Genesis - The First Steps
A lot of scaremongering is palmed around in our tiny world. I say 'tiny' because, over the last few decades, the boundaries of distance and time between our continents and peoples have diminished to a fraction of their former selves; and it has all been down to technology.
Human advances in the 20th and 21st centuries have been vast in relation to the previous ones. And with great advances came great irresponsibility.
I remember one of my high school teachers, back in the early 1980s, announcing how it would take less than a thousand nuclear weapons to set man on the path to extinction. Would it surprise you to know that the nuclear-capable nations of the world have detonated more than twice that number in the name of testing, as a deterant to war, as posturing for their opposites around the globe.
More than 2000 warheads!
The cost of all that must be in the many trillions of dollars, but before we go poo-pooing it as a massive waste of resources, here's a thought... So many positives in the medical and scientific worlds were as a direct result of that destructive development, that perhaps you can justify some of it. Certainly not all, but some.
Without those first weapons, for how much longer would World War II have raged? How many more lives needlessly lost? How much could a single decision have changed the post-war world?
Over the decades, Japan has often said that they would have surrendered unconditionally, had the US dropped that first bomb on an uninhabited island. By the time Nagasaki was levelled, the wheels were already in motion.
It is easy to argue that the actual targeting was important, but it served to show the Soviets and other communist states, that the West had no qualms about using these weapons of mass destruction, irrespective of the losses.
Would the cold war have been different if ONE bomb had been dropped on ONE, vacant piece of land? It's impossible to tell.
Nevertheless, I can't help but think the many detonations (both above and below ground) and the radiation from them, has had a lasting effect on the whole world.
Cancers of every kind are an everyday news subject. I personally know a dozen people living with the 'Big C', and could probably name more than twice that many amongst my online community and friends-of-friends. Yes, our technological research and knowledge of radiation therapies has given us the weapons to fight these terrible diseases... but would we need to wage such a war against cancer if we had been more responsible in the past? Personally, I don't think so.
More modern advances have been stalled by the introduction of 'Ethical Research'. As medical understanding began to move into new, celular level research, resistance grew. Stem Cell Research and Genetic Therapy Research was suddenly the big, bad wolf... Scientists would try to create people! They would steal the mantle of God! Would they create babies just to experiment on them?
Considering the rate at which we are already overcrowding our little ball of dust, I really don't think their interests would lie in that direction, though the ability to cure diseases at a genetic level would eliminate so many chronic illnesses and the need for so many exorbitantly-priced drugs, you do have to wonder who exactly is driving the train of objection.
Take Genetically Modified crops, for example... We are pretty much at the technological stage where we can modify foodstuffs to survive in different environments, to be resistant to natural enemies and therefore reduce the need for our foods to be doused in chemicals... Advances which would surely go a long way to reduce famine around the world... but no. Some people make their banners and believe the scaremongering.
These crops are not natural. What will they do to us? There must be a negative they aren't telling us about.
Our species has reached a crossroads. Technology and advancement stand before us, offering us health, wealth and a way to build a positive future... Yes, there would have to be control. Good, solid control. No back doors, no grey areas where research can be exploited wrongly.
So why do we object so vehemently? Why do we want to take a side-road into uncertainty?
As a race, humanity continues to fall back on ancient discriminations and values. Things that have no place in our modern, progressive world. I am not a very religious person, but I do believe (very strongly) that we each have the right to believe what we wish. If you have your God and you are content with your God, then who am I to tell you otherwise... but...
Is it really such a bad thing to want to see our world and our race survive long into the future? I was once told my thoughts were 'unchristian'. Was I supposed to be upset by the remark?
The world around us has changed, and yet we refuse to adapt, we deny ourselves the opportunity to become bigger, better, brighter. And we do this in the name of the future generations who will benefit from it most.
If our entire population stood together and called for a better world, do you really think we would all suffer as a result?
We will stand at this crossroads until someone has the nerve to step forward. It will take a far bigger pair of boots than mine to make this happen, and it will take a far bigger cry of agreement from us all to give that person the courage to do it.
In a world where so many die from disease, hunger, war, attrocity and hatred, when so much of it can be eliminated, surely it is time to walk forward?
