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PeakOil is You

Why are you here?

What's on your mind?
General interest discussions, not necessarily related to depletion.
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Why are you here?

Poll ended at Sun 25 Aug 2013, 15:03:05

To be entertained
1
No votes
To learn
10
No votes
To teach
0
0%
To debate
2
No votes
To argue
0
0%
To inspire
1
No votes
To be inspired
1
No votes
 
Total votes : 15

Why are you here?

Unread postby Subjectivist » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 15:03:05

Why are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.
II Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby dorlomin » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 15:29:44

By debating you are forced to focus on what you believe, to muster it into a form you can explain to others and to have it face the challenges of those who disagree. Its a learning tool something akin to dialectic.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Rod_Cloutier » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 16:41:19

I'm an ordinary person in an ordinary job. I want to learn about life, the world, geo-politics, about science, about the enviroment, about limits and about everything available.

Discussion, and interacting with others is also important to me.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Tanada » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 16:49:30

Life is boring in the mental holding pattern. Learn all that is learnable!
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To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Quinny » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 17:06:33

Mainly Learn - answers maybe the other answers sometimes
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Keith_McClary » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 21:12:00

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', 'W')hy are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.
Do you mean on Earth or on this website? (Just wondering if it was meant to be a religious thread like How likely is it that there is an 'afterlife'? :lol: ).
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Rune » Sun 14 Jul 2013, 21:42:21

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', 'B')y debating you are forced to focus on what you believe, to muster it into a form... something akin to dialectic.


What he said.

I've been here since 2004. Different usernames. Not my choice to abandon them.

I read "Hubbert's Peak" by Deffeyes, which seemed compelling at the time, then Heinberg's books, and I accepted the logic for a while but then started having my doubts around 2006. I'lve rea a whole lot of other books on oil too.

I like contentious and debatable issues and this is one of them. I don't think oil is the be-all and end-all of energy. I look at what's happening with small modular reactors, the use of genetically modified microbes, Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, etc and I see real progress tha can't be ignored.

In order tobelieve in a peak oil apocalypse, you have to believe that innovation is impotent in the face of declining easy oil. I have no reason to believe that innovation is impotent.So I debate those that harbor that belief.

Not that there won't or can'lt be some sort of global culling; those things have happened in the past. There is no reason to believe they can't happen again. But I don'lt believe you can predict the future with any degree of accuracy. You can only make guesses based on trends.The future makes present fools of us all.

I don't think there will be an end to civilization, certainly not from an oil shortage. I rather entertain the notion that the Earth itself is evolving and has always evolved, growing in complexity faster and faster. And that human being are just a phase of growth which will eventually usher in some new ubiquitous and awesome intelligence that will cover the entire planet. But that's not a belief; that's a notion I entertain. Who knows what will happen. I certainly don't.

I look at things like automation and robotics and artificial intelligence, which while seemingly showing slow growth, are ceaseless in their development and capabilities. Eventually, machines and machine intelligence will give even the best of we natural humans a desperate run for our money.

Simultaneously, we have a huge and growing global population which isincreasingly interconnected via sophisticated communications. The idea of a Global Brain is now an old idea, but still relevant.

Eventually, there will be no more humans. We will have evolved into something else. No way will civilization reverse itself.

And if hard times come due to resource shortages, or the bubble bursts for some reason, the pace of innovation will only increase, as it does in war time.Just because technological civilization advances doesnLt mean there canLt be another plague, or another WWI writ large.

The planet and its life evolves; maybe one day there will be more effective stepping stone than human beings in whatever Earth is growing towards.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Shaved Monkey » Mon 15 Jul 2013, 01:01:58

Why am I only allowed to pick one?
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby davep » Mon 15 Jul 2013, 06:26:12

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') rather entertain the notion that the Earth itself is evolving and has always evolved, growing in complexity faster and faster


I'm not sure how that tallies with rapidly decreasing biodiversity thanks to human actions.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby careinke » Mon 15 Jul 2013, 11:25:26

Early Warning.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby AgentR11 » Mon 15 Jul 2013, 12:33:25

debate.

Its the only really effective, but cost free way of detecting errors in what you think you already know.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Subjectivist » Mon 15 Jul 2013, 16:47:59

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', 'W')hy are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.
Do you mean on Earth or on this website? (Just wondering if it was meant to be a religious thread like How likely is it that there is an 'afterlife'? :lol: ).

I would love to inspire you to faith Mr. McClary, but I suspect you have no interest in it. I believe in live and let live.

I am here to do everything on the list, some days more of one, other days more of another. I do hope that knowing I am an evangelical believer who also believes in the science behind Peak Oil will inspire people here to be more open minded about those of faith.
II Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Pops » Mon 15 Jul 2013, 21:07:29

As some others mentioned, I also find tapping out my thoughts and reading the feedback helps me understand myself and my thoughts better.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Quinny » Tue 16 Jul 2013, 15:37:09

Just reminded me :

When I left Uni there was a guy in my office called John Schlesinger (not the movie guy) whose father was a resident vicar for a large community/home for people with various mental health/disability problems.

He used to invite visiting preachers and one Sunday a passionate preacher gave a rousing sermon to the residents, culminating in the question. Why are we here? With silence from the congregation the preacher shouted louder 'WHY ARE WE HERE?' after a third and final declaration an old guy at the back stood up and said 'Because we're not all there!'
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Keith_McClary » Tue 16 Jul 2013, 22:39:18

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', 'W')hy are you here? Please explain why you picked the answer you selected.
Do you mean on Earth or on this website? (Just wondering if it was meant to be a religious thread like How likely is it that there is an 'afterlife'? :lol: ).

I would love to inspire you to faith Mr. McClary, but I suspect you have no interest in it. I believe in live and let live.

I am here to do everything on the list, some days more of one, other days more of another. I do hope that knowing I am an evangelical believer who also believes in the science behind Peak Oil will inspire people here to be more open minded about those of faith.
I take it you meant this website, not the Earth.

But I would be interested in what your (or other) religions have to say about finite resources. Some seem to think "go forth and multiply" means unlimited growth. Fodder for another thread, or is there an existing thread about this?

(Some other time I will ask you how Elven-kings and Dwarf-lords fit into your evangelicalism.)
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Wed 17 Jul 2013, 05:08:17

I've been here long enough to have some sentiment about the space shared, time shared in these times of our lives and the world, at a crucial juncture in the continuum which too few share key point awareness to keep comfortable company whilst dwelling on these topics in daily life.

(I think that was my longest sentence ever here :razz: )
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Re: Why are you here?

Unread postby Ibon » Wed 17 Jul 2013, 07:25:47

Some comments already reflected my views but I would add one more.

I am fully engaged in projects and social interactions that deal with the immediate or at most the upcoming next couple of years. I like coming here to discuss what things might be beyond these normal time frames since it allows me to step back and become an observer.

Same reason I got interested in evolution, paleontology, geology, astronomy, psychoactive drugs, wilderness trips. Same reason I chose to end up in a place where I wake up to the sound of howler monkeys and a million acres of cloud forest.
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