Reply #38: So you want to change things fast [View All]

[The2ndWheel]

yet want to continue to organize things the same way, and actually believe something will change?

Technology has caused this problem. It won't solve it. It will only make more people use, want, and expect more. It may cause "less" harm on a product by product basis, but when everyone is using more of everything, what's that going to do? Our addiction to oil has gone which way as we've improved extraction rates? Down?

The money may exist for R&D, but we'll always need more and more money. That's never ending growth, which once again, is the EXACT fucking process that got us into this mess.

This is the problem. Your solution is suicidal. Forever pushing forward, never ending progress. This is crazy. But we will do exactly what you propose, because we can't do anything else. To stop the "progress" now would be to murder billions. This thing is going to collapse eventually(as every empire/civilization has), but we must make things worse, because you can't murder billions of people. So, as our systems grow, and we fight against entropy, we must use technology, even though it's going to cause an even larger problem. Even if that's the case(I could be wrong), even if we knew things would get far worse, we won't stop.

Keep thinking "forward". Keep exponentially growing(good luck stopping that at any point with your idea). We're going to kill our eco-systems by doing it, but that's alright, because it's progress. Everyone can have everything. That's fucking progress.

Why not just cure death? What could be more forward thinking than that? We're going to kill everyone anyway, why not just not have that as a goddamn option? Nothing could be more progressive.

Yeah, education is the answer. Of course that is followed by higher standards of living, which require greater and greater amounts of resources. But who gives a rat's ass, it's fucking progress.

"new ways of doing things"

Let me guess; technological innovation?

We will increase complexity in our ever expanding system, and we will get less out of it. We can't do anything else in 2006 though. We're too far down this road. We must do exactly what you said. We cannot, CANNOT, do anything else at this point. I honestly hope your way works. If it does, great. If it doesn't, it's going to be uglier than if we stopped right now. Since we have no other option today, good luck.