The Future

Yesterday I found myself looking at an advertisement for the futurist magazine. It was really interesting to read about all of these advancements in nanotechnology and robotics and everything else along those lines. It also talked about the huge possibilities of water shortages and food shortages due to drought and overpopulation. I began to think about what the future could be like. Actually, I've been doing that for awhile. It really is an interesting thought. I began to think about everything bad that could happen (and most very possibly will). Mass deaths due to famine and drought. The second cold war with Russia and China. Energy shortages, even. But then, I began to think about the good that could happen. On a side note (that will be related to my point), my old school has gone through a lot of changes the past few years. I don't go there anymore because it ends in eighth grade, but it still is important to me. At the end of my last year, my French teacher, whom I liked a lot, divorced her husband and moved to France to live with the widower of her best friend in France. It was really a shock, and it strangely deeply hurt me. They also decided to just do science fair every other year, and my favorite teacher their (my science teacher) was fired. This also deeply hurt me. I felt like the school was becoming more of a rich kid school and less of a smart kid school. Just yesterday, I went to their website to see what the school was up to. I read a message from the headmistress, talking about the past of Advent, and the future. She talked about how it was the first accredited, and the first integrated school in Jefferson County. It really did blaze some trails. And then she began to talk about a new $3 million initiative to update facilities, provide financial aid (it's not a cheap school), and support professional development (not actually sure what that means). It's the biggest overhaul of the school since 1990. She ended the message with this: "Congratulations, Advent, for a shining past; Godspeed for the future. Una S. Battles, Headmistress." And strangely it gave me hope for the future of the school. For all of the bad that seemed to have happened recently, there seemed to be a lot of bright days ahead for the school. Back to my original story, I began to apply this hope to the future of humanity, and realized that for all the bad, many good days can still lie ahead. Sure we may have energy problems and drought and famine and overcrowding, but so many new technologies being developed can fix many of these problems, like desalination plants, better techniques for growing crops, new energies (see windmills), and the much overlooked space program. Sure we will go through some rough times, but I think we'll come out on top, especially with the help of the space program. I wish the presidential candidates would talk about it more, but they just don't seem to. Even though I'm usually a very strong advocate of free markets, I like NASA, even if it is a government agency. It really has done a lot. And it plans a lot for the future, like a Lunar base and a manned trip to Mars. So back to yesterday me thinking, I began to imagine a human empire across the galaxy, maybe even across the universe. With bases on the Moon and especially Mars and other planets, we wouldn't have as many problems with overcrowding or food or water, because we could develop the ability to terraform and create those things on the planets we colonize. I think that's why I so much want to be an aerospace engineer. I think good things lie ahead. The road will be rough, and we may not get past 2012, but if we do, I truly believe the best for humanity is yet to come.