Yakuza
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I've Got A Restrainin' Order Against Satan's Daughter
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Post by Yakuza on Nov 6, 2008 0:12:22 GMT -5
Food for thought.
What do you guys think will be the next big "thing" to hit the country/hemisphere/world?
The earth is a celebrity, and it seems that every few weeks or months or even years something just HUGE comes along. Whether it be a push or pull force, good or bad, it always happens.
Now when I think of something happening in the next few years, I think beyond war. Im curious just to know what you guys can see coming from the future.
Will food nutrition be exposed as just a placebo effect? Calories, protein, carbs all just a bunch of mumbo jumbo?
Will there be a corollary to the cell phone myth of causing cancer that we wont know about until 50 years of definite exposure?
War?
New disease?
New CURE for disease?
I mean there are actual cars out in the world that can run on sea water, whats stopping them from overpowering the auto market now?
What do you think will happen next?
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Post by gothloli on Nov 11, 2008 1:01:21 GMT -5
Man you're thinking big. I just hope I pass my two nursing exams this week. Beyond that, my mind is so small............. Presently, our advances in the sciences, information and medicine are so overwhelming that I'm actually quite content. What do you desire Yakuza some cyberpunk Ghost in the Shell ish. lol "The internet is vast and infinite" That's good enough for me. hehe OT: HOLLA!!! nice to see the same old same
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Yakuza
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I've Got A Restrainin' Order Against Satan's Daughter
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Post by Yakuza on Nov 12, 2008 4:31:45 GMT -5
I think our advances in science actually go against ethics. Like we overlook important pieces of something just to make a deadline. Bridges, buildings, computers, they all can come back to really harm us if this trend really continues.
Uhh.. actual examples of what I just said... Chernobyl... Tacoma Narrows Bridge... Ford Pinto. I mean its all possible.
I'm just curious is all. I do think that 10 years of testing cell phones while changing with the trends instead of testing each specific series of upgrades could lead to some harsh drawbacks. Its like for the first year we had the flintstone's brick cell phones, we could have tested those for 1 year, then the newest features came out on a completely different type of cell phone and we test that for 1 year. Repeat that pattern and it shows no physical damage to a person who owns a cell phone.
Ethics people. Ethics. I imagine a time even when aliens would visit us, would it actually end up being like a movie and some rogue, renegade country goes off fighting the aliens and they just get obliterated?
Have you even noticed that suicide bombings have gone down in Israel? Are they planning something on a much larger scale?
Basically this topic should be called "what are you paranoid about the most in the future?"
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o8jedi
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Post by o8jedi on Nov 12, 2008 10:40:40 GMT -5
I think our advances in science actually go against ethics. Like we overlook important pieces of something just to make a deadline. Bridges, buildings, computers, they all can come back to really harm us if this trend really continues. Uhh.. actual examples of what I just said... Chernobyl... Tacoma Narrows Bridge... Ford Pinto. I mean its all possible. How is human error and design flaws unethical? Unintended consequences are a reality of existence. It is not as if the Soviet nuclear engineers or construction workers that built the facility at Chernobyl wanted the reactor to leak or the designers of the Pinto thought that by placing the fuel tank where they did that they'd increase the risk of fatality. The only real problem is that they didn't do enough study for all the factors. BTW, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge had no human fatalities associated with it, mostly because everyone was off the bridge to watch the thing go wavey.
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Yakuza
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Post by Yakuza on Nov 12, 2008 20:00:02 GMT -5
Still, you only get one chance to really build a bridge. Thats what design models are for, something they should have done long before. In fact putting a cheap suspension bridge in a valley isnt the greatest idea in the first place. Trusses are the way to go.
God I cant believe I said that.
Consider for a second how fast paced the world is getting, and people want things now. As history progressed, there was more shunning (not exponential, but a gradual increase) going towards proper research and designing of certain parts of the world. Chernobyl was a disaster, yes, but they also relied on a system that got hotter as it worked, not much like the Three Mile Island reactor that got cooler as it worked. History cant repeat itself there, not after the grim ghost town reminder of what Cold War paranoia really can yield. I am just asking is it possible that the unethical decision of pushing designs and constructing buildings could catch up with us?
Theres so much possibility for the future especially with the quick advances and corner cutting our society has taken in the past 100 years in the name of technology and science. And there is also the yin to our yang in that.
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Post by gothloli on Nov 13, 2008 1:06:12 GMT -5
I believe it only matters when when we misuse/abuse what we created, whether intentionally or not. The mere fact of "pushing" design as you say, I find no fault in that. It is our nature, no? Our inner struggle to advance, to survive. Man and every living organism have been doing it since the beginning of time. ( This competition. We're fighting in the "Garden". ) And yet, b/c of our advances in technology we find ourselves, thinking bigger and better, so we naturally want to take it as far as possible. I don't know, I look at it as a way of life. A continuum. So basically to (properly) answer your first question (again) I say yes, I see all those things in the future and more. But that's not what scares me. I'm just scared of radical social order coupled with a destruction and chaos(a beautiful dystopia) if man strays from or falls victim to its "design". Kind of like the Matrix really, how man created the machine, then sadly abuse followed with war and slavery and death, not in that particular order. But I guess I'm so indifferent on this individual topic b/c I see everything and everything catching up with us, on a personal, societal or global level, whether it be science, art, medicine, vice, morality, politics, beliefs, love............................................everything to me is already happening, already in the making. We just have to find our balance.
But what are you asking Yakuza? Do you worry if we will be ready for these advances, if society will be prepared? Or if YOU will be prepared?
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Post by travellingfay on Nov 13, 2008 7:22:24 GMT -5
You are confusing SCIENCE with BUSINESS.
Science is about examining how the universe works. It's great. It helps us understand ourselves and our world, it opens up whole new vistas of awe and wonder. It helps us understand patterns of cause and effect, helps us to predict what will happen in the future, helps us understand what happened in the past, allows us to cure and prevent illnesses, allows us to light the darkness and reach out to one another across the miles using mobile phones, computers, televisions. Science rocks.
But knowledge isn't always used wisely or kindly. People (business people, military people, politicians) will always find ways to turn scientific discoveries to unsavoury or unwise directions. The flip side of medicine is chemical warfare. The flip side of nuclear energy is nuclear warfare.
Sure, it's scary. But do you REALLY think you'd be happy living in the Victorian era? Or in a hunter-gatherer society? People can find ways to manipulate and abuse one another regardless of the technology at their disposal. I know I'd rather have electricity, penicilin, aeroplanes and the internet than live in some pre-Industrial society.
Business is about making money - and indeed, very often it's about making rich people richer. In the pursuit of this aim, corners can be cut, inconvenient research ignored, or honest mistakes made - all of which things come back and bite us in the arse.
But this? Is NOT science's fault. It's the fault of consumer culture, and of capitalism. It's the fault of a culture that prioritises money and things over safety and GENUINE quality of life.
'Kay, that aside - the next big thing (leaving aside the current economic sh*storm) is oil.
Reserves of oil are going to run out in our lifetimes. We're looking at 2030 as our BEST estimate - earlier being entirely possible. And that has ENORMOUS repercussions to every facet of our lives - transportation of people and goods is the most obvious, but beyond that there's all the rest of the everyday stuff of Western existence that's derived from the oil industry - just consider how many thins you use every day are made from plastic. The structure and infrastructure of every Western Economy *depends* on oil. The way businesses work, the way your food is created, processed and transported to your shops, EVERYTHING hinges on oil. And it's nearly all gone.
Consciousness of this particular Sword of Damocles is what's driving America to attack the Middle East, whatever spin might be put on it. The West needs the oil.
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Yakuza
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Post by Yakuza on Nov 13, 2008 14:32:52 GMT -5
You are confusing SCIENCE with BUSINESS. Science is about examining how the universe works. It's great. It helps us understand ourselves and our world, it opens up whole new vistas of awe and wonder. It helps us understand patterns of cause and effect, helps us to predict what will happen in the future, helps us understand what happened in the past, allows us to cure and prevent illnesses, allows us to light the darkness and reach out to one another across the miles using mobile phones, computers, televisions. Science rocks. But knowledge isn't always used wisely or kindly. People (business people, military people, politicians) will always find ways to turn scientific discoveries to unsavoury or unwise directions. The flip side of medicine is chemical warfare. The flip side of nuclear energy is nuclear warfare. Sure, it's scary. But do you REALLY think you'd be happy living in the Victorian era? Or in a hunter-gatherer society? People can find ways to manipulate and abuse one another regardless of the technology at their disposal. I know I'd rather have electricity, penicilin, aeroplanes and the internet than live in some pre-Industrial society. Business is about making money - and indeed, very often it's about making rich people richer. In the pursuit of this aim, corners can be cut, inconvenient research ignored, or honest mistakes made - all of which things come back and bite us in the arse. But this? Is NOT science's fault. It's the fault of consumer culture, and of capitalism. It's the fault of a culture that prioritises money and things over safety and GENUINE quality of life. 'Kay, that aside - the next big thing (leaving aside the current economic sh*storm) is oil. Reserves of oil are going to run out in our lifetimes. We're looking at 2030 as our BEST estimate - earlier being entirely possible. And that has ENORMOUS repercussions to every facet of our lives - transportation of people and goods is the most obvious, but beyond that there's all the rest of the everyday stuff of Western existence that's derived from the oil industry - just consider how many thins you use every day are made from plastic. The structure and infrastructure of every Western Economy *depends* on oil. The way businesses work, the way your food is created, processed and transported to your shops, EVERYTHING hinges on oil. And it's nearly all gone. Consciousness of this particular Sword of Damocles is what's driving America to attack the Middle East, whatever spin might be put on it. The West needs the oil. Okay so lets assume science is strictly pursuit of knowledge. And that capitalism is just the pure exploitation of science. Its plausible. I mean I know this is a horrible example, but in the Resident Evil series, Dr. Ashford creates a virus that can reanimate dead tissue, his daughter walks again, and shes great. But the military comes and steals the virus and creates zombies etc. etc. But I'm also talking about how things dont happen in the movies as they happen in real life. Those scientists sell out pretty fast with their inventions. There are no covert operations to go and steal them from a laboratory, they just buy them straight out of the scientists hands. Im not saying down with science and advancements, Im just asking for a little bit more ethical treatment of their own creations, to avoid hunter-gatherer rebirth in society, victorian era buildings, zombie apocalypse, etc... Its sorta comforting to know that we have oil reserves in the event of a total oil tapout... but its also kinda depressing to think that we probably will be too hyped up about losing all of our oil to really think of a great alternative. Everyone knows the west needs the oil, but once the economy turned into what it was and oil prices as high as they were, people just got absolutely fed up with driving. You saw how rapidly they decreased in price per gallon. I read somewhere that the people who control the prices really didnt plan on a decrease until late October. They started dropping like mid September even. This sudden realization pushed many oil tycoons to start investing in alternative fuels, which, as sad as I am to say it, might lead to another monopolizing on their part and basically the same thing we are seeing now with price fixing and massive hording. Here's a secret, its called getting a license to print money. If you can make a power grid that can hold electricity, you'll never need money again. You make 23 football field sized solar panels out in the desert in New Mexico and a generator to hold that charge when no one is using it, you'll power the United States for 2 weeks at a time. That solve our energy crisis so fast it would probably end up ripping a hole in the space-time continuum... not to mention a few pockets
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asian malaysian
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Post by asian malaysian on Nov 17, 2008 22:12:56 GMT -5
HG Wells explored in fiction the dangers that can occur when the pursuit of scientific knowledge is unyoked from social responsibility and morality. George Carlin explored in humour the paradox of a society with technological and material advances seem to have far outstripped social advances. With the search for knowledge deemed an exclusively human charactersitic, science cannot help but be considered as noble an endevour as any humanity has ever envisaged. Having said that, the human perspective of the scientist himself with all it entails should never be lost.
Anyway, in my view the next new thing will be the old thing played out with more urgency. We have to get off the oil addiction and on to Next Generation Fuels. War, famine, disease and poverty have been so instrinsic to the human experience since it was first recorded they hardly seem worth the mentioning.
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Yakuza
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Post by Yakuza on Nov 18, 2008 13:09:05 GMT -5
That is a little bit depressing that famine, disease and poverty have reached... ignoring levels I guess? Like we, as leaders of the world, have seen and accepted these problems as the truth and a true concern but not a primary concern. I mean you leave disease out in a village for 100 years and let it mutate beyond human recognition, and you have a genuine class A problem on your hands. The only problem (besides money) is that there is just too many fingers in too many pies all around the world. We go into a country and some leaders are too paranoid to let any Americans intervene with their population (we do have a pretty notorious history of spreading propaganda, though).
I actually think we will see a heavy heavy sabotage to the oil industry soon. I just have that feeling that some Iran-backed militants will attempt to destroy an oil shipment or hijack an oil tanker just in spite of American capitalism. Realistically, Im hoping Americans have seen that its not the end of the world once they get out and ride a bike or a bus once in a while. When people mess with our oil, bad things have happened. We lose interests and business in the middle east and we go batsh*t insane. Its not the most mature response but its bascially the only one we know.
Soft power < hard power.
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