From: Robert Owen (rowen@technologist.com)
Date: Mon Jan 17 2000 - 16:59:17 MST
Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> I have watched these posts over the months and have often wondered, from a
> futurist point of view; why is everyone so techno-optimistic?
>
> What I wonder about, is why most people here believe that all this can and
> will be achieved by 2050 or 2099 at the absolute latest? Things like
> massive-scale nano-production, solar power based on nano, human consciousness
> that gets absorbed into a vastly, powerful computer system. Why in Century
> 21, rather then century 26?
Because it is efficacious to be so; prophetic groups always place their
expectations within highly flexible, relativistic time-frames. Attention-
spans are short, motivational spans shorter.
On the other hand, take your best-case scenario: any corporation whose
research and development department presented the board with a fifty-
year plan would be repudiated by Wall Street, and the systems analyst
responsible would be hospitalized.
Seriously, what counts in the case of any futurist group, which of course
includes Christianity, is BELIEF, the faith in things hoped for, the vision
of things unseen. In my opinion, there is nothing perverse here, only the
sine qua non of perseverance in the face of adversity.
Bob
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
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