Are you ready for this?

[NYCMIA777]

The future!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

[bricabrac]

Watch Ex Machina (2015); helluva look into what's next.

[Saharapost]

The singularity is really, getting nearer.

[Saharapost]

Watch Ex Machina (2015); helluva look into what's next.

Bricabrac, I just came to say thank you for the recommendation. Ex Machina is wow!:coolgleam: **runs outa thread to continue watching***

[Kaz]

Yeah it's scary. I'm one of those people who does not buy the "Don't worry! We'll automate the sucky jobs but then all of these non-sucky jobs will appear!" argument. Technological advances like these are mono-directional: once they happen it's a permanent change with no going back. There won't be a "horse revival" so to speak (or Pandora's Box reference for those who didn't watch the entire video in the link). This plus continued population expansion is going to cause massive global problems, maybe not in the next year or two but definitely in the next 20. I expect this to lead to a lot of political problems in the mid-21st century.

[dposborne]

Yeah it's scary. I'm one of those people who does not buy the "Don't worry! We'll automate the sucky jobs but then all of these non-sucky jobs will appear!" argument. Technological advances like these are mono-directional: once they happen it's a permanent change with no going back. There won't be a "horse revival" so to speak (or Pandora's Box reference for those who didn't watch the entire video in the link). This plus continued population expansion is going to cause massive global problems, maybe not in the next year or two but definitely in the next 20. I expect this to lead to a lot of political problems in the mid-21st century.

Actually most of the worlds population growth can be seen in the Sub Saharan areas of Africa and in south Asia mainly India. The big thing we are going to be worrying about in the future is the mass immigration from these areas of the world as more and more move to urbanized locations. India is once again in danger of facing greater poverty and starvation since the first "green" revolution wasn't as successful as it was in Mexico back in the 1950's. Achieving one of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN predicts that extreme poverty will be at an end by 2030. This should help these depressed areas of the world actually begin to come out of the poverty trap that they are entangled in, which should in turn increase stability throughout these regions. Hopefully by the time this happens the birth rates in these regions will be under control and more focus will have been put on infrastructure. I don't think that population expansion is going to cause massive global issues, maybe just in the countries that are out of control. The birth rate in the US is below 2 while its above 7 in Africa... we won't see many problems in our country, India along with sub Saharan Africa on the other hand will be in trouble.

[Prloko]

Actually most of the worlds population growth can be seen in the Sub Saharan areas of Africa and in south Asia mainly India. The big thing we are going to be worrying about in the future is the mass immigration from these areas of the world as more and more move to urbanized locations. India is once again in danger of facing greater poverty and starvation since the first "green" revolution wasn't as successful as it was in Mexico back in the 1950's. Achieving one of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN predicts that extreme poverty will be at an end by 2030. This should help these depressed areas of the world actually begin to come out of the poverty trap that they are entangled in, which should in turn increase stability throughout these regions. Hopefully by the time this happens the birth rates in these regions will be under control and more focus will have been put on infrastructure. I don't think that population expansion is going to cause massive global issues, maybe just in the countries that are out of control. The birth rate in the US is below 2 while its above 7 in Africa... we won't see many problems in our country, India along with sub Saharan Africa on the other hand will be in trouble.

The greatest form of birth control and population stability is prosperity. My biggest fear is the world governments getting together to come up with a controversial solution for the population. If you think I have a tinfoil cap on my head, look up Puerto Rican sterilization. And that was a more "human" program.

[Kaz]

Actually most of the worlds population growth can be seen in the Sub Saharan areas of Africa and in south Asia mainly India.

I don't see how that is contradictory to anything I said. I didn't give any geographic breakdown as to the population growth so I don't know what the "actually" is supposed to be about.

The big thing we are going to be worrying about in the future is the mass immigration from these areas of the world as more and more move to urbanized locations.

The big thing I am worried about is the environment, so if the peoples most likely to increase the most in population also heavily migrate to already urbanized locations then I say the more the better. I would love to pass more laws in the states that not only preserve but expand wilderness areas, somewhat forcing people to live in more condensed areas, so if that is going to happen from natural forces all the better. Anything to keep people from bulldozing old-growth forests to put up an effin' strip mall or the like.

Achieving one of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN predicts that extreme poverty will be at an end by 2030. This should help these depressed areas of the world actually begin to come out of the poverty trap that they are entangled in, which should in turn increase stability throughout these regions. Hopefully by the time this happens the birth rates in these regions will be under control and more focus will have been put on infrastructure.

I'll believe that when I see it. Sorry, but ending extreme poverty in 15 years? I don't buy it. I bet you more than anything they will start to "hedge" on their definition of "extreme" once they are a few years out so it looks like they are achieving that deadline.

I don't think that population expansion is going to cause massive global issues....

I would say it already has.

[Kaz]

The greatest form of birth control and population stability is prosperity. ...

Absolutely. The higher on the hog people get the more on average they seem to naturally slow down in reproduction. I've never studied that phenomenon in depth but it appears to me that it is a simple resources distribution situation. It simply takes more money per child the more affluent the parents are. I guess an additional factor would be that having more resources can lead to more options in life, so parents might want to have their one or two kids then get back to all their hobbies, travelling, etc., whereas poorer parents pretty much work just to live. Interesting stuff. The optimist in me is still holding out for that prefect scenario: so many of us become so prosperous so fast we level off in population. Win win I wouldn't put money on it though.

[Prloko]

. The optimist in me is still holding out for that prefect scenario: so many of us become so prosperous so fast we level off in population. Win win I wouldn't put money on it though.

Agreed. As long as scarcity rears its ugly head, it's merely a pipe dream.