Quote from: K-Dog on Nov 12, 2023, 08:38 PMConcerning our situation, It's the oil stupid.  But no mention of energy through the entire video.  And the climate is presented as something you can believe in or not.

You are correct, energy is not mentioned at any point, nor is the MIT Limits to Growth model.  NO video at this point which purports to examine probable causes for our civilization collapse can be considered as complete without mentioning this study, and also the Olduvai theory Richard Duncan proposed in the late 1990s.  This video pops around all over the place basically skirting the issues and concluding that it's all in our own hands and our own choices as to whether there will be a collapse or not.  Even so, it doesn't tell you what those choices actually are that we could make here to not become Greenland Vikings or Rapa Nui.

One factoid mentioned I was not aware of is that apparently our old friend Sir Isaac Newton, inventor of the Calculus and famed for an apple dropping on his head elucidating the Theory of Gravity made his own prediction of Collapse, putting it out 350 years from his own era, circa 1700.  That puts it at 2050.  I was not aware of any such Newtonian prediction, and will see if I can find what he based it on.  If it has a good mathematical underpinning, it's so near to a perfect prediction already he gets the nod before the MIT folks as best in class predictions of Industrial Civilization collapse by a mathematician.  That is frankly amazing considering he knew nothing about oil and the steam engine had yet to be invented.  I must look into this further.

RE

OK, Newton's prediction is based on Biblical mumbo jumbo, which may be correct but it's not a pure math prediction, so Newton does not get the nod for that.  2060 is looking pretty good as an end date now though.

https://www.openculture.com/2015/10/in-1704-isaac-newton-predicts-the-world-will-end-in-2060.html

RE

Newton is a 'great man' to many.  He must have been a 'Jordan Peterson' of his day.  Many people hold certain people up to have extraordinary abilities.  It is a common derangement.  They wind up worshiping gurus.

I can't do it.  I always find flaws in gurus. Without any particular need or desire to do so I observe human inadequacy or thought, not as well developed as some of mine.  The absurdity of regarding someone as superior becomes apparent.

Bizzaro is how SUPERMEN appear in real life.  Full of contradictions that eclipse superior skills in particular areas.

Newton took the reality of the bible seriously and he was able to see 'flaws' that cause some to admire him.  Nothing wrong with that.  He used his mind.

But does the bible come from the hand of god or not?  In the 1700's an intelligent man might reach different conclusions than an intelligent man might reach now.  Lack of faith was a 'sin' in the 1700s'.  But many people now consider sin 'old school'.

Newton wore a meat package like the rest of us.

Taking the subject away from Newton, it seems many people have a need to follow others.  If there is anything wrong with it, the need for


(temperance) is obvious.  In excess, worship of the great man appears to be a perversion of normal social desires leading to mayhem.  The 'doom' community has many such people, and doom charlatans, many we have.  I could list one or two or three, but I see no benefit sending that information out to the universe.

Having a guru seems limiting to me.  Burn your biographies, Rewrite your history, light up your wildest dreams.  All that is impossible to someone who follows a leader.

Panic! At The Disco - High Hopes - 3 minutes long.

Newton was far from perfect.  He was of course Master of the Mint when the Bank of England was chartered in 1692 and a card carrying Founding Father of he Illuminati.   As Christians go, he was something of a hypocrite since he was queer, not an acceptable sexual orientation by the Church of England in those years, though they were OK with divorce.  As mathematicians and astronomers go though, he was definitely a chart topper.

It is though a serious mistake to believe that just because someone shows brilliance in one area of human endeavor that it makes listening to that person pontificate about other things, he must automatically be equally brilliant and therefor paid attention to.  I think more often the exact opposite is true.  Brilliance in one area often leads to being intellectually stunted in other areas.

Regardless of this, the fact of the matter is the vast majority  of homo saps are followers, not leaders and they look to others who have achieved fame and notoriety for something as their gurus or political leaders.  Thus we get Actors and Pro Wrestlers and Basketball players for Presidents, Governors and Senators, respectively.  Nothing in our society impresses people more than being RICH, so no matter WTF a Billionaire says, he instantly gets media attention for saying it and has an instant group of followers and friends on social media numbering in the millions.  Given the only way to really get that rich is by stealing, paying workers as little as possible while charging customers as much as possible, it should be little wonder our civilization is on the verge of collapse.  Our Gurus are all Crooks!

So it goes.

RE