Do You Have Hope for the Future?

[Terminal Blue]

Accelerate to 1/10 of lightspeed and you can reach plenty of stars within the timespan of a century. EZ. FTL probably won't happen, goes against physics and so on.

Accelerating to 1/10th of light speed is no mean feat though.

If I remember right, back when project Orion ran the numbers, they figured they could get a fairly large (city block sized) spacecraft to around 0.05C by basically converting all the nuclear weapons on earth into pulse charges. But to be honest orion was incredibly optimistic about a lot of things, particularly the kinds of engineering challenges involved.

I think the most likely positive scenario is that rather than heading to other planets, (post)humans begin to harness more and more of the resources available in our own solar system. But I think the coming century or two is going to be a huge challenge and probably the biggest crisis of recent human history, and I really don't see anything good coming for a long time after that.

 

[DarthCoercis]

Yeah, I do. Once my parent's generation (the boomers) die off and my generation starts retiring (or dying, whichever), at least. Most of you millennials and gen-z folks seem to have your heads screwed on right (despite the noisy screechings coming from fringe extremist groups), and I think you'll do a lot better than we older gens did. "Greedy", "short-sighted" and "utterly apathetic" don't often come up in discussions about generational stereotypes when it gets to you younger gens. Once we're out of your way (and your therapists have helped you overcome the ways we've fucked you up), you'll change things for the better.

Just hurry up with that whole "digital consciousness" thing, would ya? I rather like the idea of being around in some form to see how humanity develops over the next few centuries.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, I do. Once my parent's generation (the boomers) die off and my generation starts retiring (or dying, whichever), at least. Most of you millennials and gen-z folks seem to have your heads screwed on right (despite the noisy screechings coming from fringe extremist groups), and I think you'll do a lot better than we older gens did. "Greedy", "short-sighted" and "utterly apathetic" don't often come up in discussions about generational stereotypes when it gets to you younger gens. Once we're out of your way (and your therapists have helped you overcome the ways we've fucked you up), you'll change things for the better.

I hear that, but it isn't so much old people at Nazi rallies with tiki torches or shooting up high schools. Still, fingers crossed.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

as someone who can't remember once said, "if you can't say anything nice, you're probably surrounded by assholes."

or in this case, "governed by assholes, voted in by assholes, defended by assholes."

"asshole" is the kindest descriptor I got right now. any further elaboration will not lend itself to pleasantries

then again, to be frank, am not best equipped to talk of "hope." quite elusive thing. knowing what is cause of a malfunction or not is only more confusion. so this is worthless contribution, fittingly

perpetuating climate change denial should be criminalised, along with anti-vax rhetoric, purely from the harm it will cause everyone. self-harm and suicide are fine (not encouragement of it), they're contained to the individual. but not all this shit. they know they're lying and they don't fucking care. they'd rather see the many slowly suffer and die for the comfort and pleasures of the few. that should not be legal. they're murderous parasites

oops, meant to refrain with "assholes"

nevermind

ignore all that

have a joyous day!

 

[tstorm823]

Would you prefer that people couldn't impact the earth's climate? Would you prefer that we were trapped in Earth's natural cycles that would plummet us into another glacial period that makes half the globe uninhabitably frozen over with no way to grow food?

Man-made climate change is baby's first step into becoming a civilization that can control the environment. It's absolutely true that you need to worry more about a walking toddler hurting themselves than an infant stuck on their belly, but we don't panic and despair and wait for the infant to kill themselves, we celebrate first steps because learning to walk is what will allow that person to take care of themselves.

Humanity has gained the ability to impact the environment on a global scale, and we will inevitably learn to use that power to maintain the climate we need to thrive rather than depend on the coincidental conditions of nature to cradle us gently. That's awesome. Have a little more optimism.

 

[CaitSeith]

I expect really hard times to arrive, and I'm not looking forward to it.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I'm trying to remain positive, but it keeps getting harder and harder everyday... and you people aren't exactly helping...

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Waining.

 

[CaitSeith]

Humanity has gained the ability to impact the environment on a global scale, and we will inevitably learn to use that power to maintain the climate we need to thrive rather than depend on the coincidental conditions of nature to cradle us gently. That's awesome. Have a little more optimism.

Unfortunately that's not the way those who are impacting the global environment see it. Moreover, changing the climate on the opposite direction to undo what has been done is impossible in the current circumstances (a massive coordinated effort is required just to slow down the current trend, and the key people aren't willing).

EDIT: I mean, it would be interesting if we eventually manage to create the means to undo the change, and manipulate the global climate to fit our needs, as the technique could be to terraform other planets; but we need to hurry, because the infrastructure that allows us to do so may be compromised if all resources have to be dedicated to handling the increase in natural disasters and the effects of extreme weather.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

The world's wealthiest people are in a space race to privately develop habitable environments beyond Earth, while actively perpetuating the problems in the first place. Exactly how much hope do you think the rest of us should have at this point?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

I have this feeling too. But I don't think its gonna be a mass human extinction event, or even a world wide dystopia like all these works of science fiction tells us. Those tend to show extremes for dramatic effect.

I hate to break it to you, but the current mass extinction event is actual science, not fiction. It isn't something that is "supposed to come in the future" we are already well into it. You should understand this isn't fiction, it is our actual current reality is the problem. When people discuss "climate change" I think they keep thinking it is something that will happen in the future rather than our current and past changes that have already taking place and are currently taking place in our lifetime:

The Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction, is a current event, and is one of the most significant extinction events in the history of the Earth. This ongoing extinction of species coincides with the present Holocene epoch (approx. 11,700 years), and is a result of human activity.[1][2] This large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods. With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforests, as well as other areas, the vast majority of these extinctions are thought to be undocumented, as the species are undiscovered at the time of their extinction, or no one has yet discovered their extinction. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates.[3][4][5][2][6][7] The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published by IPBES in 2019 posits that roughly one million species of plants and animals face extinction caused by anthropogenic impacts.[8][9]

Read more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction


We have already experienced mass die offs and are living in a time where many of the animals we have known to exist are ceasing to exist. My Biggest concern is if we cannot reverse the current ocean acidification, which is threatening all ocean life. It is not just oceans however, our freshwater is doing the same. This means it will threaten all life in earth, not just our oceans. Our drinking water is becoming more polluted than ever and little is being done to protect and try to reverse this process due to lax regulation from our current administration repealing past efforts.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/like-oceans-freshwater-is-also-acidifying/?redirect=1

Water is life, without it we cease to exist. I think people are being terribly unrealistic in thinking that we can just move to another planet if people destroy this one. In reality, we will never thrive on another planet if we cannot save this one as a base. We will not last to make it to that point if we do not act now. Not little changes, but big changes otherwise it will get ugly fast when we lose our waters. We already know what happens when the waters go, it has happened in our past.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32236676

There is a reason why they have now changed it from "climate change" to "climate emergency" is that it is actually happening much faster than scientists previously thought.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/10/ireland-britain-declare-climate-emergencies-will-it-make-difference/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6299627cfcd3

https://www.apnews.com/89bdd96ba86a445b93a53df09db784b4
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oceans-are-warming-faster-than-predicted/


With all that said, I do have hope that people will pull together and make the necessary changes, they just have to realize they have to do so now, not "some day". For some reason people think this is something that isn't already happening right now and is not extreme. It is and people need a wake up call. I am hopeful they will answer it.

I have hope for the future.. though I am sure people here already know about my <3 for future jungle cities.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The world's wealthiest people are in a space race to privately develop habitable environments beyond Earth, while actively perpetuating the problems in the first place. Exactly how much hope do you think the rest of us should have at this point?

We should be hopeful they are stupid enough to leave off into space so the rest of us can fix what we have here. Maybe we will get lucky and rogue hackers will redirect their ships into the sun.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Yeah, I do. Once my parent's generation (the boomers) die off and my generation starts retiring (or dying, whichever), at least. Most of you millennials and gen-z folks seem to have your heads screwed on right (despite the noisy screechings coming from fringe extremist groups), and I think you'll do a lot better than we older gens did. "Greedy", "short-sighted" and "utterly apathetic" don't often come up in discussions about generational stereotypes when it gets to you younger gens. Once we're out of your way (and your therapists have helped you overcome the ways we've fucked you up), you'll change things for the better.

Just hurry up with that whole "digital consciousness" thing, would ya? I rather like the idea of being around in some form to see how humanity develops over the next few centuries.

Wouldn't the whole digital consciousness thing pretty much screw up the plan of getting rid of the greedy, wasteful, polluting, "refusing to change their ways" people that broke everything and make it so they can break everything forever so that nothing can ever be fixed?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Would you prefer that people couldn't impact the earth's climate? Would you prefer that we were trapped in Earth's natural cycles that would plummet us into another glacial period that makes half the globe uninhabitably frozen over with no way to grow food?

Man-made climate change is baby's first step into becoming a civilization that can control the environment. It's absolutely true that you need to worry more about a walking toddler hurting themselves than an infant stuck on their belly, but we don't panic and despair and wait for the infant to kill themselves, we celebrate first steps because learning to walk is what will allow that person to take care of themselves.

Humanity has gained the ability to impact the environment on a global scale, and we will inevitably learn to use that power to maintain the climate we need to thrive rather than depend on the coincidental conditions of nature to cradle us gently. That's awesome. Have a little more optimism.

We actually do already have the ability to do quite a bit but due to capitalism, greed and lack of consolidation and coordination of efforts, very little is being done. Being for the good of mankind is in opposition to "increasing investor profits". We already have the ability to end drought and hunger all over the world, to rehabilitate soil, to help reduce the pollution in our air, water and soil and capture carbon from the air, but greed prevents it from happening. If people were to focus their money and time on actually using the tools we have to make the world a better place for all instead of building football stadiums,gilded skyscrapers and having investors milking planned obsolescence to dry up all possibility of community funding for projects we might actually have a chance. As long as it is " get mine and screw everyone else" as it currently is, it will not be able to happen.

I am actually very optimistic that people will eventually wise up and realize that this "every man for themselves" BS mindset isn't getting them anywhere and will eventually put the trumps of the world that are ruining everything out ion their arse and actually be able to put to use what we have already learned to help everyone, not just the " wealthy".

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I have some hope it's not gonna be as bad as I expect it to be. So there's that.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The world's wealthiest people are in a space race to privately develop habitable environments beyond Earth, while actively perpetuating the problems in the first place. Exactly how much hope do you think the rest of us should have at this point?

We should be hopeful they are stupid enough to leave off into space so the rest of us can fix what we have here. Maybe we will get lucky and rogue hackers will redirect their ships into the sun.

Ok what is with this bullshit conspiratorial nonsense that the world's elite will build a rocket ship and fly to a planet they can go to while Earth dies?

Its asinine and ridiculous. We only just got to the moon and that was an expensive process.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The world's wealthiest people are in a space race to privately develop habitable environments beyond Earth, while actively perpetuating the problems in the first place. Exactly how much hope do you think the rest of us should have at this point?

We should be hopeful they are stupid enough to leave off into space so the rest of us can fix what we have here. Maybe we will get lucky and rogue hackers will redirect their ships into the sun.

Ok what is with this bullshit conspiratorial nonsense that the world's elite will build a rocket ship and fly to a planet they can go to while Earth dies?

Its asinine and ridiculous. We only just got to the moon and that was an expensive process.

It started after the whole Elon Musk starting SpaceX and stating they will offer spaceflights for the wealthy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/spacex-says-japanese-billionaire-will-be-first-passenger-moon-flight-ncna910441

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/style/axiom-space-travel.html
https://www.space.com/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-price.html

It just grew from there.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The world's wealthiest people are in a space race to privately develop habitable environments beyond Earth, while actively perpetuating the problems in the first place. Exactly how much hope do you think the rest of us should have at this point?

We should be hopeful they are stupid enough to leave off into space so the rest of us can fix what we have here. Maybe we will get lucky and rogue hackers will redirect their ships into the sun.

Ok what is with this bullshit conspiratorial nonsense that the world's elite will build a rocket ship and fly to a planet they can go to while Earth dies?

Its asinine and ridiculous. We only just got to the moon and that was an expensive process.

It started after the whole Elon Musk starting SpaceX and stating they will offer spaceflights for the wealthy.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/spacex-says-japanese-billionaire-will-be-first-passenger-moon-flight-ncna910441

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/style/axiom-space-travel.html
https://www.space.com/elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-price.html

It just grew from there.

Good luck trying to find a habitable world rich people. And inbreeding will surely follow.

These people think its gonna be like Alpha Centauri. No it isn't.

 

[tstorm823]

Unfortunately that's not the way those who are impacting the global environment see it. Moreover, changing the climate on the opposite direction to undo what has been done is impossible in the current circumstances (a massive coordinated effort is required just to slow down the current trend, and the key people aren't willing).

EDIT: I mean, it would be interesting if we eventually manage to create the means to undo the change, and manipulate the global climate to fit our needs, as the technique could be to terraform other planets; but we need to hurry, because the infrastructure that allows us to do so may be compromised if all resources have to be dedicated to handling the increase in natural disasters and the effects of extreme weather.

We could reverse the trend in like 10 years, all it takes is a bunch of carbon-free energy. First, energy to replace what's generated from fossil fuels, and second to operate carbon sequestration technology. Scientists come up with a new way to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and/or turn it into useful products like every other week, and the downfall of the technology every single time is that the process they invented takes more energy to hide the carbon than burning an equivalent amount of fossil fuels would produce.

But if we had some kind of energy technology that could be scaled up quickly to support whole nations and operate in any location that has water to cool towers and relative geologic stability, that released no carbon emissions from energy production and used a type of fuel that's used for almost nothing else, wouldn't that just be amazing? We could reverse climate change with more clean power, we could recycle all our waste with more clean power, we could make ocean water potable to relieve droughts with more clean power, we could set up whatever transportation systems we want with more clean power, we could eliminate most of the smog with more clean power, think of the grand environmental gains we could have with more clean power.

Unfortunately, it feels like nuclear was never invented.

 

[Baffle]

Good luck trying to find a habitable world rich people. And inbreeding will surely follow.

Oh, that's okay, they've been practising for centuries (the inbreeding, not the search for a habitable world).