How long will the United States last heading toward the future of human society

[Pho3nix]

I'm kinda scared of what would happen if we were to colonize another planet and encounter another civilization and alien race.

We humans fear what we can't understand and that's never a good thing. We'd probably try to spread religion and try to exploit the other planet somehow like a parasite.

And let's face it we don't care about our planet, we only care about ourselves. Alot of people ask the question how will our planet survive through constant killing of it, the question is not if our planet will, it's about humans surviving or not. Earth will survive nuclear holocaust, there will always be a few microbes alive and from what i've heard cockroaches would also survive, and evolution would start again.

 

And yes windu6 I'm very interested in traveling the galaxy, seeing new planets and all of that. But i'm realistic, i'll never be able to do that. Perhaps my grandchildren? I dunno. Maybe space vacations to the moon or something, but nothing quite as big as terraforming or a Earth 2

[Windu Chi]

I'm kinda scared of what would happen if we were to colonize another planet and encounter another civilization and alien race.

We humans fear what we can't understand and that's never a good thing. We'd probably try to spread religion and try to exploit the other planet somehow like a parasite.

And let's face it we don't care about our planet, we only care about ourselves. Alot of people ask the question how will our planet survive through constant killing of it, the question is not if our planet will, it's about humans surviving or not. Earth will survive nuclear holocaust, there will always be a few microbes alive and from what i've heard cockroaches would also survive, and evolution would start again.

 

And yes windu6 I'm very interested in traveling the galaxy, seeing new planets and all of that. But i'm realistic, i'll never be able to do that. Perhaps my grandchildren? I dunno. Maybe space vacations to the moon or something, but nothing quite as big as terraforming or a Earth 2

 

You really don't trust humans? Also I was being realistic to about what I said earlier.

 

Humans are flawed, but don't believe that we are the only ones in the galaxy who are.

 

As the saying goes, "No one is perfect!" I believe aliens no matter how advance they are then us are'nt perfect either.

[edlib]

(In response to the original question)

 

What's the longest a nation-state on Earth has ever existed? I'm sure it will be less than that.

 

The acceleration of global warming and the inevitable total collapse of the petrocarbon economy will hasten it considerably.

 

I foresee 100 years at the most.

 

This is not to say that what replaces America and the American system of government will be worse, however. I do like to stay cautiously optimistic about such things and think that our understanding about massive group dynamics is evolving as well, and that a new system of government that perhaps fits the planet even better will arrive.

 

I can't believe that we as a species have reached governmental perfection with a free-market representational democracy. And the current system of competing nation-states with different governmental/ economic/ religious systems is unsustainable in the long run for the survival of the human race as a whole.

[Windu Chi]

(In response to the original question)

 

What's the longest a nation-state on Earth has ever existed? I'm sure it will be less than that.

 

The acceleration of global warming and the inevitable total collapse of the petrocarbon economy will hasten it considerably.

 

I foresee 100 years at the most.

 

This is not to say that what replaces America and the American system of government will be worse, however. I do like to stay cautiously optimistic about such things and think that our understanding about massive group dynamics is evolving as well, and that a new system of government that perhaps fits the planet even better will arrive.

 

I can't believe that we as a species have reached governmental perfection with a free-market representational democracy. And the current system of competing nation-states with different governmental/ economic/ religious systems is unsustainable in the long run for the survival of the human race as a whole.

 

Well with recent evidence about the North Atlantic current circulation dynamics becoming motionless because of glacier melting have, force me to retract my previous estimate of the U.S. future stay.

 

I believe that the US and rest of North America don't have that much time left.

 

If the present climate model is accurate 10 to 20 years is left on the climate stability clock, climatologists say.

 

Warm stable climate disappear for 100 or 1000 yrs and left with the planet Hoth weather conditions in one of those time spans.

 

If this happen people in the US and Canada will be residents of Hoth.

[Ray Jones]

Before mankind is going to "leave" this planet, we will have to overcome a few things first. For instance: nationalities. No country has enough resources to run projects bigger than just riding earth's orbit or shooting 3 men to the moon with a 30% chance for success. If we're going to settle down in space then it will be as humans from earth, not as US citizens, Mexicans, Germans, South Africans etc.

 

Traveling the galaxy will not happen before we haven't visited every single planet or object large enough to land on within the solar system, at least. The ability for secure and reliable travel in space near earth is essential for bigger trips to outer space.

 

But by now we're not even able to fly to the moon anymore, because we have no rocket/space ship available which would be powerful enough to get us there, and as far as I know, no landing craft too. Not that we couldn't have those by technology means, but there is just none capable of this standing around or in the process of being build. Way to go for traveling galaxies.

 

Sure is, if mankind won't gain ability to leave this planet permanently, then the days of human life are numbered already, who cares if it'll be in 1000 or 50000 years?

[MasterRoss08]

I agree with Ray Jones all the way. I will take a long time and alot of money to even think of something like that. America has been around for a good amount of time and is one of the top rated countries power etc wise. So I dont see america goin anywhere unless some people wanna end all life in this world.

[Dagobahn Eagle]

America has been around for a good amount of time

No, it's been around for no time at all compared to the nations people that have existed for millenia. It's a global infant.

 

()

 

But yes, I think it's going last for at least two hundred more years.

[Totenkopf]

I agree that the US will probably remain around for several more centuries, even if in a modified form from what we know now. America doesn't lack the resources, or at least access to them, but rather the political willpower to maintain it's preeminence in the world. If political differences could be put aside, Americans could well reach and begin the colonization of Mars before 2020, for example. Problem is, fractious debate and competing short termed/sighted policies get in the way. There's also the hurdle of getting past the "we must fix EVERYTHING on earth before going on into space" mentality that many people have. If America cleaned up it's education system and applied less fuzzy standards to it's students and teachers, it could retain it's position as being at the forefront of cutting edge changes in technology and it's multitude of applications for many years to come. But equally important might be corraling international business, which has it's own agendas. If the megacorps can basically deindustrialize a country by shopping their biz elsewhere, that puts any country, USA included, at a severe disadvantage.

 

While shared costs are nice and fine, a revitalized US would have little need of the rest of the world to expand out into space. No doubt there would be bilateral or even multilateral agreements for cooperation, but the world wouldn't necessarily require a global government to see human expansion into space. Besides, it's very likely what would happen is a combination private business-government series of arrangements.