However, if you look around
closely looks like the world does indeed is facing some ginormous dangers which
threaten the existence and warrant that some of us do indeed branch out to some
other habitable planet. The doomsday clock which is an indicator of dangers to
the world - has been moved to 2 minutes closer to mid-night in 2018. But over
the years, it’s perception has been cynical and updates related to it are
relegated to the back pages of newspapers and it surely doesn’t figure in the
prime time news.
The dangers facing us which has
resulted in the clock being moved closer to midnight is I think we have been
very lucky with Nuclear Fallout. The attempts to disarm have failed and now
there are 16000+ warheads across the globe which are of manifold intensity than
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The number of instances where an inadvertent misstep almost
happened but for due to moral conscience of some courageous soul or just out of
sheer luck – is very fortuitous.
- · Stanislav Petrov
- · Vasili Arkhipov
- · Damascus, Arkansas
- · Norwegian Rocket Incident
- · Two midnight calls to National security adviser that 2200 missiles were headed
Even if you go by the ancient myth:
cats have only nine lives and even by law of averages some day the coin would
not land on heads but teeter and fall over on tails. This is a danger which is
going to cause instant decimation and destruction but there is a similar danger
which is causing gradual damage as we speak – Climate Change.
It’s beyond understanding how
attempts to bring everyone together on this issue have failed. Paris Accord in
2016 was very promising but it has unraveled quickly with the strongest country
in the world deserting it. Half of the states sued and the US House refused to support POTUS44’s endorsement of the Paris Accord. No wonder 40-45% of the
population feels climate change is a hoax. It’s seemingly implausible for a
political candidate to make it their platform. A few of them are trying but we
will see how it turns out in 2020. Every day a new study or evidence comes out showing
how climate change is causing unheard catastrophes.
And then even if you keep aside
these two systemic dangers – you have untenable rising inequality (Capitalism failed?)
and unrest. Normally, I am very optimistic but with these looming dangers and
the abdication of control by the masses to the “leaders” who have rigged the
system for themselves – it looks difficult we will be here for another 2000
years.
So, becoming a space faring
specie is a decent option – although it’s obvious that the first tickets will
go to the rich as soon as it becomes a reasonable possibility who will then
tailor a system there as well. But then I hope that’d be a good-to-have problem
in another 50 years?
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