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Lifespan solves for this. If people knew they would be living long enough to experience what future generations would have to experience in terms of environment
by biomimic 12y ago
Lifespan solves for this. If people knew they would be living long enough to experience what future generations would have to experience in terms of environmental impact, many would take on a different viewpoint toward climate issues as opposed to the "let them deal with it, I ain't gonna be alive anyway" approach.
In terms of population control, it's all about lifespan combined with more efficient discovery as fewer ideas would die with those moving them forward. Space travel will solve for moving the human race to further inhabitable planets, but not without a solution for the more important lifespan issue which is a requirement for extended space travel. We've got 4 billion years before our sun runs out and before the Andromeda galaxy will cause us a bit of trouble.
4 billion years from now, lets at least be known as the generation that began to make an impact in this area.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoEven before going interplanetary, we still have a lot of uninhabited space on Earth. Colonizing various deserts would be a first step, then maybe underwater habitats will become a thing - all of this is cheaper, safer and easier to do than going to space. We will eventually have to spread to other worlds, but for now, there is still a lot of space to use on ours, so we don't have be afraid of overpopulation in terms of land. We just need to figure out how to feed us all in a sustainable way.
- biomimic 12y agoI agree in part, however, sustainability requires a complex combinatorial solution as well due to it's association to the human condition related to self-interests (the list goes on of course), science, international distribution policy/policing, philosophical vs. technology GMO issuse etc. We need to learn more about are species, we need to buy both time and food with something other than money.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoYou're right of course, but we won't solve our problems by just throwing away this planet and going to another (that, remember, doesn't support life by default, we need to make it do that). We need to crack sustainability anyway, and it's best to focus on it ASAP.
- biomimic 12y agoI completely agree, we need to solve for this Earth first. If we continue to ruin this earth, we don't stand a chance and even worse, we'll have a horrible intergalactic reputation.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoI actually wonder sometimes how much damage we did to ourselves by creating various popular science fiction shows. As people can't help but believe Hollywood ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic ), I wonder how many people feel subconsciously that space travel is easy, so if ruin this planet, we can just go and find another one.
- biomimic 12y agoBattlestar Galactica is not at fault here, just a future reality in some respects.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoIf any of our descendants ever have to worry about their intergalactic reputations, we will have saved life on earth many times over by deflecting large asteroids. In the long run, having a technologically spacefaring species is the only way for anything other than microscopic life to survive.