Sustainability System

The concept of an ever-growing economy only came into existence with industrial capitalism, and as that system exhausts itself and runs out of resources, we will simply revert to older, agricultural economic models of social organization.

Capitalism is like evolution. A great survival of the fittest mechanism by which a local optimum is slowly approached, but fundamentally less-than optimum structure. It allows unorganized societies to improve and survive (but not thrive).

As the oil runs out, it will start to look a lot like the middle ages - except semiconductor technology and jet engines will remain, and some oil will always be accessible, for some people.

If the food trucks stop running into a major city for longer than a week, then impermanence of our current form of social organization would become extremely stark. There's only so much oil, and climate change will slowly and inexorably overwhelm our ability to protect the mega-industrial infrastructure upon which our modern civilization relies.

Central economic planning (which, contrary to cold war rhetoric, can be at least as democratic as our current society) is just as important for the long-term survival of the human race as genetic engineering.

How could we design an economic system that could cope with a potential population stagnation or decrease?

It's called, sustainability. In the past, agricultural societies existed 'stagnantly' for thousands of years, and we can do so again if we can bring our resource usage within environmentally sustainable levels.

The population can't grow infinitely, which means the global markets must stop growing, or even start shrinking at some point. Unless technology stays one step ahead. Also, when there are less young people working, than old people to be fed, the pension systems will fail.

Supply and demand can be semi-independent of effects of population change. Pension system can be dealt in many ways. But the end result will always be heavier taxation or heavier burden on the employer/coporation.

It's natural that mankind would depopulate naturally, but the governments are running scared not wanting to be the first to let it go natural, hence this shitfest of immigration everywhere.

Because we wouldn't regress back to tribal villages or anything. No, the average person is intelligent and rational and a long-term planner and will continue to work for the good of society as a whole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_planning_%28economics%29

A world government runs everything. It allocates everybody their job and supplies them with a certain amount of credit for their work. It also sets the cost (in credits) for all goods. Credit is created in wage payment and destroyed when exchanged for goods. Every problem with our shitty free-market economy vanishes overnight.

One day we'll cure aging and disease. Every person will be eligible for the cure at age 21-30. You then live in your prime for 80 years. Once you reach 80, a genetically pre-programmed switch will be activated causing you to die painlessly. In addition to the genetic death switch, you will also be limited to two children, a boy and a girl. The first child can be either sex, the sex of the second child will be determined in utero and if the sex is the same as the first child it will be aborted. After your second child you will be sterilized.

Just leave everything as it is and let the markets deal with it. The hive mind is our only hope. Get rid of the government. Every bubble is the result of the government forcing people at gunpoint to support and unsustainable system. You don't need force for people to choose what is best for themselves.

My taste in music is just too sick for females to comprehend (part 2)

Natural selection does happen. It is now common for girl in the city to have 7 children from 5 different men by their mid twenties. The environment completely supports this irresponsible lifestyle and many people are actively taking advantage of this. Some people are rising above traditional roles and values because they are realizing that there is more to things than pure survival these days. Modern technology makes every body able to live a decent life with little to no effort, women don't need a big hulk to protect their brood, they may enjoy fulfilling their genetic prerogatives by having a manly father for their children but more and more other social factors are coming into play, such as fashion sense and wealth.

About nerdy women, guys talking about their ideal woman as shy and quiet, that it cannot be a coincidence; I would say the majority of men want a woman who is generally of their own mindset, so that they can relate to them better. Pretty logical, let's continue down this train of thought.. The fact that some men require a girl be into video games and hardly ever put any other requirements - it's never like passionate about life or oves to ride roller coasters or something like that - leads me to believe that they don't put anything else that the girl needs to relate to simply because they don't have anything else themselves that they can relate to.

On to second bit about the gender steryeotypes (something I'm sure I do every time a girl says hi and smiles at me) manages to completely miss the mark of what I was saying - so out of the kindness of my heart; typically, being a man or manning up has the connotation of being tough, headstrong, independant, etc - an alternative and less gender specific example would be for me to toughen up.

I am posting this entry because of the first part; it seemed to fit with the whole mantra of manning up and acting rationally (get out, go do something else, stop acting like a wuss) when the girl doesn't immediately leap at me. I do have guidelines; stop bitching, stop blaming the world and everyone else (parents, friends, life in general) for my problems, and start trying to fix them. Or stay in my room and cry myself to sleep as I slip deeper and deeper into a bitter rage at all that I could never attain.

My taste in music is just too sick for females to comprehend (part 1)

I suppose that I am in part referring to gender roles. Human are animals (though I can't say much from religious perspective) and like animals male and female fulfill different roles. The average Joe doesn't want a girlfriend that doesn't shave and acts manlier than him. Likewise why would any woman want to be dating a effeminate man? That shit doesn't fly with natural selection.

A guy could be fucking obsessed with some girl and she could only just know of him. This could be something worth considering when he think he is being ignored. It's not like one would go out of his way to talk to some behind the scenes person at a cafe or supermarket is it? It's not like we are on an even footing either.

The thing is, people like me require their girls to like anime and or video games because there is literally so little else in ourlives that they have nothing else going for us; it is my sole interest, passion, hobby, and activity outside of whatever necessities I absolutely have to do to survive. So when a girl comes along who isn't similarly into video games, I have absolutely nothing to relate with them about, or even talk to them about for any extended period of time.

It is reasonable, and it is logical. Most guys look for a woman that they can relate to or have a decent conversation with - and if they're looking for a long term relationship, the base instinct is to find someone who is like themselves and thus, easy to get along with. If they share the same interests, then it's assured you will have something to do/ talk about/ share with each other for quite some time.

Obsessed with the iPad?

It's so shiny and it has round corners and everything. It might even have a camera when its released. The Ipad is so shiny which one looks cooler and why would you even want video output or the majority of those things that it didn't have plus that PC thing looks like a piece of crap. Its got the usual Apple User Interface but its not really anything new.

Anything with an Apple logo on it, I will happily wait a year or two until someone else comes out with something ten times better for the same price.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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FOR the female half of the population, it may bring a satisfied smile. Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors.
The researchers have found beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female.

Those daughters, once adult, also tend to be attractive and so repeat the pattern.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6727710.ece

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It doesn't make me feel anything, because what they are saying is stupid. People don't become more beautiful, just your image of them changes. In 50 years maybe what's perceived as "beautiful" is something else entirely. As a genetic trend, if there was a limited population of males then perhaps only the pretty ones will be mated with, but in a society such as ours ugly people are still able to make babies too.

The gender of the offspring is determined by the male, so if this article weren't a load of bullshit they should have found that couples with an attractive husband but plain wife should be just as unlikely to have sons as couples were both male and femal were attractive. And the notion that significantly different proportions of X sperms and Y sperms are produced in attractive males compared with unattractive one seems prepostrous by itself.

As much as you would rather it not be, beauty is an objectively quantifiable attribute. Symmetric features, proper fat distribution, muscle tone, and other attributes that signal a healthy partner are able to be judged and examined. Diverse ranges of make up for hiding the lines and imperfections of faces mainly caused by the 8+ hours a day of oxygen deprivation on the facial skin caused by the fucking make up in the first place, also loads of make up has chemicals in it. Wider variaties of clothes being available for hiding the fat or skinny fat bodies of women who have no idea about eating properly or exercise, even the ones who arent fat are pretty unhealthy and shapeless because of it. There are many more that I can't mention in the context of shitty hair, straighteners, conditioners..

It's the synthetic estrogen in plastic and our water. It's making men feminine and impotent and women hotter. Cosmetic surgery will end up reversing this trend at a much faster rate than it has come about.

Beauty is mostly an opinion, and does change between generations. BUT there are always more favorable physical traits (why we don't look like homo erectus or homo habilis). Certain physical characteristics seen as attractive are seen that way because they indicate health and fertility. An example, Men like women with a high hip to waist ratio, because those women have fewer health complications during childbirth. Enlarged breast (not DDs necessarily, even A) indicate the health of the woman and even subtly hint if she is pregnant or even on her period. If breast were not enlarged beyond the minimum (like most mammals) it would be harder for men to tell. This isn't meant to defend the article, but certain traits are seen as "beautiful" in the eyes of evolution. Of course MANY traits are subjective cultural standards.

Today's ugly women would probably be pretty decent looking by yesterday's standards if beauty keeps increasing in women. I've always thought something along the lines of what's in this study. You watch old movies and see pictures of women from back around WWII and none of them are as hot as women today.

Actually, they're basing it on the idea proposed from an old study suggesting that attractive women tend to have more children, which is a pretty flawed premise to begin with.

Of COURSE beauty is an evolutionary advantage. All other things being equal, a man will always choose a beautiful woman over a plain one, right? The better question is why there are ugly women around to begin with.

Beautiful women are rare as fuck and getting rarer. The next scientific and rational step is: Let's help nature and cull all the ugly people.