This isn't a "sky is falling" or a "going to hell in a handbasket" thread, it's a literal question. What is the world coming to? Can the future even be predicted with any reasonable accuracy anymore? I was just listening to an interview with Jamie Metzl, author of Hacking Darwin (haven't read it) and he was talking about the exponential rate of technological advancement and how we typically only think of that in terms of cell phones and servers, but it applies to many fields across the board. A quite important and often overlooked field, them implications of advancements in genetic modification (of humans) could radically affect the difference between what we expect and what the future holds. Something that he said made me envision a future for my daughters in which when they become of child-bearing age, they will have intense societal pressure to give birth to GMO babies. The same kind of pressure that currently exists for me, to have my kids vaccinated. The overwhelming implication that it would be incredibly irresponsible not to.

These genetic alterations could/would result in children with higher IQ, higher disease resistance, better athletic performance, longer life expectancy, and so on. And the butterfly effects resultant... Over a few generations of this, super humans. Whatever country perfects this first, likely becomes the new global super power. China is already doing it, and their government, unbridled by checks and balances, is free to roll this out virtually overnight as law, and then what? Our freedoms in the USA preclude a tit-for-tat response like the space race or the nuclear arms race.

I'm not making a judgement either way about vaccinations or GMO babies, that's not what this is about. It's about a not-so-distant future that's no-so-unlikely, and radically different than I imagined. This is just one example; how many other areas of human existence am I not considering? Who could know all the things at play and stitch all their exponential trajectories together into point of convergence that represents an (even murky) vision of the future? This isn't like predicting the future in the early 1940's, when it pretty much only hinged on the outcome of the war. This seems, from my limited perspective, to be a headlong sprint into the abyss of the unknown. I hope it leads to only good things, but I know too much about human nature to place any bets on it. I hope my GMO grandkids as well as their GMO counterparts on the other side of the world are programmed for boundless altruism. I think that's the best I can hope for.

 

This isn't a "sky is falling" or a "going to hell in a handbasket" thread, it's a literal question. What is the world coming to? Can the future even be predicted with any reasonable accuracy anymore? I was just listening to an interview with Jamie Metzl, author of Hacking Darwin (haven't read it) and he was talking about the exponential rate of technological advancement and how we typically only think of that in terms of cell phones and servers, but it applies to many fields across the board. A quite important and often overlooked field, them implications of advancements in genetic modification (of humans) could radically affect the difference between what we expect and what the future holds. Something that he said made me envision a future for my daughters in which when they become of child-bearing age, they will have intense societal pressure to give birth to GMO babies. The same kind of pressure that currently exists for me, to have my kids vaccinated. The overwhelming implication that it would be incredibly irresponsible not to.

These genetic alterations could/would result in children with higher IQ, higher disease resistance, better athletic performance, longer life expectancy, and so on. And the butterfly effects resultant... Over a few generations of this, super humans. Whatever country perfects this first, likely becomes the new global super power. China is already doing it, and their government, unbridled by checks and balances, is free to roll this out virtually overnight as law, and then what? Our freedoms in the USA preclude a tit-for-tat response like the space race or the nuclear arms race.

I'm not making a judgement either way about vaccinations or GMO babies, that's not what this is about. It's about a not-so-distant future that's no-so-unlikely, and radically different than I imagined. This is just one example; how many other areas of human existence am I not considering? Who could know all the things at play and stitch all their exponential trajectories together into point of convergence that represents an (even murky) vision of the future? This isn't like predicting the future in the early 1940's, when it pretty much only hinged on the outcome of the war. This seems, from my limited perspective, to be a headlong sprint into the abyss of the unknown. I hope it leads to only good things, but I know too much about human nature to place any bets on it. I hope my GMO grandkids as well as their GMO counterparts on the other side of the world are programmed for boundless altruism. I think that's the best I can hope for.

In my opinion the answer is quite simple. If (a big if), the collective survives, it would be a different species for all intents and purposes. I watched a documentary in Netflix about a guy in California promoting biohacking. But I also think that, as much as I would like to believe in a positive outcome, human nature will prevail, and we will seize to exist. There will be huge turmoil due to economic instability (look at south america right now) and most of the population will be wiped out, along with technology. However is left will have to start over. Sometimes I wonder how many of these cycles have we gone through already?

"Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge" Farenheit 451

 

I hope my GMO grandkids as well as their GMO counterparts on the other side of the world are programmed for boundless altruism.

Thus literally sacrificing their (necessarily valuable) lives for the least valuable among us.

If (a big if), the collective survives...

I hope the collective suffers a horribly painful death while the world sees a resurgence of individualistic spirit.

 

Thus literally sacrificing their (necessarily valuable) lives for the least valuable among us.



I hope the collective suffers a horribly painful death while the world sees a resurgence of individualistic spirit.

You really should reread on what happened in French and Russian revolutions. What is coming will be far worse.

 

Just wait until the population crunch really has drastic effects and there is world wide famine, it will be too late then for most!.
Humans are no longer self sustainable, The days of the hunter gatherer are LONG gone!
Max.,

 

Just wait until the population crunch really has drastic effects and there is world wide famine, it will be too late then for most!.
Humans are no longer self sustainable, The days of the hunter gatherer are LONG gone!
Max.,

Not just that, but the disconnect between the have and the have nots is probably larger than it has ever been...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/01/chile-climate-cop-25-conference-summit-atlantic
The meeting was cancelled because people are dying in Chile. Argentina is on the brink of collapse as well and all we are fed is news about these brainwashed children? The globalist agenda is hard at work. What I find most frightening is the rise of special interest groups and shuting down of any discourse/discussion.

 

In the not too distant future, I predict that mankind will discover how to extend the human life-span by a significant number of years (very possibly indefinitely). Once that happens the world is doomed.

 

Ever hear the song, "In the Year 2525"?

And before a certain member starts in on me, it makes as much sense as Atlas Shrugged. They are both works of fiction.

 

Once that happens the world is doomed

Yeah. I heard twelve years.

 

Yeah. I heard twelve years.

You are confusing 2045, when the singularity is supposed to happen, with the climate alarmist that are predicting world will end in 12 years due to irreversible climate changes.

Both are lunatics. Singularity has happened a long time ago with technology running away from us. It is no longer a tool. One must ask who serves whom?

The world will not end in 12 years, but we just might...

 

The world will not end in 12 years, but we just might...

You may be right. But the odds are against it.

 

A world without humans would be very peaceful!

 

A world without humans would be very peaceful!

But... but... but then we wouldn't have AAC!!

 

A world without humans would be very peaceful!

With an attitude like that, you'd make a fine progressive.

 

IMHO, it has always been human arrogance that's caused the greatest non-natural catastrophes ... but somehow humility has been turned into an anti-value and politicians and people in general have a tendency to look at it in contempt anymore... I normally don't give too much importance to doomsayers, but as the world "progresses" more and more, technology is making it the hell of a lot easier for us to kill one another at very large scales.

 

more and more, technology is making it the hell of a lot easier for us to kill one another at very large scales.

+1
We are hardly that different from most other animals, the Human race has always had Tribalism, right up to the present day, just the means to carry it out the decimation has accelerated.
Max.

 

I know a way to quickly reduce the world's population by 11,000.

 

I know a way to quickly reduce the world's population by 11,000.

Whatever those idiots are trying to promote, I can tell you it's not science...

 

Genius isn't created, you can create inept learners, but too innovate needs a mind that doesn't think like everyone else,

• JOHN FORBES NASH, JR. ...
• THOMAS EDISON. ...
• ALBERT EINSTEIN. ...
• LEONARDO DA VINCI.
• its a big list.

would have all been terminated before birth due too learning difficulties. also look at most inventors, 100years ago it was a man in a shed, tinkering away.

 

With an attitude like that, you'd make a fine progressive.

I think that was meant as an insult. For the record, I'm progressive. Better Pro-gressive than Con-gress. I vote religiously. Hows that two forbidden topics in the same post