by Carlhole » Sun 02 Jan 2011, 15:56:45
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Arthur75', 'I')n the end you people are terribly sad, heavy, and boring (besides being 100% wrong, of course)
The original subject was the observation that there are two fairly well-known groups who are each preparing, in possibly radical ways, for a rather doomish-looking future.
You've got the Limits To Growth crowd, amongst which peak-oilers find sympthasizers. And you have the Singularitarians, a group which is looking at the rapid advance of science and technology. Kurzweil's predictions, based on LOAR, are accurate - 86%.
Both groups use trend-plotting techniques and other key observations to make claims about the future. Each groups' analysis of civilization's future appears to be diametrically opposed to the other.
Of course, the predictable response would be that those idiots on the other side are delusional, sensationalist and cannot be given any credibility. Such a statement puts the paradox to bed nicely for a mind that doesn't want to work too hard - someone who likes to read James Howard Kunstler, for example, very dismissive and contemptuous of "techno-utopianism", but who refuses to acknowledge or discuss in any clear-headed way the strong advance of science, the huge scientific research studies being conducted on and off the planet, incredible new projects being planned, etc.
For more inquiring minds, the fact that
opposite futures are predicted by ASPO and The Singularity Institute is interesting because there are so many people who would place themselves in one of these two camps and there are plenty of people (like me) who are acquainted with both these subjects.