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miriam_eWow! 2010. That's a date right out of the science fiction books and movies. We were going to have cities on the moon and in orbit, and outposts on Mars. There would be colonies in the oceans and we would be living sustainably, making Earth a paradise for our children.
How have we done?
First I'll consider the bad, then the good.
Microsoft, and to some extent Apple and the rest of the computing industry, have retarded computing by a decade or more. We should be much further along by now. Requiring gigabytes and gigahertz to run operating systems that are not really much different from those in use 20 years ago is insane. Microsoft Windows is especially bad in this respect as it is deliberately insecure and actually spies on its users. Bear in mind that the Amiga computer had an operating system that took up just a megabyte or two and ran on machines that were 100th the speed of current computers, yet looked and ran much like, and had response times similar to, "modern" machines.
Many people want sustainable living, but their efforts are confounded by an ultra-rich polluting lobby that somehow keep their politicians delivering ever greater taxpayer funded subsidies to them. (It seems that in the new democracy we, the people, don't have politicians representing us anymore.)
The mass-media, long seen as having amazing potential for seamless communication and easy delivery of information and education, have become purveyors of worthless crap, to the point where their audience is diminishing and they are faced with the real possibility of actually going bankrupt... though of course they won't -- they will get bailouts and subsidies from the government. That is, after they do everything in their power to fraudulently "own" all of society's culture by increasing copyright to encompass everything and suing the ass off anybody who doesn't agree.
Related to the mass-media, the telecommunications companies have been gouging their customers, producing outrageously expensive, mutually incompatible systems, aided by weak governments who hand them big taxpayer-funded cheques, then simply stand by and watch.
The military now funnel stupendous amounts of wealth to wicked purposes, manufacturing foes and developing truly evil ways of destroying and controlling people.
The wealthiest fraction of 1% of people (who often contribute almost nothing to society) continue to concentrate power and money in their ranks, even to the point of damaging the financial system they themselves feed off. Then when that rampaging, greedy behavior causes their income to waver a tiny bit, they cry poor and suck up the remaining funds by getting bailouts and subsidies.
We, in the richest nations, live overblown lifestyles, knowing in our guts that our planet can't cope and that there will be payback sometime soon. One young guy I spoke to believed that "We owe it to ourselves to live it up while we can." When I asked about the effect on the world's poor and and future generations he shrugged the question off. He felt it wasn't his problem.
So... 2010. We aren't doing as well as hoped, are we? Bummer.
There are some really bright beacons of hope though.
The internet, though being increasingly damaged and controlled by bigger and bigger companies has nevertheless been a tool used by many to fight centralisation in several ways, using peer-to-peer sharing, spreading information more widely than avarice ever could and largely ignoring the copyright control of culture by a few giant corporations. It has been a lifeline for those who would truly innovate and would share their gains with others. Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, SourceForge, and many other cooperative efforts, have shown that truly democratic, non-greed-based systems really can work.
We are on the threshold of a replicator technology that could empower society in a way that hasn't been seen since the advent of writing.
Despite lackluster performance for decades, robotics looks like it may finally come of age. With the online sharing of projects like Numenta's artificial intelligence development and the beginnings of replicators, we may finally see robots become commonplace. Not a moment too soon either, with our aging population.
Large numbers of us in the wealthy nations have decided to do something about over-consumption, and have begun to self-consciously use less, often finding, to our great surprise, that doing so often actually improves our lifestyle by wasting less and pushing our dollar further. Solar panels are being bought in accelerating numbers, despite their prices being kept unrealistically high by the petroleum companies who now control the technology. Low-impact energy technologies are starting to come of age, like wind farms and solar heating, cooling, and electricity. LEDs are quietly flooding the market with lights that run on a trickle of power and last for a decade or more.
Some forms of Linux, like Puppy Linux, have been gathering momentum. They use a fraction of the resources of more bloated operating systems. And low-energy, small-footprint computers, like NorhTec's Gecko Edubook and MicroClient are springing up to use them.
We live in the most peaceful age in history, even though our blood-loving, fear-inspiring mass-media and apocalypse-based religions would have you think otherwise. We live longer and are less likely to be violently killed or injured than ever before... and we are more polite and mindful of each other than any previous generation.
The most well-off parts of the world are having less children. Who could have foreseen that the most potent birth control would be access to knowledge, health, and a good standard of living? Improve everybody's lot and we would no longer be under threat of overpopulation.
We could truly turn the world around to become the paradise we dearly want. In fact we are in the process of doing so... far too slowly though. We could speed this up greatly if we can find a way to get rid of the banks and financial sector, divert the military to help the poorest parts of the world instead of making up phony wars, live more lightly on the planet, and help each other... and stop listening to the lies of big media and politicians.
We really can make this world a utopia. It's not just something that would be nice to do; our survival actually depends upon achieving it... and soon!
How have we done?
First I'll consider the bad, then the good.
Microsoft, and to some extent Apple and the rest of the computing industry, have retarded computing by a decade or more. We should be much further along by now. Requiring gigabytes and gigahertz to run operating systems that are not really much different from those in use 20 years ago is insane. Microsoft Windows is especially bad in this respect as it is deliberately insecure and actually spies on its users. Bear in mind that the Amiga computer had an operating system that took up just a megabyte or two and ran on machines that were 100th the speed of current computers, yet looked and ran much like, and had response times similar to, "modern" machines.
Many people want sustainable living, but their efforts are confounded by an ultra-rich polluting lobby that somehow keep their politicians delivering ever greater taxpayer funded subsidies to them. (It seems that in the new democracy we, the people, don't have politicians representing us anymore.)
The mass-media, long seen as having amazing potential for seamless communication and easy delivery of information and education, have become purveyors of worthless crap, to the point where their audience is diminishing and they are faced with the real possibility of actually going bankrupt... though of course they won't -- they will get bailouts and subsidies from the government. That is, after they do everything in their power to fraudulently "own" all of society's culture by increasing copyright to encompass everything and suing the ass off anybody who doesn't agree.
Related to the mass-media, the telecommunications companies have been gouging their customers, producing outrageously expensive, mutually incompatible systems, aided by weak governments who hand them big taxpayer-funded cheques, then simply stand by and watch.
The military now funnel stupendous amounts of wealth to wicked purposes, manufacturing foes and developing truly evil ways of destroying and controlling people.
The wealthiest fraction of 1% of people (who often contribute almost nothing to society) continue to concentrate power and money in their ranks, even to the point of damaging the financial system they themselves feed off. Then when that rampaging, greedy behavior causes their income to waver a tiny bit, they cry poor and suck up the remaining funds by getting bailouts and subsidies.
We, in the richest nations, live overblown lifestyles, knowing in our guts that our planet can't cope and that there will be payback sometime soon. One young guy I spoke to believed that "We owe it to ourselves to live it up while we can." When I asked about the effect on the world's poor and and future generations he shrugged the question off. He felt it wasn't his problem.
So... 2010. We aren't doing as well as hoped, are we? Bummer.
There are some really bright beacons of hope though.
The internet, though being increasingly damaged and controlled by bigger and bigger companies has nevertheless been a tool used by many to fight centralisation in several ways, using peer-to-peer sharing, spreading information more widely than avarice ever could and largely ignoring the copyright control of culture by a few giant corporations. It has been a lifeline for those who would truly innovate and would share their gains with others. Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, SourceForge, and many other cooperative efforts, have shown that truly democratic, non-greed-based systems really can work.
We are on the threshold of a replicator technology that could empower society in a way that hasn't been seen since the advent of writing.
Despite lackluster performance for decades, robotics looks like it may finally come of age. With the online sharing of projects like Numenta's artificial intelligence development and the beginnings of replicators, we may finally see robots become commonplace. Not a moment too soon either, with our aging population.
Large numbers of us in the wealthy nations have decided to do something about over-consumption, and have begun to self-consciously use less, often finding, to our great surprise, that doing so often actually improves our lifestyle by wasting less and pushing our dollar further. Solar panels are being bought in accelerating numbers, despite their prices being kept unrealistically high by the petroleum companies who now control the technology. Low-impact energy technologies are starting to come of age, like wind farms and solar heating, cooling, and electricity. LEDs are quietly flooding the market with lights that run on a trickle of power and last for a decade or more.
Some forms of Linux, like Puppy Linux, have been gathering momentum. They use a fraction of the resources of more bloated operating systems. And low-energy, small-footprint computers, like NorhTec's Gecko Edubook and MicroClient are springing up to use them.
We live in the most peaceful age in history, even though our blood-loving, fear-inspiring mass-media and apocalypse-based religions would have you think otherwise. We live longer and are less likely to be violently killed or injured than ever before... and we are more polite and mindful of each other than any previous generation.
The most well-off parts of the world are having less children. Who could have foreseen that the most potent birth control would be access to knowledge, health, and a good standard of living? Improve everybody's lot and we would no longer be under threat of overpopulation.
We could truly turn the world around to become the paradise we dearly want. In fact we are in the process of doing so... far too slowly though. We could speed this up greatly if we can find a way to get rid of the banks and financial sector, divert the military to help the poorest parts of the world instead of making up phony wars, live more lightly on the planet, and help each other... and stop listening to the lies of big media and politicians.
We really can make this world a utopia. It's not just something that would be nice to do; our survival actually depends upon achieving it... and soon!
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 07:56 pm (UTC)I hope 2010 will be a great year for you.