In contrast to what the authorities would like you to believe about the modern world, I am saying that human potential is not infinite. In spite of what you’ve been told, mankind has just about reached the maximum extent of its ability. Humanity has just about reached the limits of science. Human innovation has come to an end. Centuries of human advancement are over.
There are some truths that human beings will never know. There are mathematical problems that will never be solved. There are other planets that human beings will never see. There is suffering that will never be relieved.
Hollywood would like you to believe that human beings of the future will be exploring distant galaxies. I am sorry to tell you that human beings are not going to be leaving this solar system ever. Interstellar travel will never happen. We are never going to be living in harmony with alien beings. Star Trek has been cancelled. No matter how many computer simulations, the human race will never figure out how to finance these intergalactic journeys. The human animal will go extinct on the same planet where it all began. Humanity can reach for the stars as often as it can, but it will only touch that other world when the Sun becomes a red giant billions of years in the future.
The mass media would like you to think that human beings will be making ever more advanced scientific discoveries until the end of time. I got news for you, the human species has already made every important discovery that it can possibly make. There are problems of physics that will never be solved. There will be no more breakthroughs. We have already picked all the low-hanging fruit of quantum mechanics; there is nothing else in sub-atomics that humanity can intellectually grasp.
The charity racket wants you to feel that there will soon be a cure for every disease. I’m going to set you straight: there will always be plenty of illnesses that the human race will never eradicate. Human beings will always suffer the same afflictions as they did in prehistoric times. Just as throughout all of history, more people will die from medical care than might ever be saved by professed healers.
The arty crowd wants you to think that they are being innovative. In reality, visual artists have already painted everything of note. No contemporary author will ever complete any further great novels. All classic music has already been written. It doesn’t matter how many films a director might possibly remake, there won’t be any more ground-breaking movies in the future. There is no longer anything original that can possibly be created. Every story has already been told.
Think of it like this. We have explored all of this earth that we can explore. Every mountain peak has already been climbed. Every sea has been sailed. Every animal species has been cataloged. It is like that for every aspect of the human condition – everything that can be done has been done. The Age of Discovery ended long ago. Sure, there are minor details that might still be added to the sum total of human knowledge, but everything significant has already been determined. Ever more trivial points of minutia are all that is left for future generations to discover. Modern scientists are merely adding footnotes to earlier theories. There is a reason why contemporary academic journals only publish drivel.
Don’t get me wrong, there is much about the natural world that humanity does not understand, but those laws will never be understood. There are many rules of physics that haven’t been discovered, but they will never be discovered. And there is much of modern science that is just flat-out wrong, but those theories will always remain wrong. It is not that those scientific principles are particularly majestic, just that the human mind is far more limited than we would like to believe. Mankind is simply not as smart as we have been told. There is much that humanity won’t ever be intelligent enough to understand. There are still multiple mysteries in this existence, but comprehension is far beyond human ability.
There are some problems that are just too difficult. The Unified Field Theory was simply too hard for Einstein to figure out; modern professors will certainly not find the solution any easier. Some things are ultimately beyond human ability. Human aptitude can only go so far – and mankind has just about reached its limit.
Humanity simply ought to cut its losses. Since the human race will not ever manage to figure out the principles of the universe, the most logical thing is not to bother in the first place. All the scientific experimentation in the world simply isn’t worth the effort. If there is no place left to discover, you might as well stay home.
Science is finished. The future is over. Been there, done that.
Finally something from you that's heartwarming. =) Loved this!
ReplyDeleteI am 55, and ever since late childhood I have read of future utopias. Back in the day the future usually being the year 2000! I distinctly remember an illustration from the very late 1960s showing people travelling about in some kind of glass monorail. There was "hope through research" for nearly every disease. How come you can text, tweet, and twat all day but you still have to clean your clothing pretty much the way people did in the 50's? Your tire will still get a flat and your battery will still die. The lifespan of cars has not really increased, period. Eisenhower once predicted that nuclear power would make electricity "too cheap to meter". Hell, give me an invention that will clean my laundry as easily as microwaving a can of chili and I will give up my smartphone. Not that I have one!
ReplyDeleteComments welcomed from all.
I am still waiting for a Jetsons lifestyle. Today, there's no need for buttons on devices anymore, but man still need to drag himself around as much as he had to decades ago.
DeleteIn this new century, lifespan in the First World has gone on the decline. Bacterial resistance is catching up with antibiotics. Aids is back on the rise. As they say: what goes up, must come down.
I concur wholly with this post. Mankind won't overcome the laws of nature. Although we took to the skies like birds, dove like sperm whales, spread over the globe like grass and domesticated antibodies, this was nothing but expanding on other domains within nature. We tossed objects into space and began thinking that this foreshadowed our escape from nature's boundaries. But it turns out mankind merely made the most wasteful effort a life form would ever attempt, in creating a lunar graveyard for tools. Progress has increasingly devolved into wasteful consumption. As education can only expand our intelligence to the limits of its natural potential, the product of our collective complexity is likewise limited. By decree of nature, our standstill is just as assured as our demise.
You've observed the false hope people spread. There will always be something, it's the nature of sentience.
DeleteWow. I just don't how you're supposed to follow up on a post like this. What else is there to say?
ReplyDeleteThere are too many constraints on meat. It's AI and Nanotech or nothing. Probably it will be nothing.
ReplyDeleteWell, there is always cannibalism.
DeleteAnd this is what's circulating in my workplace! http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html
ReplyDelete