THE NEXT 100

So I was contemplating recently what the next 100 years will look like for humanity. More importantly what it will look like for my children and eventually their children. As I run on borrowed time it has become ever more important for me to try and figure out what the next 100 years might look like. Now, you might be saying to yourselves. Who cares! I won' t be around. Well your probably right. However i am pretty sure you know plenty of people who are 20 years old and younger including many in your own family. Given the advances in medicine, nutrition and general conditioning it is not unlikely that many of those you know will be around in the next 100years. In your case, if you are in the 30 to 40 range, you will most probably just be a photo on someones wall, if your fortunate. So what will the next 100 years look like? What will mankind have invented? What will be the status of our world? All good questions, especially given that man now has the capability to double its technology every year. So? Well if you imagine that we went from 1913 when there was; no television, computers, pop up toaster, microwave oven, x-ray (improved), Pyrex, radar, Insulin, Jet engine, helicopter, automated teller machines, fiberglass, digital clocks, snowmobiles, video games, mobile phones, tablets, DNA, DVD, Wi-Fi to today; then you can begin to imagine the possibilities.

So what will it look like? What will be the next great inventions? Well ,given that I am not that intelligent I decided to explore (in my own mind) what things might look like. So i have broken it down into the two questions I asked earlier. 1. What will mankind have invented? 2. What will the status of our world be?  So lets have a look from a simpletons perspective.

1. WHAT WILL MANKIND HAVE INVENTED?

A) In your brain Communication; devices incorporated into the human body. Hey who has time to talk, text and send e-mail while driving? Its illegal anyways so what if the device was installed into your body and allowed you to simply execute those tasks while doing everything your busy, busy schedule demands.
B) In the Game; Real person video games. Yup! Forget about 1st and second person shooter games. Yes Sir, in the future you will actually be in the game. Yup 3 dimensional and all (can you say holodeck?) Do not worry though, when you get killed you will still spring right back to life. Just like the NRA wants you to believe. Yes indeed you will even be able to invite your friends into your game so you can kill them. This should reduce significantly the homicide rate across North America.
C) NanoTechnology, Nano's that can build a bridge to the moon. Think I'm joking? I am not. This technology will be to mankind  in the 21st century what the micro chip was to the 20th century. These little microscopic robots will do anything on command. They will be performing delicate surgeries, fixing defective man made machines going into damaged reactors, doing tasks to difficult or dangerous for Men and Women.
D) Robots; no not the type GM uses to build cars. The butler type, the at your home type, the scare the crap out of you from the movie. '' I robot'' type. Yes we are not that far away from the moment where mankind relegates the unwanted or undesirable tasks to a robot.
E) Plane to anywhere; a ticket to the moon please. No doubt within the next 100 years man will travel regularly to the moon on board spacecraft designed to take you outside our atmosphere. ET Phone home! Or just drop by the moon.
F) We are not alone; while this is not an invention it will be a ground mover for mankind and will lead to many, many new innovations driven by our unrelenting desire to find answers and to more importantly, NEVER be alone! I will talk more about this in the, ''What will be the status of our world'' section.
G) Time travel: Just joking! Might happen one day just not the next 100 years.
H) Transport off the ground; It is only a matter of time before we figure out that trying to build infrastructure to support 4 wheel rubber tire vehicles is a serious, serious waste of time and Money. The next major human innovation will be in the form of self contained aerial transport vehicles. You see if you can fly, no traffic jam, you can get a hell of alot more done in a day. Plus haven't you had just about enough of the airport anyways? Fly down south in your own transporter.
I) Mars anyone; mankind will get to Mars. Believe it! Propulsion technology will make this possible.
J) Medicine; we will invent a cure for a great deal of what currently ails us. If we can pop a pill and get an erection, how far can we be from curing that case of facial acne, or that cold sore, or just about everything mankind currently considers a detriment to its well being; by simply popping a pill. Hell they will even invent a '' Straight pill'' which will turn all homosexuals straight ( all the conservatives reading this just wet themselves) hey nimrods it can't be cured becuase its not a disease, nor a choice....its genetic! More seriously, mankind will find a way to repair a severed spine and give power back to a set of paralyzed legs. The field of bionics (yes the 6 million dollar man kind) will help amputees live a normal life with very little challenge as a result of their missing limb. Unfortunately mankind will still struggle to find the cures for the common cold, cancer, heart disease, HIV. The positive. We will close in on these over the next 100 years.

2. WHAT WILL THE STATUS OF THE WORLD BE?

As the eternal optimist that I am, I would like to think we will have fixed our greatest challenges, wars, religious disparity, diseases, climate change, dependency on currency, hunger, etc....but lets face facts. Minus a world changer ( epic natural disaster, epidemic or alien invasion) chances are humanity will still be struggling with all of the above. The reality is, that no matter our technological advances we still fall terribly short in improving the quality of life for all human beings ( no not just the guy down the street) all over the world. We will still continue to war against each other, use financial power to grow richer and make others poorer. We will continue to value profits and our bank accounts over quality of life & environment. We will continue to fall short in all areas that should really matter. Is it that bad? Perhaps. There is a bright side however.

1) We are not alone; when this is finally confirmed things will change dramatically. The majority (though not by much) prescribe to a principle that someone (generally viewed as God) created man and woman and everything else on this planet. When irrefutable proof is presented that the universe does contain other life and it did not come fro God, Well! A great deal of searching will be done by mankind. Then we will go to all lengths to contact them. Perhaps not so advisable (if you listen to Hawking's, which you should, the guys a bloody genius) as they might see us as nothing more then we see ants ( you know a pest)...or cows (you know food). Nonwithstanding this we will relent. This will distract mankind while at the same time focus us on a common goal. Of course the conservatives and the evangelicals will be opposed, but HELL they are opposed to everything progressive (and in this particular case they might be onto something).
2) Shared wealth; regardless of our obsession with wealth and power it will soon become very clear that we must, if we want to survive as a humanity, share our wealth. You will see efforts made to improve dramatically the quality of life for people currently living in third world countries. Our advances in technology will help facilitate this.
3) Natural disasters; impressed lately by what you have seen from mother nature? No! Well stick around, it is going to get ugly.
4) Epidemic; notice i did not say pandemic? Well that's because unfortunately mankind is going to inadvertently let loose or create a super bug which will decimate the planet or more importantly mankind. In the next 100 years.? I wouldn't bet against it.
5) War; they will continue. The greatest danger will come from one of the rogue nations whose leadership has nothing to lose. Nuclear capability in the wrong hands is like giving a pornographic magazine to a teen age boy....the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Also do not underestimate old foes (Russia) and of course the Chinese.
6) Environment; well Al Gore is busy eating his way through the green house effect so that leaves the environment in the hands of the few who care and the many who stand to gain from doing nothing or very little. Other then of course window dressing. Fossil fuels will not run out in the next 100 years so mankind will continue to burn them. Specific technological innovations will help reduce the foot print. Unfortunately it will do little to remove the shoe which is left behind.

Well there it is. Predictions from a simpleton. I am sure you have your own predictions. So feel free to share them with me. I might write another update to these lists. Oh and if your over 40 and have not picked out your cemetery plot yet. Grab the phone because nothing on this list will get you those additional 100 years you might be hoping for.

Rob

EVERY ONES BUSINESS

 Before you start reading this please be advised that there is some strong language. I did not edit out the quotes because I felt it would diminish the message. Do not read any further if you are offended by strong language or adult content. I was in the airport recently waiting to take a flight. At the best of times i do not do airports well. Those of you who know me well know that between 1999 and 2005 i spent on average 200 days a year traveling from one destination to another. Over the last few years i have done very little traveling and when i do most of it is by car. I have no problem driving to Toronto, New York, the Maritimes etc.. If i can stay out of the airport i do. Anyways this blog is not about travelling or airports. It is about the people we come across and how it has become perfectly normal to know or garnish way more information then we want to know about complete strangers. Yes indeed, peoples personal business, lives, challenges, etc...have now become, '' Everyone's business''. More importantly though is how there is a grotesque double standard in our society.    

ACTUAL EVENT: Woman sitting back to back with me in the Airport terminal on the phone; QUOTE: ''You know if that fucking jerk thinks that I'm going to do whatever he wants whenever he wants, he has another thing coming.'' 20 second pause, QUOTE: ''I told him to fucking get home on time and then i might actually be interested''. OK. Hang on a second here. We are in the Airport. There are at least 30 people within easy ear shot of this woman. Did it matter? Not at all! She continued on the call for another 5 minutes at least until the flight was called for boarding. During that time i am sure she cursed at least 10 more times and went on to paint all those around her a very clear picture of the life she was leading. She then proceeded to hang up, get up and proceed to the gate as if she had been all alone in her living room, like none of us was there. It occured to me at that moment that we truly have passed into the surreal. This woman was not an 18 year old, i would have said she was at least in her early 30's. What in God's name was she thinking during that conversation. Obviously she was not thinking, but more importantly she did not care and that is what struck me. People as a general rule of thumb like to cling or hold to their right to privacy. You hear about it all the time. Someone claiming that their right to privacy has been infringed by someone else. When in fact it has been infringed by no one other then ourselves.

ACTUAL EVENT: Guy standing in line with 7 other people at the bank; QUOTE: yeah my account is screwed up so I'm in line at the bank.'' Pause, QUOTE: ''Yeah i took out cash for that club party the other night and spent it all trying to hook up with that hottie''. Pause, QUOTE: ''since then i don't know what the deal is my account is not working, can't use my debit card''. Pause, QUOTE: '' yeah it was pay, oh yeah and it was so bang, you would not believe how freaky it got''.HUH! seriously in the bank? In line! Man, your not in your living room! In the privacy of your own home, apt, condo, cardboard box....your in the bank! I don't know what was worst; having to stand in line in the bank or listening to his escapades.

ACTUAL EVENT: Post on facebook page (woman): Christmas time post, picture of a male stripper wearing only a candy cane sock covering over....well...... his cane; with the post, QUOTE: ''I would love to eat that cane''. 67 likes plus these additional comments; COMMENT (A woman): ''I wouldn't put that on my tree put i sure have a place for it''. COMMENT (A man); You girls are my kind off ladies''. COMMENT (A woman) We can give you our number. COMMENT (A woman): If he is the fringe benefit of working for Santa where do i fill in the application?''  There we in total 36 additional comments. Now, all in all, it was actually rather funny to watch the comments and exchanges but it got me to wondering, are these people not aware that the 682 friends that the person who created the post had, were also able to see the comments? Not including the commentators friends and '' like'' friends. So in essence what those people were thinking or saying was being shared with probably about 6 or 7 thousand (yes thousand) people if not more. That these people were not in the privacy of their own home having a conversation about a photo on the Internet around the screen with their friends making comical and ridiculous comments. They were out in the great, ''cyber space'' wide open, for everyone to see. Add to this the daily barrage of Twitter posts, pictures and exchanges and your left mesmorized by the  practice of living out loud...extremely loud.

What it got me to thinking about more then anything is this though. Why with everyone so willing to share their lives in public? To take to spreading poor language, questionable conduct, illicit pictures, to make their business everyone else's. Why is there some kind of promoted undertone about moral responsibility and conduct in our society? More importantly. Where does it come from? A recent example of this was during the Alabama vs Notre Dame BCS Championship game. Brent Musburger made a comment about how lovely a young lady was when the camera panned to the audience showing Alabama quarterbacks girlfriend, Katherine Webb who was also recently a Miss America contestant. Musburger did not make any derogatory statements, no inappropriate language, no sexual overtones. He simply commented on her beauty. He then advised all young men to take to throwing footballs because quarterback get all the pretty girls. ESPN the network covering the event proceeded the next day to apologize to the young woman. Was she or her family or her quarterback boyfriend insulted or enraged at Musburger's comments? NOPE! The young lady actually took to the television to say, '' there was no need for any type of apology''. So why did ESPN apologize? was there throngs of people demanding ESPN act? Even though the young lady herself said there was not. What was it that drove the apology. Are the people from ESPN not as equally subjected to the three examples i gave above where people talk in public and act in public in a manner that far exceeds a commentator saying a young lady was beautiful. What the hell is going on here?

Everywhere you look in the media, TV, Internet, radio, papers, or magazines some talking head is always talking about what someone else said or did as if it is some incredible watershed moment for our society to react and take action against what this person has said. When every day from the bank, to the supermarket to the theater, to the office, to the train, to the bus; we are bombarded by real people living incredibly out loud and making their lives everyone elses business. Things are major league messed up. No one lives in private any more and when someone tries to hold a specific individual to a set of standards that they do not hold every person on the face of the planet to, well then i call, '' a bullshit''. There is something backwards about what we now value. We used to value living in private, to cherishing our space. There was once a time when the words, '' its no ones business'' truly meant exactly that. No more. Hell, they even have a show on TV now called, ''mountain men'' where cameras go into the wilderness of Alaska to follow how three different individuals live away from the rest of society. AH!....cameras everywhere....documenting every minute of their life.....can you all say, ''living out loud'' with me and ''everyones business''. There is no more sanctuary, anywhere! People flock to their TV screens to watch the reality shows which do exactly the same thing. These very same people who consume this entertainment in narcotic amounts are the first ones to comment or want to hold accountable something that someone said which offends them.....now that my friends, is offensive.

Here is how the rules should work. If you live outloud, talk on your phone in public really loud regardless of the topic, disregards all those around you, tweet or facebook post about your personal life excluding nothing. Watch industrial quantities of reality shows; then YOU do not get to make commentary or judgment about ANYTHING anyone else says or does! Its a simple rule and would probably make living a great deal quieter. It would certainly shut up all the moral, high ground, talking heads. I for one am all for that......oh FYI....I posted a link to this blog on my facebook page....so I guess I need to shut up!

Rob

AFTER THE END

So now that we have filed the, '' World will end on December 21, 2012 and many people will believe it and it actually didn't happen, but that does not matter. When is the next date of the end of the world?'', in the cabinet. I figured it would be a good time to analyze what exactly it is about us that makes us so obsessed by our own demise. More importantly though;  how we are so easily persuaded into believing something is real. As in the picture beside this text i am about to get swallowed for dinner by my friend T-Rex. What you don't believe me? Why not? The picture is clear, that's me obviously. That is a dinosaur. Obviously. He looks rather vicious, rather pissed off and mighty hungry. So why don't you believe that i am about to be Rex's next meal? What makes it so much easier to believe that someone interpreted a calendar (well many people did and no one could arrive at a consensus) and then went on to predict the end of the world on December 21, 2012. What is the difference between believing the end of the world and me being T-Rex's, T-Bone? After much consideration, OK not really, after two beers i think i might have come up with the answer and it was actually my 16 year old son who led me to the idea.

On his facebook page on December 14, 2012 just after the Newtown elementary school shooting he posted this on his facebook page. I did not edit this and there is some minor language so be advised, it read, ''It utterly disgusts me what some people do in this world. This shooting in Connecticut is probably the event that may make us realize that we don't deserve to be going past December 21st because of the shit that might just happen within the next week. The fact of taking the lives of an estimated 27 children, not to mention that they were in elementary school, is just disgusting. This same man also killed his father and I think he also did the same to his mother who worked at the school, from my understanding. My biggest question is: Why did he do this? Was it for revenge, pure pleasure, or was he told to do it? Who know! As some people quoted "He took the cowards way out." which, I'm sure we all know means killing himself. If this sick individual really just did this to kill himself, why go through the trouble to make the lives of 27 families miserable, especially just before the holiday season? This kind of shit really should make us think of who's close to us and not take for granted what is given to us easily. To finish this off, I give my condolences to those that were lost''. Keep in mind this is a Grade 11 student (honor) writing this. What struck me and caught my attention was the section I underlined and put in bold. For it was here that i think i might have found why it is so much easier to believe in mankind's eventual end then the reemergence of the dinosaur. I believe it lies simply in the fact that no matter how ignorant, disconnected, un-interested, self indulgent and self centered we might happen to be; none of us can completely deny the fact that as a species, as a society, we have come up big time short in all areas.

The foundation is simple. We know there are problems, challenges and major issues out there, yet we choose to collectively agree to pretend they are not there or simply believe that someone else will fix them. I am convinced however based on what I wrote at the end of the last paragraph that we actually know that we have done very little to make things better or to fix what we knew needed fixing. The reason? Not a clue! Maybe due to the fact that we don't want to put in the effort, to indulge in the exercise required to actually change the things that do not work. Selfishness? Perhaps. Laziness? Almost certainly. But i have a better one. ''Our own reality''. You see, if what I have identified does not interfere or disrupt your reality then there is absolutely no reason to act. We all live in a very small circle. That circle is filled with family, friends, work and responsibilities. It goes literally no further then that. No larger then that. So when we look at the challenges outside the circle it is much easier to dismiss them as someone else's issue or problem. That is until a central object of focus comes into view that fixes our view on the truly bigger picture, '' we are spinning around in a vast infinite space and we really have no idea how we got here, where were going, and more importantly how it ends''.

You see my friends, everyone knows they have an end, but we very rarely consider a collective end. What if as in the television show, ''life after people'' we did actually all go at the same time and leave everything behind. Leave this world and take nothing with us. Simply leave behind only monuments that will as demonstrated in the show; rot, crumble, dissolve and disappear over time leaving little if any trace that we were ever here in the first place. I do believe many of us actually do believe that this is what might happen and in a deeper darkness hopes will. For centuries now, mankind has been captured and absorbed in how it will end. Hollywood, books and the media have made billions on our obsession with it. There are so many ways it has been predicted. It has come from us, from alien worlds, from natural disasters to diseases. The common denominator has always been the END! The end as we know it now, our way of life, the values, the ideologies and the familiar. It is, as is always the case in Hollywood, ultimately averted or saved at the last 5 minutes of the film. But what if it was not. What if it actually ended? Done. No more tomorrow, no more next weekend, no more talk (or text ) you later. Just finished. I think this is what puts many of us, ''all in'' on the idea that the World could actually end at any given time and that there is very, very little we can or could do about it. I think this is what holds our attention and what makes us buy into the idea that it just might be a predetermined date regardless of where the information originated from or how accurate it might be.

This is, in reality, the none reality. It doesn't have to be accurate. It just has to feed our deep down knowledge and fear that it could in fact happen, will most probably happen. When? No one really knows. Scientists believe that our sun is good for another 5 billion (yes billion) years so that's not exactly an event that will mark the end for humanity in the very near future.So what is there to be afraid of? Or to be obsessed with, as it relates to the end of our world as we know it? Well there are plenty of things which could happen. The reality though is if you remove the chance of an Alien invasion, a stray asteroid, or an epic meltdown (natural causes) then you start to understand that the end of our existence will most probably come from..............well, us! Yes indeed, and that is why we are so obsessed with fictional ends of the world. You see as easy as it is to believe that someone else will fix all of our challenges and issues it is just as easy to believe that someone else or something else other then US will be responsible for our extinction. The fact is we will either destroy each other (war), or we will poison ourselves (environment) or we will die from super diseases (created by us). The sad fact is it will not be instantaneous, it won't be, ''BANG'' its over. No it will most certainly be long, painful and brutal!

Do not fear though, there is nothing you can do about it. Remember we are not responsible for anything other then our own reality, our own circle. Oh! and just in case you need something to focus on to blind you to the reality of our world; you can grab on to this. It seems the geniuses interpreting the Mayan calendar realized that they made a mistake in calculating the end of the world. It was actually one year later then they originally thought. It is December 21, 2013, not 2012. So i guess I'll talk to you again on December 22nd.

Rob