Alan McDougall Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 What do the think will be the most pressing problem or barriers to the ongoing progress of human civilization, or what do you suppose could even halt its progress, in the coming years of even centuries? Can I bounce of the topic with this question, and give my input after receiving a few comments from other members, thank you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Superstition. Belief kills as do asteroids. Evolutionary decay and economic collapse are a larger threat than ever. The chances of plague go up every year. I believe the greatest threat of a new dark ages is suppression of human freedom by the technological elite and business interests. In a decade or two this fear may be seen dated but don't count on it. Trends in this regard are all highly unfavorable and each year people become less responsible for theior actions and already aren't answerable to results. Generally our leaders are only responsible for what they say. This is very dangerous and gets worse every year. I've always said that we'll find a way to muddle through but this looks less likely than in the past. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan McDougall Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Superstition. Belief kills as do asteroids. Evolutionary decay and economic collapse are a larger threat than ever. The chances of plague go up every year. I believe the greatest threat of a new dark ages is suppression of human freedom by the technological elite and business interests. In a decade or two this fear may be seen dated but don't count on it. Trends in this regard are all highly unfavorable and each year people become less responsible for theior actions and already aren't answerable to results. Generally our leaders are only responsible for what they say. This is very dangerous and gets worse every year. I've always said that we'll find a way to muddle through but this looks less likely than in the past. I dont think our leaders always answer what they say , sometimes they lie to the public as is the case of president Obama and the health care event. One real worry to face humanity and its future progress in the uncontrolled population explosion , leading to famine and disease in the very places on earth that are unable to cope with these events Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Climate change and religion, not necessarily in that order. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan McDougall Posted December 22, 2013 Author Share Posted December 22, 2013 (edited) Climate change and religion, not necessarily in that order. 14,000 posts heck when do you find the time to sleep? To add a little meat to the topic, lets consider the possibilities below? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_civilization,_humans,_and_planet_Earth In no particular order Warfare and mass destruction Experimental accident Global pandemic Man-made global warming Ecological disaster Earthquake 11 + World population explosion agricultural crisis famine Geomagnetic reversal Natural climate change Volcanism Megatsunami Asteroid/Comet impact Extraterrestrial invasion Cosmic threats The Doomsday Clock Doomsday clock set to 7 minutes to midnight 1947 Set 5 minutes to midnight 2012, only moved 2 minutes nearer midnight, over that period of 65 years 2 minutes before midnight 1953 (testing of atomic weapons) closest ever to midnight 17 minutes before midnight (USSR dissolves furthest from midnight in 65 years) Edited December 22, 2013 by Alan McDougall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john5746 Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 War and disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekan Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Mass immigration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Mass immigration.Some bad zombie ideas like this never seem to die. I feel like I've been repeating this point a lot lately, but alas... Circumstances apparently warrant it. FYI - http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/31/worried-about-the-economy-then-pass-immigration-reform/ Few economic problems wouldn't be improved by more immigration. If you're worried about deficits, more young, healthy workers paying into Social Security and Medicare are an obvious boon. If you're concerned about the slowdown in new company formation and its attendant effects on economic growth, more immigrant entrepreneurs should cheer you. If you're worried about the dearth of science and engineering majors in our universities, an influx of foreign-born students is the most obvious solution you'll find. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/29/five-things-economists-know-about-immigration/ Economists have tried to put a dollar figure on how much the world economy would grow if we just removed all immigration restrictions overnight. The answer: a lot. Angel Aguiar and Terrie Walmsley modeled the effects of three U.S. policy alternatives full deportation of Mexican immigrants, full legalization and full legalization with increased border control and found, unsurprisingly, that full deportation reduces gross domestic product and the others would add. Deportation reduces GDP by 0.61 percent, legalization with border control increases it by 0.17 percent and legalization without border control increases it by 0.53 percent. Pritchett, meanwhile, compared what open borders would do to world GDP, compared to completely free movement of capital and completely free trade with developing countries. It's not even close. Open borders increase world GDP by $65 trillion. Let me repeat that. $65 trillion with a 't'. The others don't even come close: More here: http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2010/august/effect-immigrants-us-employment-productivity/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekan Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Thanks iNow. But aren't your economic rationalisations a desperate attempt to deny the obvious - mass immigration means the end of America. By 2100 you'll all be speaking Spanish. The USA will be just a third-world Greater Mexico. You gave away the store. Reminds one of the Charleton Heston movie, where he finds the fallen Statue of Liberty on the beach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 aren't your economic rationalisations a desperate attempt to deny the obviousNo. By 2100 you'll all be speaking Spanish.Spanish? We don't even speak English very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prometheus Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 mass immigration means the end of America. By 2100 you'll all be speaking Spanish. The USA will be just a third-world Greater Mexico. Um, speaking Spanish isn't the end of the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viviator Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Lack of understanding (of pretty much everything)I hold the optmistic belief that the more you understand something, the better you would conduct your actions (assuming there is such a thing as 'good' and it's not just the result of people hanging opinions on (historical) events.So, education all the way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimreepr Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 "We've arranged a global civilization in which the most crucial elements -- transportation, communications, and all other industries; agriculture, medicine, education, entertainment, protecting the environment; and even the key democratic institution of voting -- profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces." Carl Sagan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan McDougall Posted December 24, 2013 Author Share Posted December 24, 2013 Thanks iNow. But aren't your economic rationalisations a desperate attempt to deny the obvious - mass immigration means the end of America. By 2100 you'll all be speaking Spanish. The USA will be just a third-world Greater Mexico. You gave away the store. Reminds one of the Charleton Heston movie, where he finds the fallen Statue of Liberty on the beach. How does immigration into the USA equate to the movie,"Planet of the apes"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg H. Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 The biggest problem facing human civilization are the humans that make it up. Our inability to see beyond our own lifespan and plan for future generations combined with our almost willful ignorance of the nature of the world will kill us off as surely as any asteroid impact or nuclear war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 The biggest problem facing human civilization are the humans that make it up. Our inability to see beyond our own lifespan and plan for future generations combined with our almost willful ignorance of the nature of the world will kill us off as surely as any asteroid impact or nuclear war. Indeed. And now days most decisions are being made by business interests who can't see beyond the bnext quarterly report. In an age that quality of services and products is plummeting to pad the bootom line and line the common land fills the business leaders are taking ever more of the "profits" and wanting our thanks for an economy that hasn't yet fallen off the edge. These are perilous times with numerous trends leading tothe cliff face. The most dangerous aspect of "willfull" ignorance is the belief we know everything. War and disease. I should have considered war. I came to believe that all out war became impossible in about 1963 but situations change and history is fluid. There may be some madman (men) who believe they can prevail in nuclear war. One real worry to face humanity and its future progress in the uncontrolled population explosion , leading to famine and disease in the very places on earth that are unable to cope with these events Certainly populationincrease necessarily increase risk of contagion but there's no real limit on the amount of food trhat can be prodiuced given sufficient energy. Or at the very least this limit is far above current production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimreepr Posted December 25, 2013 Share Posted December 25, 2013 (edited) "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." Douglas Adams Edit/ My signature also fits the bill rather well. Edited December 25, 2013 by dimreepr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan McDougall Posted December 26, 2013 Author Share Posted December 26, 2013 "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." Douglas Adams Edit/ My signature also fits the bill rather well. I cant avoid thinking that humanity is something like a virus to our planet, as a virus is to its biological host. We are cutting off the hand that feeds and sustains us in an almost exponential rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Thanks, Agent Smith. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Na9-jV_OJI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoola Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 global over population exaggerating normal problems into a slow death....death by 7 billion cuts.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brockw69 Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I'll simply answer this by using a cliché. If we keep going in the same direction, we are likely to end up at the destination.In other word's, humans could halt the progress of human civilization if we continue to do things the way we have always done things in regard to world finance and so on and so forth. <->Warren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heroprime Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 If you think about it, it already happened once, during the Christian golden age, all scientists were considered sorcerers and were killed, tortured and burned. During this time the human civilisation had almost no progress, so if it will happen again, some sort of religion will rule the entire world and they will reject facts and science, humanity will stop progressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoola Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 human over-population and related effects are a problem for all aspects of the world, not just human progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 If you think about it, it already happened once, during the Christian golden age, all scientists were considered sorcerers and were killed, tortured and burned. During this time the human civilisation had almost no progress, so if it will happen again, some sort of religion will rule the entire world and they will reject facts and science, humanity will stop progressing. I believe we are far too dependent on machines and technology for this to be a problem. We have more to fear from sabotage of the machines. We have most to fear from the widespread belief that people aren't responsible for their actions. Death and destruction are no longer the result of peoples' actions and inactions. They are simply unavoidable because no one tried to cause mayhem. The incompetent are promoted because their intentions are good. The route to hell is paved in gold. m , Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJ Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Ghandi was once asked what he thought of Western civilisation. He thought for a moment and replied, 'That would be a good idea'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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