How Do You Save the World?

Hello everyone,

Humans can be like a disease, cancer or virus to our ecosystem, polluting the environment with waste, deforestation or hunting animals for sport. Most agree we have 100 hundred years to change how we use energy from unsustainable organic fuels to sustainable green clean energy.

Yet their is hope, look at how far we have come from 1915 when we had very little mechanical technology and life was hard and labour was sheer man power and travel was by horse and carriage. So in just 100 hundred years society has solved so many problems and our ancestors have achieved creating a life of convenience and a simple and much less laborious life. I believe this progress since 1900's is evidence for humans ability to work and resolve problems.

Such as look at the new technologies that can help us transition away from fossil fuels. Scientists can fuel a hydrogen car from water! A sports car that runs on SALTWATER! Or a car that runs on AIR!

There are so many problems in our societies, such as economic factors, the increasing demand of raw materials, manufactured goods, and services. But we have access to massive amounts of information, something we humans could never imagine only seventy years ago, when computers were barely imaginable.

I imagine in the future more people will have simple solutions like Aquaponics in their basement, something I am looking into. You can grow food plants and fish and produce a large amount of vegetables and fish very easily, with little work and not much space is needed.

Does anyone know of other technologies that could save the world?

Here are good speculative sites that deals with potential technologies in a futurist view point: Future Timeline.net And also 3D Food Printing Here is a link on sustainable cities Worlds First Sustainable City



L & L

honest, brave, unselfish

I once met a man who asked the same question...
My answer was simple, I took a match from the box and lit it. My answer was this, by changing.... me.

I don't try to save the world. Assuming that I can is either a gross over estimation of my abilities or a gross under estimation of the world's problems. :laugh: Plus, there's so much that I personally just can not do. I'm only one man (though my strength is that of 10 ). What I can change is, as Carlos said, myself. If I do that then maybe it will makes someone else's life better too. Maybe someone else will see my change and want to change themselves for the better, and then someone could see them, and so on and so forth.

how does one change oneself?

into what does one change oneself?

Yeah I agree,

If I stopped smoking I could spend £200 on charities per month to feed starving babies and children. But because I am flawed and stuck in my vices I instead poison myself with chemicals rather than saving lives. Or I eat healthy foods in small quantities I would be slimmer healthier and have £500 per month to spend on families hit by famine and war. Something like such a small change could improve my life of excess and get me fitter, happier and healthier and provide options for the extreme poverty in other countries.

Such a small change... Such a massive difference it would make...

I believe the problem is that people approach it on a grand scale, and usually throw their hands up realizing the epic amount of the work involved. Instead people should think small, and work from there. The problem with this approach is that it requires constant effort, and sadly few individuals are sincerely interested in putting forth the effort.

I see so many people sharing this or that on Facebook, in attempts to make change or help "save" something. Their motives are usually out of ego. You cannot save the world with the click of a button, change usually requires a little more from us.

Start small, it can be picking up trash where you find it, recycle at home, volunteer time into the community and/or animal shelters. Invest time on changing the self, and then the immediate area around you...

what makes you think that if you didnt spend the money on smoking that instead of just spending it on something else equally unproductive (in terms of "saving the world") that you would give it to charity?

isnt it more likely to assume youd just buy more booze or girlie magazines or something?

Zenchi wrote: People should think small, and work from there.

You cannot save the world with the click of a button, change usually requires a little more from us.

hmm yes small solutions are possible but big things have small beginnings. You can save the world by clicking buttons, writing stories, raising awareness or using Free Rice United Nations World Food Program. a clever site that donates a small portion of food for every button you click.

OB1Shinobi wrote: what makes you think that if you didnt spend the money on smoking that instead of just spending it on something else equally unproductive (in terms of "saving the world") that you would give it to charity?

isnt it more likely to assume youd just buy more booze or girlie magazines or something?

Yes I would buy booze, but I am also frugal meaning that I get the best value for money and only spend £2 on wine bottles that would cost £11 in other shops. However I don't drink more than one bottle per week. Yes I would donate to Charity because I also have another surplus supply of money and basically I am referring to the wastefulness of £700 which is basically wasted money. I would much rather it go to charity than use it to kill myself. And had donated that much in the past

EDIT: The Temple of The Jedi Order could help all its members to do some charity work I am sure there are enough skilled people on here with time to spend responding to posts we could use that time to be productive and contemplate how WE can save the world together.

L &L

Well the Temple here seems more to be a staging ground for thought and connection, rather than an entity directed at specific functions of change. I have yet to see a TOTJO race for HIV or cancer, for instance. :lol: But I also feel that simply by being here TOTJO is presenting us with the ability to initiate the sort of change we want to see. Which is what I would ask:

What sort of change do you want to see? In yourself and in the world?

I also think that while starting small is indeed the best way to get the ball rolling, so to speak, it doesn't have to remain small. I was just talking with a friend yesterday who's very meditative, very focused on trying to live within his moment-to-moment existence (I blame some of his views on overuse of psychedelics, lol). The problem as I see it though is that his vision of change was, well, non-existent. He doesn't want to see change because, in his words, he doesn't believe that we can change anything - or even that we should try. I'd say that change is something we can accomplish, not just within some unknowable future, but within the span of a single human life.

Not that I'm saying anyone has to try to change anything, or that there isn't enormous good to be found in focusing on daily changes for the better, but merely that I'm suggesting that change on a global change is possible - especially if large groups of people sharing the same desire to change the world get together and focus their lives into it.

In order to start figuring out this path though, I think it's important to figure out why we want to change the world - or even why we want to change ourselves. I don't believe that striving toward something is bad - in-fact I think it's great. But I always like to ask myself "why".

hmm,

To answer your question

"I want to change myself to be more helpful, like willing to be of use".

"I want to help the world, because its better than being idle and useless".

"I want to help people because its fun to do so"

I like getting involved with supporting bigger issues, vulnerable members of society, solving problems and to make some friends. I am not suggesting people should go into a war zone and deliver aid and water. But perhaps thinking where one might be useful, assess personal goals. My idea of a goal would be for myself to create a YouTube channel full of animations that actually made a small difference like earning money for charity.

Personally the big change I would make If I was omnipotent:

• Create a symbiosis with the planet
• Animal conservation and re-population
• Positive Propaganda in mainstream media

This website is cool Upriser Website and animation below was inspirational for me because I like Futurism:

i found it funny as all get out (i dont know what that actually means) that the "core values" thread got almost no participation but things like "sithism" and "should we lie?" get multiple pages within hours

people get carried away with causes and mislead by statistics on an every day basis

the only defense any of us have against this that i can see is to define - as precisely as possible - a set of core values and make it ones life long determination to integrate them into ones behavior

everything else is window dressing, and chopping off the heads of the hydra one at a time only to have new devils appear to replace them

Ariane wrote: hmm,

To answer your question

"I want to change myself to be more helpful, like willing to be of use".

"I want to help the world, because its better than being idle and useless".

"I want to help people because its fun to do so"

I like getting involved with supporting bigger issues, vulnerable members of society, solving problems and to make some friends. I am not suggesting people should go into a war zone and deliver aid and water. But perhaps thinking where one might be useful, assess personal goals. My idea of a goal would be for myself to create a YouTube channel full of animations that actually made a small difference like earning money for charity.

Personally the big change I would make If I was omnipotent:

• Create a symbiosis with the planet
• Animal conservation and re-population
• Positive Propaganda in mainstream media

This website is cool Upriser Website and animation below was inspirational for me because I like Futurism:

you are the media

make it a point to spread the propoganda that you feel offers the greatest benefit to the world

Now I have to find the "Core Values" thread. I think I ran into it and was going to write something up, but just wasn't in the mood at that point in time. It does tie into this though. And I think what you, Ariane, wrote is a set of values. It pretty fairly encompasses the reasons you want to do things, and even suggests an avenue. That's pretty nifty.

I agree that the starting point is finding what drives you, but I don't think that it's a static thing you just work on figuring out and incorporating into your life, just because. I mean, of course it can be! And that's really great. But I've always wanted to do something different - something I feel does touch multiple minds and lives.

Still, you have to start with the self. It's usually where most of the urges to help others stem from anyway.

EDIT:

I just realized that this is in the "Science" area though, so maybe we should be focusing on that aspect of this. In that sense I'd say one of the major things I have an interest in (aside from anything SpaceX is doing) are new theories on urban design, especially anything that incorporates a large amount of nature and natural designs, with some in-built system of high-activity social transportation to help mitigate or even remove the use of cars (for non-emergency/industrial uses).

Alos, IBM has invented a new type of solar array using a special cooling system that keeps the chips from overheating, allowing an array to draw in somewhere around 2,000 times as much power as normal. Potentially a collection of these could take the place of a coal plant, and that is REALLY cool.

While I agree with much of the positive sentiment and optimism expressed so far, I would answer your question quite simply.

How do you save the world? You don't. The world will save itself.

We tend to be extremely egotistical creatures when it comes to our place in the grand scheme of things. We are not destroying an ecosystem. We are part of it, and a part of it that can easily die out. We worry about climate change because it will make us uncomfortable. We consider certain chemicals to be "pollution" that exist in massive quantities both here and on other planets. We don't rule out Venus as a potential home because of pollution. We do because the massive amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is poisonous to us and it causes the planet to be way hotter than we can survive. The planets, including this one, are not concerned about flooding or pollution or becoming too hot.

As we watch and learn of the events unfolding in Nepal or look back on similar events like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, it is important to remember that these are catastrophes on a human level. They are normal happenings for a planet. Just as spraying a trail of ants with ant spray is a normal happening for me, the same cannot be said from the ant's perspective.

If we are to "save the world", we need to be honest about it. We see through human eyes. We are selfishly saving the world for ourselves. We can make it a better place for people now, but there will come a point when the world will no longer have a biological motivation to keep us around. It might be a meteor or we might do it to ourselves. All we can do in the meantime is try to be good to each other. It is an endeavor worth our best efforts.

dble pst

@Senan
i agree with much of what you say but my response is that i am totally ok with the idea of changing the wording of the question to "how do we save ourselves?"

the earth itself will recover, sure, and there is a perspective from which it makes absolutely no real difference if any and all of us die painful ignoble deaths - right after watching everyone we love do the same

but thats not what most of us want

so i agree lets be clear about what we mean, but i dont agree with making that distinction in such a way as to imply that conservation efforts and climate change efforts and "not dumping poison into the oceans and the mountains and releasing it into the air" efforts are in any way NOT the right kinds of efforts to make, i think its quite clear at multiple levels that they are

OB1 - it sounds like we are in agreement. I know I come off like I'm doom and gloom and don't care. It is far from that. I strongly believe in living in harmony with nature and practicing conservation. I'm always excited about new technologies that will help us do just that. As an Eagle Scout I was taught to protect what is most important to me, mainly being family and the environment my family lives in. I applaud those who make real efforts to effect positive change.

That being said, I also struggle everyday trying to reconcile these selfish needs with a desire to be more selfless. My ego allows for self preservation, and I don't want to die. I also don't want my ego to drive all of my actions. I want to save the planet, but I don't want to be the guy who says "I can save the planet". I guess you can say I'm walking a tight rope between being one with the universe and still enjoying the convenience of driving my giant gas guzzling truck. These are my conflicting feelings and I know that. :laugh:

ah - my interpreive schema is jaded by my social exposure
ive spent my entire life in what you could call "the religious south" and i have heard all sorts of angles used to try and counter environmental initiatives - imo mostly because the perception is that they are "liberal" causes (as if cancer cares who someone votes for) and therefore are satans evil lies inflicted on the holy by the godless heathen dirt worshippers

seriously, thats the argument lol just not as poetic as i make it sound here of course

yeah i agree with everything you just said
including the tightrope angle

In the spirit of antithesis could I be so bold as to ask the following questions: why do you think the world needs saving? what would you try and save it from?

If your answers are along the lines of the world needs saving from us, because we're destroying it I would argue that's fair enough, but we need to be extremely careful with that line of argument. It has led many to advocate enforced birth control, constraints on civil rights and to argue for immediate deindustrialisation - amongst other things. This is a terrifying example from just a few days ago: here

As H.L. Mencken is quoted as having said "“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” (Ironically - I understand he wasn't actually a great fan of liberal democracy either). When we contemplate saving the world, or saving humanity are we actually contemplating how to save ourselves, or our way of life?

Once again in the spirit of playing devil's advocate this is thought provoking and mostly very amusing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c