Ibon wrote:eclipse wrote: I learned to use a chainsaw as an adult, and my wife never jogged until her 40's and now she jogs regularly. Divergent interests, a varied population, and aged adult neuroplasticity. These are things.
These are real assets of humans and external consequences will ramp up the ingenuity and exercise that neuropasticity as those very consequences bring back the evolutionary selection pressures to winnow down the population so that those who remain are selected for that very neuroplasticity!
Or not. It could be be that kid's lack of bush skills is skilling them up to compete in the cyberworld of the future. With all the energy and food we could want coming from alternatives like breeder reactors that can convert the world's nuclear waste into centuries of clean energy, I cannot see any
technological inevitability of collapse ahead. But hey, we voted for Trump. Anything could happen politically. You could end up with a dog-eat-dog Mad Max / The Road kinda world after all. Careful what you wish for and talk about all the time, or it might just end up happening. I prefer passionately presenting what could go right while also admitting what might go wrong.
You see, we have been several generations of no real winnowing, no real separating the chaff from the wheat.
Yeah, fossil fuels have been kind. Apart from the particulate poisoning, killing 7 million of us worldwide each year (650 Chernobyls IF you buy the Linear No Threshold theory) and causing climate change while also threatening to run out on us. But hey, we've learned how to split the atom. We shall see.
All of this neuropasticity however is not going to keep the current population at the levels it is nor allow for further growth.
Not proven. Just giant kelp farms could give us all the liquid fuels and seafood we could eat, even in a world of 10 billion. Did you know industrial chemists have figured out how to make kelp CONCRETE? That blows my mind. Kelp. It's a thing. Grab a coffee or beer or whatever and watch Dr Tim Flannery, once our government's senior science advisor, and once Australian of the year.
https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/can-sea ... d/11017106What is sorely lacking in our neuroplasticity is the ability to exercise humility and restraint in our breeding and consumption. But no worries, natural selection is about to return is spades in the form of consequences.
No need. As the world modernises, population growth slows. The UN studies have shown all we need to do is educate and empower women, and population fixes itself. How cool is that? Fight for women's rights in the developing world and you don't even have to mention the P word. (Population).
Consequences are our species friend, not our enemy. To embrace rather than battle them is a sign of advanced neuroplasticity!
Exactly! Which is why I'm with Dr James Hansen promoting nuclear power. The consequences for building nukes = abundant power forever. Sounds good to me.