The Last Of The Millenniums - 'A man's got to know his limitations.........................'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VrFV5r8cs0

If we are going to have a long term future, there are three things that depending on how we resolve them, will determine just what shape our future will look like.

1. Population

2. Wars

3. Earth is not just our home but our ONLY home.

Do we know our limitations? Do we care what they are?

History shows the answer is no to both those questions.

In 1804, the World's population was 1 Billion people. 200 years later it's 7 Billion and counting.
6 Billion added in just 200 years. Might not seem like that many over 200 years but since the 1960's, we've been adding about 1 billion people every 12 to 13 years.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0883352.html

Now there's plenty of room to put everyone but our world is a 'closed system'. Much of the 'resources' we use are not renewable. And the ones that are, have a limited (in quanity) 'sustainability'.

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." -Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

We may or may not be 'scientists' but we also show no signs of slowing our breeding. 'Just because we can doesn't mean we should'.

Yes it opens ALL of the questions and concerns of 'who should play God(s) or 'Big Brother' but we can't even get to a place where we can openly talk about it - let alone consider options.

'Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when a changing environment is creating new limits to supply'.

'And if the world fails to tackle these problems, it risks condemning up to 3 billion people into poverty, the report said'.
From : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/world-food-demand-population-growth_n_1241435.html

'This is the way the world ends'
'Not with a bang but a whimper'.
The Hollow Men
T. S. Eliot

The World may not end but imagine the 'whimper' of 3 Billion hungry people.

And all just because we 'could' but couldn't question if we 'should'.

The Last Of The Millenniums

The reason I started this blog to write down my thoughts on where we, humans are going.

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.