On Earth, everyone is:
"...free of want, sickness, fear, mind-numbing toil of body or brain, free to live as they chose." (p. 463)
In such conditions, would humanity stagnate and atrophy, like the Eloi? Some would. However, human beings are diverse, dynamic and adaptable. Among others, activity, creativity, inquiry and exploration would flourish. Obstacles would be overcome or at least seriously challenged.
That reference to the Eloi came up as I typed. The shades not only of Heinlein but also of Wells are ever with us. Also, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein started sf when its scientist title character created life, then rejected what he had created. The conflict continues.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
In a post scarcity economy of the kind described here, I don't think we would get a situation analogous to Wells' Eloi. Altho I suspect quite a few humans might BEHAVE just as childishly! Rather, I think far too many people would feel useless, bored, increasingly desperate, etc. Such as what we see in "Quixote And The Windmill," or "The Critique of Impure Reason." To say nothing of what we see in GENESIS after it sank in to mankind that the AIs, not the human race, was running the world.
I think the ideal you described could be possible only as long as MOST of the human don't feel useless, bored, powerless, afflicted by ennui, etc. Further, I don't think most of the human species would be as creative and curious as you seem to think. Exploration should be possible, if we have a REAL space program, with colonies and bases off Earth. That alone should help a lot in easing pressures and strains on Earth.
And one very ominous thing we see in the HARVEST books is how the sophotects were constantly trying to minimize and reduce the presence of mankind OFF Earth.
Sean
Sean,
Evolution progresses through minorities that are better adapted. A student told me this story: dark-feathered birds were well camouflaged against dark trees; the trees were covered with white dust from a factory; hunters shot the now visible birds and could have exterminated them; however, soon after, there was a full population of white birds descended from one lucky mutant.
If only a minority can live creatively on the cybercosm-dominated Earth, then that minority will become the ancestors of future humanity.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But I don't believe that "creative minority" will eliminate the POTENTIALITY for the bad things I listed from the human race. The potentiality for folly as well as wisdom will remain in mankind.
Sean
Sean,
But, in some conditions, potentialities are nor realized. We do not fight for air when it is abundant but MIGHT fight for it if we were in a space station and down to the last oxygen cylinder.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, because things like that HAS happened. As examples like the Donner tragedy shows.
Btw, I think more advanced space ships will focus on being able to indefinitely produce as much oxygen as a crew needs, rather than depend only on a stored, and hence limited, supply.
Sean
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