Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
Jed, such opinions depend on the time scale you wish to use. If you are concerned about what will happen to your children, your optimism should be low. if you are talking about your great-grand children, you should be a bit more optimistic. If you are talking about what happens 1000 years from now, you can be sure society will have no relationship to what we presently experience and the world will contain many fewer people. Unless you plan to be reborn then, I'm not sure why you care. Ed On Nov 17, 2013, at 9:58 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote: It is widely believed that population growth is out of control, the gap between the Third World and the First World is unbridgeable, and -- in short -- the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Yes, things are bad in many ways, but people should realize there has been tremendous progress in these areas over the last 50 years. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwII-dwh-bk If we can deal with problems like this, we may also manage to push through cold fusion, end the energy crisis, and stop global warming. When I look at the progress in history and the opposition that people in the past overcame, I am optimistic. The panglossian view is unrealistic and unbecoming of an adult, but so is one-sided pessimism that ignores history. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
Edmund Storms stor...@ix.netcom.com wrote: Jed, such opinions depend on the time scale you wish to use. If you are concerned about what will happen to your children, your optimism should be low. Look at the video. Most of the Third World has *now* -- already -- achieved the low levels of infant mortality and family size that were the standard in the First World in 1960. These problems are essentially solved, except in a few countries that are politically unstable or at war. We can be optimistic now, becauses these two critical problems have been largely solved. Once you stop the population explosion and ensure that most children will survive to adulthood, that frees up resources to make progress in many other areas, such as education, economic growth and reducing pollution. The Internet, on-line instruction and on-line libraries are beginning to have an impact on education. This video was made by the Gates Foundation. A large share of the credit for recent progress goes to them. if you are talking about your great-grand children, you should be a bit more optimistic. We are not talking about our great-grandchildren. This is happening now. If anyone in 1960 has said that Africa would achieve U.S. levels of infant mortality and family size by 2005, people would have accused them of being panglossian fools. People were predicting continent-wide mass starvation back then. Of course far more needs to be done. But this progress proves that we can achieve far more. With programs like a guaranteed minimum income and technology such as cold fusion, we can eliminate dire poverty everywhere, and we can have universal literacy within a generation. These goals are within sight. We can also eliminate things like the terrible air pollution in China. We had that kind of pollution in some cities the U.S. and the U.K. until the early 1950s, and in Japan until mid-1960s. The problem was solved when the voters demanded it be solved. The technology to fix it was available from the 1930s on. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
Jed,
We have a huge and looming problem with autism in this country and in all
developing countries. 1/55 kids in the US are born on the spectrum and
1/38 in South Korea. This is brain damage for life
I am starting to believe it is our Doppler/military radars pumping up the
vacuum component in our atmosphere, which I think is weakly ionizing and
penetrating. So. Korea has the largest concentration of Doppler in the
world. I have 4 other data points that fit. After 10 months of plotting
daily sinkholes, algae blooms and fish kills it appears 75% are happening
around Doppler stations.
Whatever is causing Autism, it is bad
On Sunday, November 17, 2013, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Edmund Storms stor...@ix.netcom.com javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
'stor...@ix.netcom.com'); wrote:
Jed, such opinions depend on the time scale you wish to use. If you are
concerned about what will happen to your children, your optimism should be
low.
Look at the video. Most of the Third World has *now* -- already --
achieved the low levels of infant mortality and family size that were the
standard in the First World in 1960. These problems are essentially solved,
except in a few countries that are politically unstable or at war. We can
be optimistic now, becauses these two critical problems have been largely
solved.
Once you stop the population explosion and ensure that most children will
survive to adulthood, that frees up resources to make progress in many
other areas, such as education, economic growth and reducing pollution. The
Internet, on-line instruction and on-line libraries are beginning to have
an impact on education.
This video was made by the Gates Foundation. A large share of the credit
for recent progress goes to them.
if you are talking about your great-grand children, you should be a bit
more optimistic.
We are not talking about our great-grandchildren. This is happening now.
If anyone in 1960 has said that Africa would achieve U.S. levels of infant
mortality and family size by 2005, people would have accused them of being
panglossian fools. People were predicting continent-wide mass starvation
back then.
Of course far more needs to be done. But this progress proves that we can
achieve far more. With programs like a guaranteed minimum income and
technology such as cold fusion, we can eliminate dire poverty everywhere,
and we can have universal literacy within a generation. These goals are
within sight.
We can also eliminate things like the terrible air pollution in China. We
had that kind of pollution in some cities the U.S. and the U.K. until the
early 1950s, and in Japan until mid-1960s. The problem was solved when the
voters demanded it be solved. The technology to fix it was available from
the 1930s on.
- Jed
Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
Natural selection is ruthless. The so-called demographic transition is already showing signs of of being an evolutionary notch filter, selecting out of the gene-pool those who are susceptible to its forces. Bottom line is that as long as the means to reproduce are available, evolution will find a way to create reproducers to reproduce using them. Norman Borlaug recognized this when he instigated the creation of additional billions of people. On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 11:35 AM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.comwrote: Edmund Storms stor...@ix.netcom.com wrote: Jed, such opinions depend on the time scale you wish to use. If you are concerned about what will happen to your children, your optimism should be low. Look at the video. Most of the Third World has *now* -- already -- achieved the low levels of infant mortality and family size that were the standard in the First World in 1960. These problems are essentially solved, except in a few countries that are politically unstable or at war. We can be optimistic now, becauses these two critical problems have been largely solved. Once you stop the population explosion and ensure that most children will survive to adulthood, that frees up resources to make progress in many other areas, such as education, economic growth and reducing pollution. The Internet, on-line instruction and on-line libraries are beginning to have an impact on education. This video was made by the Gates Foundation. A large share of the credit for recent progress goes to them. if you are talking about your great-grand children, you should be a bit more optimistic. We are not talking about our great-grandchildren. This is happening now. If anyone in 1960 has said that Africa would achieve U.S. levels of infant mortality and family size by 2005, people would have accused them of being panglossian fools. People were predicting continent-wide mass starvation back then. Of course far more needs to be done. But this progress proves that we can achieve far more. With programs like a guaranteed minimum income and technology such as cold fusion, we can eliminate dire poverty everywhere, and we can have universal literacy within a generation. These goals are within sight. We can also eliminate things like the terrible air pollution in China. We had that kind of pollution in some cities the U.S. and the U.K. until the early 1950s, and in Japan until mid-1960s. The problem was solved when the voters demanded it be solved. The technology to fix it was available from the 1930s on. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
I am OK if it is natural, whatever that means. It is human stupidity that concerns me. I guess as humanity progresses on Earth we are creating more entropy, or vacuum streaming through us, which is our downfall... On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 1:27 PM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote: Natural selection is ruthless. The so-called demographic transition is already showing signs of of being an evolutionary notch filter, selecting out of the gene-pool those who are susceptible to its forces. Bottom line is that as long as the means to reproduce are available, evolution will find a way to create reproducers to reproduce using them. Norman Borlaug recognized this when he instigated the creation of additional billions of people. On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 11:35 AM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.comwrote: Edmund Storms stor...@ix.netcom.com wrote: Jed, such opinions depend on the time scale you wish to use. If you are concerned about what will happen to your children, your optimism should be low. Look at the video. Most of the Third World has *now* -- already -- achieved the low levels of infant mortality and family size that were the standard in the First World in 1960. These problems are essentially solved, except in a few countries that are politically unstable or at war. We can be optimistic now, becauses these two critical problems have been largely solved. Once you stop the population explosion and ensure that most children will survive to adulthood, that frees up resources to make progress in many other areas, such as education, economic growth and reducing pollution. The Internet, on-line instruction and on-line libraries are beginning to have an impact on education. This video was made by the Gates Foundation. A large share of the credit for recent progress goes to them. if you are talking about your great-grand children, you should be a bit more optimistic. We are not talking about our great-grandchildren. This is happening now. If anyone in 1960 has said that Africa would achieve U.S. levels of infant mortality and family size by 2005, people would have accused them of being panglossian fools. People were predicting continent-wide mass starvation back then. Of course far more needs to be done. But this progress proves that we can achieve far more. With programs like a guaranteed minimum income and technology such as cold fusion, we can eliminate dire poverty everywhere, and we can have universal literacy within a generation. These goals are within sight. We can also eliminate things like the terrible air pollution in China. We had that kind of pollution in some cities the U.S. and the U.K. until the early 1950s, and in Japan until mid-1960s. The problem was solved when the voters demanded it be solved. The technology to fix it was available from the 1930s on. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
Its true that the present environment cannot be called natural if humans want to claim any responsibility for the evolutionary outcome of their policies. It is pretty clear to me that any attempt to claim responsibility for the evolutionary outcome of human policies is decried as on a slippery-slope to killing six million Jews or something. This means that humans will destroy the planet. On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 1:14 PM, ChemE Stewart cheme...@gmail.com wrote: I am OK if it is natural, whatever that means. It is human stupidity that concerns me. I guess as humanity progresses on Earth we are creating more entropy, or vacuum streaming through us, which is our downfall... On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 1:27 PM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote: Natural selection is ruthless. The so-called demographic transition is already showing signs of of being an evolutionary notch filter, selecting out of the gene-pool those who are susceptible to its forces. Bottom line is that as long as the means to reproduce are available, evolution will find a way to create reproducers to reproduce using them. Norman Borlaug recognized this when he instigated the creation of additional billions of people. On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 11:35 AM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.comwrote: Edmund Storms stor...@ix.netcom.com wrote: Jed, such opinions depend on the time scale you wish to use. If you are concerned about what will happen to your children, your optimism should be low. Look at the video. Most of the Third World has *now* -- already -- achieved the low levels of infant mortality and family size that were the standard in the First World in 1960. These problems are essentially solved, except in a few countries that are politically unstable or at war. We can be optimistic now, becauses these two critical problems have been largely solved. Once you stop the population explosion and ensure that most children will survive to adulthood, that frees up resources to make progress in many other areas, such as education, economic growth and reducing pollution. The Internet, on-line instruction and on-line libraries are beginning to have an impact on education. This video was made by the Gates Foundation. A large share of the credit for recent progress goes to them. if you are talking about your great-grand children, you should be a bit more optimistic. We are not talking about our great-grandchildren. This is happening now. If anyone in 1960 has said that Africa would achieve U.S. levels of infant mortality and family size by 2005, people would have accused them of being panglossian fools. People were predicting continent-wide mass starvation back then. Of course far more needs to be done. But this progress proves that we can achieve far more. With programs like a guaranteed minimum income and technology such as cold fusion, we can eliminate dire poverty everywhere, and we can have universal literacy within a generation. These goals are within sight. We can also eliminate things like the terrible air pollution in China. We had that kind of pollution in some cities the U.S. and the U.K. until the early 1950s, and in Japan until mid-1960s. The problem was solved when the voters demanded it be solved. The technology to fix it was available from the 1930s on. - Jed
Re: [Vo]:There has been tremendous progress in population control and infant mortality
ChemE Stewart cheme...@gmail.com wrote: We have a huge and looming problem with autism in this country and in all developing countries. 1/55 kids in the US are born on the spectrum and 1/38 in South Korea. This is brain damage for life I doubt it. Based on what I have read, I believe the clinical description has changed and more people are being diagnosed with this, but the actual rates have not changed. This has happened with a number of other diseases in the past, such as bad posture (as it was called). I am starting to believe it is our Doppler/military radars pumping up the vacuum component in our atmosphere, which I think is weakly ionizing and penetrating. I suppose that is possible. If it turns out to be the case, it is yet another environmental problem that needs to be fixed. - Jed
