[ExI] resource wars was birth control, was: CALL: H+ call for papers

[hkhenson]

At 10:00 AM 2/20/2009, spike wrote:
>
> > ...On Behalf Of hkhenson
>...
> > We don't need a "new memetic package," plain technology (most
> > important, birth control) will do just fine...
>
>Keith this notion is true but carries a cruel irony.  There are religious
>and sociological memesets active in humanity which actively resist the
>notion of birth control.

It's interesting that Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

>Indeed we may be seeing the embrace of
>technological birth enhancement, such as the much publicized octo-mom.  If a
>subset of humanity embrace birth control, the anti-birth-control memes will
>soon inherit the earth.  If this isn't clear in our modern world, it very
>soon will be.
>
> > But the situation as it is shaping up now forecasts wars,
> > lots of them... Keith
>
>Oy vey, agreed.  {8-[  Humanity will not embrace birth control.  Some will,
>but it doesn't matter, for our genes are doomed.

Genes are doomed in any case.  I can't imagine our successors using them.

Re resource wars, this (www.odac-info.org) just came to my attention

"Amid the deepening economic gloom, two important remarks about oil 
almost slipped under the radar this week. First, the government's 
former Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, admitted Iraq was 
all about oil, and went on to say it would probably be the first in a 
series of resource wars.

snip

"In Britain the Department of Energy and Climate Change is still 
struggling to develop a coherent strategy around replacement of 
electricity generating capacity. The current policy fails to promote 
renewables effectively or penalise the high environmental cost of 
coal. At the same time lack of planning around the country's 
transition from net gas exporter to net importer status is putting 
supplies at risk.

"As the government and the Bank of England consider increasingly 
drastic measures to revive the economy it looks ever more obvious 
that the political imperatives have moved on. But basing policy on an 
economic growth agenda with sustainability measures bolted on is not 
a credible plan for a resource constrained future. What we need is a 
completely new paradigm. As Sir David King said during his lecture 
this week, "Consumerism has been a wonderful model for growing up 
economies in the 20th century. Is that model fit for purpose in the 
21st century, when resource shortage is our biggest challenge?"

***********

Keith