From now on, I want to add a dedicated category about the “future” (”futurism”), already started with previous articles about the Raymond Kurzweil’s theory, or Jacque Fresco’s vision. There are many different theories, visions out there, many schools of thought, many artists, many dreamers. The aim is not to give a political vision in 100, 200 or 500 years time - for this, just turn to history ; there has always been a country powerful enough to impose his cultural hegemony, usually followed by a collapse, and another country more powerful to take over the lead. A big CLASSIC.

The aim is to have an idea about how different living will be from today, how differently we will interact - how cross-cultural we will become (what if we discover life on Mars ?). This section, as you understood won’t be about selling Ipods (Apple is a big marketing scam anyway) or computers like many fellow bloggers do, but to have hints about tomorrows on a much more strategic approach.

The hypothese of “idiocracy” is the following :
“Evolution is not rewarding the most intelligent, but the ones who reproduce the most”.
University educated couples won’t be procreating anymore, education level will disappear, scientists will be so busy working on technologies that directly pay off (plasma TV, hair growing cream,…), and not on fundamental sciences, … in 500 years, the world will be just “dumb” and chaotic (Mad Max influence). In 500 years, being a world wide wrestling champion will be a necessary step to become resident at the white house (this could actually sound credible in a lesser time than 500 years)… but well enjoy the whole movie, it is a good one.

A scientific (apparently a serious one, not linked to any weird cults or so - if not, please let me know), Raymond Kurzweil, has designed that around 2045, the human being could potentially become immortal ; in other words the aging process would be reversed, defeated by medicine progress to lengthen human life cycle. A transgression / transition that would arrive near : “singularity” as he calls it.

It would mean that instead of living maximum 115 years, being 10 000 years-old could be possible, just because medicine allows you that. At first, the idea scared me (life is already so boring,…), but then, I got pretty much excited…

Hereunder is the typical standardized middle-class lifetime in a West-European country

- 0 = Hello World
- 0-6 = Mummy, daddy
- 6-11 = 1st grade school
- 11-18 = teenager, 2nd grade school
- 18-23 = University, college, gap year, girl/boyfriend
- 23-24 = unemployment, first job hunting, girl/boyfriend
- 24-45 = work in a multinational company, family, kids
- 45-65 = work as independent worker (too expensive to the mnc) if lucky, education of the kids
- 66-85 = retirement, kids work and (hopefully) take care of you
- 85 = bye bye world, Kids will mourn you, educate your grandchildren…

Now, this is how it would go, if indeed we live 10 000 years ;

- 0 = Hello World
- 0-6 = Mummy, daddy
- 6-11 = 1st grade school
- 11-18 = teenager, 2nd grade school
- 18-45 = University, college, gap year, girl/boyfriend, 1st family
- 45-9950 = work (as an independent worker, in a multinational company,… every potential jobs), 200 families with 200 different wives and an average of 2 kids/families (exponential result - 400 direct kids who will found families on their side as well - at different period of time of course. A clan that could be counting as much as 80 000 head after 10 000 years) - impossibility to keep track with all the children, grandchildren, Grand grand grand and so on children - everyone is cousin with everyone, with a possibility to have a drink with ancestors part of your own family tree.
Real Estate price skyrocket ; 500 year’s mortgage payback is getting common.
Ocean, sees, and then (when technology will be mastered), space will get colonized (since time is not an issue anymore - a 10 year’s journey, that will be fine)… very needed, because world’s population would be doubling every 20 years. There is no more untouched natural areas on earth. Criminals having been sentenced to jail for a period of 345 years, can walk out free.
Suicide (or “accompanied death”) would become a common feature, people will have the right to chose when to die (if they want to)…
The amount of knowledge will be reaching such a level, that progress will go beyond today’s imagination. Religions will become obsolete - life after death being an “has-been” concept - Philosophies of Life will become the new trend. Quest of Happiness and Progress being the only reason to live…
9950 - … = until an accident occurs (space-car crash vs a meteoroid being common)

Pretty harsh vision of this tiny country disappearing during night time (click on the map of this post). This guy spent a few days in one of the most closed country in the world - his speech is pretty much political incorrect ; at least from European standards. Maybe Myanmar in Asia could be considered on an equal basis from a human right point of view ; countries where the notion of human being is actually to be defined.

Despite this context, I found his vision interesting, and honest from an intellectual point of view. The very last footage was a hint about the type of regime ; a human being there is like a pixel - insignificant.

How crazy should have been Armstrong 50 years ago…
- “We would like to send a human being on the moon (and (maybe) getting him back of course) for the first time. Interested ?”
- “Stepping on the moon ? IMPOSSIBLE, no-one has ever managed to do that…” would be the most common answer I believe.
Just imagine someone requesting this from you.
- “I’ll do it for the mankind”

Why is it so difficult to spend time in the progress of humanity in our period of time ? Why don’t we have more Apollo 11 on the news ? Well, we do of course, but does not make you dream as much - it becomes even “has been”. What are the next limits to be pushed ?

If we have enough time to make wars, it is because we don’t have enough challenging goals.

Apollo 11 - The Moon Shot - Click here for funny video clips

Armstrong, the Bougainville of our last century… to continue…

Disturbing piece of art from an artist (Mladen Stilinović) born in Belgrade & living in Croatia. What if we swapped the word “artist” by “businessman” ? The message is much deeper though, and makes us questioning about the real definition of “artist”…