Tuesday, January 1, 2013

#1 / Predicting The Future



Typically, we “predict” the future by extrapolating current trends. That system has its place, but there is a problem. An extrapolation of current trends fails to predict “new” actions, things that we or someone else does that are not being done now. We can, in other words, always change what we are doing, and transform the trends.

When I first got involved in public life in Santa Cruz County, in the early 1970’s, Santa Cruz County was the fastest growing county in California, and the fifth fastest growing county in the entire nation. Predictions based on then current trends forecast a population of half a million people by the year 2000. A massive residential development was being proposed for the Santa Cruz County North Coast. It was predicted that almost all our prime farmland would be paved over, and that there would be urban development from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, along Highway One; from Santa Cruz to the Summit, along Highway 17; and from Santa Cruz to Boulder Creek, along Highway 9. That didn’t happen because Santa Cruz voters changed the land use policies that governed growth and development. 

Our individual and collective freedom to choose what we are going to do is an undeniable reality, however often ignored. 

As we enter a New Year, I suggest that instead of predicting what will happen to us, we should decide, instead, what we want to happen, and then make our ideas into a reality. 


Image Credit: http://www.thesantacruzlodging.com/

2 comments:

  1. What we want to happen and then making it a reality is is a tall ideal.

    The world can little afford to sustain the carbon that the oil, gas and coal industries have headed our way in the form of fuel and energy.

    Our way of life is dependent upon prodigious amounts of energy. We meed to make rational decisions on what and how we attain the energy we need or want.

    I am in hopes that this new year that we will move toward RF Accelerator Driven Heavy Ion Fusion as our energy source. I know you have never heard of it, well most have not, so I am not surprised. RFADHIF is clean, green and very safe. It is a form of nuclear energy that does not have all the problems you associate with nuclear fission energy - lots of highly radio active waste, bomb making materials, melt downs and run-away reaction.

    A man, a scientist, there in Santa Cruz, is the lead physicist on a project to change the world's energy paradigm with the SPRFD method of doing RFADHIF. He need all of our support to get this done before it is too late for man, us, to live on the earth.

    View You Tube's video "StarPower for Tomorrow" for a real education. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a7f1QGGYiY

    ReplyDelete
  2. Calabasas Hal:

    I am sorry to be late in letting you know that I appreciated your comment. I did not, indeed, know about the RFADHIF approach to energy generation that you highlight. I did watch the video, and I hope the promoters of this technology will provide a little bit more substance. In other words, how would that work?

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Thanks for your comment!