From: David Lubkin (lubkin@unreasonable.com)
Date: Wed Aug 04 1999 - 15:51:22 MDT
Astronomer Fred Hoyle wrote an interesting novel in 1968, _October the First
is Too Late_, set in a world that had fissured so that different regions were in
different times in history.
It sometimes feels that way in this world. When I lived in Israel, it seemed like
the society always lagged 10 years behind the US. Livermore, CA seemed
stuck in the 1950's. Some of the Arab dictatorships act like they're in the
12th century. I don't imagine that the life of an average Hutu in Rwanda has
changed fundamentally in millennia, other than improved technology.
The latest issue of _Atlantic Monthly_ reveals the astonishing! news that the
mantra of our impending doom due to population explosion is wrong. Duh.
They see it rising to a maximum of 10-12 billion, and then dropping
dramatically to well below current levels. They assume that there will be no
significant technological developments forthcoming, and that it will take a
century before the rest of the world has caught up with western Europe.
Stuff like that reminds me how rare extropians are. We may not all get along
and we usually disagree with each other, but at least we live in the same
(future) decades. Now, everyone gather 'round for the group hug... :-)
-- David Lubkin.
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