Stuart’s Thoughts   5/21/2019

More On The Downside of Progress

In the past few years, I’ve written a couple of posts mentioning what I see as some of the downsides of progress.   Recently,  a new one is appearing on the horizon that some suggest could becoming a significant danger to nearly everyone.  It’s well known that we are being continually bombarded by various forms of radiation from both natural and man-made sources .Adverse effects of cosmic and electro-magnetic radiation from a multitude of sources throughout the universe as well as our own sun are, to a large extent, minimized thanks to the earth’s magnetic field which deflects much of this from reaching earth’s surface and us.  On the other hand, man made electro-magnetic radiation has increased in recent years with the proliferation of WiFi and wireless communication.  With the coming of a much more powerful 5G system, many scientists are now warning of possible significant health risks to the general population, i.e., everyone will be exposed and those with cell phones carried close to their bodies may be at particular risk.  Experts predict higher rates of cancers, neurological disorders and numerous other ailments may well be caused by 5G electro-magnetic radiation in coming years.

This also brings to mind a thought brought to my attention recently.  Jim mentioned that he recently learned of a theory of why earth hasn’t been visited by intelligent life from other sites in the universe.  Considering that cosmologists now believe that there are literally millions of other earth like planets throughout the universe capable of supporting intelligent life, manny of these alien worlds have likely existed far longer than our own species.  Thus, it would  seem probable that we should have been contacted, even considering the significant technical challenges.  It is simply a matter of applying a very low probability to a huge number.

Some have suggested that the reason we have not received visitors from an alien world could be because highly advanced technology may ultimately lead to very powerful destructive weapons.  Weaknesses in the nature of intelligent beings may invariably result in self destruction of the species, a very real eventual outcome here on earth, given significant defects in our own human nature.  In other words, intelligent beings, given weaknesses in character, will ultimately face self destruction caused by the very technological products they themselves created.