1988: A vision of the future from Kurt Vonnegut:
Interesting to note that way back in 1909 this was pretty much the same vision as laid out by E.M.Forster in ‘The Machine Stops’. Here are Vonnegut’s headline bullet points:
1. Reduce and stabilize your population.
2. Stop poisoning the air, the water, and the topsoil.
3. Stop preparing for war and start dealing with your real problems.
4. Teach your kids, and yourselves, too, while you’re at it, how to inhabit a small planet without helping to kill it.
5. Stop thinking science can fix anything if you give it a trillion dollars.
6. Stop thinking your grandchildren will be OK no matter how wasteful or destructive you may be, since they can go to a nice new planet on a spaceship. That is really mean, and stupid.
7. And so on. Or else.
See also: Benedict Cumberbatch reads Kurt Vonnegut
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