• Question: in your opinion do you think the world will be here in 10 years ?

    Asked by emilyscott to Alastair, Emma, Hywel, Keith, Vicki on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Hywel Vaughan

      Hywel Vaughan answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hmm, that’s a scary question Emily!
      I for one like to side with optimism here and say that it will be. I do believe though that it will be radically different from the world we live in now.
      If you go on Google and look up Moore’s law, it gives you some idea of how fast human technology has advanced. This theory states that every two years the number of transistors in an integrated circuit board doubles – and with that comes increased memory for computers, speed, sensors etc. Basically, ever two years our computing power almost doubles. Imagine how fast and advanced our computers could be in 10 years time?
      On top of that, with climate change, we are going to have to look to new technology to produce all of our energy needs and sustain the planet we call home. Personally, I think we can do it. Mankind has always managed to overcome its challenges, and what better time to innovate than now?

    • Photo: Emma Carter

      Emma Carter answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      yes

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Yes – perhaps I’m an optimist humanist, or perhaps I gave a blind belief in Bayesian inference. This can be applied in the follow way … If we assume that there is nothing special about “now” and that society has existed in it’s present form for say 10000 years, then we can use this theorm to argue that society will last for somewhere between 10,000/20=500 and 10,000×20=200,000 years. So, at 10 years we should be fine. However, this argument falls at the point of whether or not today is special, compared to the last 10,000 years. It probably is … Oh well , the end of a very interesting calculation , at least for me. Back to naive positivism … ! We’ll be fine!

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Yes! The world has survived meteorite strikes, volcanoes, earthquakes, explosions and tsunamis! I don’t think there’s anything that could destroy it in the next 10 years.

    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi Emily

      Yes I do think that the world will be here in 10 years. There is no doubt we need to take notice of our climate and reduce our carbon emissions and we can’t rely on fossil fuels, but if we are sensible and understand how the planet is changing we can change our way of living to preserve the planet.

      If we can also remain in a state of diplomacy and discussion about the world’s problems and aggressive states and not descend into war then there is no reason why the world wont survive for much longer.
      Sometimes the media can over-hype the situations to make for a good story and scare people which doesn’t help. Me, I’m an eternal optimist and yep, we’ll all be here in 10 years.

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