I’m not even sure where to start with this second blog. So I will just jump into a couple of points and hope it works itself out in the end. Hopefully this will all end up making sense in the end. Anyway here is my go at explaining some more of my thoughts on the rapidly changing world we live in today.
The first thing I’m going to bring up is the law of The Law of Accelerating Returns and exponential rates of growth. I think these are important factors to consider when looking towards the future. I came across these ideals after reading Ray Kurzweil’s paper, “The Law of Accelerating Returns.” They seem to make sense to me and are one piece of the puzzle. Further reading can be found here .
The law of accelerating returns as I understand it today goes something along these lines. From the start of human history we have built on the ideals and technologies of the past. We invented the wheel and are today still discovering a ton of new stuff. At first these inventions where few and far between but where just the beginning of exponential growth. Just like any exponential growth things start really slow but seem to explode in the latter stages at such a rate that Humans have trouble keeping up with the growth. It seems to be moving so fast our minds have trouble keeping up with it. Our minds get use to all the small changes that happen daily and make it seem like change isn’t happen as fast. Till suddenly a large jump happens and the technology seems to explode on the scene.
The reason us Humans have trouble grasping this fact and its implications. Is the simple fact that we live for a relatively short period of time. We might live to be one hundred years old but when compared to the whole history of the world this is a short time. We don’t grasp how much change is happening in the world. Our minds process this change as much slower than it is really happening. Just think about all the massive changes you have seen in recent past. Computers are now faster, more powerful, cheaper, and do more of our work for us then every before.
The internet is an even better example of this. It is hard to recall the world we lived in before the internet was invented. It has exploded on the scene and brought a multitude of changes to our lives. Every day it is getting more advanced and cheaper. Facebook, Youtube, and many other sites we now use on a daily basis where not even invented a couple of years ago. The whole internet is getting faster and more connected at speeds we would not have thought of years ago. Not only that but it is changing the very world we live in.
The internet is one of the tools that is helping fuel a lot of the change we are seeing today. With this great tool, ideals and knowledge are becoming available too much of the world’s population. As more knowledge becomes available to a larger group of people for basically free we are seeing an increase in the creative output of humans. Once a new discovery is made it can be up loaded to the internet and accessed by millions of people who can then start using the new discovery to make their lives better. This is just one of the many ways the internet is a game changer.
At the start of the human race information traveled at a snails speed. Any new discovery had to be passed on by word of mouth. Seeing as humans where much more isolated than we are now. Human knowledge was also extremely small compared with today. We had to learn how to make fire and the wheel. Over the years we have built on all these different discoveries and have reached levels of living which our ancestors couldn’t have imagined. All of this knowledge and the tools build on themselves in an exponential rate. The more knowledge we have gathered over the years makes it easier to make new discoveries. It also speeds up the process.
Just to give one example. Computers used to be expensive and slow. Then as they were improved they continually get cheaper and more powerful. As they get cheaper and more powerful we can then use our creativity more efficiently. This leads to even faster improvements in the next generation of computers. The whole process builds on itself at ever faster rates. Once we run into the limits of one technology we then change our thinking and move on to the new technology and way of thinking. The whole process begins again but at an even faster rate. You have to broaden your view a little to see how fast things really are changing.
Even if I’m wrong about the rapid rate at which technology is being discovered. It doesn’t change that our present technological state is changing our lives rapidly. Too add to it all our current monetary system is broken beyond repair and has to change. Governments with the help of central banks all over the world are destroying our currencies. The whole system is based on debt and a few powerful people trying to direct everything on a global scale. The system has gotten out of their control and they are no longer able to keep up. A change will have to be made one way or the other. The elite have figured this out long before most of us have. What kind of change will be implemented rest on each individual human. When we move in mass unimaginable changes happen. Just look at the Middle East and the power of mass protest. The sum is greater than the individual parts.
The genie is out of the bottle and the internet has leveled the playing field. Knowledge is being spread among the earth’s population at a rate never before seen in human history. As more people have access to this knowledge and our able to cheaply spread new ideals. Human creativity is being unleashed on a scale never seen. This is leading to a better standard of living for everyone. The more we free up knowledge and human creativity the faster these improvements will take place.
We also need to start at least thinking about a couple of other things regardless of what happens with the rate of technological change. What if we stopped wasting so many resources on making destructive things such as atomic bombs, chemical warfare, and any number of other destructive devices that could destroy the earth we live on? We could then use these wasted resources to help feed everyone on the earth and possible meet every basic human need. With a shift away from wasting our planets precious resources on destructive technologies and start to focus on solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. We could see a massive improvement in the standard of living for everyone on the planet. Do we really want to live in a world where millions of human beings are killed in wars and are living in mass poverty when we could solve these issues? What if all the creative power of the whole human race set about to solve these issues? I think we would see changes faster than we think.
To top it all off any amount of human suffering leads to a lower standard of living for the entire human race. Our brains and ways of thinking are for the most part shaped by the conditions we are raised in and are not set in stone. With the basic human needs of everyone being met most of the problems we face today would end. If no one had to worry about eating or staying warm then they would have almost no reason to commit most of the crimes we see today. This would build on itself and lead to a massive increase in the standard of living for everyone. Every human would be part of helping to solve the problems we face and would not be causing any.
What if we could build robots to do almost all the work we humans are presently stuck doing? What if we could eliminate almost all the “jobs” as we now know them and could still provide for all human needs? We would all be free to pursue whatever it is that interest us the most and this would lead to massive changes for the better. What if we could make most goods so abundant that they would no longer be scarce? No one fights over air because there is enough of it to go around with plenty left over.
As far as I can figure out we have two roads ahead of us as a human race. I could very well be wrong. The first road ahead of us is one of true freedom and the highest standard of living ever seen but first we need to free ourselves from the out dated thinking of the past ages.The type of thinking that has led to nothing but wars, poverty, and the poisoning of the very earth we depend on for survival. Granted we now live better than at any other time in human history but that doesn’t mean a better way of doing things can be found. A way of living without all the massive destruction, waste, and human suffering is possible. All we have to do is change our thinking and stand up to those that only think of their narrow self-interest regardless of the consequences.
The other path in front of us is one of mass waste and destruction. We could very well destroy the whole human race or the planet we depend on for survival. For example geo-engineering is dumping a lot of aluminum into the earth’s atmosphere. This is poisoning us and everything on the earth. If you don’t believe that these types of things happen. Think about the fluoride that has been put into the water systems of many people. Also the scanners the TSA uses in the United States that are known to radiate you. Not to mention the toxic waste that is dumped on the earth. These things need to be stopped as soon as possible or they could lead to the destruction of a large percentage of the earth’s population. Some issues go beyond any petty political views and affect us all.
futurelivingnow 