What do YOU think the world would be like in 2050?

Progress in biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence will probably beginning to create a new kind of human race around the mid of the century.

Unfortunately these gadgets will be expensive and only the wealthy (perhaps 1% of the population) could afford to enhance their family with ´neuro chips´, ´AI link ups´ and fresh engineered organs (want to live 200 years, no problem if you got the bucks!). The resulting leap in knowledge and power (just imagine to know not only 3 or 4 languages but 100 with the help of AI neuro interfaces instantly and perfectly! ) for the new ruling caste will be enormous and they will certainly dominate in every nation on the globe.

The masses will be left behind and may well be physically exterminated by the ´enhanced caste´ with the help of individually adapted genetically engineered killer viruses (... of course the complete genetical profile of every scanned human being will be available in a global data bank!).

Well, I know that's a dark vision but most of these technologies are already there and if only one state (Japan?) would cross the line of biotech, AI interface and robotech enhancement for human beings the others would have to follow suit. :coffee:

warkuo said:

the breakup is inevitable unless the chiense goverenemnt provides something good for the peasant. they're not benefiting much. An army cannot fight without food too u know...unless u thinking of star wars..

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Just so u know that food is not a problem in China. In my last four year stay in China, people actually waste a lot of food even in the village area. I don't think the people, especially the army, is starving for food at the moment.

I have to agree with you about the growing discontent in the rural area. This problem is due to the lack of direct cotrol of the central government on the local government level. Farmers are growing restless due to unfair compensation by local government for their land.

The governing system in china very complicated and full of holes. It is hard to reign in on all corupt officials all at once which will cause a huge destabilization on the government. Sometimes the central government has to keep an eye closed in regards to coruption at local level. However, in my years of observation, if the corruption by these official gets out of hand and spreads in the media, then these corrupt local official will be punished. One such example is the coal mining case. The central government knew about the lack of safety in these mines due to local corruption. The central government starts neting those corrupt officials only when the case got worse and spreads to domestic and international media. The rescent food scandal can also be viewed this way. Step by step approach is necessary in this case.

Another reason, but much smaller, is rapid urbunization. Already more than 50% of China's population live in urban environment.

Wealth for this urbunites are continuing to rise, but keeping up with employment market and staying competative is a continuing problem. Steadily increasing wealth of people is important as it is the main suppresor of general uprising. This model have been proven to work in other countries such as Singapore (in a much smaller scale). The government of Singapore (PAP) is a control "freak", much more so than the CPC. I have lived there for more than four years and i know what it is like. People there aren't complaining as much mostly due to economic factor. Westerners often ask why Singaporean tolerate their goverment "undemocratic" rule and why not stage a general uprising to topple the government. The popular response may sound like this: " Why should I complain when I get wealthier every year and my live is getting better progressively?" After all, Singaporean, unlike Westerners who enjoyed wealth for centuries, have only rescently lived in poverty only half a century ago. The Chinese only get progressively more weathy in the last 20 years due to economic growth. Their mentality towards their government is similar, but not entirely identical, to those of Singaporean in their growth over the years.

In conclusion, China is a very large country with huge population. It has accomplish great feat in keeping more than 1.3 billion people fed and now its trying to maintain stability through steady increase in wealth. The last thing that the central government want is instability from discontent peasants.

crobato said:

China did break up, though not culturally and linguistically. It did so in the one of the most famous periods of all---the Three Kingdoms Period. This was not due to any barbarian invasion, but rather each faction trying to claim legitimacy to the throne and to be the successor of the Han Dynasty. This split even mirrored the three main regional differences in China---North, West and South.

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LOL, that's so wrong. China never breaks up in the political sense. The political breakup means the separated regimes recognize the split reality and could co-exist peacefully. But that never happens in China. In past 2000 years at any time there always is a regime that either united China already or was trying to unite China. Co-existence concept never exists in China. The separated regimes were always at the war in China. The 3 kingdom era was not China's breakup, but a re-unification process, each side tried to defeat others to unite the country - it's a civil war. If that qualified a break-up, then Roman would break up many many times.

And also, politically, China is extremely stable. In past 1000 years, Chinese has only 5 govenments, Song, Ming, Manchu, KMT and CCP, sparing Mongol who only lasted 60 years. And except KMT, all governments fell due to external reasons, CCP hasn't fallen yet.

Name one example China's breakup is not due to barbarian invasion? Not just give empty statements.

Autumn Child said:

Just so u know that food is not a problem in China. In my last four year stay in China, people actually waste a lot of food even in the village area. I don't think the people, especially the army, is starving for food at the moment.

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LOL, Chinese meat consumption is 60kg per person, more than 10 times of Indian. The grain consumption is 2 times of Indian.

Don't know who will get the problem first?

And the data is for 1998, today it's even more and China is the biggest meat producer of the world. A country eating so much meat doesn't look to have food problem.

Guess like arguments are running out, when China-india comprasions pop's out.
In generally I would allow more ligther and offtopic discussion here in member's clubroom, but rules that forbids india and china to be compared against each others applyes here as well.
Now Fishead, I propaply dont need to remaind you that next warning would mean permanent ban for you so in your position, I wouldn't test my limits so eagerly as you have done this week. Let this be last time I need to moderate anyone in this weekend or otherwise heads will start to drop:nono:

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Gollevainen
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