Futudirection for Humanity? (was Don Davis article)

Hi Don:

>
> Civilizations rise and fall, and cities are destroyed, sacked, or
> decline in time. Some day Washington DC will be atomised, and all
>the
> things in the museums there as well as the famous landmarks will
> become damaged and scattered. The day will come when the largest
> collection of space artifacts will be in the Cosmosphere in Kansas.
> Most great cities of history have suffered similar fates, along
>with
> the treasures gathered to the capitols of their great empires from
> conquered lands.

The world used to be like that most of human history. Now, the very
idea this is going to continue is, I think, a fallacy.

If people has not noticed, the world is different before and after
the athomic bomb. Is different before and after the ecological
crisis. Today the very idea the world is an empire under the U.S.
control seem a little bit out-of-fashion. Today, without noticing
it, we live in a global society that goes around the world. The
United States is only a part of it. We depend on each other a lot
more than we usually think.

Look at this list. Is spread around the world as well, not confined
to the U.S.

In a global society the very idea of a conflict like those of the
past is something unthinkable. Yes, conflicts do exist but they will
get down in intensity as time passes. In the future armed forces
will be more a sort of specialized policial forces rather that the
kind of armies of the pass.

>
> In lots of ways the quality of life and especially 'the right to
>be
> left alone' is declining in the good old USA. Once atomic terrorism
> takes place America will become much more of a mockery of its
> 'freedom' rhetoric than it is now. One of these days America will
>be a
> place soldiers demand papers at roadblocks, scans of brainwaves and
> genetic material will follow the lead of current urine and hair
>tests
> in deciding who is undesirable, and cars will have computer
>controlled
> boxes which automatically register traffic offenses, with major
> revenues coming in from minor things like driving over solid lines
> while changing lanes. And Fox News will still loudly speak of how
> America stands for freedom!

Well, that may happens anywhere. I know it. Remember it, I am
Chilean and I lived lot of years exactly in the way you describe a
dictatorial U.S. of a potential future. However, like in Chile, I am
very certain in such circunstancies the people of the U.S. will
regain its freedom sooner or later. Once a people has lived in a
free society is very hard to enslave it for a long time.

> A sub-text to the desirability of leaving the Earth is the need
>to
> start thinking about how human freedom can be rescued from the
> 'creeping fascism' infecting societies desiring to control their
> populace. I don't want to be tracked everywhere I go, I want to be
> able to participate in underground economies.

Impossible. You are going to be tracked. The price for security has
always been control. But, as the old saying says "who has done
nothing fears nothing".

>Societies are getting
> better at repressing their people, and social revolution is being
>made
> more difficult by high tech law enforcement guided by entrenched
> interests of the ruling elites and intrusion into peoples private
>lives.
>.. If we end >up
> with a baldly nazi like government we who are left who care will
>lack
> the ability to do anything about it except leave. If I feel
>society is
> turning into a monster I want to start a new one which is better,
>not
> try the revolutionary route and risk getting shot. This is the
>vision
> of hope I see in Space Migration.
>

Yes. I agree with you than in the future, living in a represive
security-oriented society will be though for many people. And that
the alternative of living this planet for good will be in the minds
of many, and perhaps the resources as well.

The Americas where colonized by people that was escaping from a
society so represive as the European of the past. In the future the
space could become a new Americas.

However, as far as I see, that will be a possibility just for a
small number of people. Most mankind will remain in this
throublesome place called planet Earth.

Regards,
Omar Vega