Ruminating
Sometimes when I am in the mood, and when, more importantly, have time on my hands, I like to dig some old unfinished thought-process and continue with it. I like to call it my personal kind of "rumination"!... Anyways, here's the thought of the day.
Victor Serebriakoff, the ex-president of Mensa, once wrote in a book, that human beings, in the course of their progress, encounter problems. They apply themselves and solve the problem and achieve progress. However, they soon move on to a higher level problem, which they take some time to solve... but eventually they solve it and move higher on...
I agree with his thesis, I believe the 'problems' that humanity faces are the 'challenges' that form the basis for the survival of the human race. Without these challenges, human beings may not have much motivation or incentive to progress and survive. These problems, or challenges provide most humans with their motivation to push ahead, and more fundamentally, continue with life. If everything were available easily, there would not be much point in trying to progress, would it?
On the optimistic side, I think there is still a lot of scope for progress, and a lot of scope for pushing boundaries. We still do not know much about outer space, or about the mechanics of the human mind or about how to create micro-organisms that could absorb greenhouse gases. As human being progress, and solve some of these problems, or challenges... all science fiction of today will become legitimate challenges of tomorrow. And it will be an exciting time...
A walk on the sun... anyone?