The Future

Let's drop the discussion of our members personalities.Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

He could become a spiritual leader dedicated to relieving suffering and distress in the homeless and disadvantaged, start a major medical institution that employs those who will work for the cause rather than profits, and that lead the way to new research into cures for cancers (there being a few more than one kind).We cannot see the future for ourselves, let alone that of others that we only know by glimpses through a glass darkly. I agree with nwr there.What would you do to find a cure for cancers? Is that the real problem with {society\culture\humanity} - giving lip service to progress, but not wanting to pay for it when it gets in the way of the TV shows?What made the moon missions special was that it focused national activity on the intellectual pursuit of a specific goal that we could all get behind.That takes a leader with vision to accomplish, and lately it seems that the potential for vision in the possible leaders is pretty limited.What is the national purpose? What is the long term goal of the United States? Is there a vision for where we should be and how to get there?The only ones that seem to have a vision in this regard are the fundies and the neocons ..... whether you agree with the vision or not, eh?

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

"I have a dream..."

one of these days, Alice ... POW to the moon! I mean in current politics.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

Sorry, Ralph--I couldn't resist

Maybe Alice will find a cure for cancer! Ralph and his fundamental views notwithstanding! I say that our biggest problem is lack of world leadership!Its either gotta be Jesus or His people that take up the initiative...all of these other "smart" folks just want to build big houses and live off the fat of their education (and big wages!)This message has been edited by Phat, 11-09-2005 08:58 AM

Well, we`ve tried paganism and that was a disaster.
We`ve tried religion and that was perverted and has a sorry history.
We had a shot at communism and that went down the tube.
We experimented with socialism and that had a mixed success.
We are trying internationalism (the U.N.) and have more regional conflicts than ever before.
Any other 'isms' we should consider?

I was reading a book on world resources a few years ago. One table listed a wide range of stuff most of which you'd barely be aware of in a general sense: berylium, chromium, molybdenum as well as the more familiar stuff: oil, gas, copper etc. They expressed the worlds reserves in years of supply based on current (then) demand. The total was made up of two parts: "known reserves" and "what we can reasonably expect is there based on geological predictions" It was accepted that newer technologies would evolve which would make the latter 'grow' in time. They also didn't take into account future growth in consumption, but did point to the almost vertical direction of the consumption graph.What was shocking was the short amount of time before many resources ran out. 30 yrs, 50 years, 45 years, 60 years etc. About the only thing expressed in 100's of years was aluminium IIRC.The main problem it seems to me, is what happens as these resources tighten up and the squeeze really comes on. The world is careering ahead with every increasing consumption, our whole world economy is based on every increasing consumption.Will the world be able to escape from it's addiction to consumption. If it doesn't then it is likely that the world will do what it has always done when it wants something very badly. It will go to war. We've seen what happened in Kuwait. We've seen it happen in the South African diamond mines, we saw Rommel go into Africa for oil Will we see it for the last Chromium mine?I wonder will people want to vote for governments who tell them they can't have what they want. Or for governments who will give them what they want?

Repentism But you make an insightful point. If mankind has demonstrated anything well its that he couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery

quote:

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If mankind has demonstrated anything well its that he couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery.

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That's because mankind hasn't allowed womankind to run much beyond families and classrooms full of toddlers.If you want organization, let the people who have been doing the lion's share of childrearing and the running of households for several millenia take a turn for a change.

Hi, Ian, we are tapping resources today that were passed over as too low-grade in the past, but with better engineering and chemistry, we can recover reasonably economically today.In the future we will be forced into increasingly-poorer deposits,but will be forced to pay higher prices. And that doesn`t factor in the role fuel prices will have to recover and process same. The oceans are a source of low-grade minerals, but again we will pay for extraction. Look forward to a class-strata society like nothing we`ve seen before.

We tried it over here.Didn't make any difference.

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

It will go down in the annals of history (insofar as there is much left to be generated) that mankinds biggest blunder was the wilful repression of the fairer sex. Women making nukes? Women dreaming up Dresden? I think not...

The technology will push out the time of reckoning a little alright. My expectation is that an immovable object (dwindling resources) is going to meet and irresistable force (too many people unprepared to dwell in the lower echelons of the class-strata). The class strata is more likely to occur between nations (decided by those with the biggest weapons). Like, if we're prepared to shaft the world and his brother to the extent we do now - when there is relatively little pressure at street level - I cringe at what we are capable of when push comes to shove.Hell hath no fury than a materialist scornedThis message has been edited by iano, 11-Nov-2005 06:33 PM

THAT was not a woman