Nov. 18, 2016 "We have 1000 yrs to leave planet Earth": Today I found this story by Peter Holley in the Edmonton Journal:
If humanity survives
the rise of artificial intelligence,
the ravages of climate change
and the threat of nuclear terrorism in the next century,
it doesn't mean we're home free, according to Stephen Hawking.
The renowned theoretical physicist has gone as far as providing humanity with a deadline for finding another planet to colonize: We have 1,000 years.
Remaining on Earth any longer, Hawking believes, places humanity at great risk of encountering another mass extinction.
“We must ... continue to go into space for the future of humanity,” the 74-year-old Cambridge professor said during a speech Tuesday at Oxford University Union, according to the Daily Express.
“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet,” he added.
During his hour-long speech, Hawking told the audience that Earth's cataclysmic end may be hastened by humankind, which will continue to devour the planet’s resources at unsustainable rates, the Express reported.
His wide-ranging talk touched upon the origins of the universe and Einstein's theory of relativity, as well as humanity's creation myths and God.
Hawking also discussed “M-theory,” which Leron Borsten of PhysicsWorld.com explains as “proposal for a unified quantum theory of the fundamental constituents and forces of nature.”
Though the challenges ahead are immense, Hawking said, it is a
“glorious time to be alive and doing research into theoretical physics.”
“Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 50 years, and I am happy if I have made a small contribution,” he added.
Speaking to audience members in a public Q&A session ahead of the annual BBC Reith Lectures, Hawking also said that leaving the planet behind was our best hope for survival.
The key, he noted, was surviving the precarious century ahead.
“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time,
and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years.
By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.”
Researchers have discovered more than 4,600 “candidate” planets and another 2,300 or so confirmed planets, according to the agency.
“The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995,” according to NASA.
“Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago.
Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamt about for thousands of years.”
Before we have a chance to relocate, Hawking says, we'll first need to solve the potential threat created by technology.
While Hawking thinks technology has the capacity to ensure mankind's survival, previous statements suggest the cosmologist is simultaneously grappling with the potential threat it poses.
When it comes to discussing that threat, Hawking is unmistakably blunt.
“I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Hawking told the BBC in a 2014 interview that touched upon everything from online privacy to his affinity for his robotic-sounding voice.
Despite its current usefulness, he cautioned, further developing A.I. could prove a fatal mistake.
“Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate,” Hawking warned in recent months.
“Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded.”
May 11, 2019 "Don't panic over mass extinction": Today I found this article by Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail:
Watch out. There’s another apocalypse looming. This time it’s the plants and animals. Our destructive habits, along with global warming, are laying waste to the Earth. According to the experts, we are on the brink of a mass extinction – one that could wipe out a million species.
Is there any silver lining to this story? Maybe. Human beings might be wiped out‚ too, and that, in many people’s view, would be a good thing. One of the top-rated comments for The New York Times’ mass-extinction story was: “... [T]he earth is shaking off the parasite that is man."
The extinction story was one of the top news stories of the week. That’s because predictions about species in decline and the fragility of nature are extremely popular these days. In fact, a lot of people think we are in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction. Only this one won’t be caused by an asteroid, but by man.
How worried should we be? If history is any guide, the answer is not so much.
Back in 1980, then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter released a report called Global 2000, which drew the same kind of headlines that this week’s 1,500-page United Nations report has.
“If present trends continue,” the authors warned, “the world in 2000 will be more crowded … and more vulnerable to disruption than the world we live in now. Serious stresses involving population, resources, and environment are clearly visible ahead.
Despite greater material output, the world’s people will be poorer in many ways than they are today."
The report also predicted that millions of plant and animal species would become extinct:
“Perhaps as many as 20 per cent of all species on Earth will be irretrievably lost as their habitats vanish, especially in tropical forests.”
As the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg points out, none of the report’s dire forecasts panned out.
By the year 2000, the proportion of the world’s poor had shrunk significantly.
Food supplies were more abundant.
It’s true that there was some species loss, maybe too much. But according to Mr. Lomborg, the documented species loss from 1980 to 2010 was 872. That’s 872 in a global population of several million.
I don’t want to minimize species loss – or species depletion, which is an even bigger problem.
Our oceans have been stripped bare.
The remaining elephants and rhinos in Africa are endangered, not by climate change but by poachers.
These issues demand urgent attention.
Wouldn’t it be better to focus on the real challenges that exist right now,
rather than the ones that are hypothetical?
Unfortunately, the people who issue these reports believe that catastrophizing is the only way to get our attention. That’s why there’s so much of it. We have only 12 years to bring the planet back from the brink! More than two degrees of warming would devastate the Earth!
The numbers lend an air of urgency to the problem, as well as a reassuring touch of scientific precision.
But they have more to do with marketing than science.
They are supposed to inspire us to take action.
But in fact, they inspire disaster fatigue.
The problems seem too big to tackle, especially if the solutions require all the nations of the world to get together and act in concert. So when might that happen? The answer is never.
But it’s futile to try to have a rational conversation about climate change. That’s because at root it is a theological subject. Climate change is the modern version of original sin. And only sacrifice and penance might persuade Mother Nature to redeem us.
Among the current leaders of the climate crusade is a 16-year-old Swedish student named Greta Thunberg.
Ms. Thunberg has inspired students around the world to hold climate strikes.
She has appeared at the UN, at Davos and at TED talks, where she says, “I want you to panic.” She doesn’t eat meat or dairy, and she tries not to fly on planes.
Ms. Thunberg, who has autism, learned about the starving polar bears in school. By the time she was 11, she had begun to absorb the enormity of climate-change sin. “I became ill. I fell into depression, I stopped talking and I stopped eating. In two months, I lost about 10 kilos of weight. Later on, I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it’s necessary,” she told one TED audience. Naturally, she has already been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
So what’s so wrong with all this?
Quite a lot, argues the British writer Brendan O’Neill. Green alarmism, of the type peddled by Ms. Thunberg and many others, is instilling a message of hopelessness in an entire generation of kids.
These people believe the world is divided between the righteous (them) and the damned (everybody else). But the worst part is that their worldview is deeply anti-human.
The kids need some good news for a change. So here’s some. It is exceedingly unlikely that the planet’s plants and animals (the vast majority of them, at any rate) are going to disappear any time soon. Maybe we could tell them that.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-dont-panic-over-mass-extinction/
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Jun. 30, 2024 My opinion: I have always been an environmentalist since I was a kid. I always recycle.
I love to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
I don't buy things to own.
When you save the environment, you are saving money.
That's because you're not buying a lot of things.
These are the other 2 blog posts:
"Dollar Tree to close 1,000 stores in bid to shore up profits"/ "Dollar Tree is closing nearly 1,000 U.S. stores a decade after 'botched' acquisition"
"Bed Bath & Beyond warns it may go out of business"/ "Bed Bath & Beyond has nothing but itself to blame for impending bankruptcy"
My week:
Jul. 1, 2024 Canada Day long weekend: I mainly spent a few hours outside sitting on my lawn chair in the backyard with my tablet.
I also watched my DVR recordings of FBI: Most Wanted.
Heather McPherson events: She is the NDP MLA and there are these events at these parks and you get a free frozen treat. I went to one in 2021 because it was really close by and I could walk there. I got a ice cream sandwich.
I got a newsletter of these events. There's one today and I have to take 2 buses (30 min) to go there. I didn't sleep very well the night before.
I then thought: "Do I really want to take the bus to get a frozen treat?"
I didn't.
Canada Day party: I was at my friend's party.
We sat on the patio. We ate some:
- Turkish bread with cheese on it
- tortilla chips with salsa
We played Century: Golem edition: I remember playing the Spice Road edition with them in the Hexagon Cafe a couple of years ago. This is a 5 player game.
Century: Golem Edition is a re-themed version of Century: Spice Road set in the world of Caravania. In Century: Golem Edition, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed golem road to deliver crystals to the far reaches of the world. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:
- Establish a trade route (by taking a market card)
- Make a trade or harvest crystals (by playing a card from hand)
- Fulfill a demand (by meeting a victory point card's requirements and claiming it)
- Rest (by taking back into your hand all of the cards you've played)
The last round is triggered once a player has claimed their fifth victory point card, then whoever has the most victory points wins.
We played Telestrations: I played a game like this at the Centre of Spiritual Living Game Night:
From the publisher's press release:
"Each player begins by sketching a TELESTRATIONS word dictated by the roll of a die. The old fashioned sand timer may limit the amount of time they get to execute their sketch, but it certainly doesn't limit creativity! Time's up! All players, all at the same time, pass their sketch to the next player, who must guess what's been drawn. Players then simultaneously pass their guess -- which hopefully matches the original word (or does it??) -- to the next player who must try to draw the word they see -- and so on."
"Telestrations contains eight erasable sketchbooks and markers, a die, a 90 second sand-timer and 2,400 words to choose from."
I then met Marta and Lukas. Marta made these croissants with almonds on them.
Fireworks: We then saw the fireworks from the top floor. This was a great view of the beautiful fireworks. The show was 20 min. long.
We then had to wait for like 40 min. before we went out onto the road because of the traffic. Shiya was looking on Google to time when is a good time to drive.
I thanked Amir and Shiya for driving me home.
I was there from 6:30pm -12:30 am.
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