The Final Frontier: Preludes to Deep Space Travel

According to Technology’s promise, space is the next great frontier in the rise of human civilization. There are five major path-breaking space projects or activities which are projected to open up the limitless expanse of the universe in the next several decades. Starting in the near-term, space tourism promises to create a new industry and excitement attracting new sources of economic backing to expand space usage. Building on this new excitement, opportunities and economic backing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will work to establish a moon based colony. This will provide and establish a launching point for planetary travels within our solar system.  Given the types of environments and distances within our solar system, the first destination currently being planned is manned missions to Mars. The final two areas that the human race will continue to strive are more difficult to achieve as they rely upon variables outside of our control. The first is extraterrestrial or alien contact and the final area is inter-stellar travel.  Alien contact is more about creating technology capable of identifying alien life rather than actually physically meeting or interacting with it. This is based on the final area of inter-stellar space travel (Halal, 2008). While the Alpha Centauri star system is the closest to our sun, the nearest star to our sun is Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.22 light-years away (Sessions, 2012). Even with a propulsion system that was just 1% of the speed of light, which is currently not possible today, it would take four hundred years just to reach Proxima Centauri!  Therefore, these last two goals and objectives are far term goals that could take centuries for mankind to achieve.  

The likelihood of all five of these predications occurring in the next 100 years is probably low. However, the likelihood of the first three occurring in this same time-frame are highly probable given that they reside within the control of the human race.

Reference
Halal, W. E. (2008). Technology's Promise. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Sessions, L., (2012). Downloaded from http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/alpha-centauri-is-the-nearest-bright-star

Health Improvement Super-Trend

The super trend regarding health improvements, like every new development, technological improvement or futuristic trend, has both positive and negative aspects. While each of us would see that an increase in the health and subsequent longevity is a good thing at a personal level, this fact has directly driven two other super trends (Economic growth and Environmental decline): Each of which has negative consequences. It could be further argued that health improvements have actually driven every super trend identified. However technological and health improvements are, metaphorically speaking a circular reference; similar to the "which came first, the chicken or the egg"? Regardless, health improvements and the fact that we are now living longer, has driven an explosion in the population. This population explosion means that there are more consumers of goods and services. More people drive a greater consumption of resources which in-turn create significant economic growth. This increase in the consumption of resources generate negative impacts in the environment that ultimately cause its decline.
There have been some attempts to address the impacts of increasing longevity. China's official "Family planning policy" or the "one-child policy", was an attempt to stem the impacts of over population and it's impacts on a society. Programs of this type are rare as most societies see this as a direct impact on personal freedom and liberties and a very draconian and autocratic control over people's lives. However, few other options exist to address the potential impacts of extreme population increases. Some have suggested that the initial anemic response by western countries to the AIDs epidemic in African countries was a covert response to curbing the increase in global populations. While an interesting hypothesis, I believe that the slow response was more of an economic decision that impacted the humanitarian needs of third world populations. Unfortunately, economic decisions typically are at odds with humanitarian ones.
As with all trends that directly affect the life of a human being, only socialistic changes tend to modify the respective impacts. Two significant social changes that may slowly address the trend of health improvements are the changing views on abortion and the increasing age people are having children.
While Roe versus Wade legalized abortion in 1973, people still saw abortion as socially unacceptable with a social stigma. This view has been evolving with many now seeing abortion as an acceptable approach to unwanted pregnancy. In fact, cultural aspects of varying countries have also added a unique view to this by providing a method for gender selection. Since many cultures view certain genders, mostly male, as preferred over females, abortion provides a method to select the gender of off-spring. This of course will create impacts on population as fewer females will impact the ability of a species to reproduce. This of course may be off-set by the trend of increasing mobility.
The second social view involves increasing parental ages. As people live longer, many are now postponing when they have children. In previous generations, people, mostly women, had to choose between a career and a family. It was believed that the choice was simply one or the other and that both could not be achieved within a single lifetime. However, with the increase in health, longevity and lengths of fertility, many now believe that they can have the best of both worlds by focusing on a career earlier in their lives and later, using the economic benefits of a successful career to raise a family. This has the consequence of delaying or slowing the rate of population increase as a result of increased health and longevity.
In conclusion, I believe that only through various forms of social engineering can the impacts of these super trends be adequately addressed.
ReferenceCornish, E (2004). Futuring:The Exploration of the Future, World Future Society, Maryland, United States.

Klein Test Video

This is an example of an Animoto Video I put together using original music and diagrams from my dissertation. Given the ease of which this was created I can see the value of this medium as it can easy be used to provide an easy method supporting teaching as well as recreational usage.

Klein Test Video

Agora Analysis

The main objective of the Structured Design Dialogue (SDD) technique is that we don't want the many or the few to decide on the rule of governance. We must define a method, technique or process were politics is comprised of both majority and minority views combined into a combined view or the overall will of the whole population. SDD looks to form a problem resolution approach where we learn to make decisions through group association representing all groups, members and associations within the population. One of the methods offered by the SDD is developing a shared language that differs from current forms of communication. The concept is that in order to bring together disparate groups, new methods of communication or languages must be created to broker new ways of discussing and hopefully solving problems that apply equally to all members of the group.  

If we were to evaluate planning activities for technological change, as the diagram suggests we first need to evaluate and analyze the problem requiring innovation or change. The next step is to evaluate a specific triggering question that begins to isolate the particular issue we are hoping to resolve. Continuing to step through this process, what we see is a refinement of an issue drilling down to a specific, most important issue that requires a resolution. This step-wise refinement could be applied to any plan to address the implementation of an innovation or new idea.   

References

Schreibman, V., Christakis, A., (2007). New Agora: New Geometry of Languaging and new Technology of Democracy:  The structured Design Dialogue process, Downloaded from: http://www.harnessingcollectivewisdom.com/pdf/newagora.pdf