Have a read of this article -
It points out some very interesting and facts. Has mankind reached maximum capacity to progress and innovate further? The state of the worlds oil supply, Figures regarding the explosion in the worlds population over the last 100 years. Take some time out to read it - it is some scary shit!
Just more Chicken Little “the sky is falling” doom and gloom.
Don’t let it get to you or your forehead vein might pop.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Just more Chicken Little “the sky is falling” doom and gloom.
Don’t let it get to you or your forehead vein might pop.[/quote]
…Hey your right, ever since i read that article my vein did start to pump that little bit more, guess i just need to relax worrying about the future of mankind. sorted
seriously though, i aint no lefty, vegan,CND,hippy, but that article really did have some intersting points.
Good story. The author ties in some interesting popular theories and then extends them out into several possible outcomes. I think it’s more fiction then fact. Entertaining nonetheless.
Oil will not run out anytime soon. Today’s prices will rise and as the price rises more and more oil becomes commercially viable to pump. Environmental regulations will be relaxed to suit current conditions. Everyone’s heard of the oil shale deposits. They are nearly break even. Even the Arabian penninsula has more oil then the easy deposits they are working now will provide. Remember the first prediction of oil running out was made in 1885. It was taken as fact then also.
New ideas stopping and running out thereby leading men back to the stone age? That’s a little far fetched and have as much to do with how you measure the statistics and present them as anything else. Regardless the knowledge base does not shrink and people do not forget how to survive. The smart money is betting on a revolution in computing power driven by Quantum Computers predicted to occur around 2020 or there abouts. Imagine what that will bring. The author left that tidbit out of his story along with hundreds of other potential possibilities that will improve mankinds lot.
The real risks as I see them going forward are war, terrorism and the threat of WMD’s as a means of coercion by groups other then governments. Substantial but not insurmountable.
I wouldn’t bet against the human race just yet.
Nicely put, your right he does portray a worst case scenario, and an interesting point on the computer side hadn’t though about that. Computers taking over the world 
One of the parts that facinated me is the explosion in the world population - from 500m in 1500, 1.65 billion in 1905 to 6.5 billion today! Thats a lot of extra people.
Oil will NEVER technically ‘run out’.
At what point is it too expensive to pull out of the ground?
That is all that matters.
[quote]bomberlow wrote:
One of the parts that facinated me is the explosion in the world population - from 500m in 1500, 1.65 billion in 1905 to 6.5 billion today! Thats a lot of extra people.[/quote]
LOL Just think of them as walking protein bars, man. Every time I see a statistic about how the world is all going to hell because of our population, I just remember that people are made out of meat.
The best way to prepare for the coming apocalypse is to buy steak sauce and charcoal briquettes. And beer.
Does anyone here think that the US or Europe will ever enact, or even propose, population caps on their populace?
[quote]lothario1132 wrote:
bomberlow wrote:
One of the parts that facinated me is the explosion in the world population - from 500m in 1500, 1.65 billion in 1905 to 6.5 billion today! Thats a lot of extra people.
LOL Just think of them as walking protein bars, man. Every time I see a statistic about how the world is all going to hell because of our population, I just remember that people are made out of meat.
The best way to prepare for the coming apocalypse is to buy steak sauce and charcoal briquettes. And beer.[/quote]
I don’t know whether to laugh or throw up…
Screw utensils. Just break, peel, and eat, baby.
-Nate
[quote]Soldierslim wrote:
Does anyone here think that the US or Europe will ever enact, or even propose, population caps on their populace?[/quote]
The polulation of europe isn’t growing much. Countries that enjoy economic prosperity actually have a populaion decrease. As the baby boomers age the pop of America will shrink as well. Once the developing nations get richer their population growth will slowly go down.
[quote]lothario1132 wrote:
bomberlow wrote:
One of the parts that facinated me is the explosion in the world population - from 500m in 1500, 1.65 billion in 1905 to 6.5 billion today! Thats a lot of extra people.
LOL Just think of them as walking protein bars, man. Every time I see a statistic about how the world is all going to hell because of our population, I just remember that people are made out of meat.
The best way to prepare for the coming apocalypse is to buy steak sauce and charcoal briquettes. And beer.[/quote]
Stocking up for the Zombie-Apocolypse?
[quote]Massif wrote:
lothario1132 wrote:
bomberlow wrote:
One of the parts that facinated me is the explosion in the world population - from 500m in 1500, 1.65 billion in 1905 to 6.5 billion today! Thats a lot of extra people.
LOL Just think of them as walking protein bars, man. Every time I see a statistic about how the world is all going to hell because of our population, I just remember that people are made out of meat.
The best way to prepare for the coming apocalypse is to buy steak sauce and charcoal briquettes. And beer.
Stocking up for the Zombie-Apocolypse?[/quote]
I only wish I could hasten the Zombpocolypse. The stuff of my dreams…
Actually, population growth is slowing and is expected to plateau at about 9 to 10 billion by 2050. In fact, there’s concern from some that there won’t be enough people for sustainable economic growth by that time.
World Population Trending:
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldpop.html
I can’t remember where I read this, but the average number of children per woman in South America 50 years ago was something like 5 or 6. It’s now about 2.1 per (numbers pulled out of my head/ass, but you get the gist).