China population future trends Videos

+kingdom come"Order or control?"What's the difference?That may be why noone normal would ever resent a traffic light telling them what to do.............which might sound like a flippant example, but it isn't really, when you consider a lot of the technology around us that we barely even notice anymore, which exerts both control AND order in our lives.And has been specifically designed to do so.Also, I'm going to be sticking with my assertion that technology is the main driver of history, as I've thought long and hard about it before coming to that conclusion.Of course, that isn't true on the LARGEST possible scales, where our entire existence as a species is concerned over the longest time periods, because then we are no different than any other species, with the PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT being the DOMINANT influence on our ULTIMATE successes or constraints.So when I refer to our 'history' being driven by technology, I'm really only referring to our nice little bit of environmental stability since the last Ice Age and the Neolithic Revolution; but the principle can also be applied all the way back to the first stone tools and fire, except that the process back then was glacially slow in comparison to the last ten millenia or so. And of course, it has just kept getting EXPONENTIALLY faster since then.You see, if technology doesn't change much, NOTHING changes much.5000 yrs ago, twenty generations could pass without us being able to see much change in peoples lives or society.400 yrs ago, things were a lot quicker, but the average person could still expect that their great grandchildren would have much the same type of life as their own great grandparents.But since 100yrs ago, when my grandparents were teenagers, just two generations has meant a completely different world for us.Back then they were a LOT less familiar with powered flight than we are with robots on Mars. They didn't know what viruses were. They didn't know that there was ANY Universe beyond our Milky Way galaxy. It took several weeks for the FASTEST vessel to get to the other side of the world; and for the majority of people, it took that long to just communicate that far.It is our unstoppable characteristic of constantly making millions of large or small improvements to the way we do things every year, that regardless of any minor slowdowns or setbacks, just keeps building on what already exists, and so just keeps getting faster.That's why we've been able to see quite dramatic changes in our lifestyles within our own lifetimes, and I plan to see quite a few more before I'm done too!You mentioned religions, but they don't actually CHANGE the world.In fact, they themselves are very resistant to change, and have been more of a force of stability in societies, or even of stagnation.They usually just reflect the changes that have already long occurred in a given society, and because religions are typically such traditional institutions, they usually only change after their predecessor becomes VERY 'old fashioned' and outmoded.There are hundreds of examples of that throughout history.The generalised sequence of historical change follows as: new technique > which makes economies change > which makes social orders change > which make political systems change > which make centres of power change > and finally traditional cultural practices, like religions, either change in some way, or are destined to either become marginal, or go under all together.But they are the ones who always end up dragging their feet, or else getting dragged kicking and screaming into the future.As I said, that's just a general pattern, but when you apply it to real events, you'll see how well it fits at all kinds of scales and circumstances.And quite fun to do as well.Now of course it's true what you say about how the powerful generally get the dibs on new stuff when it first emerges. But once you consider the pattern above, their advantage doesn't last long, and as my first comment implies, the powerful are finding it increasingly difficult to KEEP control of the technology, which then feeds into our newly developing social and political changes, resulting in the powerful finding it MORE DIFFICULT to call the shots, - NOT EASIER (at least in the developed world).I'm not really worried whether I convince anyone of this or not, so I'll leave it for you to either confirm or dismiss it for yourself, but I'll give just the one recent example where the US, and other authorities, keep trying to use the internet as a wonderful device of control, but keep being bitten on the arse by individuals or small organisations, who use exactly the same technology to whistleblow, terrorise, hack, trade, or organise against those authorities, with just as much force, and often with impunity.So who is controlling who?Or what?But don't take my word for it. Apply the model for yourself.Also keep in mind that the general trend of our technology is heading towards decentralised, highly autonomous, and customised production, as opposed to the highly centralised, assembly line, factory style production of the 20th C.This will have a huge effect on how we organise our societies in the near future.