We Have All the Knowledge We Need
Here’s a photo I just took in downtown Los Angeles.
The ultimate building blocks of the universe and the nature of human consciousness are very complex things, and it’s possible that both are beyond the ken of humankind, especially the latter. While that’s kind of sad, a great deal of the knowledge we need to fix our most pressing problems is very simple, and we have come to understand it long ago.
We know how to integrate enormous volumes of renewable energy into our grid-mix, thus slowing the progress of climate change, ocean acidification and loss of biodiversity. We know how to make plant-based meat that is far more nutritious than and virtually indistinguishable from beef, thus slowing the rate of deforestation to make more room for cows. We live on the same planet with 32 other advanced countries, all of which have universal healthcare, and we can see the fabulous benefits it provides for their people.
I’d love to have a unified of everything, but I’ll be just as happy with a sustainable civilization to leave to my grandchildren.
Craig,
The are no “simple” answers to complex problems !
Since before the influence of Karl Marx social prophets have urged simplistic solutions to complex problems.
The misery, bloodshed and human disasters created by simplistic, utopian delusions should have proved cautionary.
Yet, in every generation there’s always new advocates, claiming in the name of “the people” some crank theory or another. It always involves denying others what they find pleasurable.
The modern puritan is more sophisticated. Today’s puritans glad themselves in the stolen garments of “caring about the poor” “concern for the environment” “obesity in Children” etc, etc.. In reality, it’s all about these wretches gaining control of everyone’s lifestyle.
These advocates are motivated not by virtue, but from fear of insecurity, envy and malice. For them and there followers, the world is a scary place with too many individuals and conflicting ideas. These advocates believe they, and they alone, possess the power to decide how society should be “organized” (by organized they mean controlled).
Craig, because you have formed a taste or added to your moral philosophy the idea of eating an artificial, chemically formulated, meat substitute, please don’t try to claim any sort of “moral” or “environmental” justification for the product.
The product is not “more nutritious” than natural beef, in fact a quick study of the ingredient formula would reveal consumption detrimental, not positive for human health!
The most telling part is your comment “I’d love to have a unified of everything” !
What socialists, communists, religious fanatics, and all totalitarians fail to understand, no human society will ever be “unified”. Human beings are amazingly diverse creatures, for that reason human society will never be “perfect” because mankind will never be perfect.
At best, governing human society is like herding cats ! Trying to enforce authoritarian, utopian ideas on human society will never last long.
Human society is continuously expanding to accommodate the ever increasing expansion of human curiosity and knowledge. The trick is not to restrict human endeavor or constraining human aspirations, but to celebrate human diversity and lose your insecurities.
If cows emit methane, the answer is not to abolish cows, but breed (as we are doing) non emitting cows ! The answer to human problems is not restricting, stifling and banning human progress, but encouraging our ability to enhance our environment by deploying more positive human technology.