Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Tornadoes, hail and powerful winds linked to climate change now pose a bigger threat to homeowners than floods, hurricanes and other forms of extreme weather, according to new research.

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Watch CBS News

The biggest weather risk for homeowners? It's no longer hurricanes.

Tornadoes, hail and powerful winds linked to climate change now pose a bigger threat to homeowners than floods, hurricanes and other forms of extreme weather, according to new research. 

In 2025, insurance payouts from "severe convective storms" (SCS) surpassed those resulting from cyclones, making them the costliest insured natural disasters in the world, climate risk modeling firm First Street has found in a new study.

Such weather events have "become top of mind for insurance companies, for anybody that owns assets and for residential homeowners," First Street chief economist Jeremy Porter told CBS News. 

Global insurance payouts triggered by intense convective storms over the last 25 years total $794 billion — more than flooding, earthquakes and drought losses combined, according to the firm, which based its findings on data from risk management consulting firm Aon.

U.S. in the eye of the storm

In 2025, severe convective storms accounted for one-third of global natural disaster economic losses, according to First Street. Insured and uninsured losses from SCS totaled $82 billion, more than any other natural disaster; of those losses, $68 billion were concentrated in the U.S.  

Financial losses caused by damaging wind, hail and tornadoes are particularly prevalent in the U.S. due to the concentration of insured residential, commercial and industrial properties.

"In the U.S., we have a lot of really valuable real estate," Porter said. "So if you start to [combine] insured assets with the increases in severe convective storms, that's where you see those numbers balloon."

SCS are generally covered by homeowners' insurance, meaning most Americans with a mortgage are insured against such risks. However, as these storms become more frequent with the world's changing climate, homeowners could face higher insurance premiums.

Insurance costs are increasing faster in some parts of the U.S., notably the Midwest and northern Texas, than in other regions due to severe storms becoming more widespread, Porter told CBS News.

"We haven't seen private insurance companies pull out of those markets yet," he told CBS News. "We have seen them raise rates relatively rapidly."

Illinois and Ohio stand out as particularly vulnerable, given their sizable urban areas and valuable real estate, First Street found, with Porter describing the two states as lying along a "severe convective storm belt." North Carolina and Georgia are also at risk given the real estate density in Atlanta and Charlotte, he added.

Epic hail

"Convection" describes the upward movement of heat and moisture in the Earth's atmosphere, which can create thunderstorms and clouds, according to the National Weather Service. 

First Street describes severe convective storms as "short-duration but high-impact weather events" — the type of storm that passes through a region quickly but can leave serious destruction in its wake. As temperatures warm, the conditions for SCS are becoming more common, leading to larger economic losses, First Street said.

"Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, which concentrate losses in a small number of catastrophic events, SCS generates recurring losses through frequent hail, wind, and tornado outbreaks," First Street said in its report. 

Of the different types of weather that qualify as a severe convective storm, hail is the biggest driver of insurance payouts, followed by severe winds.

"When a big hailstorm hits an area, it tends to damage everything in the area: homes, cars and infrastructure — whatever's there," Porter said.

If current trends continue, First Street projects that SCS will become the world's third-costliest natural disaster in the next decade in terms of lost economic growth. Such losses generally stem from factors including mass transit closures, reduced retail shopping and lower commercial productivity.

"We're expecting to continue to see growth in frequency, exposure and damages from these types of events," Porter said.

Take me to your Leader

 My wife brought home this book and it was sitting on her desk this morning by Neil Degrasse Tyson and it made me think of my experience soul traveling to try to find God in the Center of our Galaxy around 1970. At that time I had read the Book by Marie Corelli who was Queen Victoria's favorite author who had God in the Center of the Galaxy so I thought I would go visit God and Ask him not to nuke Planet earth out of existence or at least get him to stop the full on nuclear war I saw coming as an intuitive then. I wasn't sure what year it would happen then in 1970 but I definitely felt it coming. And the Leader of our Galaxy said he would help me stop nuclear war on this planet which he did.

However, as a naive human because of not understanding how things were done in the Universe let alone Galaxy I thought he would just snap his fingers and it would be done. Nope!

So, what he was saying was that we would be changing the time line and that I would be a part of this change which I was. So, the 2nd time we hit 9-11-01 (September 11th 2001) we started a new timeline so now there are two timelines here on earth instead of one.

I can remember waking up on September 11th 2001 and my wife got me up because she said she couldn't figure out what was happening on CNN News on TV. She said, "I can't figure out if this is Science Fiction or News, Fred." And I said something like: "Did a small plane just crash into one of the World Trade Center buildings?"

And then I looked at the damage on the building and I said:"This wasn't done by a small plane because it took out a couple of floors of this building and the whole building was on fire!"

At this exact moment the camera from the helicopter noticed another plane coming in and it hit another building and then we all knew it was a terrorist act which horrified the whole world at this point.

However, we didn't know that this was an engineering feet of Osama Bin Laden who was a structural engineer who would know that these buildings could not withstand passenger jet planes flying into them and stay upright for very long because of all the chain reactions of events that would naturally occur when planes this large hit them and blew up like Napalm and everything would be on fire.

So, this was the day the 2nd time line kicked in instead of Civilization ending like it did the first time here on earth that this happened. 

So, you and I are very lucky to live on this time line because on the other time line most people died either that day or within a month and civilization ended for 4000 years.

Anyway, on the Back of "Take me to your Leader" is a picture of a little gold Alien head which the inscription on the page of: 

"Take me to your Leader is a book of etiquette for close encounters or perhaps a scientifically infused user's manual with helpful hints from an astrophysicist who wants to meet aliens as badly as you do.

Neil Degrasse Tyson 

Fauci diaries, released by Sen. Paul, touch on COVID origins, Trump

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Fauci diaries, released by Sen. Paul, touch on COVID origins, Trump

finding one's center

For me, I always knew that I could be more helpful to mankind if I worked towards becoming more enlightened. However, what is enlightenment?

I see enlightenment now as something different than when I first decided to become enlightened when I was about 15 years old.

Now I see it as learning all you can learn in a positive way to keep yourself, your family, and all mankind if possible alive and healthy, Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

Otherwise, humanity is in danger of going extinct through various kinds of craziness.

So, to me, Enlightenment is the opposite of Crazy dysfunctional Behavior of humans.

For example, people murdering each other for any reason really is crazy and I think you and I would likely agree on this.

However, how to you stop people all murdering each other in various ways?

In order to move towards accomplishing this some of us must try to become enlightened through education and compassion towards all humans and living things on earth.

So, Finding one's center is actually so one can not only save themselves but also help save those around them too worldwide.

So, Finding one's center helps save everyone on earth.

By God's Grace 

People trapped and injured after powerful earthquake strikes Japan

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People trapped and injured after powerful earthquake strikes Japan

Powerful earthquake in southern Japan leaves people trapped in damaged mall

Tokyo — A major earthquake collapsed buildings and sparked fires in Japan's southwest, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Tuesday, with authorities in the hard-hit Kumamoto region saying at least nine people remained missing in a heavily damaged shopping mall.  

Public broadcaster NHK said at least 50 people were taken to hospitals and local emergency services, and CBS News' Japanese partner network TBS cited the regional Kumamoto government as saying five people had been rescued from the Aeon Mall in Kashima city but nine remained unaccounted for. Police in the city earlier told TBS that there were "a lot of deaths" in the mall, but that it would "take time to confirm the exact number." 

Video aired by NHK showed several blazes, damaged bridges, a derailed cargo train and cracked roads after the temblor struck at the far southern end of Japan's main Kyushu island. NHK said at least 12 houses had collapsed, and the national Kyodo news agency said one person was killed in a damaged home.

Major earthquake hits Japan's Kyushu region
An aerial view shows damage to the Aeon Mall in Kashima City, after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture, July 28, 2026. Kyodo/REUTERS

The quake at 4:27 p.m. (2:27 a.m. Eastern) had a magnitude of 7.1, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, but reached the highest possible level of 7 on Japan's Shindo scale of shaking. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake — one of hundreds that strike Japan every year — at 6.8. The vast majority cause little damage.

There were 11 people trapped inside the Nippon Paper Industries Yatsushiro Plant in Kumamoto Prefecture after a chimney collapsed during the quake, though two had been rescued, TBS reported. 

"We are still assessing the extent of injuries and property damage, but I have been informed that there have already been several injuries," Takaichi said. "Power outages and fires are happening in some areas, and roads and bridges have been damaged and buildings collapsed."

Major earthquake hits Japan's Kyushu region
Workers conduct search and rescue operations at Aeon Mall, which was seriously damaged by an earthquake on July 28, 2026, in Kashima, in Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture. Kyodo/REUTERS

In "Kashima town, a shopping complex's second floor collapsed, leaving many people trapped inside," the fire department said in a statement. 

Police said earlier they had received reports of what sounded like an explosion at the Aeon Mall, but they did not publicly confirm the TBS report of multiple fatalities at the damaged retail outlet in Kashima.

The Japan Meteorological Agency initially issued an alert for a possible tsunami of up to three feet, but withdrew the warning after a couple hours.

japan-earthquake-fire.jpg
An aerial view shows fire crews spraying water into a building on fire in Kumamoto, Japan, after a powerful earthquake struck the area on July 28, 2026. Reuters/Nippon TV

No immediate abnormalities were recorded at nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said.

About 45,000 households and facilities have no power in the Kumamoto region, according to local utility Kyushu Electric Power.

The firm added that three nuclear reactors operating in the region at the time were functioning normally.

JAPAN-EARTHQUAKE
The exterior wall of a shop is seen collapsed following a strong earthquake, in Kumamoto City, Japan, July 28, 2026. JIJI Press/AFP/Getty

A local NHK staffer wearing a helmet reported live on air that the shaking was continuing around half an hour after the quake, with the newsroom rocking so violently that it was difficult to remain standing.

"Shaking is continuing as I speak. Including myself, there may be some people who feel their hearts racing," the staffer said.

"When the quake struck, the shaking was so big that I could not stand up. Please be aware of possibility that shaking might continue after this."

7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Japan
A map shows the epicenter of a major earthquake that hit southwest Japan's Kumamoto region on July 28, 2026.  Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu/Getty

Kumamoto was hit by two devastating earthquakes in 2016 — one of magnitude 6.5, followed two days later by one of magnitude 7.3 — which killed 273 people and injured more than 2,800.

A quake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit northern Japan on June 25 but caused no deaths or major damage.

Japan is one of the world's most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific "Ring of Fire."

The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, typically experiences hundreds of jolts every year and accounts for about 18% of the world's earthquakes. The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and the depth below the Earth's surface at which they strike.

tectonic-plates.png
Japan's positioning on the "Ring of Fire" between the Philippine and Pacific plates leads to many earthquakes. CBS News

Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant.

A tremor measuring 7.7 hit the country's north on April 20 this year, injuring at least 10 people and shaking large buildings in Tokyo.

That prompted authorities to issue a special advisory warning of an increased risk of earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or stronger.

The advisory was lifted after a week.

 

 

Thune says of Lindsey Graham "I feel his absence every day" in Capitol ceremony

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Thune says of Lindsey Graham "I feel his absence every day" in Capitol ceremony

the Exponential nature of the rate of Technological change

begin partial quote from:  law of accelerating returns 

In futures studies and the history of technology, accelerating change is the observed exponential nature of the rate of technological change in recent history, which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change. 

end partial quote.

I was thinking about how the world population reached 1 billion people in the early 1800s (after trying to get there for thousands of years. However, then withing 100 years we then had 2 billion people. 

Were we more successful or could it be said the Human race was having so many children we were in danger of extinction?

In the last couple of years for example I researched this and found out without worldwide abortions the human race likely would have gone extinct by around 1960 or 1970. 

We we would have gone extinct much earlier in the century like 1930s to 1950s without World War I and World war II as well.

So, there are many ways to think about this.

However, the next technological acceleration we are in the process of now is exponentially beyond anything the human race has experienced before now in human history.

So, it is much more unknown therefore who will survive this century and who will not.

However, I'm thinking that people who stay on top of all these changes might be the ones who actually survive all this better (at least at first). It is hard to predict anything much the rest of this century because the technological changes might happen so quickly that many people will not survive simply because they aren't studying what is happening in changes fast enough to develop a survival strategy.

(At least in the technologically advanced nations on earth). 

For example, I don't think most people realize on earth yet that warfare has completely changed the last couple of years because of what has happened in Ukraine trying to not be taken over by Russia.

I was watching how people at home in Ukraine have 3d printers to print parts for drones and missiles to kill Russian Soldiers and how these (Civilians?) have communication with the front lines of soldiers using these drones and missiles regarding how to change the designs to become increasingly more efficient at killing Russian Soldiers and mercenaries in Ukraine now.

My wife thought that the figure of 30,000 or more Russian Soldiers and mercenaries being killed every month now couldn't be accurate but it turns out is is all true from various air and land drones capable of killing people day or night including fiber optic drones that cannot be jammed.

By getting real feedback from the front lines every single day systems are redesigned to some degree every day now which makes the techonological change something unbelievable in regard to human warfare.

It is to the point where no soldier is safe out in the open without a net of some kind over their heads even if they go out of their bunker to pee on a tree.

And this will continue for as long as Russia tries to occupy Ukraine and these technological advancements are being learned by Israel, and Iran and the U.S. too.

The point is here we are seeing such an exponential rate of technological change just in Ukraine and the middle east that armies without netting or without humvees or tanks will just be blown up and that's all she wrote wherever they are including American soldiers in Iran.

So, it would theoretically be possible that 30,000 American soldiers would die now from drones one way or another if they set foot on Iranian soil (at any point) in uniforms. 

The Law of Accelerating Returns

Though I think I can see where this is going it reminds me of two things that accelerated human growth planet wide. The first thing was Farming. Before this everyone was hunter Gatherers and so when people farmed it was easier to feed themselves. Then they built more permanent houses which also helped them survive better because this kept out wild animals more and they would be eaten less by Lions, Tigers and Bears and such. So, families would also succeed better because you might be able to count on a neighbor farmer in an emergency. So, this is one of the first things "Law of Accelerating Returns" that I can imagine after studying cultural Anthropology. So, this is the same thing but in a slightly different direction. However, potentially it could reap great results for some or all of mankind too. 

 begin quote from:   law of accelerating returns

Accelerating change

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In futures studies and the history of technology, accelerating change is the observed exponential nature of the rate of technological change in recent history, which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change.

Early observations

In 1910, during the town planning conference of London, Daniel Burnham noted, "But it is not merely in the number of facts or sorts of knowledge that progress lies: it is still more in the geometric ratio of sophistication, in the geometric widening of the sphere of knowledge, which every year is taking in a larger percentage of people as time goes on."[1] And later on, "It is the argument with which I began, that a mighty change having come about in fifty years, and our pace of development having immensely accelerated, our sons and grandsons are going to demand and get results that would stagger us."[1]

In 1938, Buckminster Fuller introduced the word ephemeralization to describe the trends of "doing more with less" in chemistry, health and other areas of industrial development.[2] In 1946, Fuller published a chart of the discoveries of the chemical elements over time to highlight the development of accelerating acceleration in human knowledge acquisition.[3]

By mid-century, for Arnold J. Toynbee it was "not an article of faith" but "a datum of observation and experience history" that history was accelerating, and "at an accelerating rate".[4]

In 1958, Stanislaw Ulam wrote in reference to a conversation with John von Neumann:

One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.[5]

Moravec's Mind Children

In a series of published articles from 1974 to 1979, and then in his 1988 book Mind Children, computer scientist and futurist Hans Moravec generalized Moore's law to make predictions about the future of artificial life. Moore's law describes an exponential growth pattern in the complexity of integrated semiconductor circuits. Moravec extended this to include technologies from long before the integrated circuit to future forms of technology. Moravec outlined a timeline and a scenario[6][7] in which robots could evolve into a new series of artificial species, starting around 2030–2040.[8]

James Burke's Connections

In his TV series Connections (1978)and sequels Connections2 (1994) and Connections3 (1997)James Burke explores an "Alternative View of Change" (the subtitle of the series) that rejects the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. Burke contends that one cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation. Rather, the entire gestalt of the modern world is the result of a web of interconnected events, each one consisting of a person or group acting for reasons of their own motivations (e.g., profit, curiosity, religious) with no concept of the final, modern result to which the actions of either them or their contemporaries would lead. The interplay of the results of these isolated events is what drives history and innovation, and is also the main focus of the series and its sequels.[9]

Burke also explores three corollaries to his initial thesis. The first is that, if history is driven by individuals who act only on what they know at the time, and not because of any idea as to where their actions will eventually lead, then predicting the future course of technological progress is merely conjecture. Therefore, if we are astonished by the connections Burke is able to weave among past events, then we will be equally surprised to what the events of today eventually will lead, especially events we were not even aware of at the time.[9]

The second and third corollaries are explored most in the introductory and concluding episodes, and they represent the downside of an interconnected history. If history progresses because of the synergistic interaction of past events and innovations, then as history does progress, the number of these events and innovations increases. This increase in possible connections causes the process of innovation to not only continue, but to accelerate. Burke poses the question of what happens when this rate of innovation, or more importantly change itself, becomes too much for the average person to handle, and what this means for individual power, liberty, and privacy.[10]

Gerald Hawkins' Mindsteps

In his book Mindsteps to the Cosmos (HarperCollins, August 1983), Gerald S. Hawkins elucidated his notion of mindsteps, dramatic and irreversible changes to paradigms or world views. He identified five distinct mindsteps in human history, and the technology that accompanied these "new world views": the invention of imagery, writing, mathematics, printing, the telescope, rocket, radio, TV, computer... "Each one takes the collective mind closer to reality, one stage further along in its understanding of the relation of humans to the cosmos." He noted: "The waiting period between the mindsteps is getting shorter. One can't help noticing the acceleration." Hawkins' empirical 'mindstep equation' quantified this, and gave dates for future mindsteps. The date of the next mindstep (5; the series begins at 0) is given as 2021, with two further, successively closer mindsteps in 2045 and 2051, until the limit of the series in 2053. His speculations ventured beyond the technological:[11]

The mindsteps... appear to have certain things in common—a new and unfolding human perspective, related inventions in the area of memes and communications, and a long formulative waiting period before the next mindstep comes along. None of the mindsteps can be said to have been truly anticipated, and most were resisted at the early stages. In looking to the future we may equally be caught unawares. We may have to grapple with the presently inconceivable, with mind-stretching discoveries and concepts.[11]

Mass use of inventions: Years until use by a quarter of US population

Vinge's exponentially accelerating change

The mathematician Vernor Vinge popularized his ideas about exponentially accelerating technological change in the science fiction novel Marooned in Realtime (1986), set in a world of rapidly accelerating progress leading to the emergence of more and more sophisticated technologies separated by shorter and shorter time intervals, until a point beyond human comprehension is reached. His subsequent Hugo award-winning novel A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) starts with an imaginative description of the evolution of a superintelligence passing through exponentially accelerating developmental stages ending in a transcendent, almost omnipotent power unfathomable by mere humans. His already mentioned influential 1993 paper on the technological singularity compactly summarizes the basic ideas.

Kurzweil's The Law of Accelerating Returns

In his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil proposed The Law of Accelerating Returns, according to which the rate of change in a wide variety of evolutionary systems (including but not limited to the growth of technologies) tends to increase exponentially.[12] He gave further focus to this issue in a 2001 essay entitled "The Law of Accelerating Returns".[13] In it, Kurzweil, after Moravec, argued for extending Moore's Law to describe exponential growth of diverse forms of technological progress. Whenever a technology approaches some kind of a barrier, according to Kurzweil, a new technology will be invented to allow us to cross that barrier. He cites numerous past examples of this to substantiate his assertions. He predicts that such paradigm shifts have and will continue to become increasingly common, leading to "technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history". He believes The Law of Accelerating Returns implies that a technological singularity will occur before the end of the 21st century, around 2045. The essay begins:

An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense 'intuitive linear' view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century—it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). The 'returns,' such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There's even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to the Singularity—technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.

Moore's Law expanded to other technologies
An updated version of Moore's Law over 120 years (based on Kurzweil's graph). The seven most recent data points are all Nvidia GPUs.

The Law of Accelerating Returns has in many ways altered public perception of Moore's law. [citation needed] It is a common (but mistaken) belief that Moore's law makes predictions regarding all forms of technology,[citation needed] when really it only concerns semiconductor circuits. Many futurists still use the term "Moore's law" to describe ideas like those put forth by Moravec, Kurzweil and others.

According to Kurzweil, since the beginning of evolution, more complex life forms have been evolving exponentially faster, with shorter and shorter intervals between the emergence of radically new life forms, such as human beings, who have the capacity to engineer (i.e. intentionally design with efficiency) a new trait which replaces relatively blind evolutionary mechanisms of selection for efficiency. By extension, the rate of technical progress amongst humans has also been exponentially increasing, as we discover more effective ways to do things, we also discover more effective ways to learn, i.e. language, numbers, written language, philosophy, scientific method, instruments of observation, tallying devices, mechanical calculators, computers, each of these major advances in our ability to account for information occur increasingly close together. Already within the past sixty years, life in the industrialized world has changed almost beyond recognition except for living memories from the first half of the 20th century. This pattern will culminate in unimaginable technological progress in the 21st century, leading to a singularity. Kurzweil elaborates on his views in his books The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity Is Near.

Limits of accelerating change

In the natural sciences, it is typical that processes characterized by exponential acceleration in their initial stages go into the saturation phase. This clearly makes it possible to realize that if an increase with acceleration is observed over a certain period of time, this does not mean an endless continuation of this process. On the contrary, in many cases this means an early exit to the plateau of speed. The processes occurring in natural science allow us to suggest that the observed picture of accelerating scientific and technological progress, after some time (in physical processes, as a rule, is short) will be replaced by a slowdown and a complete stop. Despite the possible termination / attenuation of the acceleration of the progress of science and technology in the foreseeable future, progress itself, and as a result, social transformations, will not stop or even slow down - it will continue with the achieved (possibly huge) speed, which has become constant.[14]

Accelerating change may not be restricted to the Anthropocene Epoch,[15] but a general and predictable developmental feature of the universe.[16] The physical processes that generate an acceleration such as Moore's law are positive feedback loops giving rise to exponential or superexponential technological change.[17] These dynamics lead to increasingly efficient and dense configurations of Space, Time, Energy, and Matter (STEM efficiency and density, or STEM "compression").[18] At the physical limit, this developmental process of accelerating change leads to black hole density organizations, a conclusion also reached by studies of the ultimate physical limits of computation in the universe.[19][20]

Applying this vision to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence leads to the idea that advanced intelligent life reconfigures itself into a black hole. Such advanced life forms would be interested in inner space, rather than outer space and interstellar expansion.[21] They would thus in some way transcend reality, not be observable and it would be a solution to Fermi's paradox called the "transcension hypothesis".[22][16][18] Another solution is that the black holes we observe could actually be interpreted as intelligent super-civilizations feeding on stars, or "stellivores".[23][24] This dynamics of evolution and development is an invitation to study the universe itself as evolving, developing.[25] If the universe is a kind of superorganism, it may possibly tend to reproduce, naturally[26] or artificially, with intelligent life playing a role.[27][28][29][30][31]

Other estimates

Dramatic changes in the rate of economic growth have occurred in the past because of some technological advancement. Based on population growth, the economy doubled every 250,000 years from the Paleolithic era until the Neolithic Revolution. The new agricultural economy doubled every 900 years, a remarkable increase. In the current era, beginning with the Industrial Revolution, the world's economic output doubles every fifteen years, sixty times faster than during the agricultural era. If the rise of superhuman intelligence causes a similar revolution, argues Robin Hanson, then one would expect the economy to double at least quarterly and possibly on a weekly basis.[32]

In his 1981 book Critical Path, futurist and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller estimated that if we took all the knowledge that mankind had accumulated and transmitted by the year One CE as equal to one unit of information, it probably took about 1500 years (or until the sixteenth century) for that amount of knowledge to double. The next doubling of knowledge from two to four "knowledge units" took only 250 years, until about 1750 CE. By 1900, one hundred and fifty years later, knowledge had doubled again to 8 units. The observed speed at which information doubled was getting faster and faster.[33]

Alternative perspectives

Both Theodore Modis and Jonathan Huebner have argued—each from different perspectives—that by the late-2010s, the rate of technological innovation had not only ceased to rise, but was actually then declining.[34]

See also

Notes

  1. Town Planning Conference (1910 : London, England); Royal Institute of British Architects (8 July 2018). Transactions. London : Royal Institute of British Architects via Internet Archive.
  2. R. Buckminster Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon, Southern Illinois University Press [1938] 1963 pp. 276–79.
  3. R. Buckminster Fuller, Synergetics (Fuller), http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s04/figs/f1903.html
  4. Fettweis, Christopher J. (2010). Dangerous Times? The International Politics of Great Power Peace. (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press), p 215-216, https://books.google.co.il/books?id=AfaVqo2-ff0C&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
  5. Ulam, Stanislaw (May 1958). "Tribute to John von Neumann". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 64, nr 3, part 2: 5.
  6. Moravec, Hans (1998). "When will computer hardware match the human brain?". Journal of Evolution and Technology. 1. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  7. Moravec, Hans (June 1993). "The Age of Robots". Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  8. Moravec, Hans (April 2004). "Robot Predictions Evolution". Archived from the original on 16 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  9. Connections. Created by James Burke, season 1, BBC, 1978.
  10. James Burke (Actor), Mick Jackson (Director) (1978). Connections 1 [Yesterday, Tomorrow and You] (DVD). United Kingdom: Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc. Event occurs at 42:00.
  11. Mindsteps to the Cosmos. By Gerald Hawkins, HarperCollins, August 1983.
  12. Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, Viking, 1999, p. 30 and p. 32
  13. The Law of Accelerating Returns. Ray Kurzweil, March 7, 2001.
  14. Shestakova I. "To the Question of the Limits of Progress: Is a Singularity Possible?". Archived from the original on 2019-11-01. Retrieved 2019-11-01.
  15. Steffen, Will; Broadgate, Wendy; Deutsch, Lisa; Gaffney, Owen; Ludwig, Cornelia (2015). "The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration" (PDF). The Anthropocene Review. 2 (1): 81–98. Bibcode:2015AntRv...2...81S. doi:10.1177/2053019614564785. hdl:1885/66463. S2CID 131524600.
  16. Smart, J. M. (2009). "Evo Devo Universe? A Framework for Speculations on Cosmic Culture." (PDF). In S. J. Dick; Mark L. Lupisella (eds.). Cosmos and Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, NASA SP-2009-4802. pp. 201–295. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-24. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
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References

Further reading

  • Link, Stefan J. Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order (2020) excerpt