Population Bomb

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...Diddly squat, man. That says something. Either they're not talkin', in which case, oh shit how come the forest got all quiet all of a sudden, or else they're usin' somethin' else, and we know enough to know there ain't nothin' else obvious, or they're plain flat not there...

Or else the nearest "them" are too far away to be heard - which is what I was getting at.

One civilization in the Milky Way covers it with von Neumann probes in a million years.

Just sayin'.

Rather depends on the particular civilisation's sense of priorities.

Over a million years? Nawww. It's the easiest, best way to find out what's up in the neighborhood, assuming FTL is impossible (and physics says it is, pretty much. If you're gonna go around denying major physics theories, relativity is not the one to start with).

What I meant is that alien civilisations may not be as preoccupied as we are with finding out what's up in the neighbourhood.

Or were you suggesting we should send out von Neumann probes..?

...

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has said Africans must go to the moon in order to see what developed nations are doing up there.

“The Americans have gone to the moon. And the Russians. The Chinese and Indians will go there soon. Africans are the only ones who are stuck here,” Museveni said, addressing a meeting of the Uganda Law Society in Entebbe.

“We must also go there and say: ‘What are you people doing up here?’.”

http://www.therightperspective.org/2009 ... -the-moon/

Wait.. What..? Is this guy for real?

Just how many other world leaders out there are going to reveal themselves as loony-bin conspiricy nuts?

[Schneibster]

A million years is a thousand thousand. We've only been around for five thousand; we've got nine hundred and ninety five thousand to go.

Do you know what a von Neumann probe is?

[Horwood Beer-Master]

A million years is a thousand thousand. We've only been around for five thousand; we've got nine hundred and ninety five thousand to go.

Do you know what a von Neumann probe is?

Yes. Why?

[Schneibster]

I'm suggesting it's inevitable we will. If we last long enough. And maybe even if we don't.

[Atheist-Lite]

There is no current proof a technologicaly progressive species can survive more than a couple of centuries before nuking its nest.

[Schneibster]

[Atheist-Lite]

Just saying. Whilst every care is being taken to ensure no one is hurt the current crisis in the 'system' presents a unique opportunity to take plausible risks in replacing the sociopaths in high places with more reasonable fellas/lasses. This chance may not come again. It appears to be possible,in light of the coming dollar collapse and its global repurcushions not just in America, for some small window of time to topple those who would rather build nukes and cathedrals as opposed to bases on the moon.

[Schneibster]

If it were that easy all those places where they had revolutions last century would be way better.

They're not.

One person in seven to one in twenty, depending on whose pshrinkology you believe, is a sociopath. The concentration increases to about half when you get to the richest people in the world.

The solutions to that will neither be easy nor will they be quick.

[Atheist-Lite]

If it were that easy all those places where they had revolutions last century would be way better.

They're not.

One person in seven to one in twenty, depending on whose pshrinkology you believe, is a sociopath. The concentration increases to about half when you get to the richest people in the world.

The solutions to that will neither be easy nor will they be quick.

With all these lethal new and old technologies about we may not have the time to evolve our way out of the upcoming train wreck. It may be necessary to learn from the past, culturally as best we can, and then take some potentialy catastrophic measures like a global revolt of the 'rationalists & intelligent creatives' what Desmond Morris calls 'the talents' before things go four legs up anyway? If things get better it won't be by burying our most intelligent heads in the sand and being risk averse? That way we are screwed.

[Schneibster]

Mental hygiene, man.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There is no current proof a technologically progressive species can survive more than a couple of centuries before nuking its nest.

There no current proof that they cannot, either.

[Atheist-Lite]

There is no current proof a technologically progressive species can survive more than a couple of centuries before nuking its nest.

There no current proof that they cannot, either.

A responsible agent of the law will attempt to disarm the person seen wandering around with a lethal weapon, at some risk. Waiting until the day and hoping it will never arrive is bad mental hygeine. I'd call it denial.

[Schneibster]

On the cheery side, one of the answers to the Fermi Paradox is, "We're first in the galaxy." IOW, it's just time for the universe to start intelligent lifeing now and we're it.

[Tyrannical]

So what's the progressive liberal solution for this problem?





The graph probably underestimates the growth of the less developed world as it assumes a decrease in the future. Without that assumption we'd be looking at 11 billion by around 2050. That's another 4 billion in 40 years. Overpopulation is not a serious problem in developed nations, at least as far as our countries and food supply goes.

Famines only occur, well during famines. A few bad years of crops and suddenly vast areas can't support their current population. Developed nations have historically made up the shortfall, but with less developed nations still having such a large population increase a once in a century famine could kill billions. Just not in my country.

The clock is ticking, and it may already be too late without draconian measures. A famine on this scale could kill more people numerically than every other disaster in human history combined. So, what can and should we do

[Atheist-Lite]

The likelyhood of a large scale pandemic cutting back numbers to a sustainable level increases dramatically as the independant bio-hacking community gets to work on the problem of population.