Fifty years from now, will we have destroyed the world? Or saved it? It's not too soon to ask. Little more than 100 years ago, the mundane acts of our 21st Century daily life were strictly the purview of the gods: To take flight and traverse a continent in just hours...To splash daylight across a massive arena on a moonless night with the touch of one finger..
"The more god-like we've become, the more our humility is affected." And if we don't give serious thought to our trajectory as a global society, if we spend too much time looking backward nostalgically rather than ahead thoughtfully, we will succumb to ourselves. Because, "the default human society is flawed", and it is up to us to fight against that default.
Are we the first species to overcome the challenges and obstacles inherent in reaching out to the cosmos? If so, the next 100 million years may be up to us. Can we find a way to bring other species along with us and, together, light up the galaxy?
IEET fellow David Brin talks at TEDxSanDiego about bringing our species together and become "godlike." - published on Feb 14, 2014.
Fifty years from now, will we have destroyed the world? Or saved it? It's not too soon to ask. Little more than 100 years ago, the mundane acts of our 21st Century daily life were strictly the purview of the gods: To take flight and traverse a continent in just hours...To splash daylight across a massive arena on a moonless night with the touch of one finger..
"The more god-like we've become, the more our humility is affected." And if we don't give serious thought to our trajectory as a global society, if we spend too much time looking backward nostalgically rather than ahead thoughtfully, we will succumb to ourselves. Because, "the default human society is flawed", and it is up to us to fight against that default.
Are we the first species to overcome the challenges and obstacles inherent in reaching out to the cosmos? If so, the next 100 million years may be up to us. Can we find a way to bring other species along with us and, together, light up the galaxy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgSLZLLkPBwfeature=youtu.be