UK Government "Strategic Shocks"

metatron

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/33717/GST4_v9_Feb10.pdf

This is a document discussing challenges that the UK and the rest of the world may face in the future. On page 91 and 92, it mentions possible events that are rather unpredictable which could change the world radically -- "strategic shocks". Such as:

a cure for aging

new energy sources ( cold fusion reactors are mentioned explicitly)

the discovery of intelligent non-terrestrial life.

Apparently, the UK government feels a need to at least consider what might happen if....

metatron

FadeToBlack

Did they include a section about what if none of the above occur and we have to contend with BAU?

metatron

I posted the link to the whole document so that the full context can be judged. It regards these events as impossible to assign any probability to.

metatron

Oh, I would point out that it explicitly predicts the decline of US global power and the rise of China - this they consider likely.

metatron

FadeToBlack

Do you view Cold-Fusion as likely/possible in the next 50 years?

FadeToBlack

China already had their rise.. I think we are looking at a race to the bottom where everybody will be a winner, only the 'prize' will be different...

Apognophos

It's only natural to consider these possibilities. The US gov't has been concerned about the impact of ET contact since maybe the '50s. Will people freak out? Will the aliens be hostile, and if so, what chance do we stand?

And there's a lot of crazy, potentially scary technology on the horizon, even besides Kurzweil's Singularity:

- Nanomachines (how do you prevent an attack by something you can't see?)

- Precision-engineered viruses (DNA written and synthesized by a lab)

- Self-replicating robots which live off solar power and mine the land for their raw materials (how do you prevent economic collapse when nobody needs money because they have a personal robot gathering food and replicating products that they need?)

It's going to be an interesting century.

metatron

http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=79

The above and Cold Fusion efforts are the leading contenders for an energy shock, AFAIK.

I strongly believe that the world is building up to an explosion of sudden, shocking change - economically, politically and tech-wise - unlike anything we've ever seen. Old structures of control are breaking down across the globe and the internet is driving it all.

Here in the west, we have our own "Berlin walls" to break down.....

metatron

FadeToBlack

I would agree with the change thing. Could be sudden, could be like falling down a staircase. Either way, it is coming...

UK Government "Strategic Shocks"

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