How will our beliefs change in 500 years?
POSTED BY: Siri
UPDATED: Friday, November 24, 2006 17:15
VIEWED: 7644
PAGE 2 of 6
Wow, I've never SEEN such a boob!
---------------------------------
Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I think the planet needs to make it past the next 60 years before we start thinking about the next 500.
But other than that, I think people need to change their economic structures to conform to the new human reality. That reality is that technology COULD guarantee everyone's survival. There is no real limit causing premature death due to want of the basics. However, the economy is STRUCTURED to make a few very rich, and many very poor.
So, we have a disconnect. Technology COULD guarantee everyone's survival. But economies are structured to make most people poor.
And that has consequences. Poverty creates uncertainty about survival. That puts people back into pre-technology survival mode wired into human genetics. And that leads to more children.
Humans need a new economic/ social/ religious paradigm to account for technology.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
I think the planet needs to make it past the next 60 years before we start thinking about the next 500.
But other than that, I think people need to change their economic structures to conform to the new human reality. That reality is that technology COULD guarantee everyone's survival. There is no real limit causing premature death due to want of the basics. However, the economy is STRUCTURED to make a few very rich, and many very poor.
So, we have a disconnect. Technology COULD guarantee everyone's survival. But economies are structured to make most people poor.
And that has consequences. Poverty creates uncertainty about survival. That puts people back into pre-technology survival mode wired into human genetics. And that leads to more children.
Humans need a new economic/ social/ religious paradigm to account for technology.
Scientology ?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
I think the planet needs to make it past the next 60 years before we start thinking about the next 500.
But other than that, I think people need to change their economic structures to conform to the new human reality. That reality is that technology COULD guarantee everyone's survival. There is no real limit causing premature death due to want of the basics. However, the economy is STRUCTURED to make a few very rich, and many very poor.
So, we have a disconnect. Technology COULD guarantee everyone's survival. But economies are structured to make most people poor.
And that has consequences. Poverty creates uncertainty about survival. That puts people back into pre-technology survival mode wired into human genetics. And that leads to more children.
Humans need a new economic/ social/ religious paradigm to account for technology.
Scientology ?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Not Scientology. From what I know Scientology is really whacky. There were aliens who came to earth and somehow got half-killed and live under volcanoes and they send out false ideas to tame people. Or something like that. If there are any scientologists here, maybe you could explain. 
Thanks.
------------------------------
What I propose is that people's understanding of the world conform with reality. The reality is that due to technology, all people are guaranteed survival. Life doesn't have to be hand to mouth as it was pre-technology, with life and death deterimined by the immediate environment.
If we truly knew that, the world would change. All the excuses for zero-sum economics would disappear. And people would have to come up with a new way of relating.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
What I propose is that people's understanding of the world conform with reality. The reality is that due to technology, all people are guaranteed survival. Life doesn't have to be hand to mouth as it was pre-technology, with life and death deterimined by the immediate environment.
If we truly knew that, the world would change. All the excuses for zero-sum economics would disappear. And people would have to come up with a new way of relating.
I may not be getting this quote thing posted correctly. (I'm working on it.) But I agree with what you are saying. Also, the need to shift from "Them" and "Us" mentality to simply "Us." It isn't the normal way of thinking. A friend of mine wrote a futuristic novel. It contained all kinds of "Us" and "Thems." She said she had to do that or the book woudn't be interesting. Are we really hard-wired to think that way?
I like to believe we could make real changes if we can shift to a mindset of more equitable distribution of wealth and shared resources. I truly do believe we could solve many of our mututal problems if we can do that. I have to admit I'm not sure what I as an individual can do. That's one reason I'm posting this. Of course, we need to get thru the next 60 years (or even 20) I used 500 years because that's FF's storyline.
Seems to be a number of intelligent folks who like to think about these kinds of things. I'm always interested in hearing (seeing) ideas.
"I'll post a sign."
Siri
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
In all honesty, I don't care... let the fools drag themselves back into some mud hovel theocratic mire slaughtering each other cause almight bog tells em to, which is where I see it going.
Just give me a ship, and let me get the hell off this misbegotten rock first.
-Frem
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
You see here's the problem I have with the concept of THEM. The quintessential truth behind the conspiracy is more or less without fail it's a way of saying "it's not US it's THEM".
Citizen i agree.. which is why i try to warn people that the elite have decieved us into enslavement. THEY control the central banks and have a motive to lie cheat murder enslave blackmale torture robb rape vaccinate and molest mankind to dumb us down and supress us.. to make way for their Satanic objective(any way you look at it) of a global government. thats all im saying.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I wrote a long story on this subject. I don't think that simple answers like Star Trek gives us actually have any major relevence. The problem is that the people of the future will reject the way we analyze situations, and so things like "robots rights" will not be an issue. They simply won't think that way. It will be an alien sort of logic. But 500 years from now, that new thought style, whatever it is, will dominate the Earth.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
500 years is barely an eyeblink in terms of evolution, so I don't think we have much hope in the human animal making any fundamental changes in that amount of time. The only real changes in how people are now from 500 years ago is an extended lifespan, and we tend to be taller and somewhat more robust on the whole (better nutrition, sanitation, and medical science -- not evolution of the species), and we have access to more knowledge.
Attitudes have changed, somewhat, and in some places. Slavery has been with humanity since well before recorded history, and is still with us in some places today -- depending on definition, perhaps even more places/regions still practice slavery than don't.
We have more knowledge available to us. Do we act differently with that knowledge than we did at a time when we did not have access to it...? All to often, no, we don't. We have better technology and understand more about the universe than people did 500 years ago. People, however, don't act significantly different, except where that new knowledge directly applies (i.e., we can communicate in real time over long distances, rather than waiting months for a message to reach someone and we have changed insomuch as that forces or allows us to change). Whedon's 'Verse seems much the same: more tech, people basically the same. That, to me, seems much more realistic than what you see in speculative fiction such as Star Trek. Perhaps a pessimistic view, but I believe that history backs me up on it.
There's the pessimism, here's the optimism: We, as a species, has endured as long as we have -- therefore, I don't really see any reason not to expect us to survive for at least a respectable amount of time into the future. Failing that which we have no control over (the hypothetical "global-killer asteroid" striking the planet, for instance), I just really don't see anything wiping us off the face of the planet. Is it possible? Sure. Nuclear weapons could kill everyone. Is that likely? In my opinion, no. Those with enough nukes to kill everyone have no incentive to do so. Those groups that are nihilistic enough that they might want to don't have access -- and likely won't. It just takes too much infrastructure to have that sort of destructive power at one's fingertips, and a truly nihilistic group is too likely to self-destruct before they cause truly devastating damage (and here I'm talking true, end-of-the-species genocide).
So, to sum up: I'm thinking that for the foreseeable future, mankind is going to stay pretty much what they are now -- some new beliefs, some new science, but overall, still acting like modern humans.
Now, if we were talking 50,000 years into the future, all bets are off...
http://www.myspace.com/captainzeph
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME