Civilizations clash and the strong survive. The history of the world reads much like a history of organisms. Those civilizations which best master their environment are those that survive. Civilizations must eat, drink, and reproduce in order to survive. They must extract from their environment what they need to go on.

As civilizations arose, groups of people formed large social units and then started spending quite a bit of time competing against each other instead of "just the environment". In the arts, in sports, in ideas and many other things - but most importantly in war. War - because the vanishing of one civilization due to war is often the result of superior organization, leadership, and a better economy. Rome, for example, spread many useful things across the world through war.

As far as the human species is concerned, why are we still competing? What will be gain from it? Why do we need to still compete against each other? Why do we need to improve the human race and where will our next enemy come from? Maybe our next enemy comes from within - parasitic viruses. What kind of civilization would best survive viruses? Scientific ones, I presume.

What if they come from outside however? Alien invasion. Sounds silly. But what if? If an utterly superior race of beings came here and slaughtered us - that would be evolution at it's best, wouldn't it? Trimming of the trees.

Some people like to think that "intelligent" life visiting earth would be some really super peaceful non-violent smart guys that have everything figured out. Not me. I believe they would have survived their own nearest enemies not through peaceful means but by violence. Violent cultures have been some of the most successul on earth in the clash of cultures. In what other way do organisms succeed faster? Maybe through economic means one can win the evolutionary arms race. But let one civilization gather lots of goods and an inability to defend themselves and the next one over will hit upon the idea of beating them to death and taking it from them with force.

I don't know if aliens will ever come or whether they exist or whether it is likely. Maybe we should keep killing each other just in case. You know, be on the safe side.

Jesus Colin, was that the "i dont have a dream" speech?


I think we are certainly fighting much less today than at any point in history. mostly there are just "conflicts" here and there. i think there are a few very important differences in conflict today and conflict in the past that make the likelyhood of fighting in the future to be substantially less that fighting in the past.

information
globalization
weapons

with speed of light access to information world wide, conflicts can only get smaller and smaller. its is highly unlikely that another Hitler can exist on the same scales of the past. It is no longer possible to manipulate and control the information people receive, which in turn can shape their opions in a favorable way.

Globalization is good for encouraging an increasing inter-dependence of countries of each other. What kept China from going right off the deep in the end of the last century for example? Their dependence on exports of Chinese crap to carnivals. We were able to use economic leverage, trade restrictions and even WTO membership as a tool to modify their behavior somewhat.

Weapons are clearly creating a VERY uneven playing field. its not a question of sheer numbers and motivation anymore... or whose sword is sharpest as 100,000 soldiers take the field to face each other. We stopped an atillery shell the other day with a laser beam. We have unmanned planes armed with rockets (successfully tested on a car full of people in Yemen recently). We have the most advanced military on the planet and probably some REALLY amazing and scary shit we dont even know about. War is not an easy thing any more... it was in the past.

but of course, when the aliens come or the robots take over,... we may very well be helpless.

.... but they will probably spare the bananas
:bjump: :bwave: :bdance: :bwave:

JR,

Maybe we have entered a time of a war of ideas instead of ones fought with weapons.

However, it is hard to draw conclusions from how long it has been since WW I and WW II and the fact that there have not been wars of that size since. What will happen once enough time has gone by that those seem like quaint forgotten old time wars fought with old weapons and only 50 million soldiers? What will happen if there is another world-wide depression like that in the early 1930's?

can there be another world wide depression like in the 30s?
i would say that if history has taught us anthing in economics, it is that
you can only quickly boost the economy by attacking someone, or by
electing Republicans... or both.

hey... wait a minute...
:unsure:



Last edited by -= JR =- at Nov 25 2002, 11:41 AM