Posted by Racer on June 5, 2006, at 22:57:21
In reply to How long do we have ?, posted by linkadge on June 5, 2006, at 21:22:04
I used to worry a great deal about nuclear devastation. I don't so much anymore. (Maybe the Reagan Years got me past it...)
I worry about a lot of other things a lot more -- global warming, sure, but how about things like:
The changes in animal ethology caused by human factors? It's leading to elephants and primates becoming quite dangerous for humans near them. And think Florida/crocodilians.
The shrinking gene pool for our plants -- who here has read "No Blade Of Grass," by John Christopher? There's a review of it I thought was rather good at http://www.lostbooks.org/reviews/1999-03-21-1.html What will we do when we can't grow wheat or maize? (And wheat is a weird'un -- three sets of chromosomes, so it's much harder to try to create a truly new variety.)
The increasingly artificial world we try to live in, which I sometimes find quite appalling. How about respecting the fact that we're MAMMALS, and not trying to become Vulcan?
OK. I'm done. But I think every generation has to go through a worry about nuclear devastation. Not fun, but undertandable. I think we get over it when we can put it into perspective a bit: it might happen, and it would [emulate a Hoover], but we probably wouldn't be here to find out how much it [emulated a Hoover]. Live the life you got now...
poster:Racer
thread:653414
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060604/msgs/653456.html