and comments.

Some pretty interesting thoughts to ponder.....

Let's keep an open mind and refrain from attacking anyone......maybe we'll learn something. :)

Um, we've been at war since 2001.

Oh, and the end of the world is a biblical thing. End of Days and all that.

But yeah, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Okay, maybe Europe. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands. Okay, so there's some other places I'd like to live but this here is pretty good.

You're right. I choose to cheer up, put the top down on my Cab and go drive it for a few hours!

Oh, and this was PARF right out of the gate.

That war has been going on a lot longer than 12 years, 12 generations maybe. We just did not notice until then

Overpopulation is a HUGE issue. The amount of fresh water and food is going to be an increasingly large problem going forward, indeed it already is.

Drinking water is going to be what people kill each other over in the not too distant future.

That was my first thought when I read his post, too. And before that, our military was already spread throughout the world putting out small fires here and there. You'd be amazed how much we're involved in that never even makes it into the news.

That's military actions. And a terrorist attack.

I am talking world wars - getting run over by another country at least every generation. Have you been to Europe? There are plots of land that have been fought over for hundreds of years and switched sides so many times, the folks living there don't even know any more if they are French or German. ;)

G

It is all good guys - but I just wanted to remind everyone that we live in quite good times. And exciting too, at least from the perspective of someone like me who works in high-tech and has a multi-national background and sense of freedom than none of my ancestors ever had. They were worried about putting food on the table, not the world imploding.

G

September 20, 2001 to be exact. The date G.W. Bush launched the "War on Terror." The world is still fighting it.

Appreciate your perspective, George.

Solid post.

Thanks! SmileWavy

I agree we live in good times. The world as we know it may be changing drastically, but there will still be a world and in many ways it will be better than the one I grew up in.

Being thankful for what you have doesn't always mean you have to be satisfied with what you perceive to be happening in the world around you though....

I guess the trick is to avoid being a cynic - not always an easy task!

I agree with this sentiment. Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who's been in plenty of war-torn lands...I freaking LOVE this country. Granted, there's a few places I'd really like to retire to that are not anywhere near here (well, one of them is near here--Mexico), but in my personal, heavily biased opinion, no other place on Earth holds a candle to what we have here. Even our impoverished would be considered wealthy in some of the places I've been.

We are going to be fine. Good news doesn't sell so they but the widow on the set...

In this link are 11 "stunning" graphs that show the word is becoming a better place: 12 Stunning Charts Show the World is Becoming a Better Place | Independent Journal Review

Liberal propaganda!