it aint a river in Egypt
http://blog.wired.com/sterling/index.blog?entry_id=1503029
Pope Bruce on futurism and climate change denial.
I've been "predicting" changes in the climate since 1998. I even "prophesied" that in public forums. That prediction of the future wasn't "impossible." It was a lead-pipe cinch, because the climate was ALREADY changing in 1998. That wasn't "the future," it was the present. That future couldn't be admitted in 1998 because people were (and still are) way too heavily vested in the processes changing the climate.
It's eight years later now, and the climate's worse. Eight years from now? Worse still. You think I'm pulling that out of my hat? Every scientist in the world agrees with me. Every insurance guy, too. It still feels like "prediction" -- barely. Not because there's any real doubt about what's happening and what's going to happen, but because people don't want to believe it.
If your doctor predicts that your liver will blow because you're a raging alcoholic and you're obviously in denial, it won't help you to tell the medico that 'nobody can predict the future.' That is not a proper skepticism: that is a cop-out. Maybe you'll get Korsakoff's instead of cirrhosis, but if you're chugging a heavy narcotic by the barrel and case, heck yeah, of course ill health is in your future. Your doctor isn't a supernatural genius: you're a self-destructive fool. That little tremor in your hand? That's a futurist precursor of a big tremor in your hand. And the more you close your eyes to the future, the more of a prophet he becomes.
Pope Bruce on futurism and climate change denial.
I've been "predicting" changes in the climate since 1998. I even "prophesied" that in public forums. That prediction of the future wasn't "impossible." It was a lead-pipe cinch, because the climate was ALREADY changing in 1998. That wasn't "the future," it was the present. That future couldn't be admitted in 1998 because people were (and still are) way too heavily vested in the processes changing the climate.
It's eight years later now, and the climate's worse. Eight years from now? Worse still. You think I'm pulling that out of my hat? Every scientist in the world agrees with me. Every insurance guy, too. It still feels like "prediction" -- barely. Not because there's any real doubt about what's happening and what's going to happen, but because people don't want to believe it.
If your doctor predicts that your liver will blow because you're a raging alcoholic and you're obviously in denial, it won't help you to tell the medico that 'nobody can predict the future.' That is not a proper skepticism: that is a cop-out. Maybe you'll get Korsakoff's instead of cirrhosis, but if you're chugging a heavy narcotic by the barrel and case, heck yeah, of course ill health is in your future. Your doctor isn't a supernatural genius: you're a self-destructive fool. That little tremor in your hand? That's a futurist precursor of a big tremor in your hand. And the more you close your eyes to the future, the more of a prophet he becomes.