Lack of Perception of Limitations

Lack of Perception of Natural Limitations

a philosophical thesis by Matthew Bissonnette

Following the end of world war 2 and continued till the late twentieth century, it seems that western societies where riding a tide of enthusiasm partially as to what technology and human ingenuity could achieve. It seems that humanity had no limitations and created a perception of a probably unattainable dream, that technology would remove some inherent limitations in the natural universe. Fantasists envisioned a future where we would travel to the stars, yet such an endeavor is most certainly impossible and even an attempt to land a man on mars is vastly more difficult then perceived. Other optimistic notions where created such as a perpetual life of abundance that human technology would be able to eternally sustain. Yet though some new green technologies exist, implementing them universally is a vastly complicated and resource intensive process. And the implementation of these technologies is mostly dialogue or marginally effective policies. It was a perception that man with his ingenuity was invincible, a form of hubris since the goal of ending natural limitations is impossible. The perception that humanity was master of his own destiny, but as time progressed this dream slowly began to show the first signs of fractures. Many of the dreams fantasists and optimistic dreamers told have not come to pass, and while could be achieved would be vastly more costly and complicated then envisioned. The dream of abundance of luxury was built upon a foundation of a finite resources, and there is some probability that technology will be unable to find a practical alternative. And issues like conservation in a necessary fashion such using car pools or building up mass transit infrastructure takes a back seat to issues like hydrogen fuels or electric cars. The perception is that our technology will nullify certain inherent truths of existence. It was a perception that there where no limitations and perhaps somewhat faulty in its truth.