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ARS Technica: If we gave everyone a decent standard of living, could we sustain it?


Zguy28

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I found this to be an interesting article.

 

If we gave everyone a decent standard of living, could we sustain it?

 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/a-basic-standard-of-living-could-be-environmentally-sustainable/

Quote

 

Could we meet the needs of everyone on the planet without stripping the Earth of all its resources? A paper in this week’s Nature Sustainability says: kind of.

 

It should be possible to meet the basic physical needs of everyone on the planet without using up physical resources too quickly. But it wouldn’t be possible to extend a first-world standard of living to everyone without needing “a level of resource use that is two-six times the sustainable level,” researcher Daniel O’Neill and his colleagues report. Only a drastic improvement in efficiency would allow the planet to manage this higher standard of living.

 

O’Neill and his colleagues looked at the resources that humans use a lot of and that are critical for the planet’s health: things like fresh water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Exceeding the “planetary boundaries” of these resources risks global environmental stability—and we’re not doing well on that front.

 

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I've been thinking along these lines as well. Switching from this fixation on blind growth, to sustainability and synergy. People automatically think growth is a good thing, but like all things in life, it has to be balanced and synergized within the larger context of the world around it, so it doesn't violate the boundaries of our macro ecosystem.

Growth at the expense of richness or vibrancy is like having a garden full of weeds (or a body full of cancer).

Our present track of trying to generate more extreme versions of wealth and expansion will stretch the capacities of our planet and create more extreme levels of inequality to compensate, shrinking the middle ground in-between.

There is a goldilocks zone for everything in life, where a strong, sustainable middle and weak extremes of both poverty and wealth allow for sustainable, synergized development for the entire world. 

But, in order for that to happen, we as human beings have to balance and channel the desires and pressures inside us that push us towards extremes. Reigning in that intensity, so we can have synergy. And what that looks like is going from a fixation of wanting whats "best" for me, to wanting whats "best" for both yourself, others, and the shared world we all belong to all at the same time. Going from a singular fixation that behaves via consumption and replacement, to a trinity fixation that behaves via superposition and adds and sustainably builds, rather then replaces and consumes. 

 

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6 minutes ago, Riggo-toni said:

Could we pull it off if we wipe out the entire populations of the Middle East and North Korea? Orange minds want to know....

Why stop there? Lots of other ****holes that we don't need.

 

You know, I have proposed that we need less humans in several other threads including but not limited to the Let's Talk About Pets, Alex Smith Trade, Investing for Dummies, and every Donald Trump thread. Seeing as I have put the most thought into the subject, I am clearly the best choice for heading up this project. According to my math, we need to trim the total population to a neat 1.5 billion. This also happen to be the exact number of caucasians.

 

3 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

FEWER dammit, fewer, not less!

Mmmhmm. Mmmhmm. What I'm hearing is, LD0506 doesn't want to make the list.

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So a Lilliput Gambit then?

2 minutes ago, Sacks 'n' Stuff said:

Mmmhmm. Mmmhmm. What I'm hearing is, LD0506 doesn't want to make the list.

 

I am way past my expiration date, I never expected to live this long so you don't scare me..........................

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10 minutes ago, Fresh8686 said:


Do you see human nature as fixed or as something that can develop and change?

 

It is fixed. I don't know that it can be changed. 

How ? Hypnosis ? Nah... Drugs...Nah...

Eventually a percentage of folks will break those things, some folks will hoard and some will abuse what they have...then the hoarder is the newest mob boss. 

That's why the war against drugs has never worked, why prohibition has never worked. 

 

Hell, as a teenager we all tested our limits and boundaries with authority and morality at some level. 

 

Like the fight or flight response from folks in certain situations. It's instinctive. 

 

If it could be changed it would take some craziness like in the movies where people are just going through the motions not even knowing that they are under control. Matrix among others come to mind. 

 

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1 minute ago, Kosher Ham said:

 

It is fixed. I don't know that it can be changed. 

How ? Hypnosis ? Nah... Drugs...Nah...

Eventually a percentage of folks will break those things, some folks will hoard and some will abuse what they have...then the hoarder is the newest mob boss. 

That's why the war against drugs has never worked, why prohibition has never worked. 

 

Hell, as a teenager we all tested our limits and boundaries with authority and morality at some level. 

 

Like the fight or flight response from folks in certain situations. It's instinctive. 

 

If it could be changed it would take some craziness like in the movies where people are just going through the motions not even knowing that they are under control. Matrix among others come to mind. 

 


Have you never known anyone in your life to fundamentally change their nature? What if where we are at now in human development, allows for individual change, but the transference of that capability to large segments of society is still lagging behind?

Personally, I consciously (and unconsciously) choose how I change on deep fundamental levels. I do it through the use of connective tension and the development of core capabilities through training them past their current thresholds so they adapt in response, just like training a muscle. I train sensitivity so I can feel more and when it adapts and I can feel more, I train differentiation so I can discern what I can feel so it's coherent, then I train resiliency and traction so I am not pushed by the force of what I feel to the point where I lose that coherency, then I train my ability to flow so I can handle and apply these new adaptations without them falling into fragmentation, and so on, and so on.

These are some of the core elements of learning and this process occurs with everything from sex to sports to science. But, it also applies to developing and changing human nature via internalization of these changes on deeper and deeper levels.

You mentioned flight or flight, and what determines whether we are in flight or flight mode versus communication mode or even freeze mode is our tensile resiliency. Whether or not the emotional charge of a situation is so much that it impacts our nervous system to the point that we fall into a more base state of cognition. When I've had guns to my head or been in other high tension situations I feel focus and excitement and I gain abilities, I don't lose them, because I've trained myself to handle the intensity. I've trained myself to change how I react and meet that intensity, while also increasing the core capabilities that are needed to support who I want to be while dealing with those stress loads. 

It's the same for morality and authority. By exercising them for yourself you understand why they exist and internalize them within yourself. I had no morality at one point, but didn't like the changes it was making in me and built my morality and authority from the ground up. Learning through exercise and practice how morality, integrity, freedom, self-responsibility, and self-authority all inter-relate and synergize to create a stronger and healthier human being.

Is it incredibly hard to do? Of course, but not always, there is a start-up cost on each tier of change, but the adaptations grow in time to support it and things then become comfortable. Is it incredibly painful and stressful? Of course, but not always and it's also extremely euphoric, while also creating access to deeper levels of vibrancy and pleasure that would not be in reach, without adhering to the process. Can it be messed up or derailed at any time? Of course, but it can also bounce back and course correct.






 

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Individually of course... as a world, or a nation, or even a city. 

Not going to happen. 

 

Heck, someone will not be as disciplined or learned as you might be...they will provoke, antagonize, and even challenge your will. 

Most folks will... at some point falter or even fold. 

 

Congrats, on your personal success however. That's awesome. 

 

I know that I don't trust the will and intentions of most people. My perception of people is always jaded and questioning. 

Too many people are inconsiderate, thoughtless, selfish, and simply awful. 

But that is from my perspective, others might look at their values as honorable or even justified. 

 

I would wager before I posted this and maybe even after that I could provoke violence or ill will towards me or my family...if that was my intention. 

 

Again, congrats. 

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3 minutes ago, Kosher Ham said:

I know that I don't trust the will and intentions of most people. My perception of people is always jaded and questioning. 

Too many people are inconsiderate, thoughtless, selfish, and simply awful. 

 

Unfortunately yeah, you're mostly right but that's the beauty of a 80% die off event, you thin the **** outta the herd and everyone understands that thinning is an option. Survival instinct is one helluva teacher of manners.

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1 minute ago, LD0506 said:

 

Unfortunately yeah, you're mostly right but that's the beauty of a 80% die off event, you thin the **** outta the herd and everyone understands that thinning is an option. Survival instinct is one helluva teacher of manners.

 

Same thing that a German dictator was thinking of a while back. 

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39 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

 

Sounds like a Trojan ad.............


Lol, well sex and pleasure were one of my biggest motivations for change and learning tension. I didn't like how sexual tension would shock my system and make me come across, so I started embracing it's discomfort and seeking greater and greater intensities of it, so my body would adapt and change. But once I did, crazy stuff started happening and I could feel tension in everything and started to practice with it. 

If you want to change your base level charisma (emotional influence), attractiveness, stability, reactivity, etc. adapting to greater levels of tension will take you there.

I've been through a lot of insanely hard **** in my life by choosing this path, but the change to my orgasms alone are almost worth the cost (the larger the emotional and energetic charge, the more intense the orgasm).
 

38 minutes ago, Kosher Ham said:

Individually of course... as a world, or a nation, or even a city. 

Not going to happen. 

 

Heck, someone will not be as disciplined or learned as you might be...they will provoke, antagonize, and even challenge your will. 

Most folks will... at some point falter or even fold. 

 

Congrats, on your personal success however. That's awesome. 

 

I know that I don't trust the will and intentions of most people. My perception of people is always jaded and questioning. 

Too many people are inconsiderate, thoughtless, selfish, and simply awful. 

But that is from my perspective, others might look at their values as honorable or even justified. 

 

I would wager before I posted this and maybe even after that I could provoke violence or ill will towards me or my family...if that was my intention. 

 

Again, congrats. 


Right, what some people have accomplished in development is not the norm, but I ask myself why? And what can we do to change that? Because the answer to why is very simple.

Most people do not practice or exercise these core capabilities, especially to the point of threshold breach and positive adaptation. And then the question becomes why don't people practice and have this developmental fitness?

Part of it is because society doesn't have a clear picture of the process and how to apply it to life. Part of it is because, due to that blindness over history we have humans creating societies that have internalized flaws and standards and pursuits that are manifestations of this imbalance. Pursuits and stories and institutions that people are heavily attached to and will fight and resist it's displacement for something better. 

So then it becomes how do you attract people to a better way and then create systems of transference for that better way, so new generations are exposed to the practice and it spreads and becomes valued and central to the core belief system of the world at large? Which is especially challenging because people don't know what they don't know, or in other words they're blind to their own blindness and can't conceive of the changes available if their senses aren't developed enough to sense them. It's something I'm working on and stressing about often. Building a bridge of understanding that is attractive enough for people to be moved to start walking across it.

These kinds of changes are not something you can just read and have (because then it's just a mental internalization). You have to live it and have it's impact touch you deeply, so the changes and adaptations occur deeply. It's a process each and every person has to go through, because if only one group or even one generation does it, but the next one doesn't, the fruits of those adaptations will fall apart.

 

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The answer to why is... Human nature. 

We are competitive and aggressive by nature. We are taught to be passive...

 

Passive sometimes... and I will say too often equals taken advantage of. 

This is why the statement of "don't take my kindness for weakness" exists. 

 

I get so many mixed reactions from people that I meet. Heck, even people on here. Some appreciate what I have to say because I am being honest with my opinions, some assume that I am bashing them ( which is something I rarely do). 

 

I dislike immensely when people interpret my opinion as fact or as anything more than my opinion of what I see. 

I don't retaliate and act as if they are jerks because they don't agree... I respond to try to clarify my point that some ignore or try to attack. 

Now when they attack me, or my intelligence... I respond similarly.  

If I show you a fact... and can show it repeatedly...accept it. It is not a bash or call out for anyone. 

It's simply clarification so we can continue to discuss the subject at hand. 

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21 minutes ago, Kosher Ham said:

The answer to why is... Human nature. 

We are competitive and aggressive by nature. We are taught to be passive...

 

Passive sometimes... and I will say too often equals taken advantage of. 

This is why the statement of "don't take my kindness for weakness" exists. 

 

I get so many mixed reactions from people that I meet. Heck, even people on here. Some appreciate what I have to say because I am being honest with my opinions, some assume that I am bashing them ( which is something I rarely do). 

 

I dislike immensely when people interpret my opinion as fact or as anything more than my opinion of what I see. 

I don't retaliate and act as if they are jerks because they don't agree... I respond to try to clarify my point that some ignore or try to attack. 

Now when they attack me, or my intelligence... I respond similarly.  

If I show you a fact... and can show it repeatedly...accept it. It is not a bash or call out for anyone. 

It's simply clarification so we can continue to discuss the subject at hand. 


I feel you, miscommunication is frustrating. You have people jumping to conclusions all the time about what is said and what is meant, when really that's not what that person was even trying to convey. And the internet makes it even harder, because the rapport between people is more tenuous and there is less context like body language and tone available. I've been wanting to write a post on how to enhance the quality of the conclusions we come to, by internalizing steps that expand the context and lengthen reaction times, so we can make better decisions and have higher quality beliefs.

Human nature is a lot of different and sometimes conflicting things wouldn't you say? Sometimes we are competitive and aggressive and sometimes we're caring and altruistic. Sometimes we're passive and other times we fight with every breath in our bodies. By touching both sides, we see how we can be all of those things and how we can choose which facets of our human nature rise from within us and express to the world, rather than just be people who blindly react. 

What I'm saying is we can't just say "that's human nature". We have to differentiate the elements of human nature, so we can then see how those different elements interact and choose the way of being that allows those different facets to work in healthy and synergistic manner.

There are a lot of different expressions and combinations of human nature and not all of them are healthy.


 

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You see how considerate and respectful we have been ? 

Most people can not do that. 

 

I don't care for a second about feelings if I know for a fact that I am right. 

We are discussing it as adults...actually reading/listening to each others' words ( when you say it to yourself). 

You have to admit that is rare these days. 

 

Not to mention, I actually am able to admit when I am wrong... most people can not do that either. 

They prefer to argue a dead point. 

 

Human and Nature is the oddity here. Back to the origin of our conversation... I think it is already fixed and it is extremely difficult to change one person...but all people seems impossible. 

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1 hour ago, Kosher Ham said:

You see how considerate and respectful we have been ? 

Most people can not do that. 

 

I don't care for a second about feelings if I know for a fact that I am right. 

We are discussing it as adults...actually reading/listening to each others' words ( when you say it to yourself). 

You have to admit that is rare these days. 

 

Not to mention, I actually am able to admit when I am wrong... most people can not do that either. 

They prefer to argue a dead point. 

 

Human and Nature is the oddity here. Back to the origin of our conversation... I think it is already fixed and it is extremely difficult to change one person...but all people seems impossible. 


Yea man it's rare, especially on the internet. Thanks for the civil back and forth, I appreciate it :)

 

 

 

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It is my experience that people will most often sink to the expectations that you hold for them.  If we always start with, we can't do X because some people are going to behave like Y, we will never achieve very much.

 

Instead, let's start with, we can do better and let's see how much better we can do.

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