Stephen Hawking has a question for you

[gjohnson5]

when we say the world are we talking about a global situation or just in terms of the United States. Empires have fallen...

 

[c00per]

Hawking's question: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?"

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[PICK3]

> click <

lol!

 

[EricDraven]

in for later

 

[Lao Tzu]

there are more people alive right now than have ever died. it can't go on like that.

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.

 

[Lao Tzu]

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.

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.

 

[Lao Tzu]

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.

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