Most of us love Christmas and the holidays regardless of religious affiliation. All the lights and festivities remind us of the importance of world peace and that maybe someday it will be achieved. We feel that sense of humanity in the eyes of our children.
Of course, the goal line for achieving world peace is always pushed forward and never seems to be possible. If lucky, we will avoid some cataclysm during the month of December. Everywhere we look apart from our own festivities and particularly on the evening news, world events continue to demonstrate that world peace is a far-off goal and may never arise.
Certainly, archaeologists will confirm that our species has demonstrated violent behavior since its inception. In the caves and riverbeds of 30,000 years ago when groups of humans like us engaged in conflict, death on a mass scale is evidenced through pierced sculls and nearby spearheads, and other primitive tools of war. It seems that the seeds of violence are implanted in all of us and literally woven into the fabric of our genomes.
I predict that by 2050, geneticists and neurologists will have pinpointed the source of violence within our genes and particularly within the human brain. It can be argued that these tendencies encouraged the survival of our species from an evolutionary standpoint but with the enhancement of the weapons of mass destruction, such biological product it is likely to cause our demise. From a societal standpoint, although it currently raises ethical questions, nation-states will implement genetic modifications which reduce the incidence of violence in their respective populations. The immediate effects will be stunning as societal violence will finally be eradicated for the most part.
The larger question is whether such augmentation will ultimately eliminate violence as manifested at the international level. Ultimately, will there be peace on earth?
As will be explored in these articles, I predict that so long as human beings walk the earth, there will always be violence. There is much truth in the stories of the Old Testament as to the corruption of the Garden of Eden. I do not profess such to constitute viable historic facts but simply an analog for the human condition. Our species inherently is violent and will never change.
Wherever humans have dwelled, extinction events have occurred on a mass scale. There is substantial evidence that our species wiped out the competing Neanderthal group and the same fate befell other evolutionary branches of the human family. Additionally, as humans migrated from Africa across the world animal species entirely disappeared as they were devoured for food whether we are discussing the extinction of the woolly mammoth, the unique marsupials of Australia, or even the passenger pigeon and American buffalo. Humans inherently kill and could care less about the effects of their actions. This is also evidenced by the overt destruction of our environment which will only destroy our species. No one seems to care.
I know none of this sounds particularly festive with the approach of Christmas, Hanukkah, and the other holidays but I believe it to be the truth. Ultimately, as revealed in the articles to come, violence will not be contained but will intensify up to 2050 and beyond. Those of higher educational status and resources will protect themselves within enclaves very much the way the Romans attempted without success to protect themselves from the barbarians. However, with the advent of what I call the corporate city-states, small groups of humans will survive and prosper juxtaposed with the destruction of almost everyone and everything else.
Peace on earth will finally come but only for a few and very much reminiscent of the experience of Noah and his ark.
We will explore these issues in detail in the December edition of future 2050.
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