3D printing stores have opened in Boston and New York and this is a prime example of good news/bad news scenarios. Good news is this primitive Star Trek replicator will allow for far cheaper items to be made rather than manufactured. Eventually these devices may be able to make clothes, complex machinery and even food. The bad news is that many, many people, including the entire country if China, will see unemployment skyrocket as manufacturing disappears. Who is going to buy a seven dollar screwdriver when I can make one for pennies on the dollar? As the equipment gets cheaper, people won't need to go to a store to have one made, they'll go their den and do it themselves. This will destroy the world economy as capitalism will fail under this scenario. Progress moves us all forward whether we like it or not and alternative economic theories better emerge soon because we are headed for a time when our current model will fail utterly.
Or take anti-aging progress which is moving forward with lightning speed. Human trials are expected next year at the latest to study a chemical NAD that has not only stopped aging in mice, it reversed it. It also holds possibilities for curing cancer, AIDS and degenerative diseases. If true, it will be the most monumental find in human history. It could also be the thing that kills us. If we never age, and never die except by tragic accident, this country will swell with people beyond it's capacity in less than a decade. Either strict population controls would have to be implemented or else mankind will die out due to lack of resources rather than age. And how would our economy do? If people never age, would they ever leave a position of power? You'd have to establish term limits on everything, including your job. And if 3D printing takes off as expected how many jobs will there actually be?
Or take this interesting story that some scientists have figured out a way to make artificial oil. Using the same pressurization process that turns coal into diamonds, we have figured out a way to turn a million years into a matter of minutes. Using an algae slurry, they can turn the sludge from anywhere to 50-70% pure oil, and the rest being reused again to make more oil. This could have huge implications where we no longer have to drill for oil, an environmental victory, oil would be cheap and plentiful and the Middle East can go back to being broke and ignored. Terrorism from Islamic sources will be far, far fewer as without oil, these countries have nothing to export but sand and ideas from the 5th century. They certainly won't be attacking anyone like 9/11 anytime soon. Now mind you, we should be getting off oil all together and this process is still years away from being profitable, but it is a step in the right direction and if all the oil companies go broke because of it, I have no problem with that. After the BP oil spill, I have little sympathy for anyone who works for these monsters.
Which brings me to climate change which is still being debated whether it is occurring or not as we are still getting snow and the Antarctic has record ice. First off, just because one newspaper wrote an article suggesting the days of snow were over a decade ago, doesn't make it gospel. I don't nitpick everything the right says and use that against the entire organization. When one politician says something stupid, like Michelle Bachman claiming a person became mentally challenged after taking a vaccine, I don't automatically say the entire GOP supports this. Just saying.
Second, we are getting more snow because climate change draws more moisture into the atmosphere creating more snow when it gets cold. That is basic science. Incidentally, 2013 was the fourth hottest on record since 1880. Australia was so hot this year, they had to invent a new color, purple, to show TV viewers how warm it really was on a thermal scale. Then they saw record cold during the winter which must have sucked as well. Most of Asia was showing record highs while the US was slightly colder than usual, leading to another round of global warming denial as if it doesn't happen here, it doesn't happen at all. Africa, South America and Greenland were all above normal again. We continue to stick our heads in the sand over this and if we don't accept the fact that we are changing the climate with our out of control population explosion, nothing I wrote above will matter because the Earth will crisp to a cinder and the only people left will be those surviving underground and they will be the rich and powerful while the rest of us die.
The point of all of this is that with economic uncertainty looming, wars still being debated world wide, and Iran still looking to get a nuke that could end the world, we have plenty to worry about. Even things that sound great for our future are a double edged sword as they could also destroy us if handled wrong. What the future holds, only God knows and he isn't telling. Let us hope that brains win out over greed or brawn.
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