Earth 2100 is perhaps one of the most alarming scenarios I have ever seen or heard in my life. It paints a bleak picture of what failure to change could mean for the human race. It makes me think back to watching Captain Planet and the Planeteers has a child. I remember very well, an episode where Wheeler changed history: preempting the creation of the planeteers: leading to a future world where nature had been pommeled into devastation. Which obviously, isn’t diddly compared to what earth2100 models.
Heh, just think what effect 15 years can have?
For anyone with kids or wanting to have children in the future, I think you will be wondering soberly just what kind of world we will leave our future to deal with, after seeing earth2100. For me, it has very much a reaffirmed my beliefs that man can’t afford to stand individually against the challenges that plague our world. It can’t be American technology, it can’t be Russian technology, it can’t be Chinese technology, and it can’t be Indian technology: it must be human technology. All the politics, all the petty differences, all of the endless bullshit: it all just sucks peoples attention from doing things that matter. What if there was no fear among neighbors? What if even 10% or 15% of every powerful nation devoted a year of their life to doing some good in this fouled up world?
Remove politics as usual and all of the social cruft from the equation and the globe could be painted anew within a few centuries time. Hunger, famine, it could all be washed away into the history books, if only the human race would stand together as one race: not white, not black, not Chinese, not French, but human!. United towards a set of common goals, my word it could be a paradise by the year 3000 — even Star Trek could be within our reach.
I generally avoid politics, since a global democracy would be more to my tastes then national governments. It’ll never happen, if it ever did happen we would fuck it up royally. One of the reasons I have always loved Battletech is because its histories display human nature. Above all, the tale of the push into space, of the Star League and the golden era, and mans fall into dark age…. it displays our nature to destroy ourselves, ever more so when we do finally have “a good thing” going, does that nature manifest itself in full. We are the greatest plague of locusts ever created — the human race.
In my own life time, I know the things I would like to see.
More and more data centers turning green inside and out. Hardware and software are getting to the point that we will be able to squeeze the machines for all the are worth in a few years. Power and cooling of a large data center is an immense task, imagine if data centers could supply their own power indefinitely for as long as wind blows and sun continues to move across the sky? Throw in the hookups to existing power resources used across data centers, and the obvious on and off site insurance policies against a “Oh shit, the power is out” kind of moment, can you really lose? IMHO it would be in line with the core rule of being in business: to remain in business!
What of technology? Just about everyone in this country has an iPod. (Except me, I prefer laptops haha!) What if by 2011 every iPod produced by Apple was powered by solar energy and only used its rechargeable batteries as a back up? Just think if that same technology was applied to every cell phone in the world! What if laptops could be made that charge themselves off a solar collective skin, rather then relying on AC adapters and batteries you eventually have to replace? What if by 2020 the sale and manufacturer of fossil fuel burning automobiles was banned in the United States, and replaced with an everlasting source of power? Heck these days even high end tactical watches are made with solar power + battery reserves, I’ve even heard the U.S. Navy SEAL teams have begun making use of them – you can’t afford a dead battery in combat! Why can’t we have the same on cell phones, ipods, laptops, etc? It would be much less headache and landfill, if the battery companies would find a new business model (^_^)/
It is innovation and a will to stand together that can bring about CHANGE in this world. And it is the piss-ant scum bags who will do nothing but maintain their status quo, who I curse, and prey that they see their business ripped apart by those businesses who will innovate the market place. Innovation and hard work helped make America the fat country it is today, its what brought man from sticks and stones to rocket ships and iPods — and what most so seriously be protected. And it what could bring us into a golden age…… if only we faught for it, if only we could do it…. and not fuck up more then we succeed! lol.