Luba Luft wrote:I've heard an interesting theory which might get us stuck here and now:
According to this there's going to be no new knowledge after the year 2012. So, no new inventions, no new spacecrafts, no new technology - we will be running in circles after 2012.
I don't usually believe in theories of this kind, but there is some logic behind it.
This concept has been in my head as well these past months. I have thoughts on this...to start here is a quote from an article by Harold Williamson*,
"The pace of technological innovation outstripped the biological evolution of its creator by leaps and bounds during the 20th century. With much of the human brain having been built from an archaic design using recycled parts, its evolution slowly plods along like Aesop?s fabled tortoise while the hare of technology that it creates foolishly races ahead and overwhelms the human brain with data beyond its capacity for synthesis. Knowledge is fast becoming a dispiriting accumulation of factual information that is devoid of any meaning, causing popular ignorance to flourish during a time of unprecedented learning."
I share his opinion on this matter.
Other ideas on this matter that come to mind are the histories of known civilizations. Throughout human history, either through "natural" consequences or through design by conquer, civilizations have been erased or corrupted. One example of MANY...is the world of knowledge (literally) that was lost that we had around 300 BCE at the library of Alexandria, in Egypt. I believe if we had saved those scrolls and used them accordingly (wisely) we would have people living on Mars this day. We would live in a much different world. But, alas, things are as they are as a result of this void.
Perhaps this distruction of the library...and of the many civillizations that went before and after (Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, Ancient China), is a natural defense(?)/reaction to prevent the decay of our civilization. If we lose a thought...we can regain it another time and believe it was new. If we lose the plans to a spacecraft to take us into interstellor space safely...we (or someone else) can design another one in some other time. Some further quotes to ponder over:
I invent nothing, I rediscover.
Auguste Rodin
A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.
H. L. Mencken
Very interesting food for thought. Much more to be ingested...let alone digested!
Cheers!
* Thinking Anew: A Do-It-Yourself Project ,by Harold Williamson
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June04/Williamson0627.htm