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Charles Jensen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 April 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 1127
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | 1
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Jay Mathewws wrote: "The theme you sound in your response to Hawking's question is a form of primitivism -- a "back to basics" type of approach that tends to attribute our problems to all the complicated dependencies we have created."
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Jay, this was part of my response I didn't include here. This was the last part of it:
"Stephen Hawking, I am working on a system that approaches this. It isn't perfect, but it is the closest thing I can imagine, and it is unlike anything I have seen today. It needs a lot of work.. but I believe the system is truly feasible. Please contact me to discuss details in private. Ironically, the very reason I can't make it public, is that I too need to provide myself with life's essentials and invention is my means of trying to do this."
I don't really disagree with you response. But I think you are looking at my response too severely. What I believe is we need a base. We need to find a way to provide ourselves with the base essentials. We can expand beyond those basics. We can create and trade and do different types of things above and beyond those basics.
But I also believe that if we want to prosper as a species we need to change our lifestyle as well. Personally I would be willing to change my lifestyle to be less dependent on other people and power systems. I would at least like to have that option.
P.S. I received no response from Hawking. haha It was worth a shot.
Edited to add: The "system" I envision is a self contained technology. It doesn't require somekind of socialist gorvernment system or long term infrastructure.
Edited by Charles Jensen on 07 August 2006 at 5:25pm
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Darren De Vouge
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 December 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 3586
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:07pm | IP Logged | 2
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you have to admit we live in scary times
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To some extent, we always have. In the 50's and 60's, people built concrete shelters in their backyards because they were certain the end would come from nuclear bombs. In the 40's, people were scared the Nazis might actually wind up ruling the world. In the 30's, it must have looked like, there was no way out of economic ruin.
Even in ancient times, as you planted your crops, you would have been faced with the knowledge that your village could have been wiped out at any time by any number of sword-wielding marauders intent on conquering all they could get.
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Robert Oren
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 March 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1209
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | 3
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Hasn't the world always been scary?
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Sure it has it's always been something nukes or the middle east or so blah,blah,blah
trust me i don't think about it till it's brought up. but when i think of what can happen in this day and age..........let's just say i get the chills thinking about it
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Dave Carr
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1850
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | 4
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Ian Palmer wrote:
| Why should the human race survive the next hundred years? |
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Because we're so totally awesome.
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Jason Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 3938
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | 5
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I would at least like to have that option.
There are plenty of places left in the world where this is still an option. Enjoy the dysentary, guinea worm, and all the other old / third world trappings.
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Robert Oren
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 March 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1209
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | 6
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To some extent, we always have. In the 50's and 60's, people built concrete shelters in their backyards because they were certain the end would come from nuclear bombs.
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back then you could not fit them in a suitcase
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132401
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | 7
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About fifty thousand years ago, a supervolcano blew its top down in Southeast Asia, where the remains of Krakatoa lie today. Krakatoa was, itself, a tiny little pimple left over from that supervolcano.The supervolcano spewed out enough ash and dust to create a layer on the bottom of the Indian Ocean eighteen inches thick. The "volcano winter" created by all that gunk in the atmosphere may have lasted as long as ten years. DNA studies, running parallel to the geological studies that told us about the supervolcano, indicated that around 50,000 years ago the entire human population of the Earth was reduced to about 5,000 individuals. That's technically extinct. It took us only 50,000 years to get to 6,000,000,000.* I don't think "we" have a whole lot to worry about.
*Actually, a lot less than that. Around the time of Julius Caesar, the entire human population of the Earth was about 250,000,000.
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Darren De Vouge
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 December 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 3586
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | 8
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back then you could not fit them in a suitcase.
*************
Not that you would even need to, but that's hardly the point.
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Robert Oren
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 March 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1209
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | 9
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J.B. WROTE: It took us only 50,000 years to get to 6,000,000,000.
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But what happens when we get to 12,000,000,000. or more ?
in the 70's we were at 3,000,000,000 we almost doubled in 36 years !
what can we do? no i'm not going defeatist on you guys but i do ask the question?
what's next?
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Robert Oren
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 March 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1209
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | 10
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Not that you would even need to, but that's hardly the point.
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darren the point i was making was some madman can just blow a city to nothing with a suitcase. a far cry from planes dropping them
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Jason Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 3938
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 11
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Live long enough and you'll find out? Or you'll die and then it won't matter to you?
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Jason Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 07 August 2006 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | 12
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A bunch of cities getting wiped out by nuclear suitcase bombs = the end of the world? Not likely.
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Topic Closed)
