„The optimist proclaimes that we live in the best of possible worlds;and the pessimist fears that this is true.“
How can I describe our life at the end of second millennium? At first. This year 2000 is the last year of the second millennium. One thousand years ago nobody didn’t believe that there would be some "other" millennium. People were farmers, barbarians. But now everyone says that we are cultivated. But Romans were saying that Egyptian were barbarian. But where was the birthplace of civilisation? Of course, in Egypt. So if now somebody is saying that the other isn’t cultivated, is it true? What is the measure of accomplishments?
At the beginning of this century there were only 6 states with democracy and now it is above 50% of all people all over the world. It were (and is) the big expansion of individualism (This is the result of crash of communism). There are very big differences here between people like political, economic or liberal once.
These years (2000 and 2001) are considerable because of the next end of millennium will absorb the next 40-45 generations after us. But it’s only for people who appreciate Christian calendar. Buddhists, Hinds or Arabs won’t celebrate this year very differently than last year. For example for Hebrew it is now era 5761 and not 1999 like for us. For Arabs it is end of this year 5/4/2000 what is end of year 1420.
The other anomaly is in date. People say that this is a magical year-1999-with one at the beginning and other years will have figure 2 at the beginning.
This century was a century of “contrivances“. Before this the progress was very slow but from 19th century is everything very fast. Contrivance of radiotelegraph, first flight by plane, conquest of north pole, conquest of south pole, discovery of penicillin, first A-bomb, holography, conquest of Mt.Everest, Wichtrle (Czech) invented contact lenses, first flight in cosmos, first transplantation of heart, first people on the moon, first car with the speed higher than speed of sound and many, many others.
But when were contrived computer (in 1914 IBM; 1976 Apple Macintosh) it was really fascinating At that time some people believed that computer was God’s contrivance and some people believed that PC was devil’s contrivance. Bill Gates, millionaire (the richest man on our planet) is known by his Windows (it was commissioning 1990). Today have above 100 000 000 people computers with Windows. Mostly people have computer at home. Computers are everywhere. In factories, in shops, in schools (mainly) and, of course, at homes. At the end of this millennium there is imminence computer’s crash. People are afraid of what computers will do. One problem is in this moment with number 2 at the beginning of date and the second problem is in farther future. First problem is called Y2K.I can say that it was because now is 2/1/2000 and only few computers had some problems. And the second problem is possible capture of humankind by computer.
Before hundreds of years there were slaves, first contrivances (telephone, railways) and wars for independence. Now there aren’t slaves, there are a lot of contrivances and most people are free. Only wars are eternal, for some place of nobody, capture of some nation (2nd world war, occupation of Tibet) and many others. So it’s difficult to do some idea about our future. I saw pictures from 19th century, where were ideas from different people about future, about year 2000. It was interesting. There were pictures with people who were walking on the water, the houses were moving with trains’ and the like. It is not reality. And I read a book called captain Nemo. At that time it was fantasy. It is about submarine like a miracle and now is U-boat real.10 years ago I have an idea that people in 2000 and more will wear silver coats, have everything controlled by computers, flying cars etc. Now computers control our lives from some part. The traffic lights are controlled by computer, flights by plane are checked by computer, cash machine and all banking are controlled by computers. So if there is a question what will be different in the next century we can say that computers will direct all world. Everything. I think that everything will be more technical. But I don’t know what will be possible to do, if we will have some special inventions or not. One thing I know really good - that I will be dead after 100 years. But somewhere I have read that British men of science have found human cellule of the life. They can prolong human life 4 TIMES! So nothing is certain. We can only have some ideas and my idea is that we will destroy ourselves. I hope that it is not true. Maybe not after 100 year, maybe not after 300 year but sometime in the future yes.
Maybe we will meet some aliens from farther cosmos. They can be kind but they can be aggressive. They can take to us some really important instruments but they can destroy us. I saw some films-Star wars, Star Trek, Matrix and many others. They are about our future. First are about settlements in cosmos, second is about discovery in remote space and the third is about virtual reality, about computers and about dreams. The third one is interesting by its conception. That we are dreaming, everything is a dream and only some people are woken. These people control world. The others are servants. Maybe this is the true. Maybe we dream. So everything is in the air...
…No, this is not the right. Everything is on us. If we will destroy our Earth it will be only, only our mistake.
11. listopad 2009
11 346×
1003 slov