On 28/12/2011 11:18 AM, Warp wrote:
>    Why does it feel like the near future is going to suck hard? Let's see:
>
> - The climate is going so bad that in 50 to 100 years we will most probably
> be totally screwed, if not even sooner. And humanity is doing little to help
> this, even though it's a very well known problem.

I'm not so certain about this "doing little to help" part.

You could certainly argue "not doing ENOUGH to help". But I don't think 
it's accurate to say that nobody is doing ANYTHING.

Heck, we banned CFCs, right? And the hole in the ozone layer is actually 
shrinking now as a direct result of this. That's one small victory.

> - There's little question anymore that the global economy is going to crash
> hard in the very near future.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

> - We are going to run out of oil in the near fugure. We know this, and we
> know that when it happens, the economy will collapse even harder. The
> economic crisis of the 1920's will be child's play in comparison. Yet we
> are not doing anything about it.

Again, "not doing anything about it" is perhaps not an accurate summary.

Plenty of people seem to be looking into alternatives. It's just that 
oil is cheap, and anything new will be expensive.

It's difficult to believe that oil companies don't know that the oil is 
running out. It seems likely that when the oil becomes too expensive, a 
"format war" between different alternatives will likely result, and if 
so, it is incontrovertible that whoever ends up backing the right 
"format" will end up making a crapload of money. And every big oil 
company is going to want that to be them, not their competitors. So I'm 
sure they're all doing some serious homework right now. (Probably in 
secret, for the most part. Don't want to give the game away, right?)

> - One of the most influential countries in the world (a country that
> heavily influences the economy and politics of the rest of the world),
> namely the United States, seems to be going down hard in politics,
> science and education.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Perhaps it's only a vocal minority who 
are morons. I don't know, I'm not there.

That said, there was a time when England ruled [most of] the world. We 
had some of the greatest scientists and engineers the world has ever 
seen, we practically /invented/ industry, we had political control of 
vast amounts of land, and so forth.

Today, England is nobody. Great Britain is no longer great. We're just 
another unimportant European country that most people won't even notice. 
We no longer manufacture anything. We no longer design anything. We're 
just a nation of useless "service companies". (Douglas Adams' "useless 
third" of the population.)

There was a time when the USA ruled the world. Maybe that time is 
passing now also? Or maybe this whole thing is a minor hiccup. Who can 
say? (And who will be the next superpower? China? India? Korea?)

> - European countries have also been steadily going downwards in terms of
> freedom, democracy and the wellbeing of its citizens, also mostly for
> religious reasons. However, in this case the religion is not Christianity
> but naive multiculturalism. A revolution (to either direction of the
> political spectrum) is inevitable in the near future.

I do not share your pessimism.

Note that these words come to you from a pessimist of legendary 
magnitude. ;-)

> - Large companies, especially those ones having intellectual properties,
> and especially the American ones, are slowly trying to take over the world.

Yeah, it is slightly ridiculous how content producers seem to think that 
the way to stop illegal copying is to demand ever more power to control 
people's lives. Rather than, you know, make it easier to LEGALLY obtain 
said content.

Or, depending on how cynical: It's slightly ridiculous how content 
producers think that they can trick people into giving them awesome 
powers by pretending that such a thing is "necessary" in order to 
"combat piracy".

>    Sometimes I'm glad I don't have children. I don't have to worry about
> them growing in a world that is plummeting fast into total chaos.

I'm glad I don't have children, for a somewhat different reason... Every 
time I go to the shops and some little kid is standing there screaming 
"mommy, I want! I want! I want!", I feel a deep-seated urge to grab the 
kid and violently beat him repeatedly until only shattered bones and 
torn flesh remains. I gather legal authorities don't take kindly to this 
kind of behaviour. o_O

At any rate, dire predictions of doom used to worry me. After decades of 
hearing them, they now worry me somewhat less. ;-)

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