In the Jungle

I post when I feel like it. Usually when I have been thinking. That is, I have been bored recently.

http://www.facebook.com/KillBei
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Why Not Space? 

I sometimes wonder what the planet will be like 50 years from now. 

There’s a worst case scenario: Am I even going to be able to work as an engineer? Are we all going to be farmers or hunter gatherers surviving in some post apocalyptic jungle, following the collapse of all modern economies?

Then there’s the boring case. Nothing really changes. Instead of spending 5% of my budget on gas maybe I have to spend 15%, but otherwise we’re all just sort of sitting here.

Finally there would be the dream. I’m retired from work and bored of Earth. I’m in a spaceship en route to one of the moons in the Solar System for some skiing with the family and watching news about how they’re constructing a hyperspace highway to Earth II while I read a book on my Kindle 9000.

(follow link above for a discussion on extra-Earth colonization)

“ No. The rest of the population won’t take the output of engineers and actuaries seriously. Every parent drives their little ones to school in an SUV, because of the scary thought of adbuction by sickos. Yet the chances of that are slim. The chances of them getting diabetes goes way up, (compared to walking), but that doesn’t fire up the amygdala, so it doesn’t translate into actual policy. ”

BP's Energy Outlook for 2030 

BP released their Energy Outlook 2030 review. Just for reference, expected total energy use is expected to go up about 15%. Our current economy certainly hopes so. Not sure that I like that we’re expected to stay on the path of burning as much as we possibly can, but who am I to tell the billions of non-developed countries that they shouldn’t try and live the high life as the Americans/Europeans did?

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