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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
 Posted - 07/07/2006 : 21:33:37
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(Now, put on your thinking caps...here's his query as he posed it on Yahoo.)
Hawkings' question: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?"
Orwellingly Yurz sez:
All I can say, up front, is: Just Hawkings' asking of this question worries me so much, I'm not sure I can conjure an answer until, at least, tomorrow, if it comes.
oy
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"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
--J. Paul Getty
"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
"I cling like a miser to the freedom I lose when surrounded by an abundance of things."
--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
Edited by - Orwellingly Yurz on 07/07/2006 21:35:05
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2006 : 23:28:03 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Orwellingly Yurz
(Now, put on your thinking caps...here's his query as he posed it on Yahoo.)
Hawkings' question: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?"
Orwellingly Yurz sez:
All I can say, up front, is: Just Hawkings' asking of this question worries me so much, I'm not sure I can conjure an answer until, at least, tomorrow, if it comes.
oy
100 Years isn't very long. I'd say it would be incredibly unlikely that the human race wouldn't survive that long. Even a pretty major catastrophe, natural or otherwise, would be unlikely to eradicate us entirely.
I would not, however, claim to be able to predict the state of our society(s) a century from now. Where we live, the way we live, and the number of us doing the living may be radically different.
For those that are interested (and OY's post was admittedly the first time I'd heard of it), the actual question and response can be found here.
Who thinks Stephen Hawking has read the near 19 000 replies so far?
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John's just this guy, you know. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 03:27:55 [Permalink]
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I was wondering if that would show up here; wonder no more....
It's really a very tough question, as we don't know what events will take place during a century, and predictions are precarious at best.
Howsomever, by the signs it ain't lookin' good.
It is another aspect of the Curse of Sapience, I think. After all, what percentage of the world's population, other than "great leaders,"  religious freaks, and the certifiably demented actually want to go to war?
I also think that now we're stuck with global warming and are going to have to learn to live with it, somehow or 'nother.
Too many varibles; too many varibles. What if Yellowstone, with a 50 mile caldera and overdue for some 40,000 years, flips it's lid sometime in the next, few years or so? That event would very likely put to rest all speculations.
I dunno....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 10:17:09 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
...What if Yellowstone, with a 50 mile caldera and overdue for some 40,000 years, flips it's lid sometime in the next, few years or so? That event would very likely put to rest all speculations...
That would likely be a big explosion plus a rapid series of eruptions all around the caldera making Mt. St. Helen's look like a little tiny firecracker. It would throw an awful lot of ash up in the atmosphere plunging temperatures throughout the hemisphere and maybe the rest of the planet. Crop failures, famine. - I think I'll just enjoy my day today.
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Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 12:02:34 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Chippewa
quote:
Originally posted by filthy
...What if Yellowstone, with a 50 mile caldera and overdue for some 40,000 years, flips it's lid sometime in the next, few years or so? That event would very likely put to rest all speculations...
That would likely be a big explosion plus a rapid series of eruptions all around the caldera making Mt. St. Helen's look like a little tiny firecracker. It would throw an awful lot of ash up in the atmosphere plunging temperatures throughout the hemisphere and maybe the rest of the planet. Crop failures, famine. - I think I'll just enjoy my day today.
Always delighted to bring sweetness and light into the lives of others..... 
But it's a very real threat. The geologists tell us that Yellowstone National Park has, in the past, erupted about every 600,000 years; thus the giant caldera. By their calculation, it could go off tomorrow, giving a whole new definition to the term: "Tourist Trap."
In truth, I'm a bit surprised that Hawking asked the question because it really has no answer.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 13:39:08 [Permalink]
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On a related note, the squirrels are storing their nuts: quote:
Work begins on Arctic seed vault
The Arctic seed vault will be built into mountain rock
Norway is starting construction on a "doomsday vault" in the Arctic which is designed to house all known varieties of the world's crops.
Dug into a frozen mountainside on the island of Svalbard, it is hoped the project will safeguard crop diversity in the event of a global catastrophe.
I think that after a 'global catastrophy,' no one is going to be worrying about crop diversity; just getting something, anything, to eat. Assuming, of course, that H. Sapiens and the other primates time hasn't run out, to ultimatly be replaced by  .
I wonder if they'll put in any decent weed.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 15:09:27 [Permalink]
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With regard to the S. Hawkins Question...here's what I've been thinking. Orwelligly Yurz sez:
Most of the people alive today don't know about REAL devastation. There are some powerless folks in some places on earth that do, but in the eyes of "visionaries" like George W. Bush, those people don't matter and their suffering is mostly unreported and not the concern of most of us in the developed world. And elderly people who can remember being in, say, a concentration camp are not important, either, in the eyes of the power elite.
What does matter, in terms of making the world last for as long as it can, is that the people who are in real power, in their various capacities around the planet, must come to realize that THEY...THEY...THEY...are the ones who have the best chance---not to mention the RESPONSIBILITY---to sustain Earth and the living beings on her.
So long as "visionaries" like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their sychophants, such as John Bolton in the U-N, or Sean Hannity on the F-Word News Channel are in control or have control over information and the slanting thereof, the probablities remain weak or grow slimmer for us to save our own asses. The Lord God ain't gonna do it...one way or the other.
What I fear is that some REALLY bad man-made shit is gonna come down and....THEN...the masses of younger, materialistic, fairly well-educated people are going to really suffer, or see great suffering and, as has been suggested, a light will click-on over their collective heads. They will, in one fell swoop, really understand: that which is awesome is much of the time: awFUL! Awful awful.
I don't want to sound Biblical but, greed and selfishness are at the heart of the problem; reduce those down one more notch and you've got ignorance. The idea of a global effort on the part of earthlings to get our shit together just on an environmental solution to problems, alone, has already been stigmatized by Bush-types as some kind of socialistic, communistic, wacko attitude that was proven wrong by the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellites.
This is dangerous thinking. The Soviets fucked it up for themselves. Stalin fucked it up; just like George W. Bush is fucking it up for liberal democracy. (Shit, he wouldn't know liberal democracy if it bit him on the ass. I hope the hell it does, in time.) The fucking up comes from not realizing that a "leader's" efforts to make things better for "his people" are given short shrift in order to maintain power. It then becomes ONLY the maintenance of power and acquiring even more wealth on the part of the Bush-type or Stalin-type or Hitler-type or Saddam-type...or these two goofy attention-seekers in North Korea and Iran.
The Mid East, in terms of some semblance of enlightenment, is a lost cause, I believe. I'd suggest keeping an eye on China, South Korea and Mexico. Although, Israel or Iran could always do something stupid.
When the super-fundie, evangelical homophobe on the corner with the CALIFORNIA REPENT sign starts waving a George Bush or Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejah REPENT sign, will there be a much-needed infusion of rationality, and thus stability.
What we need is some good ol' Trickle-Down Rationality. George, are you listening?
oy |
"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
--J. Paul Getty
"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
"I cling like a miser to the freedom I lose when surrounded by an abundance of things."
--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 15:35:32 [Permalink]
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As filthy implies, Mama Nature has the biggest guns.
If Yellowstone blows up, or Global Warming passes the no return mark, a lot of us would suffer, but it would also completely mess up the right-winger's plans, even the weirdo fringe that thinks killing the Earth is part of "God's plan".
Maybe Stephan Hawking just wants to get people thinking again.
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Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2006 : 17:27:48 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Chippewa
As filthy implies, Mama Nature has the biggest guns.
If Yellowstone blows up, or Global Warming passes the no return mark, a lot of us would suffer, but it would also completely mess up the right-winger's plans, even the weirdo fringe that thinks killing the Earth is part of "God's plan".
Maybe Stephan Hawking just wants to get people thinking again.
Well, Chippewa, you're right about Hawkings trying to get folks to thinking again. That's for sure. He's certainly gotten me doing more of it. Fellows like Hawkings always can see the forest and trees at the same time and tell what kind of differences there may be.
One point however: Global Warming isn't in the same category with the Yellowstone possibility. G-W is a man-made problem that will or won't be solved by men and women everywhere. That's the message of Al Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth." Yellowstone falls into the Book of Chance niche, just like a big ol' asteroid or somethin'.
oy |
"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
--J. Paul Getty
"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
"I cling like a miser to the freedom I lose when surrounded by an abundance of things."
--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
| Edited by - Orwellingly Yurz on 07/08/2006 17:28:56 |
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