Website2: Home Page

Learning without thought is labour lost;
thought without learning is perilous.
Confucius

At this stage, this website is essentially a placeholder for some areas of interest, which do not necessarily fit the profile of the discussions in Website-1 and which are still in the research stage. Whether the scope of these ideas can be linked together, in a coherent fashion, may have to be reviewed, but at this early stage, one initial idea is to parallel some aspects of website-1 from a slightly different angle:

If we examine the breakdown of Website-2 being considered, it could be argued that the difference between a worldview and a perspective is simply a matter of scope. In practice, we may come to have a perspective on a large number of topics, which can be subject to change, triggered by the events and attitudes, which impinge on us personally, i.e. as individuals, throughout our lives. Likewise, evolution and development also differ in scope based on the timescales normally involved. Typically, we associate evolution with change that occurs over very long periods of time; while developments may be driven by technology that lead to a fundamental shift in human society within a single generation. Finally, while there is a close relationship between science and technology, we might also limit the scope of technology to the applied sciences that have already found specific application in the modern world, but which may also come to have further profound effects on future generations.

Perspective

In the original discussion of worldviews, we tried to consider some of the wider issues of human nature and the historical events that have had a major impact on society, as a whole. However, in the context of the present-day world, the accumulated effects of the past may often come to manifest themselves in terms of some overt or subliminal 'class system' into which we are born. Subsequently, we may then be affected by the culture that surrounds us in childhood in terms of both religious and political conformity.

So what major factors may have influenced you in reaching a certain perspective on any topic, e.g. education or indoctrination?

Of course, in the absence of first hand experience, the actual scope of education and indoctrination might be as mundane as the newspapers or TV channels that are available to you. We might also collectively describe these issues in terms of some social or cultural ideology; the pervasiveness of which is reflective of either a 'liberal democracy' or 'totalitarian state'. However, few governments around the world, of any form, are totally immune to the increasing pressures being imposed by events in the global economy. So, in this context, we might arrive at a worldview or perspective that may only reflect the sum of our learning rather than actual experience, such that we may need to consider the following question:

To what extent is your perspective, on any topic, influenced by those in control of the media and information in general?

Today, much is made of human rights and, in particular, the right to the freedom of speech. Of course, while not arguing against this freedom, the 'real' value to others of your freedom to articulate any perspective might depend on your answer to the questions above, which was possibly one of the main concerns raised by William Clifford over 100 years ago:

"The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them, for then it must sink back into savagery. It may matter little to me, in my cloud-castle of sweet illusions and darling lies; but it matters much to Man that I have made my neighbours ready to deceive. The credulous man is father to the liar and the cheat."

However, it has to be highlighted that Clifford's own perspective would have possibly been a reflection of the values of a privileged Englishman, born in 1845, into the Victorian culture of 19^th England. Therefore, the scope of the discussions in this section will now be orientated to subjects, which may be influencing present-day perceptions.

Developments

No substantative work has been done in this area, as yet. However, it is highly recommended that you view the video lecture by Dr. Albert Bartlett, entitled 'Arithmetic, Population and Energy'. While Dr. Bartlett cites the following quote at the end of his lecture, the implications are well worth considering from the start:

 Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley

As indicated, the scope of the remit of this section hopes to address some of the current developments, which may affect the future evolution of human society in the next few generations. In this context, one of the biggest present-day developments, when measured as a relative change, is the growth in the world's population. While this effect has many social implications, it is probably true to say that this growth directly reflects and depends on the development of technology, especially the explosive growth in the 20^th century.

At this point, it might be suggested that there are a number of potential issues that might determine whether the prediction, in the graph above, comes true or not. In this context, we might table the following question:

What is the probability that the issue of population will be addressed rationally?

First, it might have to be accepted that virtually all ecological problems can be traced back to the demands of a growing population, which then not only underpin the economics of supply and demand, but sometimes overwhelm any other wider considerations. Second, the system of supply and demand may now have transcended the control of any single political system, resulting in only ineffective compromise, especially in respect to any long-term shared ecological responsibility. Third, there is the thorny issue as to whether all fundamental human rights can be extended to every one of the planet's 6.7 billion inhabitants, at least, in terms of a right to procreate.

So what potential solutions to population control might be considered?

Of course, at this point, some might try to refute that population growth has already become a problem in terms of a sustainable ecology or prefer to run with the assumption that future developments will always offer up a solution. However, it is clear that others will contest the reality of such a position, not only in terms of the technical realities, but possibly in terms of any higher goals we might wish to attribute to human existence. Finally, there is the very real prospect that no solution will be actively sought, leaving only nature's bottom-line solution to the problem of demand exceeding supply.

So are there any other alternative approaches?

At this point, political correctness can often suppress public discussion of any approach that appears to conflict with the growing demand for human rights; although this understandable position does not necessary make the problem go away. The problem with any discussion of selective control of the population, when the term genetics is introduced, is the fear that some may also have a secret eugenic agenda. While this danger is understandable from a historic perspective and not out of the question in a future context, it does not necessarily negate the rationale when the issues are discussed in a moral framework. However, at this early stage, the wider implication of this future discussion will simply be tabled in the form of a quote by Charles Darwin:

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to smallpox. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

Of course, the implication of any continued population growth has also to be rationalised in terms of resources. While any human society can make many calls on resources, we might initially consider the issue of food production and housing, which underpin any basic quality of life. At this point, we may also need to reflect on the axiom 'just four meals away from anarchy' in order to determine how much scope for a rational solution to the population problem may actually exist in the face of potential anarchy.

Technology

It is recognised that the scope of modern technology is enormous, such that any discussion will have to be rationalised to some short-list, which best reflects the impact on society. In this context, the application of computers, both in terms of processing power and the ability to distribute information seems to now be central to much of what is happening in the world. Today, the ubiquity of computers has spread into almost every aspect of what we might describe as a global society, i.e. automated control and communications. Sixty years ago, most people could have counted the number of electric motors in their home on one hand; while thirty years ago, this was equally true of computers. Today, it is probably true to say that most people do not know how many computer chips are in their homes, but more importantly, they may not yet appreciate just how dependent their lives have already become on computer technology and computer-aided applications. These applications are predicated not only on the development of computer hardware, but also the ability of software to program the hardware to communicate on a global basis.

•          Hardware           - Computing
•          Software            - Programming
•          Communications - Internet
•          Information        - Web Applications

It might be argued that the electronic computer age was triggered by the development of the transistor in 1948, which was then quickly followed by the first commercially available computer from Univac in 1951. While all computer hardware operates on the basis of binary switching, the earliest computers were invariably programmed using in a low-level language, often referred to as machine code. In 1953, IBM had developed the first high-level language called Fortran and it would be IBM who would eventually pioneer the first wave of home PC's in 1981. As a result, within an initial 30 year period, most computers took the form of a large central mainframe, the cost of which restricted ownership to large corporations and institutions. However, while the cost of mainframe computers initially restricted the access to computers, it also led to the development of communication protocols, which then allowed the remote access to a centralised system. By 1971, this innovation had led to the 1^st generation of the Internet, although it was not originally known as such, even so, it was adequate for the earlier implementations of email to start to spread. Over the next 20 years, the growing sophistication of hardware and software, increased exponentially in-line with Moores Law and would ultimately lead to the modern concept of the Internet and the Web. This consolidation was based on a hypertext language known as HTML initially developed by Tim Berners-Lee operating over a communication protocol called IP. The rest, as they say, is history, but one of the first goals of this section will be to detail the design of this website and all its inherent problems.