Such a fascinating era we are living in

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dreams in sight
You've got to admit it
At this point in time that its clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from new york to paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be a.o.k.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there's time
The fix is in
You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we've got to win
Here at home we'll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There'll be spandex jackets, one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from new york to paris
(more leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free, yes, and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

The End Times are upon us!
Soon the dead shall rise and walk the earth!
Fires! Earthquakes! Hurricanes! War!
Those that die will be the lucky ones!
Those that live shall cry out for the mercy of the grave!
But no mercy shall come,
and they shall gouge out their own eyes,
and there shall be much gnashing of teeth,
and the only ones to benefit shall be laser eye-surgery specialists and dentists!

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Originally Posted by dragonrider

The End Times are upon us!
Soon the dead shall rise and walk the earth!
Fires! Earthquakes! Hurricanes! War!
Those that die will be the lucky ones!
Those that live shall cry out for the mercy of the grave!
But no mercy shall come,
and they shall gouge out their own eyes,
and there shall be much gnashing of teeth.

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I couldnt have put it in better words...

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Originally Posted by Dream of the iris

As I sat here on my desk getting stoned I thought of all the new changes that are about to erupt. The oil crisis, global warming, the conflicts with Iran, America's declining economy and so on and it seems that the more I read up on the news the crappier things are getting. I'm not saying there's gonna be a whole new social revolution or America is going to crumble or whatever, but regardless there is no doubt in anyone's mind not just in America but in the entire World, that shit is about to hit the fan. No matter where you are it seems that everyone has this idea embedded in their mind. They may not think about it all the time but deep down in everyone something big is about to change. So upon sitting here pondering these thoughts I thought it would be interesting to get other peoples input on what is projected to happen in the next 10 to 20 years. I wanna know from you guys what you think the World will be like when we enter this new World?

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I've posted a few silly responses to this thread but my honest answer is that I think we are balanced on a knife edge between survival and disaster. Our global human population is so high, and our rate of consumption so high that we are stripping our world of resources faster than they can be replaced. That is a known, undisputable fact. We are on an unsustainable path.

I spent a few years in a row going to a small island that had a population of mice and no predators to keep them in check. The first year, you wouldn't have even noticed that there were any mice, because they stayed hidden like mice usually do. The next year, there were a lot of mice around. And the next year, there were freakin' mice everywhere! They would get into everything! All the vending machines were shut off because mice would get into them, eat everything, and crap all over the place. They were in the commissary kitchens, in all the food. They were eating things that weren't even food --- gnawing on wires, eating wallpaper, eating paper labels off of canned food and bottles, eating their own dead. It was like a biblical plague. The next year, there were no mice at all. They had all died out. They ate everything they could possibly eat, completely ran out of resources, and their population crashed back to almost nothing. Long time residents of the island said it was an ongoing cycle lasting roughly 4 to 5 years where the populatiuon would accellerate upwards, peak, and then crash. It is a cycle common in nature when there is a closed population with no outlet and no check on population except for resources. The population rises to the "carrying capacity" of the ecosystem and then crashes.

Human beings are reaching the peak carrying capacity of the planet. In the past we've had more territory to expand into. And we have had new ways of making new resources for ourselves --- new kinds of farming techniques, irrigation, industry, new energey resources.

The problem is that some of those new techniques are also damaging the long term sustainability of the natural systems we ultimately rely on. Divierting rivers for irrigation boosts farming production but it also damages the river estuaries that support our fishing industries. So this year the entire west coast salmon season has had to be canceled to keep our salmon fishery from completely collapsing. The salmon are almost gone because there is not enough water in the rivers.

Chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides can boost farm production in the short term but ulimately deplete and poison the soil and water, kill off the beneficial organisms that sustainable agriculture relies on, and breed resistant strains of pests. So now were are seeing the honey bee and wild bee populations crashing. The bees may be dying because of new kinds of insecticides and other environmental factors.

Once revolutionary sources of energy, like fossil fuels, power the industry that makes our modern lifestyles possible, but it alos poisons the atmosphere. So now we are seeing the begining of sudden destabilizing climate change. Our weather may become unsuitable for food production because our fuel resources have changed the composition of the world's atmosphere and are altering the climate.

If we are going to survive this period of time, we are going to have to find a way to make our resource consumption sustainable. We need energy resources and food production techniques that do not degrade our natural environment. And we need to stabilize our global population. Otherwise we will end up like the mice, fighting for the last crumbs, and most of us dying.

There is a narrow chance that we will do what we need to do in time, in which case we have a pretty bright future. There is some chance that we are already too late, and even if we do all the right things at this point, we can't avoid some serious hardship ahead. And there is a big chance that we do have time, but we will squander it, and face a true disaster of unimaginable proportions.

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Originally Posted by killerweed420

Quit blaming the internet for the worlds problems. They said the same thing about books when they started being mass produced.
The internet is just like a book. Its a wonderful way to get information about a subject. Just because its written in a book doesn't make it the truth but like the internet, a logical person will filter the results.

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I never said that the influx of information is a bad thing. The internet is more than a place merely for information. It's interactive. Books do not replace human interaction entirely like the internet could. In this day and age, if someone really wanted to, they could work from home, have everything delivered to them and never go outside. The loss of primitive forms of interaction with others. Lots of misinformation that would even deceive the most logic of minds, the ability to erase the identity of a person through communication via the internet. In Japan there is a prevailing problem amongst youth called "Hikkomori," which means acute social withdrawl. We are starting to witness this problem in the US. 1 in 6 people ages 18-24 do not have a job or go to school. That's a pretty serious social problem.

Now I'm not saying this will turn out to be a doomsday scenario with this, but I can see how the general perception to go in the direction to isolate themselves. Like psycho4bud pointed out, it's a very big con. How can we have a healthy population in general when the majority doesn't want to be outside in the world? Our kids getting more fat because they playing WOW instead of playing tag or cops and robbers. Not even the Wii replaces it, I tried it, it's hardly exercise. Sure it does get you moving, but it can't adequately replace the real thing.

The other issue is perception. Sure you have access to 100 hundreds of sources, credible or not, with millions of opinions. One could literally believe anything they want. With that the information could be so damaging it affects the relationships between humanity. It could alter healthy perceptions to replace ones with corrupt. It could make an invert impact, but humans generally highlight the negatives. It affects the primitive forms of interactions with other.

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Originally Posted by thcbongman

The main problem for humanity is the world is becoming more disconnected because of the internet. These technologies that are being developed are created to foster more selfishness for the individual. I think humanity overall is losing the ability to emphatize with another. Maybe I'm just a dreamer and this is the way it's always been, but I think that humanity is becoming increasingly disconnected.

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You realize that the majority of the world population does not have internet access?

I am referring to actual people... not the amount of connected computers to the internet.

So I'd have to disagree with you. The internet is not the root of all evil that you are trying to make it out to be. The problem you are describing has always existed.

I think that when the end of oil comes there will be major changes in all the developed nations of the world. If you live in a third world country your day-to-day life wouldnt likely change much (unless you rely on aid from foreign countries for the bulk of your resources) because those countries don't run on petroleum.
The petrocountries of the world are going to be in for some drastic change. Most notably is going to be the US where the american love affair with the car will have to end (or at least change). Countries will become increasingly isolated as fuel costs skyrocket. Shipping costs will make it all but impossible to import some products and difficult to export products that may be the life blood for various economies. Air travel for the purposes of recreation will be something affordable only by the super elite, that 1/10 of 1% of the population who control most of the wealth.
Oil is really the central issue here, almost all things happening in the world today can be traced back to petroleum in some way. America is in a war for oil (go ahead a dilute yourself if you dont belive that). Many economies that are involved in the world market are oil-based economies. Companies traded on the open market are valued under the assumption that their oil supplies will never dwindle (would Exxon be worth anything if there was no oil?) when those petrodollars dry up there will be a massive shift in wealth from oil-based companies to those companies that can be run sustainably.
The US economy is already seeing the beginnig of this. Gas is now over 4 dollars a gallon and some people are becomong to afford driving to work. The end of suburbia is inevitable. How can anyone afford to commute 20, 30 or even 40+ miles to work everyday when gas gets up arround ten bucks a gallon.

Of course it might not be too late to change to more sustainable sources of energy, but one way or the other I think the world is in for some drastic change and not necissarily for the beter, at least not at first. I guess its the old saying that thigs are gonna get alot worse before they get better.
I do really hope I'm wrong though.

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Originally Posted by Esoteric416

Oil is really the central issue here, almost all things happening in the world today can be traced back to petroleum in some way. America is in a war for oil (go ahead a dilute yourself if you dont belive that).

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Hrm.. well seeing as how we haven't gotten any oil from Iraq and OPEC keeps a pretty tight leash on it's oil... combined with the fact that we actually get most of our oil from the following:

Canada
Mexico
Nigeria
Venezuela
Brazil

This equals well over 50% of where we get our oil from. Only 19% of the US oil comes from middle eastern countries. Mostly from Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

We had gotten oil from Iraq before through the oil for food program.. or something similar. Which was a widely abused system. Giving out weapons for oil instead from other countries. I don't think the US has participated in giving weapons to Iraq since they had originally put the baath party in power.

If you absolutely must find some corrupt reason for the war you should be arguing that George Bush and Cheney started the war in order to gain contracts that would line their own pockets.

There is more fact to back that statement then there was your original statement that we went to war for Oil, but I don't necessarily believe that to be true either.

All I know is that we didn't go over there for WMD's it seems and that we've gained absolutely nothing from this war.

I would be ecstatic if we were getting more oil from iraq now. That would actually give us something to show for all the deaths and debt we've gone through

Instead we have nothing to show for this war.

Use your heads people. :wtf:



I do agree with the basic jist of your post though. In that something drastic is going to happen related to the oil based economies across the globe. :thumbsup:

Some very good posts here. Humans are consumers. We will always be. The problem is we consume much more than we should. But I think the truth is it ain't going to matter much in the next 50 years. America and the rest of the industrialized nations have consumed too much over the last 50 years and now with some other nations entering the industrialized world there will not be that much left for us which will skyrocket prices. China will be the big dog in this century.China population 1,321,851,888 in July 2007. We have 300 million consumers in the US. Can you imagine when 1 and a half billion people enter the consumer generation what thats going to do?
I forsee a time when we become the 3rd world country and we start supplying the rest of the planet with cheap labor.

And who do you think will prevail from the destruction of are America's. Hemp is a great source for fuel!!