Oh Woe, the Future Will Be Better
Over at cnews you'll find an article that tries valiantly to make the technologies of the future look like terrible, horrible challenges. This sort of journalistic silliness is far too common. A cure for cancer! Better, more resiliant bodies! No more disease and frailty! Oh no, how will we cope? "Schroeder describes the kind of albatross midnight's children may have to bear. During their lifespan - described as possibly indeterminate by many futurists - this generation could reach what Schroeder calls 'technological maximum' - the peak of technology when humans have exhausted all their potential." More accurately, the point at which this fellow's rather limited imagination can't keep up. The world isn't bounded by what one person can imagine. Thankfully. "We'll still get killed in a car accident, get sick and die, get shot and commit suicide. Death will not go away. What will go away is the assumption that after 70 years, you'll die of natural causes . . . that has huge impacts on society." How horrible, that tens of millions will not be forced to suffer, decay and die each year. What a curse it will be, this promised removal of pain, anguish and millions of deaths. How will we bear it?
Link: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2007/01/02/3134647-sun.html