All Tomorrows Redux: Chapter 1
Added 2023-12-11 20:18:02 +0000 UTC
Comments
The problems with geoengineering are: 1) It's a temporary, frail change. 2) The geoengineering itself will require energy to implement AND sustain. And that energy requirement could release more CO2, thus thwarting any reversal to climate change. "Passive" measures, like an orbital sunshade, may not require energy to maintain, but WILL need maintenance, and will be in a difficult location to do that maintenance. And will be frail. 3) Geoengineering could be weaponized, causing worse problems that the one it was invented to solve. 4) It __will__ have unforeseen consequences. 5) It DOES NOT SOLVE the ORIGINAL PROBLEM: Too many people. Too much CO2 added to the atmosphere. Sadly, the people proposing geoengineering are stuck in a Newtonian-Perfect-Determinism worldview, one that reality killed last century with the discovery first of Quantum Mechanics and second of "Chaotic" Physical Systems [i.e. Nonlinear-Dyamics]. And that Newtonian-Perfect-Determinism worldview, one which posits that everything is perfectly predictable, everything is perfectly controllable, is the one that Got Us Into This Mess in the First Place.
John Weiss
2025-12-08 11:43:53 +0000 UTCMassive parts of the planet becoming uninhabitable due to global warming is a huge threat that many people do not comprehend. It will almost certainly result in a collapse of the global economy, a rise in totalitarianism, resource wars and a refugee crisis worse than anything seen before. And that's not even touching on all the innocents lives that will be lost, the natural wonders erased, the cultures wiped out. The rich will seek to exploit the death and suffering, as they cling to their power, and the wrath of the betrayed, abandoned and oppressed will be terrible. It's a grim future. If we want to survive it in any recognizable form, and mitigate the severity of it, we will need drastic action and a systemic transition away from our destructive status quo. Society will adapt for the better, sink forever into an unimaginable dystopian nightmare, or simply die - perhaps never to return. It cannot continue to exist in it's current form indefinitely. It's just not possible. The planet is finite and cannot sustain infinite greed.
Magic Cloud
2025-12-05 06:36:46 +0000 UTCI wonder how the Earthlings of this story will rebuild after generations of ecological, economic and social collapse? To go from the brink to colonizing other worlds and building a borderline utopia, it's an impressive feat. Then again, we have always been capable of great and terrible things when we are forced into action. As others have pointed out, at the rate things are currently going, vast regions of the planet will become uninhabitable due to climate change. Millions upon millions of people (even billions in the worst case scenarios) will be killed or displaced. Realistically, in addition to an urgent transition away from fossil fuels and towards cleaner energy sources, we also need to massively reduce our consumption and waste if our society is to survive. Dangerous geoengineering efforts are also likely to happen once things get really bad. Many governments, companies and elites are already pushing for it. There's a decent chance that it could reverse, stop or at least slow global warming. But it's also bound to have severe consequences. Many billionaires think they can hide away in luxury bunkers, should the worst come to pass. But one of the biggest questions they struggle with is how to control their servants and guards, in a world where their money and status no longer matters. But even if that wasn't a concern, there'll be no beating back the vengeful, impoverished, starving masses when they've locked themselves in sardine cans filled with food and water. Their fate, as depicted here, seems likely.
Magic Cloud
2025-12-05 06:15:06 +0000 UTCThanks man! The "millenia of terrestrial foreplay" is now explained in great detail :)
C. M. Kosemen
2023-12-15 06:54:34 +0000 UTCA future that feels it's all too real.. It is very interesting and exciting to see some pre-Martian history of man :)
Sucre Amygdalum
2023-12-15 06:41:30 +0000 UTCOh, BTW: For a view of the sort of future you're describing, look backwards: Look at Brasil in the 1990s. There was no middle class in Brasil until the start of the 21st Century. As a result, a new industry started in the 1990s in Brasil: Kidnapping Rich People [or their family members] for Ransom. I don't think that's unique to Brasilian culture or anything like that. When there are vast inequalities in a society, expect kidnapping for ransom money to become a new source of revenue. And piracy. And "Eating Your Society's Organs": tearing down copper power & phone lines to sell for scrap.
John Weiss
2023-12-12 14:21:36 +0000 UTCMy own personal future-forecast takes the arrogance of the 1% that you describe as a starting point, but instead involves The Wet Bulb Threshold. Mammals regulate body temperature with evaporative cooling. The "Wet Bulb Temperature" is the minimum temperature you can reach using evaporative cooling, given the current humidity and temperature in a place. For humans, we die if the wet-bulb temperature goes above 35°C. Other mammals may have a different threshold. Above that temperature, our bodies literally cook themselves to death. At some point in the coming century or two, there will be a band around the Equator where the Wet Bulb Temperature rises and stays [on average] above the Threshold, first for Humans, then for all mammals. There will be a Mammal-Exclusion-Zone around the planet. But _before_ we get to that point, we'll have a Wet-Bulb Threshold Catastrophe: In Indonesia, or India, [or maybe parts of Africa], the Wet Bulb Temperature will go above 35°C for over 24 hours. When this happens, the Rich will retreat to their air-conditioned homes. Those in the middle-income ranges who don't have AC and can get to cooling centers will. But the vast, VAST majority, the poor, will simply Lay Down where they are, and Never Get Up. Then the Rich will wake up to find that the cheap labor force their money is based on is All DEAD. The non-rich survivors will be in an uproar. The bodies rotting in the heat will be everywhere, with too few people to bury the dead in time. And, there won't be enough people to staff the airports that the Rich will try to flee out of. This is coming. I then expect the nation thus culled will slowly stagger to its feet, then declare war on the US, China, and every other country that has been wrecking the planet instead of doing what needs to be done. Well, that's my expectation, at least.
John Weiss
2023-12-12 14:17:48 +0000 UTCIt gets better in the next section :)
C. M. Kosemen
2023-12-12 05:51:08 +0000 UTCSounds grim...
Kyre Fiskrof
2023-12-12 00:22:55 +0000 UTC
