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We sometimes get so caught up in the whining and kvetching we do on a
daily basis that we lose sight of the fact that we are really among
the most blessed of men, as part of a generation which will be seen
in the future as the apex of human achievement and quality of life.
We are truly living in the Golden Hour, able to still enjoy both
the priceless inheritance we received from our forebears and at
the same time reap the benefits of the science and technology
which are pointing the way towards humanity’s future.
Despite the dire predictions of Thomas
Malthus and
his ilk, it appears that the human population of the planet will stabilize
late in the present
century at 10-15 billion people. The ongoing decline in birth rates is
directly related to economic development, and seems based on the simple
fact that, when faced with economically viable alternatives to staying
home and making babies, women take them. Of course, all projections depend
on assumptions about the presence or absence of things like continuing
economic development and wide scale war or epidemic, so who can say how
much this all means.
But it seems certain, just by reading history and the news, that life
in the brave new world of the 22nd century and beyond will be much more
removed,
in
all senses, from the life we live today than we are from our ancestors
in the late 1800’s.
Probably, the Internet will be everywhere. Every computer, camera, door,
refrigerator, telephone, turnstyle, cash register, bank account, can
opener and copy machine will be connected and reachable via whatever
portable or surgically implanted interface is the Windows of the day.
Just as citizens will be able to watch or find out anything about their
world, so the powers that control the Internet will be able to watch
and find out anything about any of those citizens.
There will no longer be any fish left in the world, except maybe for
very very rich business, government or media figures. They will probably
have some kelp based fish stick products for the rest of us. In fact,
our whole diet will be different, as there won’t be space for ranches
or vineyards. Porterhouse steaks will be a thing of the past; eating
meat at all will probably be considered savage, primitive and wasteful.
Chicken may survive, they are a remarkably efficient protein converter
and really little more than vegetables with feathers.
Again, the super-rich will probably still be able to serve swordfish
and veal in their hermetically sealed cyber compounds, but the common
people will be relegated to sausage and sushi, and who the hell knows
what goes into those.
The extreme environments, the Amazon jungle and the Sahara Desert and
the Wilds of Borneo will be paved over and developed, their resources
efficiently extracted and the left-overs providing homes a workplaces
for some unfortunate sliver of humanity. The highest peaks of the Andes
and Himalayas may remain somewhat isolated given the high cost of development,
but they will probably be popular resorts just for that reason. The oceans
will be mostly dead.
There will be no more indigenous peoples left on the planet, and their cultures will disappear, except
as fodder for memorial and reenactment societies. The 187 distinct languages now
spoken on the planet will be reduced to 12 or 15. There will be a Target,
and a Burger King and a Bank of America within 45 minutes travel of any
place on Earth.
The way we live will be different, too. To support that many people,
society will have to be very highly regularized and regimented. We will
be following the lead, not of the US, paragon of the individualism of
the past century, but of China, the paragon of the collectivism and control
which will be necessary just to get along with that many other people.
No more messy, open forums, no more maverick, divisive candidates, no
more disruptive protests or destructive civil wars. The time has come
to put behind us such childish toys.
In a very real way September 11, 2001 will be looked back as a historic
dividing line, the end of humanities residence in our terrestrial garden
of Eden. For better or worse, the tipping point has been reached, certain
previously possible paths of development have become defunct, and we
are proceeding ahead down the path of command and control.
Most of the changes are not even visible yet. Most people are going
along in their lives pretty much as they did before 9/11, worried about
the same stuff, the dentist, the bills, the diet, with perhaps just an
underlying edge of inexpressible fear.
How lucky we are to be alive while there is still a bit of planet to despoil! While we can still partake of pastimes like slash and burn agriculture, fox hunting and open pit mining. That is why we should enjoy these
last few moments basking in the innocence and warm sunshine of our primal
state. They won’t last much longer.
The changes may be inevitable now, but they haven’t started to happen
yet, except insofar as we can see the players lining up and the groundwork
being laid. It won’t be long now before we’ll look back wistfully on
today, and say, "Those were the days."
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