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Something I like to do when emotionally stirred to jump on any bandwagon, especially 
one proclaiming that the sky is falling, is to try to view the question from as truly 
a dispassionate position as possible.

Every era has its changes.  Since the beginning of recorded history, humans have 
invoked the wrath of the Gods with their presumptuousness. For every profound new 
thought, for every stroke of genius, for every step away from the past, there have 
been foretellers of doom.  Histories of the rebelliousness of youth written in 
ancient Latin speak as clearly to the issues of emerging into adulthood today as they 
did then.  The Spanish Inquisition tortured and killed people who spoke of different 
ideas and the witches of Salem fared no better.  That Earth was not the center of the 
universe was blasphemy, electricity was magic, hypnotism was Satanic demonism and in 
the 1950's, it was widely held that the discovery and implementations of our then 
current understanding of atomic theory would lead us directly into WW III and totally 
wipe out all life.

And yet... we are still here.  Better than just still here, we are incredibly better 
off than was humanity 5000 years ago.  While many bemoan the cruelties and avarice of 
segments of today's world, consider... all the real problems facing us... hunger, 
disease, early death, hatred, cruelty... are old, not new.  The difference is that 
once virtually ALL of us were at the mercy of these tortures while now, through our 
presumptuousness, billions of us live in a world where we are comfortable enough to 
take time to appreciate life, explore the known and the unknown, think, dream, play.

Is the future safe and assured?  Will Islamic Jihad triumph? Will the Internet ever 
be safe?  Will cloning become a "normal" method of reproduction? We don't know.  But 
if we step back and ask ourselves if, in the grand scheme of things, have we overcome 
frightening new concepts and put them to use for the betterment of our world, I think 
the answer is yes and that suggests that our current dilemmas, as threatening as they 
are, present us with yet more opportunies for a better world.


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