Right now car accidents are the leading cause of death under 45. Conservative estimates of what an auto-drive could do if in all cars by 2020 would be about 80% less vehicle deaths. Sure, there will be machine malfunctions that kill folks, but a lot less than the number of human mistakes that kill folks...
I see one major problem with that: as it currently stands, humanity is rapidly approaching the planetary population limit. It's only a matter of time before we have an average of one person per square meter of land surface.
We NEED to work on space programs and finding other bottles to start filling.
Actually according to the population density measures I could find, here, the planet as a whole is under 55 persons per square kilometer.
Now if you go with the physiological density there are places that are WAY over their limit; however, the world itself isn't there yet with a total of 325 persons per square kilometer of ARABLE land (found here).
You make a good point though velvet, that something needs to be done before the limit is reached and the world totally collapses from the inability to produce enough food to keep the population alive. If we invested in orbital habitats to produce food though, you could cram even more folks on the ground. But that won't solve the real problem, too little individual space for humanity.
The best solution would be to invest in more exploration, both space and undersea. Humankind has always been explorers and our planet is running out of things TO explore for the individual. A restless population unable to get away from the rest of humanity tends to lead to more conflict. And that restlessness manifest itself in violence instead of exploration when there is nothing to explore.
Regarding the population issue, outside the equatorial zone we have net negative population growth. The equatorial zone numbers are also falling, and the projections I saw suggested we would "peak" at 9 billion people, then begin to actually lose population.
Granted, advances in medical science could change that in the short run, but letting someone who would have died at 70 live to 100 will not create more kids.
The key is apparently the education of women. When women feel like they are something more than baby factories, they have fewer babies, whoda thunk?
this is part of the reason I have yet to install a computer in to my car... the potential to become self aware and become a smart as.. and locking me out of my car.. or refusing to activate the breaks in time.. kinda skerry
Marcus, Marcus, Marcus... You don't want KITT running your life? What? :-D
Maybe because you like blowing things up, beating them up or just shooting them you are afraid your attitude will get picked up by the computer? I'm sorry Marcus, I can't do that. Says the glowing red eye from the dashboard. :-D
If you mean in the comic: Hell yes they do. :D
We NEED to work on space programs and finding other bottles to start filling.
Now if you go with the physiological density there are places that are WAY over their limit; however, the world itself isn't there yet with a total of 325 persons per square kilometer of ARABLE land (found here).
You make a good point though velvet, that something needs to be done before the limit is reached and the world totally collapses from the inability to produce enough food to keep the population alive. If we invested in orbital habitats to produce food though, you could cram even more folks on the ground. But that won't solve the real problem, too little individual space for humanity.
The best solution would be to invest in more exploration, both space and undersea. Humankind has always been explorers and our planet is running out of things TO explore for the individual. A restless population unable to get away from the rest of humanity tends to lead to more conflict. And that restlessness manifest itself in violence instead of exploration when there is nothing to explore.
Granted, advances in medical science could change that in the short run, but letting someone who would have died at 70 live to 100 will not create more kids.
The key is apparently the education of women. When women feel like they are something more than baby factories, they have fewer babies, whoda thunk?
*also Slips Tokyo Rose an encrypted data packet *
(yes, I'm hearing the HEMTT's AI in JARVIS's voice)
Maybe because you like blowing things up, beating them up or just shooting them you are afraid your attitude will get picked up by the computer? I'm sorry Marcus, I can't do that. Says the glowing red eye from the dashboard. :-D