The future of war is going to look really, really weird. The “super soldier” research that DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is working on right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. If DARPA is successful, and if the American people don’t object, the soldiers of the future will be genetically modified transhumans capable of superhuman feats. Do you want a soldier that can run faster than Usain Bolt? DARPA is working on that. Do you want a soldier that won’t need food or sleep for days? DARPA is working on that? Do you want a soldier that can regrow lost limbs? DARPA is working on that. Do you want a soldier that can outlift Olympic weightlifters and that can communicate telepathically? DARPA is working on that. Americans flock to movies about superheroes and mutants, and soon they may actually have real life “superheroes” and “mutants” fighting their wars for them. But at what cost? (Read More...)
The Future
How Will History Remember You?
How are you going to spend your life? When it is all said and done, how will history remember you? Unfortunately, these days most people do not spend much time thinking about those kinds of questions. Most people just kind of stumble through life without any clear direction or meaning. Sadly, our society makes it far too easy to remain “comfortably numb” the vast majority of the time. We are absolutely addicted to entertainment and there is more of it available today than ever before – television, movies, music, video games, sports events, food, gambling, shopping – the outlets for feeding our addictions are seemingly endless. But do you really want to spend your life feeding your addictions and keeping yourself entertained as much as possible? The following is a saying that has stayed with me my entire life: “Life is like a coin – you can spend it any way that you want, but you can only spend it once.” If the fact that we are all hurtling through space on this giant rock is just some kind of cosmic accident and life really does not have any meaning, then yes it would make sense to fill up our lives with as much pleasure as possible before we die. But if life really does have meaning and the things that we do today can have a permanent impact on the future, then perhaps many of us need to start thinking about what kind of legacy we are going to leave behind once we are gone. (Read More...)
The Future For Most Americans: Pathetic Jobs, Bad Debts And A Crappy Economy
Sorry to break this to you, but the future for most Americans is going to be pretty crappy. Unless you are independently wealthy, the chances are good that you will have a low paying job, that you will be drowning in a sea of bad debts and that you will have to go on government assistance at some point. Most American families are completely dependent on their jobs for income, and right now good jobs are disappearing at a frightening pace. Over the last couple of decades, millions of high paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped out of the country and they are being replaced by low paying service jobs. Small business creation is being absolutely crushed by the federal government, and millions of illegal immigrants have been allowed in to the country and they are now competing for the limited number of jobs that are still available. The vast majority of the money and the vast majority of the power in this country are now in the hands of either the big corporations or the government. Together, the big corporations and the government are absolutely crushing everyone else. If you are not part of the “privileged class”, there is a good chance that your job is serving them. Perhaps you are bringing them lunch or cutting their hair or stocking shelves for them. Once upon a time, America was “the land of opportunity”, but now that has all changed. Tomorrow morning, millions of Americans will get up and go to pathetic, low paying jobs and millions of others will wonder why they can’t find anyone to hire them. Sadly, if nothing is done to reverse the long-term trends that are destroying our economy, the number of “working poor” is going to continue to increase. (Read More...)