Scientific Progress, and Oranges and Lemons

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jul 31, 2015 at 00:51

Hi, Waz. You said,

"Thanks - that's greeat but I still don't 'get' it yet."

Now you know how I feel, trying to get the pun in "Mohammed Waza Khiddif Id'ullah". You went on to say,

"Where would 10000 years research lead us?"

I don't think we have that much time -- We're just so close to mutual annihilation. We can manipulate the atom, to produce incredible destruction; we can manipulate genes, to literally create monsters; we can compute faster than the smartest brain, we can keep track of the whereabouts of most people, we can see in the dark... it's pretty awesome. The dystopia described in the book "1984" is so real today, it's sickening. The horror scenario of "The Last Enemy" didn't even have to foresee any new technology: It's already with us. How far away are we from "The Planet of the Apes"? Some would argue that the Apes are already in control of our countries; and it would take perhaps 24 hours of nuclear war to make New York City look like it did in the movie. You mentioned how fast scientific knowledge has increased; and this is accelerating exponentially with our supercomputers. On the Doomsday Clock, we are perhaps a nanosecond from Frankenstein. If human beings weren't such naive optimists, we would all be hiding in caves and pleading with the rocks to fall on us and save us from the times to come.

"Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head"
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons

Shalom shalom :-)

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