this is kind of a broad discussion topic. so whats scares you the most about the future? a lot of us are in our 20s and 30s, some younger, and i think everyone understands there could be a lot of scary shit in the future. so anyways, heres a couple i came up with.
- nuclear war - obvious. several unstable/hostile states now have nukes and several more are bound to join the club soon. pakistan's government could easily fall any day since its pro-western stance is extremely unpopular. plus theres a large amount of radical muslims and huge influence by tribal leaders. plus they've been at war with nuclear rivals india 3 times in the last 50 or so years. i don't even have to say anything about north korea or iran.
- peak oil - oil is already peaking and will start to consistently decline over the next 30 to 50 years until it runs out. but it won't take that long for shit to hit the fan. think about if in 20 or so years we only have half the current oil supply, think about the huge prices for oil and gas, transportation will have to be changed, everything from food production to anything else will be effected. don't give me that "we'll adapt to alternative fuels" crap. that will be extremely hard to impose through the whole economic system in the US alone, forget about the rest of the world. even if we do make big changes, china and india have skyrocketing growth and oil demand.
- global warming - don't really need to say anything here.
- terrorism - not really a big deal, it'll always be a nuisance. i can see a big attack involving WMD in the future but i think worse things can happen.
- disease - huge pandemic? bird flu? who knows.
- dystopic future - increasing government surveillance, increased internet regulation and censorship. if more small scale terrorist attacks happen i can see the government assuming more control over civil liberties. its bound to happen with the kind of stuff that could be happening in the future. we already have radio frequency identification chips on US passports that can be tracked by the government. the UK are getting similar things on their national ID's (when they're introduced).
Post subject: Re: what scares you about the future?
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:34 am
Of Counsel
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
invention wrote:
- dystopic future - increasing government surveillance, increased internet regulation and censorship. if more small scale terrorist attacks happen i can see the government assuming more control over civil liberties. its bound to happen with the kind of stuff that could be happening in the future. we already have radio frequency identification chips on US passports that can be tracked by the government. the UK are getting similar things on their national ID's (when they're introduced).
Post subject: Re: what scares you about the future?
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:53 am
Supersonic
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:34 am Posts: 12029
punkdavid wrote:
invention wrote:
- dystopic future - increasing government surveillance, increased internet regulation and censorship. if more small scale terrorist attacks happen i can see the government assuming more control over civil liberties. its bound to happen with the kind of stuff that could be happening in the future. we already have radio frequency identification chips on US passports that can be tracked by the government. the UK are getting similar things on their national ID's (when they're introduced).
i also thought of another one. the US has been declining in its hegemonic power for the last 2 decades or so while other powers have been slowly gaining on us. the dollar's value had been steadily dropping, while our international political authority is on the wane. china and india's economies have been growing at about 10 percent and 7 percent while we're growing at like 1 to 3 percent. eventually they'll be catching up to us unless something big happens in the future like manufacturing and corporations moving out of china into cheaper countries like brazil. who knows what would happen if the US is challenged as the sole superpower. we could see another cold war bipolar type system or even something like WW1 with many powers propping up.
Post subject: Re: what scares you about the future?
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:02 am
Supersonic
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:43 am Posts: 10694
invention wrote:
punkdavid wrote:
invention wrote:
- dystopic future - increasing government surveillance, increased internet regulation and censorship. if more small scale terrorist attacks happen i can see the government assuming more control over civil liberties. its bound to happen with the kind of stuff that could be happening in the future. we already have radio frequency identification chips on US passports that can be tracked by the government. the UK are getting similar things on their national ID's (when they're introduced).
i also thought of another one. the US has been declining in its hegemonic power for the last 2 decades or so while other powers have been slowly gaining on us. the dollar's value had been steadily dropping, while our international political authority is on the wane. china and india's economies have been growing at about 10 percent and 7 percent while we're growing at like 1 to 3 percent. eventually they'll be catching up to us unless something big happens in the future like manufacturing and corporations moving out of china into cheaper countries like brazil. who knows what would happen if the US is challenged as the sole superpower. we could see another cold war bipolar type system or even something like WW1 with many powers propping up.
It's not saying a lot that your GDP grew 8% when over half your population lives in urban slums or extreme rural poverty...
Post subject: Re: what scares you about the future?
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:53 pm
Supersonic
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:34 am Posts: 12029
LittleWing wrote:
invention wrote:
punkdavid wrote:
invention wrote:
- dystopic future - increasing government surveillance, increased internet regulation and censorship. if more small scale terrorist attacks happen i can see the government assuming more control over civil liberties. its bound to happen with the kind of stuff that could be happening in the future. we already have radio frequency identification chips on US passports that can be tracked by the government. the UK are getting similar things on their national ID's (when they're introduced).
i also thought of another one. the US has been declining in its hegemonic power for the last 2 decades or so while other powers have been slowly gaining on us. the dollar's value had been steadily dropping, while our international political authority is on the wane. china and india's economies have been growing at about 10 percent and 7 percent while we're growing at like 1 to 3 percent. eventually they'll be catching up to us unless something big happens in the future like manufacturing and corporations moving out of china into cheaper countries like brazil. who knows what would happen if the US is challenged as the sole superpower. we could see another cold war bipolar type system or even something like WW1 with many powers propping up.
It's not saying a lot that your GDP grew 8% when over half your population lives in urban slums or extreme rural poverty...
Are you really scared?
it doesnt matter if half of china's population lives in complete poverty. their economy is completely booming. sure, it could pose a hindrance to future growth and they'll probably have to deal with it in the future, but a lot of them are completely left out of the capitalist system. its not like the government is going to start worrying over benefits for rural farmers. the US has like 50 million people below the poverty line and that hasnt stopped us from becoming the sole superpower.
Give me back my broken night my mirrored room, my secret life it's lonely here, there's no one left to torture Give me absolute control over every living soul And lie beside me, baby, that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex Take the only tree that's left and stuff it up the hole in your culture Give me back the Berlin wall give me Stalin and St Paul I've seen the future, brother: it is murder.
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions Won't be nothing Nothing you can measure anymore The blizzard, the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul When they said REPENT REPENT I wonder what they meant When they said REPENT REPENT I wonder what they meant When they said REPENT REPENT I wonder what they meant
You don't know me from the wind you never will, you never did I'm the little jew who wrote the Bible I've seen the nations rise and fall I've heard their stories, heard them all but love's the only engine of survival Your servant here, he has been told to say it clear, to say it cold: It's over, it ain't going any further And now the wheels of heaven stop you feel the devil's riding crop Get ready for the future: it is murder
Things are going to slide ...
There'll be the breaking of the ancient western code Your private life will suddenly explode There'll be phantoms There'll be fires on the road and the white man dancing You'll see a woman hanging upside down her features covered by her fallen gown and all the lousy little poets coming round tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson and the white man dancin'
Give me back the Berlin wall Give me Stalin and St Paul Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima Destroy another fetus now We don't like children anyhow I've seen the future, baby: it is murder
The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology announced on September 25 that the National 863 Program have initiated more than 4,500 projects on a combined basis in the 10th Five-year Plan period(2001-2005). These projects, witnessing smooth progresses, have achieved phase results, or breakthrough progresses. The following are some examples:
The Shuguang and Legend supercomputers have surpassed a threshold speed of a trillion times per second. The Shuguang 4000A supercomputer, with a speed of 11 trillion times per second, ranks the top ten among the world's top 500 supercomputers. The development makes China the third nation following the US and Japan in the world, capable to develop and manufacture high performance supercomputers that offer a speed over 10 trillion times per second.
The project "computer farming" under the Program won the grand prize at a world information summit sponsored by the UN. The project has established 23 application demonstration zones in 22 mainland provinces and municipalities, covering some 800 counties and benefiting more than 7 million farmers. The project has also extended its applications to Vietnam, ASEAN countries, and African countries.
China's rice genome study has taken the leading position in the world. Chinese scientists have completed the full rice genome sequencing charts and patch work for refined charts. China has also verified, located or separated more than 100 candidate genes of important functions.
China produced new biomedicines and vaccines for mass production. The recombinant Adenovirus injection for cancer treatment, the first of its kind in the world, has entered the trial production phase. Six other proprietary national new drugs, including therapeutic peptide for hepatitis B, new Lymphotoxin,and drugs preventing early pregnancy, have entered clinic testing stage.
Chinese scientists have achieved breakthroughs in breeding high yield species. Huahang No. 1, the first space-born rice species approved by the state authorities, have grown in a total area of 2.5 million mu(1mu=0.0667ha.) on a combined basis.
China has so far completed all technical developments and personnel training for establishing a semi-conductor illuminating source industry, which will eventually bring a revolution to the industry.
During the 10th Five-year Plan period, China had landed an all-round breakthrough in mastering the key technologies for manufacturing 12-inch single-crystal silica disk, with all the material indicators compliant with the technical requirements of a 0.13 micron IC for silica. China has developed a monthly capacity for 5000 disks, alleviated the material shortage for producing super large scale IC.
The new material part of the 863 Program has made China, a country producing 90% of the world's rare earth, become a development and production center for rare earth permanent magnetic materials. China's new lithium battery materials reach a world advanced level in terms of the performance. The development has broken up the restrictions imposed by foreign manufacturers on China for high volume, high security and longevity anode materials. The super strength steel study has greatly improved the performance of traditional carbon steel.
China has also achieved an all-round breakthrough in superconductor applications. The successful griding of high temperature superconductor power cables makes China the third nation following the US and Denmark in the world able to run superconductor power lines in grid.
China's successful development of key infrastructure technologies broke up overseas technical blockades. The newly developed sophisticated digital instruments and devices have found applications in major industrial projects, including ship thruster propeller processing, large airplane components processing, missile body and gyroscope's sophisticated processing, processing hydraulic power generator's vanes that are used in the project shipping natural gas from the west to the east, and processing high speed shafts used in feeding the north with the water from the south.
China has successfully employed medical robots to perform 607 brain surgical operations. New functions, including visual identification, focus tuning and online remote control, has been added in the surgical robots of the 4th generation.
Electric automobile studies have achieved phase results. China has mastered the key proprietary technologies for manufacturing electric automobiles' dynamic system and components. Many of these technologies have reached an internationally advanced level.
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