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Saturday, July 01, 2006

Neo-Malthusian or Cornucopian?

There's an interesting synchronicity about futurism going on. First, TMcD predicts the political future. Then I read as Sam pens a paean to Productivity, reading which I muse, yet again, that if there ever is a singularity in which human beings implant their consciousnesses into transhuman cyborgs, Sam will be one of the "early adopters." SamCyborg will then pen a blog post on how he can't really explain why being a cyborg is so much better than being "merely human," but that if you just try it, you will see why. ("Resistance is futile." Indeed.)

Then there's the Slate piece on "The Future of Futurism", and the Yglesias rejoinder, both of which are pretty interesting.

The Slate piece divides futurists up into two groups: Neo-Malthusians, who, generally speaking, predict overpopulation, war, famine, pestilence, etc., and Cornucopians, who "promise great riches" through growth and technology.

My question for you: Are you a Neo-Malthusian, or a Cornucopian? And does seeing "the Al Gore movie" change your mind, my Cornucopian friends?

1 Comments:

At 5:15 PM, Blogger Paul said...

I immagine the future will look a lot like today -- a mixture of good and bad, so I'd say I'm an Mathucopian.

 

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