Reality

thoughts influence reality.

they do not "create" reality as some might have, but they certainly do influence it.

what, may i ask, are your thoughts on the future?

such a broad question, yet very relevant considering that thoughts influence reality. i would dare say that usually one's emotional state will color what type of thoughts are expressed.

for example, being in love is wonderful. certainly this state affects one's perspective on the future. the future is more hopeful and full of potential, when in love. of course not always, nor strictly deterministically, but generally this holds.

another example: an expecting mother cannot help but envision a decent future. for then what are the alternatives?

perhaps a more objective viewpoint could be had from an individual who has no such ties? yet even this is probably not true. a person without many binding relationships and kith/kin networks is more likely to have a correspondingly detached view of the future.

it is foolish to deny the real limits nature has imposed on us. it is equally foolish to maintain a fataly deterministic worldview. because you are a part of this future. every individual affects the unfolding of events.

this collective force is called culture. and it is this very thing which must change, or succumb to real limitations and die.

it is claimed by ecologists that we have far exceeded our planetary carrying capacity. we have done this by harnessing the ghost carrying capacity of fossil fuels, which has given us the so-called green revolution. however determining "carrying capacity" is a very tricky affair. so many variable must be taken into account that i cannot imagine the data does not have a few orders of magnitude of potential error.

this question of capacity is really a question of culture. for example, if we continue to eat massive amounts of beef then our planetary human carrying capacity is more limited than it would be otherwise. other factors to consider is the relative productivity per acre of large agribusiness farms compared to smaller family farms. other cultural factors come to bear as well. for example, what we choose to do with our time. a culture which is vigorous and active burns more calories than a leisure loving culture.

hopefully these few comments suffice to show that applying this ecological concept of "carrying capacity" is helpful but not determinitive. as humans we have a creative capacity which can be nurtured and engaged with culture. the big question is can we change the current culture?

the answer to this is unknown. certainly sections of culture can change, subcultures emerge as reactions to the larger culture. but the scale of cultural change that is needed seems massive. much larger than what has changed so far.

we shall see.