 
To: tp0x@CS.CMU.EDU
Cc: +dist+/afs/andrew/usr/js9b/Public/camc.dl@ANDREW.CMU.EDU
Subject: The Apocolypse
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 13 Nov 92 14:47:29 EST."
              
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 12:33:08 EST
Message-Id: <15891.721935188@KANGA.FAC.CS.CMU.EDU>
From: Thomas_Price@KANGA.FAC.CS.CMU.EDU


Two unrelated topics.

I used to be a Christian, and I've been getting email from one of my
former associates, part of which asked me what I think of Biblical
prophecy, which she thinks is extraordinarily accurate in predicting
history, which I think is highly variable although I think that some of it
is accurate in predicting history, and which probably everybody else
reading this thinks is total crap, but that's okay, since it's just an
introduction to my point and not my actual point.

So she asked me to explain how even some of it managed to predict future
history (as I think it does) and I said: "Well, I think that some people
can just predict the future, and the idea that `they can do it' is no 
easier or harder to believe than the idea that `God told them', plus it
has the added benefit of not making me feel like I have to explain all the
rest of the Bible.

Now that that's out of the way, it looks like there are black years 
ahead for the human race. Roughly 20 years from now, we'll face

	the overpopulation crunch, with consequent strain on basic
	  services -- water, sewage, food, medical care, transportation

	the AIDS virus having spread throughout the world heterosexual
	  population 

	consequences of environmental degradation


I'm getting ready to see, in my old age, the human population crash by ~%50,
if not more (although between now and then it'll double, and that's part
of the problem). Let's suppose that this actually occurs, and then follow
out the consequences. We can expect governmental instability and a lot of
de-facto decentralization. In some states, where there are people with clues
(like us -- I hope) the local governments will be able to keep order and 
flourish. In others, total chaos.

Any thoughts on this scenario? Any alternative scenarioes?

(The most far-fetched possibility is that a great religious teacher, the
equivalent of Jesus of Nazareth or the Buddha, will begin to teach at 
that time saying "BE NICE! BE RESPONSIBLE! GET CLUES!" for the millionth
time and after all this suffering the aggregate of humanity will finally be
sophisticated enough to *get* it and build a sensible, humane, decentralized
world-governmental system. One of the unfortunately much less far-fetched 
possibilities is  that a great religious sham, the equivalent of 
(Robert Heinlein's character George Foster of the New Revelation -- 
don't think of tv preachers, they're far to stupid to function under these 
hypothetical conditions) will take advantage of the situation and create a 
fundamentalist, totalitarian organization which had political power in some 
places and great influence on its members in others like ... um ... the 
Catholic Church! Dear God, why can't George Bush bomb the Vatican City into 
gravel before leaving office and balance out the bad effects of his personal
vendetta against Iraq ... oops, sorry, I got carried away)

Anyway, one of the consequences of my thinking in this way is that, just
as some others are thinking of moving to the Caribbean, I find myself 
thinking of moving to undesirable places with difficult climates, where
the population influx cannot be expected to be so great, e.g. Maine, Alaska,
British Columbia or Manitoba.

Tom

******************************************************************************
         Tom Price  |  tp0x@cs.cmu.edu  |  Simplicity, simplicity
******************************************************************************
 plutoniumsurveillanceterroristCIAassassinationIranContrawirefraudcryptology


 prev message 
 next message