Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
.....It would now be technically possible to unify the world and abolish war altogether. It would also be technically possible to abolish poverty completely. These things would be done if men desired their own happiness more than the misery of their enemies. There were, in the past, physical obstacles to human well-being. The only obstacles now are in the souls of men. Hatred, folly and mistaken beliefs alone stand between us and the millennium.
..........— Bertrand [Arthur William] Russell, (1872-1970), British mathematician, philosopher. Portraits from Memory: And Other Essays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956), "Portraits From Memory", page 37.
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Bertand Russell is renowned for his concerns about nuclear disarmament, at a time when the global population was less than 3 billion. This year it is expected to exceed 7 billion, and is on track to reach 9 billion by 2045; it's more than doubled in my lifetime. Given the exponential rise in population and immense challenges that humans face for sharing scarce resources, presumably the obstacles to which he referred then, are now even greater - held by more. A gloomy prospect for future generations.