How to feel happy about the future!

[Quakered]

I know a lot of people on this site are firm believers in the thought that the human race is doomed and for these people I would thoroughly recommend the Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. This is not diatribe against global warming but a look at both human development and the apparent human love of pessimism. He does some nice analysis of some previous scares and how terribly wrong they were and how the chaps who appeared on the telly to espouse the nonsense have never been called to account. Covers inability to feed the population (goes back to the 19th Century), running out of fresh water, population growth running out of control (also dates back to 19th century) to say nothing of the approaching ice age in the 70s, running out of oil, Acid Rain, Y2K, Aids, Swine Flu and so on.

The basic tenet is that humans work to overcome the problems they encounter and the speed of adaption and change has been accelerating over the last few centuries as have standards of living. This accelerating change has been driven by the ease with which information and ideas can be shared and exchanged. The internet will only drive this faster into the future.  All projections of trends always assume the current trends to proceed to destruction whilst ignoring history that shows alternatives and better solutions are adopted as the previous become untenable and the of living standards just carries on improving.

Lots of facts and pages of references.

Read it and feel happy!

[roscoe]

jings,

even your plug has given me a warm 'ready-brek' glow, if I read the book I'll probably ignite

hallelujah

[martin]

[mespilus]

I would probably be optimistic if İ had been paid 300 000GBP a year for four years while Northern Rock
collapsed around me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Ridley

Useless mollycoddled toff.

[KenB]

Looks like our friend George Monbiot doesn't like him either -

The environmentalist George Monbiot wrote an article in the 'The Guardian' connecting Ridley's libertarian economic philosophy and the £27 billion failure of Northern Rock.[16]  On 1 June 2010 Monbiot followed up his previous article and published his reaction to Matt Ridley's latest book 'The Rational Optimist'. [17]  Ridley has responded to Monbiot on his website, stating "George Monbiot’s recent attack on me in the Guardian is misleading. I do not hate the state. In fact, my views are much more balanced than Monbiot's selective quotations imply." [18]  On 19 June 2010 Monbiot countered with another article on the Guardian website, further questioning Ridley's claims and his response. [19]

For someone who's income is 15 to 20 times that of national average - no wonder he's got a brighter outlook than most.


Ken

[pontiff]

I don't need to read a book to be optimistic about our future. My two year old son is showing signs of following a career in nuclear fusion ( yesterday he fused two playdoh hydrogen ions together forming deuterium) whilst my 10 day old son is clearly a little more hands on, showing a clear interest in asteroid mining ( ok I made that up).

Couple that with my own personal research into rainwater harvesting/electronics and the future looks rosy to me! 

[daftlad]

We have sorted out a lot of our problems with technology based on fossil fuel, the real challenge is to replace all of those solutions with non fossil fuel based technologies.

IT CAN BE DONE. 
ta ta

[djh]

We have sorted out a lot of our problems with technology based on fossil fuel, the real challenge is to replace all of those solutions with non fossil fuel based technologies.

IT CAN BE DONE. 
ta ta

I WILL KEEP BANGING ON ABOUT MASONRY STOVES

If you bang them together hard enough, do they fuse?

edit: pink didn't work 

[Eleanor]

I know a lot of people on this site are firm believers in the thought that the human race is doomed and for these people I would thoroughly recommend the Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. This is not diatribe against global warming but a look at both human development and the apparent human love of pessimism. He does some nice analysis of some previous scares and how terribly wrong they were and how the chaps who appeared on the telly to espouse the nonsense have never been called to account. Covers inability to feed the population (goes back to the 19th Century), running out of fresh water, population growth running out of control (also dates back to 19th century) to say nothing of the approaching ice age in the 70s, running out of oil, Acid Rain, Y2K, Aids, Swine Flu and so on.

The basic tenet is that humans work to overcome the problems they encounter and the speed of adaption and change has been accelerating over the last few centuries as have standards of living. This accelerating change has been driven by the ease with which information and ideas can be shared and exchanged. The internet will only drive this faster into the future.  All projections of trends always assume the current trends to proceed to destruction whilst ignoring history that shows alternatives and better solutions are adopted as the previous become untenable and the of living standards just carries on improving.

Lots of facts and pages of references.

Read it and feel happy!

Thanks Quakered. I’ve just finished a book and am looking for a cheery tome to while away the increasingly dark evenings. Will get back to you when I’m more informed on the subject 

[desperate]

Reckon being happy comes mainly from inside your head, rather than externals.

Desp

[TwoHorsePower]

If anyone is seeking a book to perk them up, open ones eyes a little further to the huge waste of resources/effort/time associated with big business, consumer society, oil dependency, etc. & generally validate the efforts of good people like us who frequent this forum, I would strongly recommend Tom Hodgkinson's 'How to be Free', and, if the reader likes what they've read, his earlier 'How to be Idle'.

Wishing you all many chortles and brighter halos.

All the best

2HP

   

[biff]

intresting reading,
      about 25yrs ago my cousin started me off on american history,the first book,"bury my heart at wounded knee", then i got "how the west was won" then lewis and clark,followed by "jededia strong smith" and everything else i could lay my hands on,including the russian occupation of part of california,bingham young,the fanciers,the invasion of mexico. the one thing that strikes you about american history is the fact that it is so recent, the loss of life ,the betrayals.deciet and downright ruthlessness employed against the native americans was utterly sickening
     the great move west coinsided with the irish famine,,1846,48 the 49rs of california and then the yukon,,so many many nations mixed to make america.the native american indians were not silly or slow,its just that they had different priorities and values..yes american history makes you stop and think where we are going.
                 biff

[martin]

Chief Seattle summed it up..........

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4262.0.html

[biff]

that should be compulsory reading for everyone.

[Amy]

I found the Timewatch series on the American civil war realy sad and haunting. Such a stupid loss of life by people who were brothers and shouldnt have fallen out at all.

I think It was Geronimo who later toured with Wild Bill Hickocks circus who said, (paraphrasing) after reaching Europe, if I had known how many whitemen there were, I wouldnt have advocated fighting with them

One of the few films to make my cry at the thought of it is Dances with Wolves. A near perfect existance, destroyed by ignorance, greed and the desire to control or destroy.