Ad astra per aspera - vel technologias; a vision of the future by a Rational Sanguine Futurist who is working to be a Wizard

Happy Kansas Day – January 29

In 1860 there was a major drought in Kansas just before Kansas became a State in Jan 29, 1861. “At the time nearly 100,000 people in Kansas, and to fully 60,000 of them the drought finally meant that they must receive help or starve.” A History of Kansas written in 1919 page 106 [My Great Aunt Sarah’s history book] – 30,000 left Kansas and another 30,000 needed aid (from the east) or would have starved. Now Kansas is the 7th agricultural producing State.

The Kansas State Motto is: Ad astra per aspera - which I add - vel technologias

To the stars through difficulties - or technology

Because Technology makes going to the stars so much easier!

If you did not wake up hungry today, thank a farmer.

One quote I like is: “The people will take a certain amount of reform, then they want a rest. But the reforms stay. People don't really want change, any change at all. … But we progress, as we must - if we are to go out to the stars.” - Robert Heinlein Double Star

I just finished a really good book: The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World by Charles C. Mann

Here is an article he wrote that covers some themes of the book

Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People? - Humanity has 30 years to find out

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/charles-mann-can-planet-earth-feed-10-billion-people/550928/

Here is a talk he gave on the book The Wizard and the Prophet

https://longnow.org/seminars/02018/jan/22/wizard-and-prophet/

"Civilization’s health hangs on how we manage food, water, energy, and climate. Two conflicting visions dominate how we think about them. Each vision had an original creator and exemplar—the “prophet” William Vogt, author of Road to Survival, and the “wizard” Norman Borlaug, mastermind of The Green Revolution in agriculture. The prophet says to repent and cut back on everything; the wizard says that clever enough innovation can always find a way forward.

Examine both visionaries and their visions closely, and a way to proceed emerges that combines alert caution with bold invention.

Charles C. Mann is the author of the 2006 book 1491, about the Americas before Columbus, and the 2012 book 1493, about the Americas after Columbus. His previous SALT talk, in April 2012, was about “the Homogenocene."

This Seminar is the book release event for Charles C. Mann's newest book, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World (release date 1/23/18)."

My first job was working in a farm field detasseling corn. I had to get up at 5:30am in the morning to take a bus from the city to work in the fields. My second job was working as a dishwasher at the “Lucky Steer” restaurant – which is a contradiction in terms because no steer is lucky and the steers that were on the plate were very unlucky. These 2 jobs were not the most enjoyable but they did teach me a valuable lesson. If I wanted to get a better job – a job that I would enjoy and one that would give me the most opportunity, I needed to work hard studying. 

See the blog: the value of a horrible job - especially when you are young

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/value-horrible-job-especially-doug-hohulin/

Here a blog on My Reading List - by a Rational Sanguine Futurist who is trying to be a Wizard

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/my-reading-list-rational-futurist-optimistic-doug-hohulin/?published=t

My 16-year-old nephew asked if we should be afraid that the robots (technology) will take over (Terminator World). I told him we should be more afraid of the Wall-E World - Technology Making Us Helpless and Lazy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU

I want to work for “A Baymax World” of Collaboration with Technology - Flying Around with Your Robot Friend - Taking Out the Bad Guys! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40MqveftZzs&list=PLG8LXbsNgfBpvOXkQfb0x0QuMe1vwzSIm&index=6

“Since the dawn of civilisation people have speculated about apocalyptic bangs and whimpers that could wipe us out. Now a team from Oxford university’s Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Challenges Foundation has come up with the first serious scientific assessment of the gravest risks we face.

The authors do not attempt to pull their 12 together and come up with an overall probability of civilisation ending within the next 100 years but Stuart Armstrong of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute says: “Putting the risk of extinction below 5 per cent would be wildly overconfident.”

https://www.oodaloop.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/12-Risks-Report.pdf

https://www.ft.com/content/260e3168-b177-11e4-831b-00144feab7de

This article and report are the voices of the prophet.

I prefer the voice of the wizard like JFK who stated: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

My reading list gives insight into how humanity can have a better future with the help of hard working wizards.

Both Wizards and Prophets are needed. Wizards to create new technologies but Prophets to warn us of the unintended consequences of the technology and to encourage Wizards to work harder.

May we of this generation use the technology available to us to work on the goal to make a better world for humanity because that will “serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”