Surviving the Next Century
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- čas přidán 2. 12. 2020
- The last century has been one of awesome and often terrifying technological progress, and the next century offers as many wonders and terrors for us to navigate into our future.
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Credits:
Surviving the Next Century
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 267; December 3, 2020
Produced, Written, and Narrated by Isaac Arthur
Editors:
Jerry Guern • Paleontology - by Jerr...
Matthew Campbell
PhoneticFailure
Victoria Kelly
Cover Art:
Jakub Grygier www.artstation.com/jakub_grygier
Music Courtesy of Miguel Johnson migueljohnson.bandcamp.com - Věda a technologie
Isaac's been chuckling and smiling a lot more since he got married...
Love this channel. Keep it up man.
Glad I’m not the only one to notice this. Very glad he’s happy!
Hey! I’m not the only one to notice this. Very glad he’s happy!
Also been dressing much snappier.
Did he marry a robot?
@@3p1Kf41L @EPIC FAIL : No, his spouse has a SOUL. She is probably a sophisticated CYBORG, similar to the female hero in the good movie "ALITA". Don't ask for proofs, as i am just sharing a strong intuition. PEACE & LOVE
*furiously grabs a drink and a snack*
Grab a drank and a bowl
Loved your series so far. This episode makes me wonder what will happen when we go transhuman. Biologically speaking. We will be able to reshape retune and retool every last organ cell and look of our bodies. Nevermind the singularity event. But what would happen to society as age race gender and even species is no longer a locked at birth straight but a selected feature. As this would mean doctors professions wpuld change. War would change. How does one protect or hold any kind of identity when all physical aspects of who you are. Are something you can determine as unique or duplicate in real time. There would be no limits
*does the same*
@@tcav3556
That would be weird. Though, turning into a bird or something might be pretty rad
Dam I need a snack
"The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests."
--Iain M. Banks on OCPs
The conquistadors didn't have sailless ships genius
@Hash Frowns the metaphor can't pick what it wishes to represent so it kinda suggs bro :DDD
@@neo-filthyfrank1347 it's a generalisation and abstraction of colonialism.
@@stm7810 Yeah, well, it sucks
@@neo-filthyfrank1347 yes, colonialism does suck, America, Canada and Australia are stolen land.
Now that you mention it, uplifted bears/big cats would likely work wonders in preventing deforestation.
Puts an extra spin to Yogi and Smokey the Bear, though they might decide they want to live in log cabins too :)
Smokey the Cyber Bear says: "Only YOU can prevent forest fires... and you damn well BETTER prevent them."
YOGI SMASH!!
But won't they start their own agricultural society? If they can trade/farm their meat, what's the difference, then?
Uplifted Bears would not be restricted to carrying something as small as a 50 cal.
I always love these videos for how they describe bizarre, borderline impossible science fiction concepts like "surviving the 21st century"
3:50.. that would not only be an OCP..but an fully fledged Keter SCP as well...
An XK-End of the World scenario to you
Mount Everest...
Oh god oh fuck day broke
Listening to Isaac Arthur is kind of like watching old Trek, TNG, DS9, VOY ETC, in that it gives me hope for a brighter future, even in videos like this.
**Chuckles** "How will we survive it?" -Isaac Arthur
@Risk Management I don't understand what you're getting at 🤔
@Risk Management well once it can improve itself it's pretty much unstoppable after that, also you seem to know a thing or two, what do people mean when the intelligence is like a worm, then a dog, then an ape, human etc. How do they judge that
As long as I have my coffee and a snack I'll survive.
And of course CZcams
That would work for me. (only I'll take diet Pepsi) :-)
Coffee is essential to our survival
@@chrisgould101 I drink coffee so that others may live.
It is all about resources. 😉
0:53 Isaac your explanation on your reasoned optimism is so good. In a time of increasing cynicism your reasoned and intelligent optimism is the thing I need. What we all need.
The future is bright even despite of the challenges ahead, we need only to grasp the solutions to the challenges ahead.
Saw this episode on Nebula earlier. Such an informative video as always Isaac and team.
The future definitely is dazzlingly bright and (Covid-19 be damned) we're living in the most privileged era humanity has ever experienced. I hope to see more tempered optimism as well, and this channel has definitely helped with that :)
@@NightTimeDay do you think the Chinese who currently live in mainland China also feel the same? Like, they are in their best era - they are much richer than their parents and grandparents; they have stability and a sense of great power, instead of the century of humiliation and the vicious cycle of famine and civil war..
all while ignoring their core problems..
@@oldrabbit8290 Of course I'm not including China in this statement. I hope things can improve for the citizens, but that's an entirely different issue than what we're talking about here.
@@NightTimeDay and why would you exclude China from that statement? Would you also exclude US, Russia, Japan, [enter country here]? my point is not "man, China suck"; rather, it's "even the people who live in one of the most oppressive countries can still be trapped in the facade of "things are going in the right direction".
this 2020 has shown us many things. It shows that the climate is changing fast, and natural disasters will only get worse from now on. It shows that countries can't cooperate with each other to deal with a world-wide crisis, instead of shifting blames. It shows inequality in wealth and power, with the vast majority is struggling to get by while a few are getting richer by capitalizing, or even sacrificing, public safety and well-being. It shows the rise of ignorance and anti-science mentality, where people trust rabble-rousers and conspiracists instead of scientists and experts. All the symptoms are bare to see, yet people still act like they're not big concerns, that we will be able to fix them (somehow), or they will go away [by April]..
@@oldrabbit8290 you're free to your opinion, definitely, and I don't mean to deny that problems exist. I just believe that optimism is healthy and often a simple solution to many of these problems, if only partly.
"It's always a matter of resources."
_- The Illusive Man_
Species nationalism is *yes*
Words of wisdom.
"Salvation Comes With A Cost. Judge Us Not By Our Means, But What We Seek To Accomplish."
- The Illusive Man
@@alexandernorman5337 The guy is a special type of crazy, but he has some great quotes!
@@irishspartanstudios - I think he was a special kind of desperate. The weight of what he was facing got to him just like with Saren. It just took a little longer.
I think everyone will agree that if you haven't had kids, we certainly hope that plan to do so. More parents with minds like yours is one of the keys to the futures we all dream of seeing come to fruition.
Absolutely! Wanna see what a beautiful genius baby looks like.
Honestly I'd just like to say that I appreciate how apolitical your channel is, something remarkably rare in the modern political landscape. It prevents echochambers and allows us to all come together, no matter what beliefs you may have.
Why would this channel be political though?
That's kind of the problem with Isaac sometimes he completely ignores politics even when they'd be necessary for a topic
@@toptextbottomtext3062 Ignores politics, or is clever enough to avoid having to involve politics? Do you have an example of when politics was necessary?
@@toptextbottomtext3062 name a topic he missed something important because it was political.
Just a moment, going to add sentient self-propelled mountains to my 2021 bingo card
There are still several weeks left of 2020. It might still have some surprises left :)
Just barely surviving, but having grabbed a restorative drink and snack to watch another episode of SFIA with, it all seems a little better.
+50 HP
"Political systems decay" to add to the list at the start
There is a pretty reasonable argument that as you get older, your ability to handle change goes down. Not that no one can change, but say at 30, 80% of people cam handle a new tech. At 50, 60% of people can etc.
I feel like the younger generation mostly got the memo "Don't believe everything you read online" and most of them also applied that to video. But for older generations, fewer people got that message.
It's simply technology changing so that a single nutcase(but also great communicators like Isaac) now has the tech to make things look slick. So when they say nonsense, people who haven't adjusted to this new world believe it. A lot of the political problems we're seeing now come back to this. People make up stuff and people believe it immediately.
Can you repeat the third part simply
@@100pm5 I assume you're joking. There are basically no communists anywhere left. A few political parties that are called communist parties, but otherwise are basically just nationalist big business plus authoritarians.
In the English speaking world, communism is a dead ideology, the sort of thing you meet 5 20 year olds who are into it until they realise its unworkable. It only exists as a boogeyman to scare people who can't tell moderates from extremists.
@@ufuker5754 I mean how the older generation came to view a TV studio with the idea that "These guys did their research." When now days you can do that for almost nothing. So just make up a bunch of stuff. Letters to the editors or crackpot newsletters can now be made to look like highly produced, well researched stuff.
This seems simple, but I don't automatically beleive everything I read or see online. Sadly, a lot of people do, especially when it's hyper simplistic "they guys you dont agree with politically are actually evil. They eat babies." Which sadly, any old cook can now say and be heard by millions.
@@100pm5 I find is funny you refer to everyone not completely aligned with you some form of communist. It reminds me of Soviets who said everyone in the West was some Fascist sympathizer. Would you refer to arch conservative Bismarck and his social supports as a communist? Of course not, that would be silly. I'm actually a neo-georgist, a philosophy which actually appeared around the same time as Marx, but we have letters that Marx did not like it at all. The world just isnt that simple.
I actually work in the private sector in Australia, largely thanks to the gov paying 80% of my university tuition in Engineering. I was supported by the gov in my younger years and now and am now a highly productive member of society. Though with a huge cynacism about large (>1000) organisations, since both government and private have tendancies to just become so bogged down.
As much as it appears many people find just blindly following others, it's not for me. The world is an insanely complex tangle of different views and objectives. The tendancy of humans is laziness and inertia, which leads to single groups forming overpowering power blocs. Either an overwhelmingly powerful government or overwhelmingly powerful (usually oligopoly) private sector. Both are capable of being the boot on our face, destroying human freedoms. A good bit of tension is probably the most freedom enhancing outcome.
Overall, back on the topic of the video, I suspect over control by megacompanies is more likely a future problem that a communist government.
The fact that Isaac just promoted my favorite author has me glowing on the inside.
Ha, same, I’m finishing Rhythm of War right now, and I think this was the first video sponsorship I’ve ever legitimately enjoyed.
I forgot today was Thursday. What a pleasant surprise!
Celebratory snack time
I work a 4-10 shift. Thursday afternoon is the start of my weekend. Work week's over, plus a new SFIA vid. Life is good.😀
The human endeavor is fraught with humans.
Also endeavors!
@@alexandernorman5337 so
Human endeavors are fraught with humans.
Well said!
Human endeavors are fraught with politicians.
@@PilatesGuy1 so you’re saying politicians are human?
"You, personally, will not."
Challenge accepted.
I'm certainly looking forward to my 112th birthday. 🤞
me: i'm decently young we shall see about that
also me: survives on coffee sleep deprivation and overwork at semi regular occasions
OCP: an event not predicted accidentally by any fiction.
Yeah, thats a "black swan" he already talked about it a while ago, the conclusión was that we are pretty good at predicting future disasters that something REALLY weird has to happen to really catch us out of guard, like even this pandemic was predicted and there where preparations in place, and the fact is that they worked because we are only seeing 1.5 million deaths instead of the 100 million deaths of the last world wide pandemic despite having eight times more people
It can happen, but by design a black swan is something unpredictable, for example if we discover that an alien invasión is going to happen i expect that at the very least the biggest armies have contingency plans just in case, the same way if tomorrow a bunch of portals opened up to hell and an army of demons invaded us i would be very surprised if someone actually expected that and had something prepared
Alert! It's Thursday Isaac Arthur is on.....NOW!
Fridge = Raided
TV = Off
Lights = Dimmed
Device = Loud
Me = 🙂
Me = cast to big screen TV 📺
_Rents out a theater_
Hahahahahahah! Well, I'm in online school right now so not exactly but close.
Drink and snack = In hand
Watched it yesterday on nebula!
Yes! Why I look forward to every Thursday!
I always listen to Isaac Arthur on my mp3, which means that I don't help Isaac with the CZcams algorithm. Just know you have a way bigger audience than you think!
Isaac Arthur: What if all the mountains opened their eyes and started moving around? No one could ever expect that.
Oscar Hammerstein (61 years ago): The hills are alive, with the sound of music.
No one can say that we weren't warned.
Easy there, Isaac. 2020 is not yet finished with us.
Maybe there won't be another century for us to contemplate. Better snack and drink like there's no tomorrow!
Biden and co. talk about a "dark winter" and a "great reset" coming. Kinda makes you wonder what they mean by that.
i'd rather not die fat.
@@fatherelijahcal9620 When did they say that? Whatever, it's probably true considering how shitty this year has been.
@@yapflipthegrunt4687 It is true that these words were said (look it up, but keep in mind big tech is biased and filters the information you can find) but as for what these things actually means it remains a mystery. Soon enough we're all going to find out the hard way.
2020 would have been fine had people not ginned up crises for political ends.
Adding sleeping mountain kaiju to my doomsday list. 👍🏼
Then Godzilla appears -"Let them fight"
Honestly I am betting on being still alive in the 22nd century. 100+ years of age is not unheard of and who knows where the medical science can get us in 100 years.
Life extension won’t make me any sort of stick-in-the-mud... I want to learn, I want to know, I want to see with my own eyes. I want to watch humanity conquer the stars, and if I can extend my life to see these things, I’ll do it.
Me too, mate. Me too
Me 3 . One of my fav doc who episodes is the end of Earth watching from a space station with some wierd elite type aliens .
Amen. It's the cruelest trick of life to never know how it works out...
Yeah but the overwhelming majority of people don't think like that
@@neo-filthyfrank1347 Yeah I really don't understand why
Have a great Christmas and new year Isaac Arthur, and thank you for the amazing content!
Issac, Stop Giving 2020 more ideas, there is still a month left......
lol, Yes please :)
Arecibo already collapsed
@@dongiovanni4331 I know, I was thinking "Great, we finally got off the darkest timeline."
2020: Nice Telescope you got there...
#OurSanityMatters
@@dongiovanni4331 China Sky Eye, the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, is now fully operational
It’s good to hear things OTHER than doom and gloom that still address the issues AND show a way forward. It’s encouragement to keep moving forward, thank you Issac Arthur.
Great video. I hope Aphophis don't hit us :S
Eh, let it hit. what's the worst that can happen?
idk he was a pretty cool villain
We know from all the movies, every doomsday happens in America and Apophis is not big enough to wipe out the entire world
I won't. As far as I know 😅
OCP = “Omni Consumer Products”
Outside Context Problem
I'd buy that for a dollar!
I for one welcome our lion tiger and bear robot overlords
That's a cool line up of video topics for December. Something to look forward to. 👍
Lets get through 2020 first ;)
Love your work!
Indeed, and thanks Djani
And 2021 is just the same. Bad occurrences happens every year.
What! No Gamma Ray Burst? That's good.
Great video as always Isaac! Keep up the great work!
this is definitely one of my favorite episodes. It was really fun watching all the different technological progress streams get placed together to show the dynamics among them all :)
Thanks for letting me know that brandon sanderson released the next edition in the stormlight archive
We survived Angry Birds. We'll be fine.
love this channel. keep em coming.
Once again you blow my mind for the afternoon. I'm gonna have to spend at least a week computing this. Thank you
Coffee. Forewarned. Fourarmed. Four is an odd number of arms for someone to have.
Better than one.
It's not an odd number but it sure is strange :p
Not if you're a _GENESTEALER!_
There's a quote from a churchill I think you would like : "I'm an optimist, I don't find much use in being anything else"
Cute quote from a racist warmonger
@@DerHammerSpricht who saved us from an even more racist warmonger
@@3p1Kf41L Hitler was a racist warmonger who was also protecting Germany from racist warmongers in Russia, England, and further east. History is never so conveniently simple
@@DerHammerSpricht Most people were a bit racist back then.It was of it's time.
@@DerHammerSpricht Jesus christ even Churchill who was probably the most racist allied leader is nowhere near Hitler. "Protecting Germany" You mean invading everyone else, committing a genocide and starting the most deadly conflict in human history?
This is so great. Thank you.
Very informative, Coach
The future’s so bright, I got to wear shades.
Sports leagues when they learn about trans and nonbinary people:
"Ok uh... You go... Here... I think?"
Sports leagues when they learn about GMO people:
"Fine! Let me just throw my category list into the sun and start over?! Is that what you want?!"
Honestly I don't expect sports as a concept to survive much longer. Eventually it will be trivial to use any kind of improvements to win any kind of game and preventing it will be too difficult. Or rather, the only "sports" will be things that are on the edge of what anyone can do and for which no augmentations have yet been made - and probably mostly intellectual rather than physical - like sixteen-dimensional time travelling chess or something. :P
@@thegreatdream8427 Sports as a concept will still be around, they will just out law certain things, E.g Drugs, tech etc. Swimming has banned certain swim suits, golf has banned certain putters, etc.
With designer babies you will probably just have a new criteria/grade.
Two ossifying omissions surprised me:
1. if intelligence-boosting treatments are very expensive, it could become impossible for someone born poor to become rich.
2. if complete surveillance becomes possible, governments and corporations could permanently suppress crimethink (i.e. threats to their power).
this channel is awesome! only excellent and interesting contents. I could pass the entire quarantine watching the videos of this channel haha.
"...something that makes Heroin, Cocaine, or LSD look tame...."
Stop teasing the teanagers and college students Isaac!
I love how you can barely conceal your laughter 'undertones' in parts of this video!
Awesome episode!
Nice Hyperion bit in the intro with the lions, tigers and bears. And another great episode, thanks!
I've grabbed too many drinks and snacks... going to have to build a gym
"Sooner or later they swing back round to the idea they can make people better"
"And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave."
KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!
I seldom leave a comment on CZcams, but I would just like to say; the four or so years I've watched your videos your speech impediment is virtually undetectable now. I'm very impressed Isaac. It's a serious undertaking to try and drastically alter your speech. I, and I'm sure others feel it was never necessary, but that just speaks to your professionalism, passion and dedication to this channel. I can say without pause that you produce the most in depth, engaging and scientifically grounded content of this type on all of CZcams. Thank you for the outstanding content you've produced over the years, for free. I've learned so much and have been given so many things to contemplate. Here's to the future. Best regards.
This is exactly the video I needed from you right now.
Everyone: lets hope 2021 is better than 2020
Update log 2021: 0:18
I think my drink is going to be bourbon this time
I prefer Scotch, but either will do.
wow this is a perfectly timed episode. More like this please Isaac! Near future FTW!
Incredible video
living mountains? Thats not a OCP, thats a SCP :)
OCP always is wired in my head to Omni Consumer Products from Robocop... XD
22:00 “Custodians would like to know your location”
Still making great content. Good work Isaac Arthur.
Oh boy ive been waiting for this episode since the first four videos
2020: You sure about that?
Frank Zappa gave us Billy the Mountain and his wife Ethel, a tree growing out of his side , who decides to visit Los Vegas.
This video is so right on so many points. It's nice to hear someone who isn't bogged down by the idea that we're supposed to be limited and pathetic by some divine decree or whatever. I'm a big fan of yours, Isaac. You're such a sensible man.
So happy to see Brandon Sanderson getting shared around!
I don't want to survive, I want to live.
If there’s going to be any sort of genetic engineering available it seems like there should be a public option for it, like with other kinds of healthcare. The public option should be available to all through subsidy, and it should be relentlessly improved whenever possible.
There could still be a private version of it available to people who wanted access to more experimental techniques or streamlined experiences. It should operate like private and public education. Nobody will stop you from opening a private school, but a private school that performs worse than the public option won’t stay open long and when the public option is improved, all of the private options must also improve to stay ahead.
Also, pour money into this. Make the public option actually good, and genuinely keep improving it. Don’t just leave it to wither on the vine.
This seems like it would be the only way that it's not restricted to the wealthy to enable they and their children to get and even bigger advantage than they have now.
Awesome video Isaac. You always inspire hope for the future of humanity
The opening is awesome!
Before watching my reaction to the title is: Well, very few, if any, of the people watching it will survive the next century. Now on to Isaac!
Some of us will presumably have children and grandchildren we want to survive :)
@@ThomasBomb45 I have 2 great-grands. Sure, they may survive to 2120 and meanwhile provide me great-great-grands.
It doesn’t feel like there is a lot done to create life extending technologies.
Issac Arthur, this one was crazy!
love you man!
The biggest thread i see for mankind in this century is the combination of nihilism, relativism and hedonism that makes one antinatalist.
It allects mostly a-religious first world countries, which are major drivers in the progress of mankind.
Just going back to religion against ones knowledge of the universe is not an option.
So realizing that conciousness, without any higher arbiter existing, is the highest authority on value, and that conciousness needs continued life and freedom to optimaly produce the maximum amount of differentiable values, is a necessary thing.
Only values that promote conciousness can exist long term. So a conciousness promoting value can accumulate more effectively created value over time and space than a conciousness hampering value. This solves the subjectivity issue.
Being so greedy that you deplete your own civilisation or so altruistic that you rip appart yourself limits value too. Absurd greed may bring you temporary value, but it limits how far your influence can spread by limiting the vectors. Being certain that your action will make your influence immortal by furthering conciousness can bring you more pleasure than having the most now but limiting your future reach. Nothing is as narcist as knowing things will move to your will, even long after your death. And that only works optimaly when benefiting a society.
Collectivism removes free will and therefore the expression of conciousness. This effectively cuts short values by removing the value creating process of choice.
The existance of conciousness necessary for values puts boundaries on values. Only a value of continued and spread existance can have maximum value, if all starting value is truely subjective and therefore equal.
If the question for value is asked, the necessity of conciousness is clear. If it is not asked, survival instinct propell one in the same direction. An unconcious perspective can ligicaly not be taken. From a concious perspective the end of value has no value, as the question of value necessitates a concept of value, which requires conciousness and therefore existing values.
Value and conciousness can't be seperated.
You left out the greatest threat of all... government.
The thing about this world, Tommy... is that good things don't happen to heroes.
I know people love the "government bad" line but on the historical scale they preform quite well. Also for many countries the failings of government are just a reflection of the failings of the people.
Another brilliant masterpiece from a brilliant mind!👍👍👍
This is such a freakin great channel.
When you said OCP I thought you ment the company from RoboCop
Let's hope to avoid any Outside Context Problems™ this century at least!
Thank you enjoyed! 👍🏼👍🏼🔟
I loved the episode!
2020 was so bad, it answered the Fermi paradox
And yet here we are.
13:03: We have access to such techniques-they're called "Providing food, education, etc to children". Sure, you probably probably got at least the basics, but billions of kids around the world _don't._ The global community would undeniably be more prosperous if the wealth currently hoarded by billionaires was instead used to provide the necessities of modern life to people in need...but as a rule, the wealthy would rather have a billion dollars in a world where most people don't have a thousand than live in a world where everyone has a hundred thousand dollars.
The Iron Law of Institutions applies to societies, too. The wealthy will not consent to losing their privileged perch within society, no matter how much society might benefit. That's my greatest (and, within a rounding error, only) concern with transhumanism-it's another thing the wealthy will have and be able to deny the poor, another obstacle in the way of anyone trying to improve their lot in life.
Scientists love knowledge, and know it's more valuable when everyone knows it. Athletes love sports, and know they're more valuable when everyone plays them. Billionaires love wealth, and know it's only valuable when most people don't have it.
P.S. Yes, we grow enough food to feed everyone on the planet. It's just not distributed efficiently, because selling more food (that goes bad) to people in wealthy nations is more profitable than selling that food to people who are starving but poor.
I love your intros, new best intro ever!!!!
Awesome video as usual, and I thank you. I would very much still appreciate an episode of Annoying Aliens
I'll have to disagree with your predictions on gene editing, they seem almost hopelessly optimistic to me. If gene editing is introduced that is capable of meaningfully improving the physical or mental capabilities of a person it could have horrifying consequences if not handled very carefully indeed.
Just as a hypothetical imagine that tomorrow a technique was invented in the USA that allowed you to increase your babies IQ by 10 points.
Wealthier Americans would be able to afford this treatment for their children whilst the less wealthy would not. The children of the wealthy would grow up to be far more likely to be successful than the children of the poor, not just due to a more stable home life, better food, private education etc but due to being fundamentally more capable.
This would lead to a widening of the wealth gap between the haves and have-nots as the children of the rich accrued even more wealth and power. The next edition of the IQ increasing technology could perhaps offer a 20 point gain for your child, the rich could once again afford this opportunity for their children whilst the poor could not.
The gap between the rich and the poor would grow ever larger and more entrenched with each generation until we had created a dystopian reality of a genetically/technologically enhanced aristocracy that rules over an inferior race of unedited humans.
Given that the average wealth of a Black American family is ~15% that of a White family you could also predict that the gene editing would be far more utilised by particular races leading to (after several generations) the creation of substantial mental and physical superiority of certain races/groups (on average, their are of course some very wealthy black Americans and poor white ones).
www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/disparities-in-wealth-by-race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2019-survey-of-consumer-finances-20200928.htm
Even in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the US offered this technique for free to all its citizens it would still create a country of Übermensch that would have a terrifying advantage over, for example, Zimbabweans whose government could not afford to freely hand out such a breakthrough.
Lest anyone think I exaggerate;
www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/
shows that there has been an increase in wealth inequality over that last few decades even without gene editing. The ability too genetically improve a child's potential capabilities will only hasten this stratification of humanity.
Crucially none of this requires any malice on the part of any individual. Scientists would create such a technology with purely beneficent goals and users would merely wish the best for their children, the road to a dystopian nightmare would be paved with good intentions.
This is not to say that we should abandon genetic engineering, its potential benefits for humanity are nigh limitless, but we must be aware of the pitfalls if such a technology is poorly implemented and consider very carefully how to utilise its awe inspiring potential.
One issue with what you bring up, is that one of the biggest things about technological advancements being developed isn’t just that it gets better, it also gets cheaper to do. Maybe a single generation of kids will have the wealthy only genetic boon, but after that, the technology would likely be affordable. This has been true of a lot of technology through the years.
@@ayandragon2727 True enough, but even though education and healthcare have been getting cheaper (to take a pair of exmples) the difference in life expectancy and education levels between the rich and poor isn't getting any smaller as far as im aware.
The rich will always be able to afford better medicine and education for their kids.
We didn't start the fire, 2020 version
I just started Building Harlequin’s Moon by Larry Niven which explores colonists who leave Sol system to escape dependance on AI and nanotech, yet still find themselves having to use it with heavy restrictions.
The scenario of people living in squalor while experiencing virtual reality paradise reminds me of the Jack Vance novel Eyes of the Overworld.
"You elites like to imagine the end of the world.
We that struggle can only think of the end of the month"
- Gilet Jaunes
God: reads title
“Haha, no”
Fake news obviously. God doesnt read English he reads Hebrew. I was going to say he has no sense of humour either. Looking around I'd say he thinks he is a comedian.
Then we are technically doing The Lord´s work lmao.
Me: *Flips Bird to God* I will survive.
Best day of the week
Happy Arthursday