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Ask a stoopid question, get a stoopid answer; even if you're a really bright guy....
Topic Started: Jul 8 2006, 10:09 AM (430 Views)
ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Dr. Stephen Hawkings asked on Yahoo! Answers:
Quote:
 
In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?
.
Considering that he above all people should understand what chaos really entails-- and that the world is in no sense anywhere near a state of chaos politically, socially or environmentally-- it seems to be a rather foolish question. And strangely a massive proportion of the 20,000+ respondents -- ranging from the desperate to the hopeful to the religious (Christian, Islamic, Buddhist) to the neoMathusians and environmentalists-- failed to appreciate that fact.

If we can all survive this long by being this dumb, I'm not too worried about the next 100 years.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Nobody's Sock
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Fulla-Carp
I do.

World population is growing like a weed.

With more people, more problems.

I in fact agree with China on this one. Except I'd make it 2 children per female.

You break the law and have a third, you give the baby to da govment for proper adoption and force female to have tubal ligation.

Yeah it sounds crude but it's a necessity to keep this society civil and prosperous.
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
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Nobody's Sock
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Fulla-Carp
Oh yeah, i forgot,

I'd also take her cell phone away.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
It seems that people who think that there are too many people never seem willing to volunteer themselves to reduce the population. Talk is cheap.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Nobody's Sock
Jul 8 2006, 11:24 AM
I do. 

World population is growing like a weed.

With more people,  more problems.

I in fact agree with China on this one.  Except I'd make it 2 children per female.

You break the law and have a third,  you give the baby to da govment for proper adoption and force female to have tubal ligation.

Yeah it sounds crude but it's a necessity to keep this society civil and prosperous.

BTW: Population growth levels off with economic development. (see First Things, 1994) The best we can do for folks is help them achieve better standards of living, not draconian programs of social engineering which are affronts to human dignity, the family, and liberty. You show yourself to be a fascist with that sort of "solution", and your *science* is based on what is now rather discredited neoMalthusian arguments. .
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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David Burton
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Yeah, what ivorythumper says.
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Chicken and egg, ivorythumper...

Easier to improve a population's standard of living without huge wave of new babies coming at you... improving a population's standard of living reduce the likelihood of having a huge wave of new babies coming at you...

China chose to forcefully control population growth.
India chose not to forcefully control population growth.

We shall know which country has made the wiser move in 20 years time.

Just for the heck of it, see this web page on world population major trends.
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Nobody's Sock
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Fulla-Carp
ivorythumper
Jul 8 2006, 06:24 PM
It seems that people who think that there are too many people never seem willing to volunteer themselves to reduce the population. Talk is cheap.

Who do I need to kill?


Let's start with those dang Mormons. They breed like rabbits.

Catholics next.

:sword:
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
ivorythumper
Jul 8 2006, 11:01 PM
You show yourself to be a fascist with that sort of "solution"

Oh God, not another fascist. Everybody's a fascist nowadays, it seems to be quite the fashionable stance. I guess maybe all the commies and pinkos take their Cuban vacations in July.

Duck, duck, duck.....goosestep!
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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Moonbat
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Pisa-Carp
Quote:
 

Dr. Stephen Hawkings asked on Yahoo! Answers:
QUOTE 
In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?

.
Considering that he above all people should understand what chaos really entails-- and that the world is in no sense anywhere near a state of chaos politically, socially or environmentally-- it seems to be a rather foolish question. And strangely a massive proportion of the 20,000+ respondents -- ranging from the desperate to the hopeful to the religious (Christian, Islamic, Buddhist) to the neoMathusians and environmentalists-- failed to appreciate that fact.


The word chaos is presumably used in a fairly subjective sense (though formally it's not so outrageous to suggest there is actually a chaotic character to political social and environmental change, though that of itself does not have much to say about stability). Perhaps he just means given the rapid change occuring how can the human race sustain another 100 years. Granted i think you might have a case that the question should have been phrased better.

Quote:
 

If we can all survive this long by being this dumb, I'm not too worried about the next 100 years.


Technology changes the nature of the game though, we survived the last 100 years but given the spectre of nuclear holocaust we might not have done. So it doesn't seem so unreasonable to ask the question whether we will do something stupid over the next 100 years to eliminate ourselves. I'm hopefull that we won't but, it seems to me a worthwhile question to think about.
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Nobody's Sock
Jul 9 2006, 07:14 AM
ivorythumper
Jul 8 2006, 06:24 PM
It seems that people who think that there are too many people never seem willing to volunteer themselves to reduce the population. Talk is cheap.

Who do I need to kill?


Let's start with those dang Mormons. They breed like rabbits.

Catholics next.

:sword:

Typical liberal -- it's always someone else's problem and someone else always has to pay for your luxury of continued existence.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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phykell
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Senior Carp
So what are you saying? That we'll do just fine for another 100 years, just not all of us? Isn't that exactly what Dr Hawking was getting at?
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated. - Ghandhi

Evil cannot be conquered in the world. It can only be resisted within oneself.

Remember, bones heal and chicks dig scars
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Are you addressing that to me, in my response to Nobody?
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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phykell
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ivorythumper
Jul 9 2006, 08:09 PM
Are you addressing that to me, in my response to Nobody?

I'm sure I pressed the quote button on his post. :confused:

Then again I spent several hours in a data centre on Friday because I was sure I'd clicked on the "Apply" button when configuring a complex piece of computer hardware - turned out I hadn't... :doh:
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it's animals are treated. - Ghandhi

Evil cannot be conquered in the world. It can only be resisted within oneself.

Remember, bones heal and chicks dig scars
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Nobody's Sock
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Fulla-Carp
ivorythumper
Jul 9 2006, 11:55 AM
Nobody's Sock
Jul 9 2006, 07:14 AM
ivorythumper
Jul 8 2006, 06:24 PM
It seems that people who think that there are too many people never seem willing to volunteer themselves to reduce the population. Talk is cheap.

Who do I need to kill?


Let's start with those dang Mormons. They breed like rabbits.

Catholics next.

:sword:

Typical liberal -- it's always someone else's problem and someone else always has to pay for your luxury of continued existence.

Hey, I want to be called a centrist.

Then again, a fascist liberal, hmmmmm, now that has a ring to it.

Not to many people can be called a facsist liberal.

:silly:

You take a country like India, damm, I can practically smell the body odor over here.
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
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The 89th Key
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The world's population is going to be the end of us in 200 years IMO...if the pace keeps up. Should be at what...25 billion by then? Just a guess...
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The 89th Key
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Actually...here is a good set of resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
Why don't we let the market decide? That way, all the poor countries can continue having lots of babies because contraception is so evil, and they'll all starve to death, and all the rich American CEO's can take them over once everybody is dead, and fill their countries with holiday homes, except by this time they'll all be so fat due to eating 4 times as much as anybody needs that they'll need a plane each, and hopefully they'll run out of gas over the atlantic and crash and do us all a favour.

Alternatively, we could look at fairly obvious ways of educating people to realise that they don't need lots of children, and there are pretty simple ways of avoiding unwanted children without the need for abortion, or leaving their kids out in the sand.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
John D'Oh
Jul 9 2006, 04:41 PM

Alternatively, we could look at fairly obvious ways of educating people to realise that they don't need lots of children, and there are pretty simple ways of avoiding unwanted children without the need for abortion, or leaving their kids out in the sand.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at when I wrote "The best we can do for folks is help them achieve better standards of living," -- just not with your inimitable panache.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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