Coming Crises

[qcrisp]

A couple of articles:

Would you bet against sex robots? AI 'could leave half of world unemployed' | Technology | The Guardian

Why Ancient Athens Was a City of Creativity and Genius - The Atlantic

I include the second just because it talks a little about unsustainable peaks.

[marioneta]

The Middle East seems to be the Red Hook of the world, where the hideous is commonplace and atrocities are the new normal. This all has the patina of a revival of religious wars, like the 30 years war in Europe, Sunni vs Shia, Christian vs Muslim, Jew vs. Arab, ad nauseum. Could this region be the cesspool that will eventually drag us all down into the depths of a Bosch painting of hell? Religion is boring until it starts to kill you.

The very real danger of Donald Trump becoming president and unleashing his foreign policy on an already unstable environment like that is pretty scary.

[marioneta]

When Reagan ran for president, I thought that he could never make it, how could a third-rate actor become president? History proved me wrong. We must beware of Trump. How could a reality-show billionare be president with his finger on the red button? Easy. He could buy the election and is probably doing that right now. Then we can look forward to his carpet bombing the Middle East? I wonder how many Americans are aware of the danger we are in. I am sure there were Germans asking a similar question in 1934, but all for naught. Right-wing populism could be the next catastrophe.

"Scarce among us are those who not only want to think they are right, but also expect others to affirm their least notion as unassailable. Pessimista are no exception. But they are few and do not show up on the radar of our race. Immune to the blandishments of religions, countries, families, and everything else that puts both average and above-average citizens in the limelight, pessimists are sideliners in both history and the media. Without belief in gods or ghost, unmotivated by a comprehensive delusion, they could never plant a bomb, plan a revolution, or shed blood for a cause."
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror
-Thomas Ligotti

[ToALonelyPeace]

I actually follow Zizek's opinion of Trump. http://www.newsweek.com/return-publi...y-425691?rx=us

I don't think Trump will be able to do much lasting damage even if he becomes president, despite his bombastic rhetoric. Status quo is God, and Trump is likely to propose water-down policies rather than rocking boats.

[marioneta]

The danger is not so much with the bombastic Trump, but with those who follow his rhetoric. As president he would not be able to do not even a quarter of what he proposes. The presidency is over rated anyway..

[paeng]

From 2017:

Brace for the Oil, Food and Financial Crash of 2018

Quote

80% of the world’s oil has peaked, and the resulting oil crunch will flatten the economy

[marioneta]

The world is heading for disaster,but what form it will take no one knows. It could be a massive natural disaster, a nuclear war, a pandemic or all of the above. However it will not be a one-shot, Hollywood blockbuster type of catastrophe. Instead it will be in slow-motion, the way cancer overcomes its victim. To paraphrase Kristine Ong Muslim, Whoever or whatever survives, they will see the world unsullied by our presence.

The rise of fascism, financial collapse, climate change. ####ing Brexit... it's hard to know where to begin worrying. We're so ####ed. It's hard to care too much about AI as I don't know if we'll even last long enough to see that advancement.

Quote Originally Posted by Karnos

Last year I started reading Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods (I have yet to finish it). I have no idea about the quality of his research...

It's low.

[paeng]

Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | Full Documentary | Directed by Jeff Gibbs - YouTube