Science Surviving Progress

[cljohnston]

Just found this trailer for a documentary that has apparently already been released...

Several clips from orbit... I wonder if they're gonna make the distinction that Spaceflight is "bad progress".

 

[Codz]

Sounds very much like Neo-Luddites...

 

[Jarvitä]

Sounds very much like Neo-Luddites...

Agreed. I'm just inherently distrustful of anyone arguing for a return to a time before modern technology. It's a simple step from there to also arguing for rolling back social norms, because you would need to abolish modern social norms to function in a world without modern technology again.

These people just need to realise there's no going back. The only way is forwards and outwards. If pollution is a problem, it can be fixed with more technology, not less. If our 50000 years old brains are the problem, the solution is making better brains, not making our brains incapable of affecting the world, like they were 50000 years ago.

 

[Ghostrider]

Hey, our brains were very capable of affecting the world 50000 years ago. In fact, they liked it so much they never stopped!

 

[NovaSilisko]

People like this are going to destroy the world if they aren't careful...

 

[Hlynkacg]

People like this are going to destroy the world if they aren't careful...

My thoughts exactly.

 

[FADEC]

I agree that there is an overproduction of produtcs; that money and depts grows faster than the real world; that there are wrong promises like happiness and satisfaction by materialism i.e. consumption and luxuriancy. Also, the modern world has become rather stressful.

But I disagree that technological progress has become a threat to our race. Especially space flight. This is a claim that exists since the invention of the steam engine, or since the invention and improvement of trains and cars at the latest. Space flight is one of our biggest gains and chances. And the window which allows colonialisation beyond our planet has just opened.

It's not our technology which bears a potential threat. It's individuals. It's how we handle technology and the modern world. How we shape our world. How we watch others trying to shape our world and allow them to do so.

Nobody has to abandon this and that. But there should be a rational awareness that our nature, our mind and our organism can't handle exploitation and stress beyond the utmost. And that we can influence a lot just by our behaviour. We will have to learn it anyway, only by shortage of resources which we are going to face for very sure. The failing financial and political systems will do the rest sooner or later (but sooner already has begun). This might sound pessimistic. But I'm actually rather optimistic. I think we will learn because there is no other path. But it will be painful.

 

[Ghostrider]

People like this are going to destroy the world if they aren't careful...

Oh, they're not a threat. While they throw away tech and will have to rely on stick and stones, we'll pick them off at a range with out state-of-the-art chainsaw-throwing automatic trebuchets.

 

[FADEC]

If pollution is a problem, it can be fixed with more technology, not less.

Let's say different / better technology. We should aim for quality. Not for quantity, which is happening right now.

And we should try to obtain as much nature as possible. Not going back. But changing production and consumption. Become smarter instead of more addicted to consumption.

 

[NovaSilisko]

Let's say different / better technology. We should aim for quality. Not for quantity, which is happening right now.

And we should try to obtain as much nature as possible. Not going back. But changing production and consumption. Become smarter instead of more addicted to consumption.

Yes. Exactly!

 

[T.Neo]

Sounds more like it's basically something complaining about economic 'progress' and overconsumption, slapped with a thick coating of the slimy notion circulating these days regarding such things as "humans are evil" and "feel like a guilty villain if you're not stuck in a shower-cubicle-sized apartment lit by a single LED, eating spirulina".

Hey, our brains were very capable of affecting the world 50000 years ago.

Indeed. Just ask a mammoth. Or a megalonyx. Or perhaps a thylacoleo. Humans don't need to be technologically advanced to cause trouble in their ecosystem. Or their society.

Also, I'm fairly sure that my brain isn't 50 000 years old. Fairly sure- I may be a neanderthal hunter though; sometimes I get this inexplicable urge to hunt megafauna...

 

[RisingFury]

People like this are going to destroy the world if they aren't careful...

Nah, inconsequential and irrelevant.

 

[this is an old account]

(removed)

 

[T.Neo]

Has anyone seen the actual documentary?

I'm betting no.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

When I first saw the thread's title, I though it was about surviving in the cargo container of the Progress from Baikonur to the ISS.... :rofl:

Seriously, looks like the film is reflecting on "progress" and over-consumption in the capitalist's sense, and it's more about the consequences of money-shifting around the globe on the Earth and where humans are heading for. It doesn't seems to be touching on technology and spaceflight, but I could be wrong.

Does anybody knows when will it be aired?

 

[cljohnston]

When I first saw the thread's title, I though it was about surviving in the cargo container of the Progress from Baikonur to the ISS.... :rofl:

Yeah, sorry. There needs to be a "Prefix" thingy for Movies & TV.

Seriously, looks like the film is reflecting on "progress" and over-consumption in the capitalist's sense, and it's more about the consequences of money-shifting around the globe on the Earth and where humans are heading for. It doesn't seems to be touching on technology and spaceflight, but I could be wrong.

Does anybody knows when will it be aired?

It opened in limited release this past Friday here in the States.

 

[jedidia]

When I first saw the thread's title, I though it was about surviving in the cargo container of the Progress from Baikonur to the ISS....

That was pretty much what I expected, too. :lol:

 

[T.Neo]

It doesn't seems to be touching on technology and spaceflight, but I could be wrong.

Perhaps the trailer simply included visuals of spacewalks because they look cool.

 

[Jarvitä]

Perhaps the trailer simply included visuals of spacewalks because they look cool.

That seems to conflict with the message of rolling back progress.

 

[T.Neo]

That seems to conflict with the message of rolling back progress.

I don't see why footage of spacewalking astronauts has to clash with the general consensus on what the topic of this film is about.

EDIT:
A little research led to [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress"]this[/ame] article. It seems that this film is based on a book/lecture series.