The Washington Monthly

January 30, 2003

THE FUTURE....Every once in a while, while I'm all caught up in the middle of some furious political blogging, I suddenly blink and wonder if any of it really matters. Here's why:

Quantum computing
Artificial intelligence
Infinite clean energy from fusion/solar/etc.
Nanotechnology
Genetic tailoring

Plus a couple of other new technologies that we haven't even thought of yet.

It's possible that none of these things will ever become practical, but I bet most of them will sometime in the next 50-100 years. And it will make all the stuff we're arguing about today simply irrelevant, assuming we can refrain from blowing ourselves to bits in the meantime.

That list is one of the reasons I have a hard time getting too worked up about projections of Social Security deficits in the year 2078....

—Kevin Drum 9:17 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (0)

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