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Our dystopian present

Off-Topic discussions about science, technology, and non Debian specific topics.
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golinux
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Our dystopian present

#1 Post by golinux »

May the FORK be with you!

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sunrat
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Re: Our dystopian present

#2 Post by sunrat »

Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four are not science fiction any more. I'm glad I'm getting on in years as the future is frightening. I think climate change and environmental pollution are more threatening to life on this planet than privacy though.
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Re: Our dystopian present

#3 Post by dilberts_left_nut »

sunrat wrote:Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four are not science fiction any more. I'm glad I'm getting on in years as the future is frightening. I think climate change and environmental pollution are more threatening to life on this planet than privacy though.
Indeed.
All that gathered data won't be worth much when the power goes off.
AdrianTM wrote:There's no hacker in my grandma...

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golinux
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Re: Our dystopian present

#4 Post by golinux »

sunrat wrote:Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four are not science fiction any more. I'm glad I'm getting on in years as the future is frightening. I think climate change and environmental pollution are more threatening to life on this planet than privacy though.
Indeed. Speaking of environmental collapse . . . I think I have posted this link before but it definitely deserves an encore:

http://vhemt.org

Really black humor describing where we're headed . . .
Q: What if we fail to voluntarily phase ourselves out?

We can’t predict the future, but if we keep going where we’re going, we’ll probably get there.

If we fail to voluntarily phase ourselves out, two collapses are likely: global civilization and Earth’s biosphere. Our global economic system will still collapse as all pyramid schemes do, but that’s just money: an abstract concept. Unlike money, we need the biosphere and, to a lesser extent, civilization to survive.

Our failure to prevent civilization’s collapse would naturally lead to a population bottleneck, a dieoff. Although what’s left of the biosphere could then recover, the magnitude of human suffering and misery would exceed the worst end-of-the-world dystopia movie ever made. It would certainly be worse than everyone foregoing the experience of co-creating a new person.

Civilization’s collapse might delay collapse of the biosphere, or it could make it worse. Containment of radiation and other toxic wastes depends on sustaining civilization’s technologies. Nuclear power plants can’t be safely decommissioned without some serious equipment in the hands of knowledgeable humans.

Our failure to voluntarily go extinct would allow the largest extinction event in 65 million years to play out. If we disappear before the biosphere collapses, cascading extinctions would continue until a relative equilibrium reestablished itself. The level of biodiversity from which Earth’s ecosphere recovers depends on how soon we disappear. If we hang on until ecological collapse wipes us out, all higher-order species are likely to go with us. Based on previous mass extinctions, biodiversity will recover in about 10 million years.

Enough information is available for each of us to imagine the future we are creating. Timing and degree of degradation require speculation, but the most difficult challenge is overcoming our wishful thinking about the future. Facing reality often discourages us at first, and denial can be comforting. Awareness has its costs, but so does willful ignorance. Indeed, our ignoring of evidence and history got us where we are today.
May the FORK be with you!

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Re: Our dystopian present

#5 Post by ruffwoof »

Seemed like only weeks ago when they were saying the global population had risen to 7 billion ... now 7.7Bn. My guess is that as the world becomes just one large village that a biological crisis will spread rapidly across the globe.

Many are aware that the horrors of WW1 saw millions killed (around 10 million soldiers), whilst the flu pandemic around the same time killed 5 times that number ... and quicker.

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Re: Our dystopian present

#6 Post by None1975 »

A major economic crisis is coming. Upon approaching such a crisis, we will see what we have not seen before. What happens next? The restriction of all freedoms and the fascist regime.

Capital is afraid of lack of profit or too little profit, as nature is afraid of emptiness. But once sufficient profit is available, capital becomes bold. Provide 10 percent, and the capital agrees to any use, at 20 percent it becomes lively, at 50 percent it is positively ready to break his head, at 100 percent he violates all human laws, at 300 percent there is no such crime for which he would not risk at least under the gallows fear.
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Re: Our dystopian present

#7 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

ruffwoof wrote:My guess is that as the world becomes just one large village that a biological crisis will spread rapidly across the globe
Grey goo ftw! :mrgreen:

Whatever the final mechanism of extinction may be, the end does seem inevitable — the only rational solution to the Fermi Paradox is that all self-aware creatures extinguish themselves (or are extinguished) before they can attain a post-scarcity economic & social model.
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Re: Our dystopian present

#8 Post by CwF »

Every so often I polish up my operation deep freeze ashtray and it reminds me we are no closer to the end of times as we are to the beginning.

I'm always entertained by the notion of life as an OS, with all the opinions and perspectives contained within the 'localizations'....

Any end for 'our' way will not necessarily come from any damage we think we've done, but just as easily the 'solutions' we propose.

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Re: Our dystopian present

#9 Post by stevepusser »

And don't count on a coalition of extremely advanced aliens sending an AI with basically weakly godlike powers to perform an Intervention on us as part of saving Gaia (the AI was very close to exterminating Homo sap as part of that, but eventually decides to salvage us) as in the book, Rejoice, a Knife in the Heart.
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Re: Our dystopian present

#10 Post by golinux »

CwF wrote:Any end for 'our' way will not necessarily come from any damage we think we've done, but just as easily the 'solutions' we propose.
Unfortunately in our world the solutions ARE most often responsible for the damage. The only lasting solutions are not external but internal. Our actions are the only thing under our control. IOW the solutions are within not out there. We'd better choose wisely.
May the FORK be with you!

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