a petri dish of bacteria grows exponentially from generation to generation. Just before the one that it all dies off, it has half it's resources unused.

There is only so much food and water to go around. E-coli and other deadly strains are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics and just waiting to wipe us out.

We are doomed. Just try and have a good time with what we have left. That is all.

Well that was an uplifting post jcorb. Are you prepping for the inevitable or just happy to accept your lot?

We are all going to die.

Universal rule #1. Everything that lives must die.

'...A warrior thinks of death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit...'

Carlos Castaneda

How very Klingon of you. It does bring a sharp focus to things I’ll give you that.

Who cares what prizefighters have to say?

I’m not at all convinced that the planet is overpopulated. Life expectancy at birth is now around 71 years, compared to somewhere around 58 in 1960, so we seem to be doing an okay job feeding and otherwise supporting our population. And I actually agree that the average level of worldwide happiness is at an all-time high, although I have no clinical proof for that supposition. I just think that the historically upward trend line of life expectancy and the historically downward trend of average violence say absolutely nothing about what will happen in the future, and to think otherwise is a dangerous fallacy.

I suspect that technology will eventually be able to solve the antibiotic resistance problem, or most of the other potential disasters out there. But I have doubts as to whether we’re capable as a society of solving all of those in a sufficiently timely way to avoid them all.

I don’t see any realistic solution to nuclear proliferation. It’s 1945 technology.

I feel pretty confident that we will best the monsters under the bed before they devour us. What I’m not so hopeful about is how inclusive our progress will be in terms of percentage of population.

The world is definitely not overpopulated. There are more than enough resources to support everybody even when the population peaks at 11 or 12 billion in a few decades. Distributing those resources fairly is the problem.

It's not so much distributing resources fairly as it is being able to distribute them at all.

What did I ever do to you?

You stole some **** from me in high school and turned me into the person I am today.

yes, let the hate flow through you, good...good

Howard didn't start the fire...

Even if we assume this is true--that we basically multiplied HAPPINESS by # of PEOPLE or something ... there's still more suffering on the planet than at any time before and just because a few billion people can afford nice stuff, imo it doesn't mean squat relative to the suffering. Humans aren't happier than we've ever been. SOME humans are, and a big reason for that is the suffering of others.

I realize this thread was started as a joke but I actually think we missed our shot at developing a just society and now the best case scenario is an early meteor so we can simply start over, sooner.

This is a pretty dark view of the world. And I disagree.

I’m divided on this. You’re right that there are more unhappy and poor people than at any other time in history, but the ratio of happy to unhappy is likely increasing and the overall wealth level even of the poor is improving. I worry less about those points than I do about the complexity of our society leading to unlikely and unpredictable events, including unintended consequences, that could be the equivalent of your meteor.

I’ll add gas attacks to the list.

What happens if you view suffering as an absolute rather than relative?

Suffering is bad, and there is more of it now than at any previous time. The fact that more people are also happy, content and living secure and self-directed lives doesn't do a thing to mitigate the suffering.

One problem is the belief that growth is fundamentally good. This is wrong, but it makes people feel better.

It is, and at least the meteor bit was a joke. But I do think we've missed out on creating a truly just society, because there are too many people. Humans aren't sufficiently on the same page with their values to mold just solutions from a population of this size.

Restroom Hand Dryers Suck Up Feces Particles and Spray Them All Over Your Hands

.

I take the Buckminster Fuller view that there exists sufficient resources for every human on earth to have a higher standard of living than any human has ever had, if we used technology for that purpose, rather than creating better weapons.

/old hippie rant

RIP Art Bell

Doubt it. The world probably spends more on drugs, porn and prostitution than weapons. In Britain, the entire annual defence budget would fit ten times over into the health budget, ten times over again into the welfare budget and ten times over again into the education budget. And Britain has nuclear submarines, advanced fighter jets, a couple of aircraft carriers in build or on trials, and all that kind of thing.