Poverty and pollution as the doom of civlizations

[Cyborg Girl]

Per a NASA-funded study that I really need to find a better article on:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... se/441375/

It makes a disturbing amount of sense (though again, I need to find something with more details).

OTOH, I would point out that we have something the Romans didn't, namely automation. Rome had slaves, but slaves are people. We have machines that can do the work of many more people, without competing for the resources of the upper class. IIRC technology is now the largest factor behind unemployment in the US.

So, I am going to make a prediction here. At a certain point, the wealthiest people, the Peter Thiels and Koch brothers and their ilk, will realize that they don't actually need to share the planet with seven-billion-plus other human beings. The will realize that yes, they need us, but they don't need quite so many of us.

They will then orchestrate the systematic murder of over three billion people. Because, under the resource constraints imposed by global warming and other ecological damage, there will be no other way for them to maintain their wealth. They will murder because not doing so would mean they had to share.

The rallying cry of their soldiers will, no doubt, be something involving "doing what needs to be done."

(And yes I'm completely serious, and yes of bloody course I hope I'm wrong.)

[SciFiFisher]

Did you by any chance watch this movie?

[SciFiFisher]

It will probably be something very subtle like a world wide virus that makes 75% of the population sterile.

Which is why everyone freaks out when you start talking about using viruses to target specific things like cancer.

[Cyborg Girl]

@Fisher

I'd heard of it, and that it's some kind of James Bond type spoofy thing involving spies and mind control rays? Never saw it.

And yes, hubris can kill. I think greed and tribalism have been more effective at it historically though.