We know where we've been. May disagree but can find common ground on where we are at so by connecting those two points, maybe we can extrapolate where we may be headed.
A couple of years ago on a site, it was being discussed if you could go back in time, where and when would you go and taking 20 people with you, who would they be.
Not too surprisingly most wanted to set up little mini kingdoms or talk to some of the historical figures we've had.
And not to seem like I'm 'special', but my thinking was more along the lines of how about stopping the single (in my opinion) event that most affected our course in history.
The 'Dark Ages'.
The 500 years that followed the fall of the Roman Empire (and the elimination of all the progress that had been made) and the insertion of the two religious factions, waring each other and the dominance of religion in our social, political and even economic structures.
OK. Kind of an ego boost to change history but anyone who reads history also knows of the huge suffering undergone because of the 'Dark Ages'.
So my thinking was to bring physicans, scientists in the fields of engineering, chemistry, geology, linguists and horticulturists along with 6 military personnel. A couple trained in building arms, a couple in military strategy and a couple of experienced hand to hand combat personnel.
You establish a base and then interact with selected 'locals' and begin introducing 'inventions'.
You take what the Romans had bulit and before it begins to decline, re-enforce it, conitnue it adding 'inventive' improvemnets. Directing society towards improving and intergrating a raised standard of living for everyone. Providing housing, food, medical care, education and employment for all.
For instance. Imagine instead of waiting almost 2000 years to invent the internal combustation engine, you 'invent' the electric engine. You'd eliminate the future of political, religious and economic influence of the dominance of fossil fules and even take one the the most harmful enviromential factors out of play.
Not to mention the effect that having electriacl power, lights, engines, etc would have on the advancement of us.
But that's where we've been and the fantasy of what it would be like to change it.
The reality is we are here at a certain point and we are moving forward. The question is where are we headed?
So again going back to if we know where we've been and where we are, we could/should be able to connect the 'dots' and get a somewhat realistic idea of where we are going.
A lot of variables but even some of those, excluding natural disasters, can be somewhat taken into account.
A couple of days ago, the 'Doomsday Clock' was advanced to 5 minutes again
http://thebulletin.org/content/media-center/announcements/2012/01/10/doomsday-clock-moves-to-five-minutes-to-midnight
For most of my life, our tommorrows all too often look like they could be the worst day since yesterday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGMYwn_NzbI
Maybe if enough of us care, we could change that.
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