TO INFINITY AND BEYOND?

      Here is one more thought to turn over in your mind. Most people tend to think in terms of a sequential or linear progression. Goals are typically structured in a directional framework. Like charting a course, people start at point X and try to go in a straight line to their goal at point Y. Typically the direction is defined by an increasing quantity: more money, more security, more prestige, more power. Individual goals seem to be based on the assumption that the opportunity to grow and progress is always there. The concept of limitless opportunity is particularly strong in America (perhaps because of its immense resources). Because for centuries there has been little restriction imposed by finite boundaries, most people tend to operate on the assumption that everything can progress indefinitely. Americans assume that the personal standard of living can constantly improve from generation to generation. People assume that medical advances will continue to be made and that health will constantly improve. We have witnessed a significant increase in life span over the past century, and it is taken for granted that this trend will continue. If people can live for one hundred years, why can't they live for one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and fifty years? In almost all aspects of their lives, both personal and social, people expect the linear progressions experienced in the past to continue. Americans strive to spread freedom around the world. Government and social policy is predicated on continual improvements in human rights, ethnic and racial relations; and there is an unquestioned pursuit of peace and harmony throughout the world. But how can a world of finite limits accommodate an unlimited progression of growth and improvement? Is it realistic to believe that the human race can continue to populate the world, provide a constantly improving standard of living, eliminate disease, forestall death, and live in peace? Clearly some of the necessary resources will be exhausted and conflicts will arise. Without a structural framework within which to address these inevitable conflicts, the world is at risk of falling into anarchy, both national anarchy and individual anarchy. Once people realize that constant unlimited progression is not possible, and they start thinking in terms of complex systems with shifting variables and finite resources, perhaps then the human race can deal better with its uncertain future.