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10 comments:
What will the world be like 100, 500 or 1,000 years from now? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
Oy-yoy-yoy--
Dude-- EXTREMELY pessimistic. Fatalistic, tbh.
HB
Yeah, it's kind of a toss up; either we'll get past all the petty crap that divides us now and end up with an egalitarian (dare I say Utopian) world, or things will get so divisive that humanity can never claw itself back from the Darwinian hellhole we spiral into.
Looking around at the way things are going today, I'd say it's 50/50.
Oh, great. Finally one of these follow the leaders that doesn't have as many questions as a mid-term, and the topic makes me want to curl up under a blanket and never come out. I mean, I *want* the optimistic future of Star Trek, but man, events since pretty much the start of this century have really taken the wind out my sails...
I am optimistic. Once the Baby Boomers of the USA die off, things will improve dramatically. The US economy is still relatively large and a major shift towards “making things better” here will serve as a world-wide catalyst.
My ultimate guess is that the west will then need to pay for lesser developed countries infrastructure (India, China) just like Sweden invested in East Germany and Poland as the best way to improve Sweden’s air quality.
Well Colin, I'm pretty much an eternal optimist. I always try to see the best in people and in situations, and hope for the better outcomes for us all. It's kind of odd; the experiences I've had in various careers have brought me into close contact with many kinds of folks, from many ethnic and religious backgrounds. I've had overwhelmingly positive experiences, and find most folks are decent and just want to make a living. I firmly believe that there is more that we share in common than things where we differ.
That said, it can be...challenging....to maintain that optimism. As several have noted, events in recent years have been disheartening to say the least. But like I tell my wife, if the remaining positive thinkers give up hope, what hope can the world derive from the pessimist?
With your ok, Colin, I'd expand your topic slightly to consider pop cultural examples of the future. It seems many of them tend to the negative, but like Edo, I'd hope for that Star Trek future...
One vision of the future that has always stuck in my mind is Logan's Run - a domed city where the population lives in comfort with all their needs and desires catered for but everybody has to die on their 30th birthday in the chilling Carousel ceremony...
Capricorn 15,
Year of the city 2274,
Carousel begins...
(But the ending of the film is ridiculous - the city-controlling computer can't cope with the fact that "Sanctuary" doesn't exist so it explodes and destroys the city. All the inhabitants pour out and discover the aged Peter Ustinov, thus realising that they can live to be old...hooray, a happy ending. OH, REALLY??? All those city dwellers are like children, the computer did absolutely everything for them their entire lives. How could they possibly survive in the outside world ? After a few days they'd lynch Logan and Jessica for destroying their comfortable lives).
Colin- another 'future vision' that I liked was that of Arthur C Clarke in "2001" and "2010". At the time the films were released, those futures were not really so far off. It is an interesting exercise to see how much of those films were accurately fortelling the events of recent years. We do have a space station, video phones, and orbiters around the Jupiter system. No passenger service to the moon, though. Incidentally, I recently read about the finding of some kind of anomaly beneath the lunar surface. Never heard any details, but am waiting to see coverage of a big black monolith...
Red, I agree about "2001". I haven't seen "2010" but I did read the novel when it first came out. I've also read "2061" and "3001".
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