Where Is The World Headed?
2_of_Eight
Join Date: 2003-08-20 Member: 20016Members
Join Date: 2003-08-20 Member: 20016Members
in Discussions
How do you imagine the world in 50 years? 100 years? 500? 2000? 10000?
The world is deteorating (sp?). Non-renewable sources of energy are on the decline. Species become extinct every day. People in third world countries are starving to death, while people in developed countries enjoy their life, living carelessly.
The world is becoming polluted. Ozone holes are growing. Global temperatures are rising. I could go on for a long time, but I'd like to know what you think now. How do you see the world in the future? How would we be living? <i>Will</i> we be living?
Post your thoughts.
The world is deteorating (sp?). Non-renewable sources of energy are on the decline. Species become extinct every day. People in third world countries are starving to death, while people in developed countries enjoy their life, living carelessly.
The world is becoming polluted. Ozone holes are growing. Global temperatures are rising. I could go on for a long time, but I'd like to know what you think now. How do you see the world in the future? How would we be living? <i>Will</i> we be living?
Post your thoughts.
Comments
The thread linked to above essentially covers this. It also includes my replies on the subject.
The thread linked to above essentially covers this. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
No it doesn't. It talks about mostly political happenings, not environmental.
I think that we'll have alternate power sources well in time before our petroleum supply runs out. Probably going to have a renewable gasoline alternative in the next one or two decades. What will have to happen though is an increase of nuclear power generation, 'cuz crops aren't gonna cut it for that kind of consumption.
We'll be living much as we are now in the next 100 years. And the starving third world nations will live much as they do now, because they are becoming more dependent on aid. In the short run, AIDS will probably ease the famine by decreasing the population in Africa. In some places it will be by a third or more.
Also, this has been beaten into the ground and was then jumped up and down on. Doomsday scenarios sound nice when a cute hippy chick is holding a sign and spouting them off..... but it's never gotten as bas as any of 'em said it would. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Prediction over 500 or 1000 years is just ridiculous. There's no way we'll be able to guess at that, or fathom it.
I am pretty sure there is evidence that our global temperature is rising, it was in my textbook somewhere. Humans will slowly have to adapt to the changing temperature or rising water levels. It could be possible that the water levels will force Japan and such under water. But most likely humans by then will have produced cleaner fuels and whatnot. The government will be extremely strick about such and such.
With "only a few more meters" Manhattan and many other coastal cities would be utterly flooded.
Temperature will increase by 5.4 degrees in the next 100 years.
It's true! <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
As for the future, it'll be worse than what everyone fears and better than what everyone hopes.
I apologize for being unable to find a good site offhand, but it took me a while just to remember how to spell it. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> And I am so very tired.
Don't believe me, just wait until oil starts running out and see what happens when the nations that have the remaining supplies try to charge countries that don't have it 10 times as much.
environmental degradation is a lot slower than it was during the industrial revolution, at least in the United States, which is a good thing... water resources are horrid in a lot of third world countries though... and we'll run out of places to put our trash eventually... 2100 will be to today as today is is to 1900... that's about all I can say.
while thats all nice and good, the prospect of just about anyone haveing fusion in a can is terrifying...
simple as that, unless we have massive change for the better
Plastic. It takes about 400 years for plastic to decompose, in a well-ventilated and bacteriated (<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->) environment. In dumps, it might take more than 700. And with the constantly increasing amount of garbage being dumped in landfills, it might take even more time. And if the garbage is compressed? Thousands?!
I don't see why so many people don't recycle. Only about 15% (Great Britain statistic) of the plastic thrown out is recycled. Why not 100%? Are people that lazy?
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I agree with this part. In fact, I decided after 9/11 to change my career and go back to school to get into engineering just so that I could help to find alternatives to non-renewable fossil fuels. I figure our supply of oil is just not going to cut it for more than the next 50-75 years. If we don't stop buying gas-whoring SUVs here in America we're just going to accelerate this inevitable collapse faster than we can plan an escape from it. Which can only lead to a very large and catastrophic crash. The people most responsible for this inevitability won't be alive in 50 years to see it happen, so they just don't give a damn.
If you've read any of my other posts here in the last couple weeks, you know my stance on what the Bush Administration is aiming to control: oil. Lots of problems this little energy source creates for the world. Not the least of which is environmental. Far more death and destruction is caused by groups attempting to control this resource. It's like we're playing a big game of NS, and there's a huge fight on for the resource nodes across the planet. The Persian Gulf/Central Asia represents a triple res node, and everyone wants to be there.
As for what the world would be like in 5000 years, that of course can only be speculation. It sure is fun to think about it and worthy of discussion, however, since most of what people post here are opinions and beliefs, not facts. I think in 5000 years homo sapiens will have an incredibly reduced role in the ecosystem. We will have driven the Earth to the point which it can no longer sustain our burgeoning population. Life as a whole of course will continue, as it has for the last 4.5 billion years. We will slowly go extinct. It may take 10,000 years of our own stupidity, the coming of another ice age, or a comet/asteroid impact. Whatever the cause, we are not going to be able to stay on this planet for eternity. Earth's history is littered with mass extinctions. Our instincts will be so dulled and worthless come the next hardship that we too will fall victim to the extinction.
There is a chance for homo sapien eternity, however. Our one hope for lasting beyond this extinction is to move somewhere else and begin to expand outside our solar system. The obstacles to that seem quite daunting, however, without us having any kind of true understanding of even the most basic of natural laws... like gravity. Perhaps something incredibly revolutionary, like a working Unified Field Theory, will come within the next few centuries and enable us to overcome that which we are so dependent on.
Every organism on the planet can be broken down into a very simple orchestration and collection of molecules. Yet all we can do is attempt to manipulate these organisms by playing around with their DNA sequences. We don't truly know what's going on at the molecular level. Why is the genome for an onion 200 times as large as that for homo sapiens? Once we can answer these questions, we can start to manipulate our world to the point that life is sustainable elsewhere, using resources completely foreign to what our thinking is today. We think we're wholly dependent on the sun, oxygen, and water. Yet there are creatures living on hydothermal vents on the ocean floor, boiling in 300 degree water, collecting minerals to survive. They don't need the sun, and they survive at pressures that would violently crush a human. Once we understand how these creatures manage to survive in human-hostile environments, we can begin to design our own organisms... from the ground up... that will help us to survive journeys through space and to other planets.
The only question is whether we'll survive long enough to get there...
Post more of your thoughts about the far future! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> I love hearing them.
I don't care if they arne't facts. I like it all <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
while thats all nice and good, the prospect of just about anyone haveing fusion in a can is terrifying... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I invented cold fusion a few years ago and I kept meaning on presenting it to the world but something kept comming up, man I need to stop procrastinating.
Well the way things are going now we'll probably have nanotechnology in the next decade, and have it compltely implemented in the next 60 years. If I remember correctly nanotech can be used to produce energy, no yes?
its weird but the zero gravity makes normal vegetables likw 35% bigger!
imagine the implications of bulk growing and shipping these giant vegetables!
also china wants to mine the moon.
...[i **** ye not]
its weird but the zero gravity makes normal vegetables likw 35% bigger!
imagine the implications of bulk growing and shipping these giant vegetables!
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I seriously doubt that. It costs NASA $10,000 a pound to carry something into orbit. Every shuttle launch costs upwards of $450 million. Unless they're planning on charging $150,000 for every carrot grown in space, I don't see it ever being economically feasible. Unless you're just being sarcastic, in which case <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Mining the moon is a more interesting prospect. If they can find water locked up in ice on the moon, then they may be able to create a sustainable environment that does not require supply ships from the Earth. It would be a pretty massive undertaking, however, and even there they have to be concerned with what their objectives are. Creating a second home that is self-sustaining would be fascinating to me, however the costs associated with travelling to the moon and back just don't make any kind of sense.
I think they need to look for ways to travel faster through space so we can visit our nearest neighboring stars. The requirements for travelling 4.3 light years away are just too mind-boggling for modern science. We need something revolutionary in space travel to even begin contemplating it. Once we do, however, things could get really interesting.
still its pure speculation <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> but the kinda of speculation i like to engage in.
still its pure speculation <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> but the kinda of speculation i like to engage in. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
A seed does not magically turn into a vegetable in space. Even on Earth, a seed requires resources to grow into something bigger. Water, minerals, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, et al. Sending seeds alone won't do the trick. You must send along all of the nutrients. Like baking bread, you may start out with only a small handful of yeast, but you need a whole lot of other stuff to make it all come together. Those nutrients of course are not found in orbit. Thus you must equip this fantasy "space farm" with all of the proper nutrients in addition to the seeds, and you must keep supplying nutrients as the crops grow. This requires frequent supply trips. $10,000 for every pound sent into space. You <i>cannot grow anything worth $10,000 a pound</i>, regardless of how much larger the yield. Unless you're growing some kind of highly-sought-after illegal drug.
The only benefit to growing vegetables in space is to understand <b>why</b> the vegetables grow larger without the presence of gravity, and to try and manipulate that knowledge into something we can use on Earth.
but anyways... stop disecting my fantasies... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
looking forward to the days of Chinese space vegetables is the only thing that keeps me going! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
but anyways... stop disecting my fantasies... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
looking forward to the days of Chinese space vegetables is the only thing that keeps me going! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sorry <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> That's the analytical nature in me to question everything.
How about instead of Chinese space vegetables, let's talk about setting up a livable colony on the moon? If indeed there's ice somewhere on the moon, how feasible would it be create permanent living quarters there? Could we use that as a launching pad to other destinations, without having to spend so much energy getting off the face of the Earth? Is there enough material on the moon to create a self-sufficient environment? What kinds of tools or devices would we need to make it logistically possible? Without artificial gravity, is there any way we'll be able to survive the travel to other solar systems?