Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below
napsgear
genezapharmateuticals
domestic-supply
puritysourcelabs
UGL OZ
UGFREAK
napsgeargenezapharmateuticals domestic-supplypuritysourcelabsUGL OZUGFREAK

Stephen Hawking has a question for you

Questions typically get between 6 and 10 replies.

Dr. Hawking's got 17,000 hits on the first day.
 
superdave said:
The world has always been like this, yet here we are.
Click to expand...
there are more people alive right now than have ever died. it can't go on like that.
 
superdave said:
The world has always been like this, yet here we are.
Click to expand...
True
A lot of the shit we see going on now, has been perpetrated by man against man, brother against sister, for untold millenia.
As a race we are perhaps marginally better than we were 500 years ago.
Any improvements we have, I believe have been due to social awareness & the democratic system. Even within those 2 paradigms, however, its been 3 steps forward, 2 steps back.
I hate to question Mr. Hawking's judgement, but I believe the timeline should be 1,000 years, not 100.
 
PICK3 said:
Is that true? That's fucking mind boggling.
Click to expand...
it most certainly is....ever have a tank full of guppies and they keep breeding? or rats? eventually disease cures the overcrowding.
 
PICK3 said:
Is that true? That's fucking mind boggling.
Click to expand...
I think the world's population right now is around 6 1/4 Billion.
In 100 years it could be 20 Billion. Where are they all gonna live? Does G.S. have enough Karma for them all. At current population growth rates, about 15 billion are gonna be Muslim.
 
HiDnGoD said:
I hate to question Mr. Hawking's judgement, but I believe the timeline should be 1,000 years, not 100.
Click to expand...

I certainly don't have the comprehension of the subject as Dr. Hawking either, but I think there's a possibility of events going awry that could speed the time table up drastically, e.g. mutations in the food chain, environmental catastrophes, or man made disaster to include nuclear war.
 
PICK3 said:
I certainly don't have the comprehension of the subject as Dr. Hawking either, but I think there's a possibility of events going awry that could speed the time table up drastically, e.g. mutations in the food chain, environmental catastrophes, or man made disaster to include nuclear war.
Click to expand...
On the other hand, humanity has shown an amazing ability to rebound from disasters.
Personally, I think all wars should be faught hand to hand. It's a lot more gruesome, & demoralizing for the participants. And if nations wipe each other out, there's always more people to take their place.
 
HiDnGoD said:
On the other hand, humanity has shown an amazing ability to rebound from disasters.
Personally, I think all wars should be faught hand to hand. It's a lot more gruesome, & demoralizing for the participants. And if nations wipe each other out, there's always more people to take their place.
Click to expand...


Terminators will soon fight our wars for us, at least until they become self aware and turn against us.
 
On the animal side of things, the brachiopod Lingulaa is probably the oldest, having existed nearly unchanged for over 500 million years, and the horseshoe crab (limulus) has been on the planet for several hundred million years, too. Since the average "lifespan" of a species is only a few million years, having such ancient species around is very impressive

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oct2000/970670539.Ev.r.html

lol, i seriously doubt humans will be around a few million years though. simpler seems to last longer.

The very oldest species on Earth are the cyanobacteria, which seem to have been around virtually unchanged for nearly 4 billion years. This is based on fossils of that age that have been compared under high-powered microscopes to existing species of these bacteria. Other bacteria that are about as old are the archaea, which thrive in acidic, high- temperature, or high-radiation environments.
 
for a guy so smart, he's so stupid.

The past few thousand years we have had WAYYYY more wars, diseases, disasters, genocides and oppression. And we somehow survived, even tho our ancestors suffered dearly.

Life today is a GODSEND compared to prior history - so lol @ him thinking that we are on our way to disaster. They predicted that too in the past.

Society-wise we're better-off than ever. Politically - we have more democracies than ever. Even in regions that have been dictator-run most of their lifetime.

Environmentally - if you ignore the hippies, the sky is not falling. First it was global cooling, now global warming. I live in a city full of smog, yet we still have healthy in-shape people. The world is bleeding, but FAR from a disaster.
 
all that will be left of the earth is my cock. and one day aliens from a far away galaxy will come and find HT's penis and their conclusion will be that humans were a race of giants and probably had the universes happiest women.....
 
Razorguns said:
for a guy so smart, he's so stupid.

The past few thousand years we have had WAYYYY more wars, diseases, disasters, genocides and oppression. And we somehow survived, even tho our ancestors suffered dearly.

Life today is a GODSEND compared to prior history - so lol @ him thinking that we are on our way to disaster. They predicted that too in the past.

Society-wise we're better-off than ever. Politically - we have more democracies than ever. Even in regions that have been dictator-run most of their lifetime.

Environmentally - if you ignore the hippies, the sky is not falling. First it was global cooling, now global warming. I live in a city full of smog, yet we still have healthy in-shape people. The world is bleeding, but FAR from a disaster.
Click to expand...

There's no telling when the breaking point will be reached.
 
Razorguns said:
for a guy so smart, he's so stupid.

The past few thousand years we have had WAYYYY more wars, diseases, disasters, genocides and oppression. And we somehow survived, even tho our ancestors suffered dearly.

Life today is a GODSEND compared to prior history - so lol @ him thinking that we are on our way to disaster. They predicted that too in the past.

Society-wise we're better-off than ever. Politically - we have more democracies than ever. Even in regions that have been dictator-run most of their lifetime.

Environmentally - if you ignore the hippies, the sky is not falling. First it was global cooling, now global warming. I live in a city full of smog, yet we still have healthy in-shape people. The world is bleeding, but FAR from a disaster.
Click to expand...

big difference between throwing rocks, spears, arrows, and swords, between chemical weapons, precision missiles, and the heavily built up areas that could suffer with precision bombing. the capacity for casualties and death is much higher. we have more efficient weapons. its like saying back in the 1800's athletes used to run at a certain pace, but nowadays they run faster. its more effective training and more efficient means. yes our medicine is advanced and disease etc doesn't claim the vast numbers that it used to.

environmentally....if you listen to anyone aware of manufacture and industry...there is more $hit in the world. more toxins, more byproducts of production, more waste.

society....yes we're getting better. more education and more experiences make people more open minded, and informed about things.

life is way better than it has been but you have to wonder when it will hit its zenith. the exponential rate at which technology is increasing (in just the past 50 years alone) is what is making us feel advanced, not our mindset.
 
HiDnGoD said:
On the other hand, humanity has shown an amazing ability to rebound from disasters.
Personally, I think all wars should be faught hand to hand. It's a lot more gruesome, & demoralizing for the participants. And if nations wipe each other out, there's always more people to take their place.
Click to expand...

Dr. Hawking thinks that our ability to survive past 100 more years is dependent on us finding suitable living quarters in space.

Quote from the article: In a speech June 13 in Hong Kong, Hawking said the survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth.

He said that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
 
Interplanetary exploration/colonization is critical to sustaining human life in the future. This is the most tantamount means of ensuring that the human race will survive thousands of years from now. Factors sucj as Population increases/diseases/wars/famine/environmental changes etc... deem that we need other places to sustain ourselves. Let us not forget that even if we as a human race don't kill ourselves, we are still populating at an exponential rate. Let us not forget that a meteor the size of a mile in diameter can decimate most living organisms in this planet. Those that would survive would plummet back into the stone age. Our government along with NASA know this. Hence, space exploration is venturing out into new frontiers not disclosed to the general public.
 
Trojan Horse said:
Interplanetary exploration/colonization is critical to sustaining human life in the future. This is the most tantamount means of ensuring that the human race will survive thousands of years from now. Factors sucj as Population increases/diseases/wars/famine/environmental changes etc... deem that we need other places to sustain ourselves. Let us not forget that even if we as a human race don't kill ourselves, we are still populating at an exponential rate. Let us not forget that a meteor the size of a mile in diameter can decimate most living organisms in this planet. Those that would survive would plummet back into the stone age. Our government along with NASA know this. Hence, space exploration is venturing out into new frontiers not disclosed to the general public.
Click to expand...

I want to go to "Planet of the Babes"
 
HiDnGoD said:
True
A lot of the shit we see going on now, has been perpetrated by man against man, brother against sister, for untold millenia.
As a race we are perhaps marginally better than we were 500 years ago.
Any improvements we have, I believe have been due to social awareness & the democratic system. Even within those 2 paradigms, however, its been 3 steps forward, 2 steps back.
I hate to question Mr. Hawking's judgement, but I believe the timeline should be 1,000 years, not 100.
Click to expand...
The hundred years points to the pressing urgency in the figures, the number crunchers punch in the data and project current trends into the next century or further till they reach a point of saturation. A hundred years also makes it more personal and realistic. It may not have a huge affect on you but it will certainly have an impact on your children and so on. Asking people to consider the state of the human race in a thousand years is taking things into realms of science fiction and wild imagination, it no longer becomes real.

The way Hawking has worded the question seems to be almost a rhetorical statement rather than an open question. "Sustain," to keep it going, to maintain. Put simply imo he's saying the course we're on, how humans live their lives, their present values, is not working and cannot carry us into a bright future because if we can't work out how to live together in harmony after thousands of years with a handful of people how are we going to live together when there's standing room only.

Those arguing that life is much better today than it has ever been are completely missing the point. They need to take off those rose tinted glasses, look further than their nicely trimmed lawn and think about at what cost to the past, present and future does that comfortable life they're leading now come? Of course humans have made advances in science and technology which have been used to improve the quality of life for those that can afford it but none of that progression has been able to solve the same old problems humans have had since the year dot, that of war, strife, pestilence, hunger, poverty etc etc. Those problems aren't getting better, they’re not going away and when magnified by future projection become a rather bleak view for the next generation.
 
So fuckin what... i wont be around in 100 years so I could care less if everyone turned into some green goblins or the whole planet went kaboom....
 
superdave said:
The world has always been like this, yet here we are.
Click to expand...

Actually this is far from the truth. The first half of our planet's existance didn't even have life forms. I'm guessing it was pretty calm and peaceful back in Paleozoic times.
 
PICK3 said:
I want to go to "Planet of the Babes"
Click to expand...


Yea, "The Planet Of the Amazon Babes", where men are scarce and sought after by the masses. I seen a movie like that sometime ago. Some man explored to a planet where it was inhabited by all these glorious babes who took the man hostage/slave and had their way with him. They were all vying for their chance to be with him. It basically created an inserection. I'm sure it caused the man to have alot of erections also.
 
Trojan Horse said:
Yea, "The Planet Of the Amazon Babes", where men are scarce and sought after by the masses. I seen a movie like that sometime ago. Some man explored to a planet where it was inhabited by all these glorious babes who took the man hostage/slave and had their way with him. They were all vying for their chance to be with him. It basically created an inserection. I'm sure it caused the man to have alot of erections also.
Click to expand...

yeah ... that will work
 
HumanTarget said:
there are more people alive right now than have ever died. it can't go on like that.
Click to expand...

Nah. There have been about 50 billion humans in human existence of about 150,000 years. Right now we have about 6.5 billion. So about 9% of humans that have ever lived are alive right now. It is still an impressive number, but it isn't 50%.

I am worried about environmental damage, but I don't think it will destroy humanity. It will just set us back a bit. I don't think we are in social or political chaos by any means as these institutions are alot more fair and representative than they have ever been in human history. Now that we live in an era of global media and 'if it bleeds it leads' mentalities we think the world is falling apart.
 
JayC9 said:
Of course humans have made advances in science and technology which have been used to improve the quality of life for those that can afford it but none of that progression has been able to solve the same old problems humans have had since the year dot, that of war, strife, pestilence, hunger, poverty etc etc. Those problems aren't getting better, they’re not going away and when magnified by future projection become a rather bleak view for the next generation.
Click to expand...

You're wrong though.

Poverty - About 1/6th of humanity lives in severe poverty. In 1970 41% of the world lived in desperate poverty (living on $1 a day or less PPP) now it is about 15% in 2006.

http://www.ncpa.org/iss/int/2002/pd061102f.html

War - The theory of the democratic peace shows that liberal democracies almost never declare war on each other. The entire world is converting to liberal democracies.

Pestilence - More people in the developing world die of cardiovascular disease than die of poverty (13 million a year vs 8 million). Keep in mind that $1 a month in pharmaceuticals (blood pressure meds, homocystiene drugs, baby aspirin) can cut CVD rates by 90% or more so those 13 million deaths are unnecessary. Humans are able to cure 95% of diseases and of the remaining 5% we know alot about how to stop them. Child mortality ratings in the poorest parts of africa are much better than in europe of 300 years ago.

Hunger - right now 1/8th of humanity suffers from chronic malnutrition. In 1970 it was about 1/3-1/4 of humanity.

Infant mortality is down by 33% in the last 2 decades. More kids are in school than were a few decades ago.

Right now in 2006 we have the technology to make massive dents in hunger, HIV, malaria, CVD and other issues in the poor world. The only issues where things have gotten worse is HIV and malaria. Even those are treatable and avoidable though.
 
Trojan Horse said:
Interplanetary exploration/colonization is critical to sustaining human life in the future. This is the most tantamount means of ensuring that the human race will survive thousands of years from now. Factors sucj as Population increases/diseases/wars/famine/environmental changes etc... deem that we need other places to sustain ourselves. Let us not forget that even if we as a human race don't kill ourselves, we are still populating at an exponential rate. Let us not forget that a meteor the size of a mile in diameter can decimate most living organisms in this planet. Those that would survive would plummet back into the stone age. Our government along with NASA know this. Hence, space exploration is venturing out into new frontiers not disclosed to the general public.
Click to expand...

Human population isn't exponential though. Once a country obtains moderately competent healthcare people stop having more than 2 kids per couple. It happens all over the world. Look at total fertility rates. 2/3 of countries have less than 3 children per woman, and almost 100 have less than 2.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html

Human population will supposedly stabalize at about 10 billion.

As far as an asteroid, we are on the verge of having the technology to avert a meteroid attack. We can use things like solar heat to propel asteroids out of earth's path. we are under 100 years away from a planetary defense system that can prevent asteroids from hitting earth.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/12/1211_031211_asteroids.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

stevesmi
10 reasons to avoid GMO's
Replies
12
Views
4K
stevesmi
stevesmi
-SD-
Low IQ and Conservative Beliefs linked to Prejudice
2 3 4
Replies
336
Views
54K
Spartacus
S
RonPrice
Arguably the First Writer: To Use the 'F' Word
Replies
0
Views
2K
RonPrice
RonPrice
hanselthecaretaker
Interesting piece: How to prevent the "End of America"
Replies
6
Views
2K
-SD-
-SD-
shirlene29
the internet is a strange place
Replies
52
Views
9K
nangiggles
nangiggles
Top Bottom