"Ship of Fools"

[Patashu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKh1mOeXfqE

:it is an analogy for modern society:

[Cavernio]

12:28 shark eats parrot

It's not really a good analogy to real life because there's tons of enivronmentalists out there. And I think that if/when we destroy the world by overharvesting it, we'll probably lose out on those things that damaged it in the first place, unless we totally extinct ourselves, which I would see happening probably due to war and not raping of the world.

[Izzy]

I liked the banjo kazooee music. Sorry about the unproductive post. I'll watch the whole thing later.

[Patashu]

Originally Posted by Cavernio

12:28 shark eats parrot

It's not really a good analogy to real life because there's tons of enivronmentalists out there. And I think that if/when we destroy the world by overharvesting it, we'll probably lose out on those things that damaged it in the first place, unless we totally extinct ourselves, which I would see happening probably due to war and not raping of the world.

The problem is that we essentially have 'one shot' at an industrial age. Once we exhaust all the oil, it's not coming back for millions and millions of years.

[Cavernio]

But we won't extinct ourselves when we run out of oil. We'll still even have electricity from things like dams, the sun, the wind, and (which I suppose we're not really aiming for) then minerals and space and all the planets and matter and gas out there.

[Patashu]

someone doesn't realize how freaking much of our economy is dependent upon the electricity oil provides

read: something like 90%+ of all electricity generation.

[Mulie]

Right. I was first made aware of these problems; overpopulation, peak oil and the imploding economy; around two years ago, over the interwebz. At first, the whole issue struck me as dumbfounding: Within my lifetime, I and billions of others will enter a period of massive change we and our predecessors perpetuated via virtue of existing.

But no one cares enough. Almost everyone I've tried to discuss it with has given me responses fabricated with minimal required consideration of the subject, spouting baseless claims about humanity's technological prowess being capable of handling what's coming, or digressing toward equally ludicrous, personal plans for financing their way through it. The rest have either not responded or even found my attempts at instilling them with a sense of urgency insulting to their peaceful solitude. Not one person among my friends and family has showed even the gull to acknowledge its graveness.

Invariably when presented with an idea, our logical thinking processes discern two general options for the idea's idiosyncratic management. That it is not important enough to react to, and that it is. And the more objectively demanding said idea is, the likelier we are to identify it as the former. My friends, and myself, are too selfish and too small to process the upcoming disintegration of the majority.

[Cavernio]

Sources?

[Mulie]

Admittedly I haven't dealt with this enough to link you to enough sources to convince you at an academically rigid degree, but don't let that stop you from doing the research yourself.

[1] This 5 minute video provides a summary of some of what you'll see in the lecture below. I recommend it as a preface to the lecture itself, to help maintain your interest.

[2] This is Albert Bartlett's somewhat popular 75 minute lecture; a good place to start on the finite resources debate.

[Patashu]

It's a tricky issue to work with. Accepting that resources might run out leaves nothing any individual person can do - there's no structure in place for the little guy to change things. As no one wants to perpetually fear and mourn for our future, the biological response becomes rationalization or ignoring the issue. It's not so much that one doesn't think it won't happen so much as the only response that will let you get on with your life in a sane mind is to sweep it away.

[ShAiOnEi]

Originally Posted by Mulie

Right. I was first made aware of these problems; overpopulation, peak oil and the imploding economy; around two years ago, over the interwebz. At first, the whole issue struck me as dumbfounding: Within my lifetime, I and billions of others will enter a period of massive change we and our predecessors perpetuated via virtue of existing.

But no one cares enough. Almost everyone I've tried to discuss it with has given me responses fabricated with minimal required consideration of the subject, spouting baseless claims about humanity's technological prowess being capable of handling what's coming, or digressing toward equally ludicrous, personal plans for financing their way through it. The rest have either not responded or even found my attempts at instilling them with a sense of urgency insulting to their peaceful solitude. Not one person among my friends and family has showed even the gull to acknowledge its graveness.

Invariably when presented with an idea, our logical thinking processes discern two general options for the idea's idiosyncratic management. That it is not important enough to react to, and that it is. And the more objectively demanding said idea is, the likelier we are to identify it as the former. My friends, and myself, are too selfish and too small to process the upcoming disintegration of the majority.

Excuse me for this but what the hell did you just say?

Ok I understand now there really isn't anything you can do about this. Personally I don't think the earth will ever lose it's resources the ****'s going to recycle eventually by the time we do use it all I beckon we already have plans to thrive on a different celestial body 8)

[Patashu]

fossil fuels can't be recycled, though. it takes more energy to create it than to use it.