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I think that there will be a sharp drop in living standards in the near future... how sharp depends on how resilient people are, but climate change is going to definitely spark wars that have a potential to spill across borders... especially in the tropical countries.
Various crops will no longer be feasible, and our diets will shift towards more GMOs as they will be the best way to resist the effects of climate change and produce enough food to feed everyone. I think people will probably have indoor gardens/greenhouses-- aquaponics seems promising.
Technology will rely on donations from the wealthy, who control practically all of the political, military and economic power... basically, we will have universal neo-feudalism. It won't be totalitarian nightmare per se-- more like various states within nations with extremely weak central governments, some of which will be more livable than others, each attempting to deal with the problem in their own way.
Technology has the potential to solve our problems but without global distribution and affordability of those technologies it isn't necessarily likely that they will help people, especially if the economy has collapsed... which is likely if climate change starts too many more wars like Syria and Darfur. Look at the AIDS crisis and you will see an example of how science works under capitalism-- the poor countries are basically cut out of the loop. And with the cost of fuel rising, it is unlikely that this pattern will change.
In the developed world people will protect themselves with A/C and private, portable environments that allow them to live blissfully impervious to the harsher elements, while elsewhere deaths from heat waves and extreme weather events will rise and life will become unbearable, causing them to seek refugee status (which will not be granted as the numbers increase), or turn to terrorism/war to survive.
These wars/terrorist actions will inevitably spill into country after country, met with predictable responses until finally someone does something desperate-- nuclear weapons could even be involved. At this point either the UN/NATO will intervene, or possibly evolve into something more terrifying... it is also possible that it will dissolve completely because they simply lack the means to deal with the crisis.
Capitalism needs to be completely dismantled and replaced with a global socialized system of medicine, housing, food and power generation or there will be a massive collapse and tyranny will rise. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it is a pattern seen throughout history and given what we are facing there is absolutely no reason to believe that it will be any different.
If there is no change in our consciousness/economic/political systems, it is a matter of whether or not our technology can stay ahead of the damage-- but it probably won't. We will get through the crisis point but there could definitely be a large-scale conflict or a global fascist system which will need to resort to extremely drastic measures in order to impose order on the masses if it is going to avoid collapse.
If there is a massive shift in consciousness and it comes in time, then it is possible to avert complete disaster... but there is still the matter of whether or not it will be possible to deal with a diminished crisis... the result could still be the same, only I suppose the fascist order would have a greater chance of survival.
I think it will be great when there are no more secrets.
The death of privacy seems dystopic to me. But maybe I'm wrong and it'll be comforting and reassuring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BluntBoo
As for authority having too much information? Good.
Governments and corporations holding all the information on everyone and everything seems dystopic to me, but maybe I'm wrong and there'll be no coercion, tyranny, or abuse as a result.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BluntBoo
...all people really want is someone who will give them something to do...
A populace that has lost the will, ability, or desire to think or act for themselves seems dystopic to me. But maybe I'm wrong and it'll be blissful and freeing.
Why? Why would water in the Southwest just disappear?
The main point is how man has dammed/diverted the natural rivers to irrigate The southwest to make it inhabitable in ways human want it to be rather than living in the dry and dusty old west. Palm Springs is in the middle off the desert but is a green oasis due to irrigation. That is the kind of thing that will go away when water becomes more of a premium and it becomes impractical to sustain those areas through irrigation.
At the rate things are going, the future will be what is predicted in Star Trek... no, don't get your hopes up... I don't mean the future of spaceships, aliens, and a great life for all. I mean the future - the 2020's to be exact - shown in the Deep Space Nine episode "Past Tense" (parts 1 and 2.)
There, a crumbling world economy led the US to created "sanctuary districts" to house the poor, the unemployed, the mentally ill, and the criminals. It was far cheaper than actually FIXING any of the problems, and by confining them and hiding them from the world, the dwindling middle and upper classes could pretend all was well... right up until the riots broke out.
You can read more in the link below, but Deep Space 9 was terrifyingly prescient with these episodes. The callous "solution" to the problem - almost reminiscent of death camps - is exactly what would be done today, and the time line is right on schedule given the current still-crumbling economy and vanishing resources.
Read more here, and let's hope that this nightmare remains science fiction:
I think it will be great when there are no more secrets. As for authority having too much information? Good. They will keep the peace at any price and all people really want is someone who will give them something to do. It seems to be tabu for people to accept the reality that they need and want direction. Those who don't will deal with it just as those who do will complain but be happier for it.
Why is that bad?
You want to live as a slave? That is what you are describing. You want cameras in your house so some authority figure can keep watch on you and assure you have no privacy or secrecy within your own home? Who keeps tabs on them? No one as they are the ruling class. there lies the fallacy in your logic. I don't know where you get the idea people want/need overseers. Prisoners/slaves have overseers that wake them up, tell them to make/eat breakfast, tell them what they are going to do for the good of the collective for the day, tell them when they can break for lunch, tell them when they can go home to a house full of cameras, when they can go to bed and then wake them up to do it all the next day. That's why it is bad. Most people would rather die than live in tyranny.
The death of privacy seems dystopic to me. But maybe I'm wrong and it'll be comforting and reassuring.
Governments and corporations holding all the information on everyone and everything seems dystopic to me, but maybe I'm wrong and there'll be no coercion, tyranny, or abuse as a result.
A populace that has lost the will, ability, or desire to think or act for themselves seems dystopic to me. But maybe I'm wrong and it'll be blissful and freeing.
Who wants to live in dystopia? Not I or many others I know.
At the rate things are going, the future will be what is predicted in Star Trek... no, don't get your hopes up... I don't mean the future of spaceships, aliens, and a great life for all. I mean the future - the 2020's to be exact - shown in the Deep Space Nine episode "Past Tense" (parts 1 and 2.)
Excellent. I remember the episodes well.
I've been watching the Canadian series Continuum which mainly takes place in 2014 but has constant ties to a dystopic (but not post-apocalyptic) 2077 shown through flashbacks (flashforwards?). It's quite good in the way it explores many facets of society in 2077 and the roots of the changes in 2014.
I dont know if I have detailed answers to the questions your raise here, but I think future technologies are going to be able to solve many of these problems -- including water shortage.
It was called one of the most innovative companies of 2014. This and many other similar technologies can solve these problems ... just give it a few years.
Originally designed to hydrate troops in severe combat situations, Water-Gen created a water generating unit that turns air moisture into drinking water. That's right: It creates water out of thin air. The solar or electric-powered water generator, which can sit on the ground or in vehicles such as tanks, produces between 10 and 20 gallons of fresh, cold, drinking water per day.
For California, Water-Gen's water-generating technology has great potential to serve those located in the state's Central Valley, a large, dry and rural area.
I read the article and watched the video. This is not new, the military has been using similar machines for years. The issue is that these machines only produce a small quantity of water,article said 10-20 gallons and the video said that only 5-20 gallons are possible per day.
These work fine for human use but farming uses factors more water then humans. If you had to use these to make water for plants, you would need 1 machine for every 2 to 5 plants. The average farm field has a million plants. This is not economical and if we used these to grow vegetables we will all starve.
I'm currently using several gallons of water per tomato plant per day. It takes 65 days for the plant to start producing eatable produce and the plant will produce (in a good year) 1/2 bushel of tomatoes over the next 2 months. Doing the math says that 3 gallons of water per day times 125 days equals 375 gallons of water times 2 equals 750 gallons for 1 bushel of tomatoes. Now, how much was the power usage costing to run 1 machine 24/7 for 125 days?
If you have never farmed, the amount of water needed for just a little produce is amazing and completely misunderstood by none farmers.
Why? Why would water in the Southwest just disappear?
There is no water in the Southwest, its all brought in from other locations. Phoenix gets all their water from the Colorado river. The Colorado river is at all time low levels. The level on the river is so low that to keep Hoover damn running and producing power, they are lowering their water input shafts at an expense of 100 million dollars or they would have to shut down the power production of the damn. Per the officials at the damn, without spending the money they would be shut down within a few years.
Also, not many know this but California has 100% rights to the water on the Colorado river per a legal arrangement signed by both states back in the late 1800's, it still valid today. Arizona will suffer from this has soon as California decides to take Arizona to court.
Post-apocalyptic. Realistically, there are many trends happening right now which will force some major changes upon humanity, and I'd guess the most likely outcomes would not be good.
Population growth, limited resources, and the destruction of global ecosystems. This has been warned about for decades, but eventually humanity will be forced to address it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely that we will be able to colonize other planets anytime within the next 200 years (if that - faster than light travel is not realistically possible, and terraforming Mars would take too long), and this problem will likely come home to roost well before then.
When true artificial intelligence is implemented, humans will be rendered worthless. Even if the AI does not turn against us, it will make it so that any job could be done for a fraction of the cost that a human could do it. A true AI system which is sentient and self aware could have intelligence far beyond what any human is capable of. Robotics technology would be developed in minutes that human engineers couldn't develop in decades, and the robots would replace all low skilled labor. The AI systems themselves would replace all white collar work. Who knows what the ramifications of this will be, but likely it will lead to the vast majority of people having no real political power, since they will no longer have any value. Combine this with the fact that global governments are becoming more and more centralized, where concentration of power is held by a few, and you have a recipe for the enslavement/destruction of humanity by the elite few. When the elite few no longer need the rest of us thanks to true AI, do you really think there could be a positive outcome?
Increased proliferation of nuclear devices and other weapons of mass destruction - There is no stopping this. It is becoming easier and easier for weapons of mass destruction to be created and used by those who shouldn't have access to them.
Future energy sources could destroy us all - things like antimatter bombs could potentially destroy the entire planet, far easier than nuclear fusion or fission bombs. As we tap into more and more potent energy sources, the risk to humanity becomes greater and greater. Ironically, future energy sources like antimatter reactors are what could save us and allow us to colonize other worlds, but it's also what could destroy us first.
I think the best case scenario is that something happens where most of humanity is wiped out, and the reboot button is pressed on human history.
Last edited by hazergore1198; 06-04-2014 at 11:50 PM..
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