And it reminded me that I was born into a world that really was 30 seconds from the apocalypse. We can laugh now at the fakapocalypse of the bad math of deluded visionaries, but not that long ago the world really was at the brink of total destruction.
We still have the capability to turn the world into an ash cinder, but we seem to have run out of enemies willing to put that much on the table.
Maybe we still are doomed as a species, after all we have not escaped the brutal equations of Malthus. Finite resources and exponential population growth have only one outcome. I find some hope in the fact that more than cock roaches and deep sea tube worms might survive our extinction.
But still, no matter how bleak our world view gets, it seems like there will be a world to view. That's a lot more than most people thought possible when I was born.
- Booker C. Bense