Peace is not made through ignorance and wishful thinking, it is made through research and science and education.
Obviously, this OP was inspired by the "How Do You See Black People" test. So, I decided to create my own test.
The fact that a thread like that even exists, or that such a question would even be necessary, and the fact that some of the replies were so 'blind' to the apex of the question itself, is proof positive that my theory about humanity being approximately 3000 to 4000 years behind its potential progress curve, is proof worthy.
Think about it. Of course, I know that asking some of you to actually 'think' is a monumental suggestion in and of itself, but just ponder the type and kind of world you might live in today, if all of humanity actually had the intelligence and the moral backbone to exist as selfless human beings seeking only that which promotes the progress of humanity.
As one who knows a little bit about mathematics, aerodynamics and subatomic physics, I can 100% promise you that in less than 3000 to 4000 years from now, the collaborative relationship between both the physics and the aerospace science communities, will solve the propulsion problem that is partly responsible for restricting human interstellar travel with return and recovery. Relax, I won't turn this into aerospace science thread. However, I have thought about this mathematically.
It is my strongly held personal belief that there is a genuine (real) connection between the intellectual growth and progress/achievement curve of humanity down through the millennia, that is directly proportional to the product of aggregate intellectual input and inversely proportional to the square of the magnitude of humanity's ethnic divisions. This proportionality can be derived in a number of different ways, but I believe the fundamental structure of the inputs to be very sound. To put it rather simply, the stronger the ethnic divisions throughout the world, the weaker the intellectual aggregate impulse that gets applied to moving the planet further into the future with a higher rate of progress and accomplishment that serves all humanity.
This should not be an earth shattering revelation to anyone. It is based upon the easily understood principle that not only will no house divided stand forever, but that no divided planet with intelligent life will ever achieve its true potential, or even come remotely close to doing so.
Why?
Number one: The leading causes of war in all of recorded human history are rooted in Power & Control, as well as Ethnic & Cultural instability. From those two primary amalgamated composite structures are derived all of humanity's sub-contextual causations for war: Religion, Economic, Territorial, Resources, Imperial Conquests, Disputes of various kinds, etc.
Number two: The fewer number of people engaged in mortal conflict, or being negatively and adversely impacted as a direct consequence of mortal conflict brought about through the primary causations of war, the few number of people there will be engaged in the intellectual pursuits necessary to steepen the progress and achievement curve of humanity on a global scale.
When you constantly live in a world of negativity, it is very difficult to produce positive thoughts and the resources that are expended in the constant and ongoing strife within society as a whole, robs the cradle of intellectual creativity and deprives it from producing healthy, abundant and diverse off-spring. Einstein, once wrote that "imagination is everything" and he later went on to insinuate that without imagination, humanity will never extend beyond what it already knows.
When you keep degrading yourself by thinking that your ethnic bias is somehow progressing either intellect, or your position in life - you categorically define yourself as one of the many shallow pins with no depth of penetration into that which has the potential to free humanity to become all that it can be. In other words, the real drag on human development and its progress into the future, are those who are morally and intellectually without the capacity to envision themselves living in a world where they actually contribute to the upward angular momentum of a vibrant and progressive curve of achievement, for the common good of all fully sentient beings who call earth their home.
You can call it a Futurist point of view. You can call it a Utopian Society. Or, you can label it "Perfection" and therefore unattainable. But, no matter what you might call it, the fact of the matter is that no intellectual species will ever be greater than its weakest link. Until all of humanity decides that its future is more important than its past, or that its future is more important than the mythical divisions created by those who lack genuine vision, moral clarity and intellectual stability, this planet will continually drag the progress and achievement curve in the gutter and never reach its fullest potential. United we stand. Divided, we ultimately perish.
Our archaeological origins reside in Africa, but our future, if genuine progress is our aim, is well beyond the Milkyway. But, long before that can ever have the slightest chance of becoming a reality, all of humanity will have to shift-forward into new realm of thought as it relates to how it "Sees Itself," not merely here on planet earth, but throughout the entire Universe. Anything less than our absolute best in aggregate intellectual focus on the common good, won't be good enough to ever gain ground on our 3000 to 4000 year slow start.
How do you "see" humanity:
A) Capable of gaining ground on a 3000 to 4000 year slow start?
B) Incapable of ever reaching its fullest potential due to ignorance, ethnic strife and war?
Where has all of our research, science and education brought us thus far? Tribal building, followed by Empire building, followed by Kingdom building and now the epochs of Resource Manipulation and Economic Slave Development. All the while, research, science and education continues.
Where there is no vision the people perish and Einstein, who I continually quote on this forum, once said that "imagination is everything." Einstein, recognized the need for visionaries. People who could think beyond the here and now, to conceive of what could be, and or what should be. He offered us some of the greatest achievements and progress in science during the 20th century, but when was the last time the earth saw such stand-out thinkers as Einstein, Newton, Galileo, Aristotle, Pythagoras, or some of the ancient Egyptian Priests that Pythagoras spent time learning from.
Without the ability to conceive (first) of a new paradigm, no change is ever possible. And, without the ability to recognize the advantages of said new paradigm, no change will ever take place.
The problem, here, is that you are viewing at humanity as a whole.
However, we are all individuals.
And so I think we should keep in mind what individuals can achieve, and regard this to their goals and their obligations.
O'er time, we will reach our full potential, we have been around for tens or thousands of millions of years....so the progress will be slow.I enjoyed reading this a lot, thank you! I'm going to define humanity as society. I believe society itself is oppressive and ignorant. Why do we have wars? Ignorance. Why are people treated poorly? Ignorance. It seems like a lot of people in society are brought up to be power hungry. They want more money so they can buy more things and impress others or have control over them. It's insane that people are treated differently because they have different beliefs than other. Currently, I don't see society changing and I highly doubt that it can ever reach its true potential. Humans tend to be power hungry and oppressive to others with different views. The people in power are the people who come up with what is "moral," and how the society should live. And as long as the people in charge are heartless, entirely profit-driven, or only looking out for themselves, then society cannot advance as efficiently as possible.
To be fair, the death toll from Fukushima is zero.
You are welcome, Sonic.
Your causations for "society" and its illness are interesting. I spent roughly 10 years of my life studying money and learning how to grow capital. I did it for three very good reasons. I saw the instability in global economies, its impact on the job market and came to the conclusion that that relatively few of the career paths that I was either qualified for by way of formal education and/or actual industry experience, would be "safe" from significant volatility. I also grew-up poor and knew what a life of insufficient income would mean in future years, having seen my parents struggle to make ends meet. Lastly, I always knew that there was something 'significant' for me to do in life, that went well beyond just my own personal desires and needs in life.
Today, I run and manage a private fund that is closed to the public began with my own capital. I expect to use it as the funding source for a global non-profit organization at some point in the not so distant future, providing much needed services to people who might otherwise life their entire life going without. So, my study of money goes beyond my own personal interests. My view of money, has changed over the years and I see it as tool for effecting positive change around the world. I think people who hoard money, merely for the sake of hoarding it, are not fulfilling their best destiny, nor are they living an optimal life - regardless of how many 250 ft yachts they manage to build over the course of their lifetime. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the 250 ft yacht. It employees people, keeps the economy moving along and yachting (I hear) can be great fun and an awesome way to unwind and relax.
However, there is most certainly something deadly wrong when those who can afford to build that new 250 ft yacht, are so myopic that they can't bring themselves to pay any attention to the fact that millions of Children around the world go to sleep each night hungry. That blows my mind. When you can clearly make a change in the lives of people without it causing severe damage to your own lifestyle, and you sit on your rear-end doing absolutely nothing but blowing a new hole through the roof of your bank accounts, then it is my personal belief that you don't deserve what you have. That's just my own personal take on the matter.
So, this takes your premise and really narrows it down to one word: Greed.
You can take a huge percentage of humanity's problems and place them directly under that one word - and you would be very precise and accurate for having done so. There are too many people in this world that have no moral sense of the "common good." They are in it for themselves and damn everybody else who can't get their own.
Much of our entire global society is predicated on money. We work on jobs that we don't like for money. We put up with bosses that we don't like for money. We live in places that we would rather not live for money. We spend inordinate amounts of time away from home and our families for money. We exchange vast amounts of our time each day for money. We rob for money. We steal for money. We cheat for money. We lie to our electorate for the sole purpose of being supported by those who have money. We create false ideological political barriers to progress just so we can control the money. Our entire world rotates on its axis because of money. When we decide to make changes around the world for the improvement of the common good - it takes money do it. Money makes the world "go-round."
So, how on earth do we change such a paradigm - predicated on the almighty dollar?
There are ways to do it, but the powers that be most certainly won't bring any of them up for discussion and/or debate.
A bit of a hypocritical posture me thinks.
Such as the destruction of the Library of Alexandria...twice,
As far as the 3-4000 year time line put forth... I believe that we will either destroy ourselves completely or break free of our self imposed bondage within the next 500 years.
I'd be interested in seeing this math. I can't believe it could possibly take 3000 years to achieve interstellar travel,
...I can 100% promise you that in less than 3000 to 4000 years from now,...
...a lot of theories on it exist already, some of the technologies even already exist. It's not going to take 3000 years, it's not going to take 1000 years.
What math are you doing to suggest 3000?
The problem, here, is that you are viewing at humanity as a whole.
However, we are all individuals.
And so I think we should keep in mind what individuals can achieve, and regard this to their goals and their obligations.
I have, by far, much more respect for the woman who just wants to get married and raise a child and does so successfully than someone with the hubris to try to "change the paradigm of all mankind."
Newton didn't give birth to me. Einstein didn't bust his ass at a job to raise me. Galileo didn't feed me when I was a kid. Aristotle didn't teach me how to drive a car. Pythagoras wasn't the one who taught me at school.
Over long stretches of time can we look at history in a Newtonian sense. But our day-to-day lives are filled with the quantum of individuals.
And I quite enjoy their company even if the history books will never mention them.
Working for the common good would likely have us still in the fields tending the crops. It is the ego of personal accomplishment that has created progress--certainly not without some serious consequences.
Solar sails and gravipults.Energy & Propulsion Problems:
Nobody asks to be born anywhere. Doesn't stop us now.Given the relative distance to even the nearest star systems where we now believe there might be planets capable of supporting human life, it would require cruise speeds that are large fractions of light-speed, or sub-light speed. If we don't achieve those speeds, then the time it would take to reach even Alpha Centauri, which is a little over four (4) light years away from earth, would mean that missions to these potential destinations would take generations to accomplish.
That presents all kinds of ethical/moral problems, as those people being born in space - did not ask to be part of that kind of endeavor.
Electromagnetic shields. A bussard scoop.However, we would still have to derive a solution for the small scale objects.
It would be the most inspiring effort in history. As soon as it becomes a real possibility, it can get funding. In order for it to be realistic, of course, we'd need greater supply of accessible materials to lower the cost, which will only come through development of asteroid mining. Of course, the first asteroid mining effort is only a decade away now.There are many other issues to solve as well, but these are four (4) of the major problems that will take a significant amount of time, energy and effort to resolve to anywhere near the level necessary to put together a launch date for such a journey. However, there is one more very large problem that looms ahead: Funding.
This is not something that any private entity would ever want to do. The actual ROI for a private entity on something like this is practically zero and there would be no prior risk-to-reward model to look at for comparison, that would even come close to helping anyone understand what they are getting themselves into. There won't even be single country that could afford to go at this kind of project alone. Therefore, it will take Global Initiative unlike anything ever attempted by humanity in the past, where the entire planet comes together to develop the strategic outline for accomplishing such a task. This would be so resource intensive, that nearly every government in the world would have to commit and contribute to some aspect of the project. It would go beyond mere money and capital expenditures. This endeavor will also require the intellectual efforts of an entire planet and a sincere commitment to seeing that the initiative does not fail.
500 years is an incredibly long time period. 500 years ago, we were still grappling with the idea that the world is round.Take every great civilization that has ever existed on earth and instead of hiding, destroying, and withholding their respective knowledge - share, distribute, integrate and extend upon all that which has previously been known into today, October, 2012. Where would we be today? Then go beyond just the sharing of information through generations, and look at the actual progress that might have been made throughout the epochs had there been only one People on planet earth working together for the common good. Where would we be today? No lines on a map dividing humanity. Everyone being classified simply as a Citizen of Planet Earth, and not some sub-divided imaginary line on a map. A society in which everybody was engaged in using their higher talents for the purpose of extending life beyond this planet. A world in which everyone was engaged in the support of the Common Good, and of the extension of human life. Where would be today?
We would be ahead of humanity by about as long as humanity has been on planet earth.
It would require this world to come together in ways that it never has before. Are we capable of pulling that kind of multi-cultural global initiative off, within the next 500 years? I sure hope so, but given our current sad state of affairs as human beings who seem hell bent on destroying our planet and everything on it, I don't see us reaching that level of maturity in such a short period of time. So, you see, the problem with getting to the "next planet" is not merely a technological problem. It is also a societal problem rooted in our ability to think beyond our differences for a greater and more common good. And, that is why I think it will take a lot more than 500 years.
We are not as smart as we like to think we are. If we were, then we'd be literally reaching for the stars right now and we'd be doing it with Human beings instead of Voyager-like probes.
Working for the common good, would provide us crops that don't need tending by human hands.
We could then spend our collective time and our collective intelligence, solving the more complex problems that face humanity, where everybody would then be able to bring their contributions into a universal consortium of knowledge maps, designed for the purpose of advancing all humanity.
We can either use our brains to think of ways to keep humanity oppressed, or we can use our brains to think of ways to allow humanity to soar.
I'm leaning towards soaring.
Man is supposed to study and know the animals...he must reason : How are we supposed to be ?Humans are like wolves.
One species, multiple subspecies (or races, breeds) and multiple variations of each subspecies (ethnic groups).
When one pack of wolves comes in contact with another because one trespasses on the others' territory, trouble arises. This happens regardless of what the packs of wolves are. They can be of the same breed and same variation (i.e. like when the Greeks fought one another in ancient times)... same breed and different variations (like when the French fought the English), or different breeds ( like when Arabs fought with blacks, or Europeans fought with Arabs, or countless beyond countless examples).
It is very simple. I do not see this as being a bad thing, I see it as being a natural thing. As long as we masquerade it as being something it isn't... a social construct or racism or something stupid like that, we will never be able to solve our differences and understand them, on a large scale and thus, we can never have a real peace between races. Peace is not made through ignorance and wishful thinking, it is made through research and science and education.
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