The Edge has published its 2007 question that it asks of dozens of big-name scientists and other thinkers. I've only skimmed a few, but as usual the results are a mix of the interesting, amusing, and (mostly) predictable. Cory Doctorow is optimistic about the anti-copyright movement -- who'd have thought? Ray Kurzweil surprises by giving a bit of space to biotech risks (reprising an op-ed that he co-wrote with Bill Joy in 2005 called Recipe for Destruction).
We have a new existential threat which is the ability of a destructively minded group or individual to reprogram a biological virus to be more deadly, more communicable, or (most daunting of all) more stealthy (that is, having a longer incubation period so that the early spread is not detected). The good news is that we do have the tools to set up a rapid response system, like the one we have for software viruses. [...]
So I'm optimistic that we will make it through without suffering an existential catastrophe.
Link: THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2007.
Last year they asked "What's Your Dangerous Idea?" (see previous post).
I am optimistic about pessimism: that people will begin to understand the momentous risks and biases inherent in some technologies now with us or on the horizon, will see the value of thoughtful, rational debate, and will learn that, despite the rhetoric to the contrary, technology is not inevitable -- we can make choices and always have.
A renewed view of a relationship motivated Higher Power.
I am optimistic that people will tire of traditional religon and the intellectual arguments for elimination of religon and embrace a relationship approach to religon.
Posted by: DR. Steven Jackson. IT and Communications | Monday, January 01, 2007 at 07:30 PM
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Subject : Environment can never be saved as long as cities exist.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
FAST VISUALS /WORDS MAKE SLOW EMOTIONS EXTINCT.
SCIENTIFIC /INDUSTRIAL /FINANCIAL THINKING DESTROYS EMOTIONAL CIRCUITS.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY CANNOT FEEL PAIN / REMORSE / EMPATHY.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY WILL ALWAYS BE CRUEL TO ANIMALS/ TREES/ AIR/ WATER/ LAND AND TO ITSELF.
To read the complete article please follow either of these links :
http://www.planetsave.com/ps_mambo/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=75&func=view&id=68&catid=6
http://www.earthnewswire.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=89&page=viewtopic&t=11
sushil_yadav
Posted by: sushil_yadav | Friday, January 12, 2007 at 07:42 PM