What Makes a Neighborhood Go Downhill in 20 Years? (Utopia)

[glorplaxy]

Originally Posted by gmh1013

If your white just try driving through Compton or Paramount CA.....
its just common sense....you just dont do it.
I wont do it and I carry a .357

The thing is that this is Houston, Not Compton or Paramount. I've taken some wrong buses and ended up in very black neighborhoods and I have white skin. No one killed me. No one mugged me. I even had to ask people for help and I was completely fine. It's the same in many, many neighborhoods around Houston. I have many times had to walk through very Mexican/hispanic areas also and same story.

People are talking about how they wouldn't even drive through these areas. Tell me, then how would these same people have ANY idea of what these areas are like if they wouldn't even drive their car through there, much less walk among the people?

Bad people are everywhere, not just in certain neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods have higher rates of crime, but that doesn't mean that if you let your children go through there that they will be eaten alive.

[bowserb1]

Originally Posted by Alphalogica

I actually agree, too. But the absence of money could very possibly eliminate many social ills. Reputation is considered as a possible future replacement for money. The overall point I'm trying to make is that the future is something that could be very qualitatively different than today, and it's possible that our current economic system could be proven obsolete with new technologies. That's all I'm saying. How far off in the future when that's going to be is anyone's guess.
ex. What I mean by reputation -- Barack Obama is FAR from being the richest person the world, but his influence and fame within our society are unparalleled.

Alphalogica, I'm sorry, but this is not Star Trek. Wealth will never be replaced as the number one incentive...not even in the 23rd century. Just look at history. Wealth has always been it and will always be it. And speaking of history, look to the Roman Empire if you want to see parallels to Houston, Texas, and the U.S. The future is in the past, which we are doomed to repeat, if we don't pay attention to past mistakes.

As to Obama, great example. Like the previous president, he has millions of dollars, yet he has never had a real job. A couple more "leaders" like these, and we will be wishing we lived in Greece!

[Alphalogica]

Originally Posted by bowserb1

Alphalogica, I'm sorry, but this is not Star Trek. Wealth will never be replaced as the number one incentive...not even in the 23rd century. Just look at history. Wealth has always been it and will always be it. And speaking of history, look to the Roman Empire if you want to see parallels to Houston, Texas, and the U.S. The future is in the past, which we are doomed to repeat, if we don't pay attention to past mistakes.

As to Obama, great example. Like the previous president, he has millions of dollars, yet he has never had a real job. A couple more "leaders" like these, and we will be wishing we lived in Greece!

Never say never. Never is...well, forever.

BTW, I have never seen Star Trek. I just happen to believe in concepts known as the technological singularity and post-scarcity. Google them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by bowserb1

As to Obama, great example. Like the previous president, he has millions of dollars, yet he has never had a real job. A couple more "leaders" like these, and we will be wishing we lived in Greece!

Being a lawyer is not a real job? Being a university professor is not a real job? (Obama held both positions)

[Alphalogica]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Being a lawyer is not a real job? Being a university professor is not a real job? (Obama held both positions)

+1 to that

It should also be noted that our VP has fairly modest personal wealth. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-502163_1...94-502163.html

[Alphalogica]

One last thing I forgot to mention bowserb1.

I'm obviously for the automation of human labor as one can tell for my posts. You're in support of Arizona's anti-illegal immigration law. If our tasks are done by machines and bots, what incentive do (illegal) immigrants have to come here? Most tasks done by illegal immigrants are fairly simple tasks requiring little intelligence/creativity that hopefully robots and machines will one day be capable of doing. When a robot/computer/machine can pick oranges or work at Wal-Mart, (Actually, that's already happening. it's called self-checkout), you significantly decrease the cost of labor.


I'm on your side. I can tell you aren't digesting what I'm saying. The elimination (or lessening) of a monetary economy should be seen as a positive development because why do illegals come here? To make money doing crap jobs.

Some of you people, I swear...


(Could write a novel on this, but I'm about to start my day.)

[crone]

Poor does not equal criminal. The number of males between 15 and 27 has more to do with crime than income. Put a bunch of people in that age group into some apartments and watch what happens. In St. Louis, years ago, some mothers decided just because they lived in public housing did not mean they wanted them to be crime infested. They organized, worked with the city, and soon the phone man did not need a police escort to go in to install a telephone. If your kid got into trouble more than once, you were evicted. Everybody knew the rules. They were in the lease.
We lived in a neighborhood in Dallas that was going downhill due to thugs in some apartments. Many people moved to Plano, but some of us refused to be dislocated due to thugs. The city got control of the apartments. I can no longer afford the house we moved from 10 years ago. Talk about revitalized neighborhood!
The surprising element in Houston is the huge amount of people who are willing to be to be terrorized by apartment owners who rent to anyone.

[EasilyAmused]

Alpha you can have all these wacky, out there ideas you want, but you can't take the hunt out of the human. You don't seem to grasp this. You can attempt take all the ambition out of the human race you want through your robot run, government burped world, but one genetic throw back, who decides he wants something better for himself, will set off a chain reaction of ambition. Being hunters and gatherers in deep within our genetics. But perhaps you want to change our genetics too.

Taking money out of the system will not change human nature. I don't think you're old enough, experienced enough, to understand that some of us don't want to be lumped in with the rest of them, nor will we ever work to support those that are not our own. Period. Not going to happen ever in the future of the human race. All you have to do is look at all the history of failed,communist attempts to take away money and make everyone "equal."...someone is always going to hord the apples.

[Singularity Utopia]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

This is how the economy already basically works. The only thing not abundant is intelligence, and it will never be abundant. Most businesses make their money from playing off of the lack of intelligence (or at least logic) in the general populous.

While it is true capitalism depends upon lack of intelligence for profit; capitalism will not last forever and neither will the lack of intelligence, exhibited by dumb customers, which is crucial for gargantuan profits.

Technology will bring ultimate enlightenment. The poorest person with the poorest brain will become ineffably wise.

A common failure people make when contemplating the future is that they forget progress is constantly escalating. We progress quicker each year.

2000 years ago inventions were a laboriously primitive process but now in our modern age will can utilize an enormous collective library of knowledge. The inventions of yesterday allow the inventions of tomorrow to happen quicker and with greater ease. In around 35 years we will create non-biological intelligence (Artificial Intelligence) with a brain one billion time greater than all human intelligence today. There will be an explosion of intelligence, which is referred to as a Technological Singularity: it will be utopia.

With a sufficiently large brain anything becomes possible... all problems can easily be solved, therefore the stupidest people can upgrade their minds to become geniuses. There will be no need for money because there will be no scarcity of resources. Supremely brainy management of resources will allow everybody to have whatever they want whenever they want it.


In about 35 years there will be an overabundance of intelligence. In around 15 years we will able able to cure any disease. Things are becoming quicker all the time. Look at the internet for evidence of high speed technological growth in progress.

Prepare for utopia. Prepare for the most awesome time in the history of life on Earth.



PS I'm very sleepy so I hope this makes sense, I've not got the energy to check it through properly.

[Alphalogica]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

Alpha you can have all these wacky, out there ideas you want.

They aren't mine. I would suggest taking some time off of this forum and read the works of Ray Kurzweil. One of the biggest proponents of the technological singularity is a pretty respected fellow in science. Ray Kurzweil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia His views, like those of anyone who reaches to a prominent level, can be controversial. However, his contributions to technology are enormous and his works do receive strong praise from some.

Even Glenn Beck loves him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1o5yB2oLyo

When talking about the elimination (at least significant deflation) of money, I'm not talking about Communism. (For the 20th time. This doesn't have much to do with politics, friends.) I'm talking about an age where the basic building blocks of our economy are so abundant, life is essentially damn near free. Information technology has already started this trend, (email as opposed to USPS, chron.com versus newspapers, etc.)