There is a train of thought, that we should worry less about scarcity, climate change, pollution, etc because we will develop solutions to our problems before they get too bad.

Now, outside of the fact that this is typically just used as a smokescreen from those who don't want to make major changes to our society - how much bullshit is this idea?

Technology DOES move pretty fast. I mean, we almost got impulse engines.

Thoughts?

As fast as technology moves we're not able to really able to develop and test things at the rate necessary. Meanwhile some of our best and brightests are wasting time fighting old fights.

The GOP just proposed a bill today that will severely harm the Deparment of Health (I'll have to follow up on the correct department). The bill will require anything research to be available for public replication. However, many trials aren't publically replicable due to size, scope, and privacy laws.

So who wins in that? The people that have a vested interest in stagnation.

I keep telling people that STEM is the true key to freedom. All that liberal arts business is a hobby at this point.

STEM is all good...
but...
unfortunately...it's NOT the quickest or most lucrative path to financial freedom in the United States.
Many of my peers have already caught up to and surpassed the early gains I achieved out of college with my engineering degree....
I've almost topped out.....
it's the reality no one wants to admit...
coupled with the high burnout and jaded factor....
plus the reality that it's a field with many players, but few game makers....

Chances are certainly better.

my daughters excel in math & science but both say they're bored by the subjects. and i try to get them to look at the money they stand to make by being so good at stuff that most people avoid

BUT

those little smart asses turned my own words against me and said

"we're smart and we work hard so we'll excel in whatever we do which will lead to making money".

hard to argue against something you yourself said...

***
I'm tryna be better off, not better than...

Even if u don't have the stomach for an engineering career, the degree is a access pass

Whereas 'sports management',sociology, or literature degrees might only get u in a few doors

to ourselves and to the planet. Any technological advances will only exacerbate that nature-- making it exponentially more potent and more destructive.

It is true that until we learn to really love each other there will be no peace or true prosperity for the human race. We don't need technology to achieve that type of respect for one another and we've been on the planet long enough that if it were going to happen it already would have by now.

>to ourselves and to the planet. Any technological advances
>will only exacerbate that nature-- making it exponentially
>more potent and more destructive.
>
>It is true that until we learn to really love each other there
>will be no peace or true prosperity for the human race. We
>don't need technology to achieve that type of respect for one
>another and we've been on the planet long enough that if it
>were going to happen it already would have by now.

The problem is capitalism and the fact that there is no real will to help EVERYONE, even among regular folks. People would rather sell a solution than make it accessible to all.

>>to ourselves and to the planet. Any technological advances
>>will only exacerbate that nature-- making it exponentially
>>more potent and more destructive.
>>
>>It is true that until we learn to really love each other
>there
>>will be no peace or true prosperity for the human race. We
>>don't need technology to achieve that type of respect for
>one
>>another and we've been on the planet long enough that if it
>>were going to happen it already would have by now.
>
>The problem is capitalism and the fact that there is no real
>will to help EVERYONE, even among regular folks. People would
>rather sell a solution than make it accessible to all.

Agree 100%

We have the resources now. I blame capitalism and religion...people

"We" have the resources because of capitalism.

Thousands of years of grinding poverty and subsistence farming for >95% of the population has given way to prosperity for a growing number due to increased production from capital accumulation and the division of labor. Two things that happen spontaneously when property rights are recognized and societies respect hard work and success.

Capitalism is two things. Property rights, and voluntary exchange. Capitalism is not crony capitalism.

Capitalism has meant an increasing population. Before capitalism, man's production was enough to sustain only a few million. After capitalism for only 200 years (less in most of the world), world population is atmospheric while the percentage of those starving is much, much less than the percentage starving when there were only a few million.

If you look at the poor societies, it is those that have never successfully adopted a private property regime, and instead use a model dominated by political factions and cronyism, these are symptoms of socialism and mercantilism. The most economically free are indeed the most prosperous.

While that's true because of technology people are living longer and healthier than ever before. Technology has a role but yeah if it weren't for human nature we wouldn't have a lot of the problems to begin with.

Unfortunately it's human nature

not necessarily speaking for all engineers, but there are a great many challenges to overcome that will be hindered, if not stopped all together, by policymakers and money centers across the globe.

I would go so far as to say that there have been a great many feats of engineering over the last 30 years that could have solved many of our current problems that were stifled by conflicting money interests.

---------------------------

forcing myself to actually respond to you is like bathing in ebola virus. - Binlahab

Like there is stupid, and then there is you, and then there is dead. - VAsBestBBW

R.I.P. Disco D

so even if science can save the world, how/when/who decides what ppl fall in the "acceptable" mortality pile b4 its universally agreed that humanity/engineers need to fix (whatever our biggest cancer is at the time)

then back to "normal", until the next plaque, climate change, monkey flu, etc comes around




ie yea we get a moon colony
but human population is 8% of what it is now. thx obama

else.

They are hired by companies to serve the company purpose, most often, that is usually something geared to profit, and not altruistic ends.

>There is a train of thought, that we should worry less about
>scarcity, climate change, pollution, etc because we will
>develop solutions to our problems before they get too bad.
>
>Now, outside of the fact that this is typically just used as a
>smokescreen from those who don't want to make major changes to
>our society - how much bullshit is this idea?
>
>Technology DOES move pretty fast. I mean, we almost got
>impulse engines.
>
>Thoughts?

I don't see it as an either or. Technology can bring about a lot of change but nothing is promised.

We should worry about and address those issues on all fronts

History especially human history isn't linear.. we have destroyed, forgot and relearned many a times in the past..

Engineers will make money out of the process.

scientists make theories, engineers put 'em to work.


---------------------------

forcing myself to actually respond to you is like bathing in ebola virus. - Binlahab

Like there is stupid, and then there is you, and then there is dead. - VAsBestBBW

R.I.P. Disco D

so...checkmate.


"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts..." -The Bard

I already addressed this.


---------------------------

forcing myself to actually respond to you is like bathing in ebola virus. - Binlahab

Like there is stupid, and then there is you, and then there is dead. - VAsBestBBW

R.I.P. Disco D

It isn't enough to lobby for better STEM education because those same morons you're having to lobby because they're scientifically illiterate are also numbskulls when it comes to education reform. If you're both a scientist and an academic then you've got a better understanding of both.




"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts..." -The Bard

shit like that clouds the mind, hampers the creative process.


---------------------------

forcing myself to actually respond to you is like bathing in ebola virus. - Binlahab

Like there is stupid, and then there is you, and then there is dead. - VAsBestBBW

R.I.P. Disco D

some of them will have to go some where.

There are a few scientists out there who will not rock the scientific establishment...but maybe they're charismatic. I don't know how you break it to someone that they'd be of more use to humanity explaining to adults shit that 6 year olds learn, but damn it we need people to do just that.

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts..." -The Bard

neither can exist without the other.

http://xkcd.com/435/

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts..." -The Bard

http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1395&doc_id=276958&itc=dn_analysis_element&cid=nl.dn14.20150320&dfpPParams=ind_182,industry_auto,industry_machinery,bid_22,aid_276958&dfpLayout=blog

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."