Future history of the world?

[hi1]

We will all be half chat ganga smoking muslims sat under a palm tree in a very big desert

 

[Space cat]

Urbanisation, education, access to contraception, etc lead to a drop in birth rate.

An optimist! Makes a change from the doom merchants.

So following that through, urbanisation can result in very high population densities so how many of us humans do we finish up with? We can hardly use the UK as a model because between us, Holland and Belgium we have one of the highest population densities on the planet. What about using the whole of Europe as our model? Divide the total population by the total land area, see what comes out then multiply by the total land area of planet Earth.

Or maybe we should use the entire surface because there's nothing to stop us from building floating cities - and farms too.

Its only when religion gets out of control --

That was the beginning of the debate I got into forty years ago. (Am I really that old? ) One of our number kept insisting that Catholics had to have loads of babies because it was the word of God. (Actually, I'm not sure that's true. Catholics are allowed to limit their number of offspring as long as they go about it the right way.)

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time? Possibly, but not as we know it. The days of organised religion laying down the rules for the unthinking masses are already on the way out - and the Arab summer of love will happen, though maybe not in my lifetime.

Historic visions of the future

Nice one! Those pictures demonstrate just what a tricky business it is trying to predict what will happen a hundred years into the future, never mind a thousand. Incidentally, the first thing that struck me was that everybody was dressed as per their own time. This we now know to be all wrong but can we do any better. Accord to Desmond Morris, Star Trek has it completely wrong - and he might be right.

Well I have to get some work done now so if anybody wants to do those calculations, please feel free.

 

[Norcon]

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time?

Lets hope so.
Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.
I’d hate to see us without it, after all, you can’t expect the entire landscape of humanity to be all be atheists and anti-religious philosophers founded on a dubious and sinful way of life with no ability to forgive.
Just look at the UK. As the christian number declines the moral fabric of society breaks down and evil reins. Nuff said.

 

[calorific]

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time?

Lets hope so.
Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.
I’d hate to see us without it, after all, you can’t expect the entire landscape of humanity to be all be atheists and anti-religious philosophers founded on a dubious and sinful way of life with no ability to forgive.
Just look at the UK. As the christian number declines the moral fabric of society breaks down and evil reins. Nuff said.

The trouble with religion is caused by the nonsensical drivel that the religious "professionals" ramble and rant on about.

Having a belief or a faith is quite probably a good thing. Following self-righteous, mentally obese, bigoted, self seeking and self serving extremists who spout garbage which completely contradicts both the message and spirit of the religious gurus, icons and gods who were the mainstay and foundation blocks, is not quite such good thing.

 

[captaincaveman1]

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time?

Lets hope so.
Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.
I’d hate to see us without it, after all, you can’t expect the entire landscape of humanity to be all be atheists and anti-religious philosophers founded on a dubious and sinful way of life with no ability to forgive.
Just look at the UK. As the christian number declines the moral fabric of society breaks down and evil reins. Nuff said.

Religion is the reason why the earth wont be around in a thousand years , Its the creator of all wars.

 

[Norcon]

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time?

Lets hope so.
Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.
I’d hate to see us without it, after all, you can’t expect the entire landscape of humanity to be all be atheists and anti-religious philosophers founded on a dubious and sinful way of life with no ability to forgive.
Just look at the UK. As the christian number declines the moral fabric of society breaks down and evil reins. Nuff said.

Religion is the reason why the earth wont be around in a thousand years , Its the creator of all wars.

Firstly the earth will very likely be around in a thousand years. And secondly religion is not the creator of all wars. Try doing some research before posting baloney.

Google wrote

An academic study on the subject of the role of religion in 73 major conflicts over the past 3,500 years concluded that 60% of wars had no religious motivation whatsoever and only 4% were viewed as truly religious wars.

 

[pred]

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time?

Lets hope so.
Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.
I’d hate to see us without it, after all, you can’t expect the entire landscape of humanity to be all be atheists and anti-religious philosophers founded on a dubious and sinful way of life with no ability to forgive.
Just look at the UK. As the christian number declines the moral fabric of society breaks down and evil reins. Nuff said.

Let me get this right, i'm an atheists so i lead a sinful life??

I can assure you i do not require a book written a few thousand years ago by Bin Ladens ancestrial grand father to know right from wrong or good from evil.

 

[wobs]

Urbanisation, education, access to contraception, etc lead to a drop in birth rate.

An optimist! Makes a change from the doom merchants.

So following that through, urbanisation can result in very high population densities so how many of us humans do we finish up with? We can hardly use the UK as a model because between us, Holland and Belgium we have one of the highest population densities on the planet. What about using the whole of Europe as our model? Divide the total population by the total land area, see what comes out then multiply by the total land area of planet Earth.

Or maybe we should use the entire surface because there's nothing to stop us from building floating cities - and farms too.

I already stated:

Some believe that world population will level out at 9-10billion. With improvements in agriculture, this should not be a problem.

Read more: //www.diynot.com/forums/genera...tory-of-the-world.339564/page-2#ixzz2A1sHRE6J

Its only when religion gets out of control --

That was the beginning of the debate I got into forty years ago. (Am I really that old? ) One of our number kept insisting that Catholics had to have loads of babies because it was the word of God. (Actually, I'm not sure that's true. Catholics are allowed to limit their number of offspring as long as they go about it the right way.)

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time? Possibly, but not as we know it. The days of organised religion laying down the rules for the unthinking masses are already on the way out - and the Arab summer of love will happen, though maybe not in my lifetime.

Religion should decline, but its not a given. There is a theory that many people have a gene that makes them more likely to be spiritually inclined, meaning they need some kind of spiritual support.

Meanwhile, birthrates through the world are generally dropping. The main places where birthrates are particularly high are much of Africa and Afganistan.

However, countrie like Russia, and many other former Iron Curtain countries have low rates (enough for declining populations), but the lowest are places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau. All rampantly materialist, which paradoxically is extremely bad environmentally.

 

[Space cat]

Well I've finally gotten around to watching the last episode of Andrew Marr's History of the World and I have to say that the future looks a little uncertain. It would appear that, all through the so called Age of Enlightenment, we were busy selling slaves to money grubbing American landowners - and there was no shortage of Africans happy to sell their own people for a quick profit!

And so I've come to the conclusion that what we like to call 'civilization' is not our natural state. Desmond Morris was right; our natural state is a small group of around thirty individuals who all know each other. This is the only way in which the communist ideal of 'from each according to his ability to each according to his need' can really work. Once we get into larger groups where not everybody knows everybody else, there is a potential for trouble and a strong possibility that the scum will rise to the top of the pile.

The results have been seen many times throughout our history: The weak exploited by the strong. People killed for no better reason than that they were different. Women stripped of their true sexuality and traded like cattle. This is the politics of the proto-human ape which, unfortunately, still lurks within us - especially within those who seek political power. Even today, when humans find themselves isolated from 'civilisation' - and especially when conditions are tough - they are likely to revert to type. In this respect Firefly is probably nearer to the truth than Star Trek and we will export the worst aspects of our species. Let's hope we never run into any technologically inferior aliens out there because I really don't fancy their chances!

And yet from somewhere out of this mess we have, at times, succeeded in bringing order. The Greeks made a good effort and can, perhaps, claim to have invented democracy but even they couldn't shake off the idea that women were an inferior species. The Romans made a decent effort too. As far as I'm aware, their empire still holds the record as the longest running in history. They must have got a lot of things right but abolishing slavery was not one of them!

So what of more recent times? We like to think that we Europeans invented modern civilization as we know it then exported it around the planet. Leaving aside the arrogance of that statement, how long do we imagine that we can make it last? Well I'm an optimist and I base my optimism on the fact that information is not easily destroyed. The power of the strong over the weak was often derived from ignorance. The subjugation of women - in which they themselves were complicit - also relied on ignorance. Prejudice in general, whether against women, or negros (can I still use that word here) or homosexuals or Jews is all based on ignorance.

Ignorance is dangerous. There are still many parts of our planet where ignorance rules but the good news is that, unlike us, their downtrodden masses won't have to learn the hard way. They don't need to invent modern technology from scratch because it's (mostly) freely available to anybody with internet access. Also, while Asian and African women might need their own Emily Pankhurst, they won't have to reinvent Marie Stopes.

And finally, one point in this thread needs answering:

Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.

I will readily concede that religion has, on average, done more good than harm. It brought a degree of order where there had been none other than the whim of some tyrannical despot with a bigger sword than everybody else. As I implied earlier, the bigot was an improvement over the barbarian. But bigots is what they were because at least three of them were fatally flawed from their inception; corrupted by the politics of the ape-man (which is a very difficult thing for any leader to shake off). It is no accident that most religions are, to a greater or lesser degree, misogynistic, homophobic and just plain anti-sexual in tone.

Indeed I feel a rant coming on so listen up you Jews and Christians and Muslims everywhere. You guys did do a lot of good. You supported the weak against the strong. You fed the hungry and cared for the sick (as best you could at the time) and you promoted peace in place of war. But trying to suppress human sexuality was the biggest mistake you ever made. You can't win; you really can't - and it may yet prove to be your downfall. Rant over.

 

[pred]

But will we still have religion in a thousand years time?

Lets hope so.
Better or not, religion is about the only foundation that humans seem to really respond to and despite the propaganda, has done more good than harm.
I’d hate to see us without it, after all, you can’t expect the entire landscape of humanity to be all be atheists and anti-religious philosophers founded on a dubious and sinful way of life with no ability to forgive.
Just look at the UK. As the christian number declines the moral fabric of society breaks down and evil reins. Nuff said.

Norcon i'm an atheist, i admit i am no angel in that i often break the national speed limit and if the opportunity arises i will try and fiddle my taxes, however when it comes to things like child abuse, which i think is one of the most hienous crimes, then i think that is carried out mainly by the "shirt lifters" that run the churches that you seem to be so fond of....

 

[securespark]

What we should have done is limit our world population to a billion - and lived in the garden of Eden forever.

1804: World population hit 1 billion.

If growth stopped here (and how would you achieve that??) we would not be here...

1927: World population hit 2 billion.
1999: World population hit 6 billion.
2011: World population hit 7 billion.


2025: World population est 8 billion.
2050: World population est 9 billion.