Topic Tuesday #8 2012/09/11 "Tomorrow Land"
If you have been reading some my previous Topic Tuesdays, you have probably figured out, I am a bit of a futurist. I try to look at the big picture and see where will be in the years ahead. There are a lot of variables here and no one can pretend to be able to see the future with any certainty. Regardless of those obvious shortcomings, I look to the future. Today's topic is future related as well, but rooted in the present. With a simple query, I pulled up the estimated population of earth. Wolfram Alpha and Apple were kind enough to furnish the graphic. http://www.worldometers.info/ Has live counters for much of this information aggregated from the sources that keep track. Simply put, we have approximately 7 billion people onboard spaceship Earth. Estimates have that number rising to around 10 billion by 2050. That estimate doesn't take things like medical improvements and social infrastructure proliferation, which will make the number larger. What's the point to all this? What are we supposed to do with that many human beings on the planet? How will we feed them? Where will they live? What will they do to work? How will they entertain themselves?
Now think about this... I just gave you a bunch of numbers and here is the one that matters: 38.
The scenario played out is only 38 years away. This is within most of our lifetimes. It's not Star Trek future; it's 401k retirement future. This is just not that far away... In America, we do not face the over crowding issues of nations like China, India and Japan. That doesn't mean America won't have to in the near future. Scenarios like overcrowding, famine, water shortages always highlight science for me. I saw a recent NASA estimate that terraforming Mars, will take a whopping 480 years and 5 trillion dollars (that's the complete deal, no suit required, go play fetch with fido in the park, time frame). 480 years, call it 500 years, is 400 years too late to handle the issues we will have here, but in doing research towards those ends, we will discover amazing things that we can use here. Imagine, the problems that come with restarting an entire planets biosphere to make it habitable for you and me. I think we might find a few way to clean up this planet in the process. One day, people may realize, its about all of us, and not just about getting a better rate of return on your 401k. Our legacy, is our future as it is being written now. Will we live in enormous arcologies?
Will we resort to blood sport and de-humanize ourselves to control population? It's only a few decades away. What do you think?
Topic Recap: in 38 years, the population of Earth will rise by 3 billion people to 10 billion+. How will we handle that? And what about the future beyond that? How/where will we live with this many people in the year 2100?
If you have been reading some my previous Topic Tuesdays, you have probably figured out, I am a bit of a futurist. I try to look at the big picture and see where will be in the years ahead. There are a lot of variables here and no one can pretend to be able to see the future with any certainty. Regardless of those obvious shortcomings, I look to the future. Today's topic is future related as well, but rooted in the present. With a simple query, I pulled up the estimated population of earth. Wolfram Alpha and Apple were kind enough to furnish the graphic. http://www.worldometers.info/ Has live counters for much of this information aggregated from the sources that keep track. Simply put, we have approximately 7 billion people onboard spaceship Earth. Estimates have that number rising to around 10 billion by 2050. That estimate doesn't take things like medical improvements and social infrastructure proliferation, which will make the number larger. What's the point to all this? What are we supposed to do with that many human beings on the planet? How will we feed them? Where will they live? What will they do to work? How will they entertain themselves?Now think about this... I just gave you a bunch of numbers and here is the one that matters: 38.
The scenario played out is only 38 years away. This is within most of our lifetimes. It's not Star Trek future; it's 401k retirement future. This is just not that far away... In America, we do not face the over crowding issues of nations like China, India and Japan. That doesn't mean America won't have to in the near future. Scenarios like overcrowding, famine, water shortages always highlight science for me. I saw a recent NASA estimate that terraforming Mars, will take a whopping 480 years and 5 trillion dollars (that's the complete deal, no suit required, go play fetch with fido in the park, time frame). 480 years, call it 500 years, is 400 years too late to handle the issues we will have here, but in doing research towards those ends, we will discover amazing things that we can use here. Imagine, the problems that come with restarting an entire planets biosphere to make it habitable for you and me. I think we might find a few way to clean up this planet in the process. One day, people may realize, its about all of us, and not just about getting a better rate of return on your 401k. Our legacy, is our future as it is being written now. Will we live in enormous arcologies?
Will we resort to blood sport and de-humanize ourselves to control population? It's only a few decades away. What do you think?
Topic Recap: in 38 years, the population of Earth will rise by 3 billion people to 10 billion+. How will we handle that? And what about the future beyond that? How/where will we live with this many people in the year 2100?