How CONVENIENT That I Live At This Particular Time

[Petersko]

I am a firm believer that my brain chemistry holds the sum total of that which is "ME". I came into being when my brain reached the complexity necessary to support my self-aware consciousness.

As such, I did not exist prior to 1970. And, as a matter of course, I cannot directly confirm that the universe existed prior to my birth. Nor will I be able to verify it's continued existence after my death.

The history of mankind has primarily been one of slow growth. Socially, economically, technologically... progress was slow. There were significant sudden setbacks, in the form of natural disasters and losses in war... the occasional stifling of progress by religious groups... but slowly we progressed.

Extraordinary individuals contributed occasionally, sparking small leaps forward. Sometimes not so small... Newton, for instance.

And then... suddenly... technology reaches some kind of critical mass, and begins to feed itself - and mankind leaps forward. In the course of 100 years, we suddenly find ourselves facing a future undreamed of before. We went from horse and carriage, to the moon landings. We also face problems that have NEVER been faced by mankind in all of history.

Then, suddenly, one sperm and one egg join to begin the biological process that will result in "ME".

So in this tiny sliver of history - this UNIQUE sliver of history - here I am. Born into a unique age.

I am thankful this slice of time should be the one in which my consciousness formed. It's like winning the lottery before I existed.

 

[Psychonaut777]

I think about this same thing sometimes. It's pretty amazing that we all happen to live *now* if you really think about it. Up until about 1600 things really didn't change rapidly at all and life was pretty mundane. All of a sudden in the last 100 years so much change has happened the world looks entirely different and there are nearing 7 billion human beings.. pretty damn crazy. What will happen in our lifetimes? By the time we die, what will the world be like and what will life be like? How far will humankind have come?

 

[Acidfiend]

Yeah it's amazing and all, but it would have been better if I was born in the age of flying cars

 

[Psychonaut777]

I don't think we'll have flying cars anytime soon. Can you imagine if just the slightest thing went wrong? And I doubt humans could be trusted to drive them - people have trouble merging onto a freeway and that's only dealing with 2 dimentions, can you imagine 3? =P

 

[psychonaut]

we are alive to see the beginnings of the end of the world, I for one feel especially privileged.

 

[nads]

It feels great when your life changes for the better. I'm sure you'd love it if you lived during the period when the first settlers shipped over to the US and you were allowed to just ask for a piece of land and receive it.

 

[Petersko]

we are alive to see the beginnings of the end of the world, I for one feel especially privileged.

That's a pretty pessimistic viewpoint. Why do you believe that?

I'm curious because it seems to me like things are going fairly smoothly. The "end of the world" is a pretty dramatic event.

 

[lostpunk5545]

^ If we continue to use our resources at the rate we are using them now the end of the world is inevitable... technology will not be able to save us...

 

[justsomeguy]

I am a firm believer that my brain chemistry holds the sum total of that which is "ME". I came into being when my brain reached the complexity necessary to support my self-aware consciousness.

I imagine that there are lots of external factors to include in the development of your brain space and in the development and existence of your "me."

 

[Belisarius]

I think it's common to think that we live in some special time because of the events that are going on today, and the things that are possible. But I think that many people throughout history have felt this way; even if they didn't, they probably felt that their life was especially meaningful. We say we wouldn't want to live in A.D. 500, 1600, or even 1900, but the people back then had a different set of values with which to guage the values of their lives, and even those values differed from person to person, as they do today.

In short, though I'm excited to live in the time that I do, I also acknowledge that this is a result of the context of my upbringing and current values.

 

[Psychonaut777]

^ good point belisarius =)

 

[Yggdrasil]

I wish I had been born further into the future. I love technology and the idea of being able to get on the internet via small handheld things. I just wish they were as good as they will be, but of course, if I grew up then I'd wish to be further in the future for things that get even better. Guess we'll never know what it would be like to grow up at two different times.

 

[skywise]

i'm really indifferent to the whole thing. i could have been in "better" or "shittier" times, but this is when i was born so, /shrugs

 

[Petersko]

If we continue to use our resources at the rate we are using them now the end of the world is inevitable... technology will not be able to save us...

I don't know what you're picturing as the "end of the world".

We might suffer economic collapse... we might be forced into a technological recession as we can no longer sustain the levels we have...

But that's hardly the end of the world. Even if we're all forced to go back to living in huts.

 

[Psychonaut777]

When I picture the end of the world I usually see mushroom clouds, not resources being consumed... but thats just me.

 

[Petersko]

Even nuclear winter isn't really the "End of the World". How much animal life and vegetation would die is a pretty controversial subject.

Regardless, it's pretty unlikely. Certainly a whole lot more unlikely than it was, say, 30 years ago.

At this time, no "unstable" government has enough nuclear weapons needed to cause a nuclear winter, nor is it likely that any such government would be able to accumulate the resources necessary to build enough of them.

 

[Psychonaut777]

Between the nations that used to make up the USSR, Pakistan, India, N.Korea, and China.. I'd say that's a fair amount of nuclear power in not so stable hands..

 

[Petersko]

I remember reading Carl Sagan's treatment of the subject of Nuclear Winter. He generally spoke of wars consisting of 2500+ missiles at an average of 2 megatons per missile, although his simulations did show dramatic effects in wars as low as 1/10th of that.

The missiles belonging to the former USSR are *mostly* accounted for and are, in fact, in stable hands. Russia's. While their economy is still trying to rebuild, I don't think anybody questions their sanity.

North Korea claims it is ready and able to produce nukes, but they have not, to date, done so.

As for Pakistan and India, they only recently acquired the technology, and last I heard weren't they talking about ceasing further development? Frankly, getting the raw materials is becoming very difficult.

So you'd have to find unstable countries whose nuclear armament was minimum 500 megatons, and convince them to fire them all, if nuclear winter was the intended result.

Estimated Number of Nuclear Weapons By Country

Pakistan 15-25 Tactical
India 85-90 Tactical
China 120 Tactical 290 Strategic

China has had weapons since the 60's, proving themselves stable.

Pakistan and India can really only throw bombs at each other. Even if they emptied their arsenals, the result wouldn't be global.

And, of course, the only country to actually nuke anybody was the US.

 

[allan51]

I always thought about how cool it would be to be 90 to 100 years old right now, considering the insane amount of changes a person of that age would have lived through - world wars, civil rights movements, and strictly from the technological aspect, the changes that have occured in the past century are quite amazing. I mean even the advances in the past ten years is remarkable.

I guess that leads to how insane the amount of change we will experience in the next 100 years. in that short amount of time I've been on the planet, the internet was born, which in my opinion will be looked upon as a significant chapter in the history of the world. who knows what is next.

just my .02

 

[lostpunk5545]

When I picture the end of the world I usually see mushroom clouds, not resources being consumed... but thats just me.

I'd say that the vision I have of the end of the world meaning a barren polluted world stripped of resources would be more likely than the whole nuclear thing... I think if the nuclear winter thing were going to have happened it would have already...

And when I say end of the world I don't mean in the physical sense, whats left of the world will probably be around long enough to be consumed by the exploding sun. When I say end of the world I mean end of the human race and however many other species we manage to take with us. I'm sure some semblance of life will still be around...

One day we are going to realise that money is just paper, metal, plastic and numbers in a database and none of those are edible, breathable or drinkable...