WHERE ARE WE GOING?

My blog postings are sometimes aimed to advocate something, or provide a different look at a situation.  About the world population, I somewhat cheekily said in The Huffington Post (and this was in 2011, when the population was about to reach 7 billion):

     THE WORLD POPULATION IN 2050 COULD WELL BE 7 BILLION

Here, the latest from Our World in Data:

That is, in the year 2100, when the annual growth rate drops to 0.1%, the world population will be 10.9 billion.  We really can't support this number of people at any lifestyle close to the USA.  My reasoning was that we had to take population control more seriously, for the sake of humanity in the future.  So again, no one listens to me.

Some think we are going to live on Mars.  I have suggested the open ocean as a parallel next frontier.  Thus the Blue Revolution.  We only need $150 billion to build an ocean city to host the world expo in 2050.  For background:

• A report from the Seasteading Institute.
• A powerpoint presentation by Patrick Takahashi, who wrote the original OTEC bill when he worked for Senator Spark Matsunaga.
• Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.
• From the Huffington Post:

• Blue Revolution
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch

Here are some prophecies from more eminent visionaries of where they think we will be going:

• What if we did everything right?  This is what the world could look like in 2050.  (World Economic Forum)
• 12 shocking things that will happen by 2050.  (Top Think)

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  Elon Musk's vision of Mars colonization.
• Amazon's (Jeff Bezos) city of the future.
• What will happen in the next billion years.  (Skill Share)
• Part 2:  What will happen in the next 120 trillion years.

I said I was going to try to keep this blog site short and sweet.  Next Monday I'll provide a more spiritual view of where Humanity will be going.

Song #97 comes from my favorite karaoke tunes.  For some, karaoke is a sometimes entertainment fling. For me, it has been an important part of my life;

• During my early years directing the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, after returning from 3 years in the U.S. Senate, I invited someone named Proctor Jones to visit Hawaii.  He was the key staff member working for Sen. Bennet Johnston, chairman of the Appropriations Committee.  Dan Inouye later replaced him.  Took Proctor to a karaoke bar with State Senator Richard Matsuura, who did not drink, and still enjoyed singing.  I can't do karaoke in public while sober.  Anyway, Proctor had opera training, so he did very well.  For the next half a dozen years we got almost everything we wanted from the U.S. Congress.

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  My karaoke partner in Japan was (and still is) Tadashi, who spent a year in Hawaii as the First International Professor for the Blue Revolution.  When I visited Japan he regularly took me to his favorite Ginza karaoke bar where the Mamasan sang Kan Kan Museum to me.  We then went on to his Roppongi bar where a guitarist played the backing music to our singing.  It was beer and sake for dinner, scotch in Ginza and cognac in Roppongi.  We usually left just in time for me to catch the subway to my hotel, and sometimes failed.  His university paid for his taxi.  He went on to become president of Tokyo University of A&T, and is now the scientific advisor to the Prime Minister as president of the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center.

• 
  In Honolulu, my long-time karoake partner was Donald, not The Donald, but someone who was a classmate of my wife and president of his engineering consulting firm.  We also took trips to the Orient.
• Now my karaoke friends are Charlene and John.  However, this coronavirus has prevented our get togethers.

I remember a third of a century ago when I was in Japan with three Hawaii State Senators.  We went to a karaoke bar and I recall trying to sing Diana, a Paul Anka song.  My performance was terrible, so bad that even Ann Kobayashi, who today became chairman of the Honolulu City Council, was embarrassed.  In those days Momoko Izu (standing between a good friend of mine, Stanford Ovshinsky, and Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka), who was president of Sharp Corporation, witnessed my attempt on another occasion and diplomatically said, needs work.  That was a royal insult, for in Japan, the worse you sing, the more they clap.

Japanese musician Daisuke Inouye in the 70's invented the first karaoke machine.  It is now a national pastime, a social balm and excuse for revelry in good times and bad, except maybe today.  Like golf in the USA, a karaoke bar visit in Nihonland is a normal second interview for a job.  You get to know someone better in that environment.

In Hawaii, some karaoke bars can be dangerous, for one can get foolish with relationships and perhaps, too, spending too much money.  A drink for a lady sitting next to you will cost $25...or at least that amount when I once went.  Champagne?  $150 for a $5 bottle from Long's.

Earlier this year Time Out named it's 65 best karaoke songs ever.  Prince's Purple Rain was #1 and, perhaps appropriately, Cee Lo Green's Fuck You was #65.  Why?  Because none my songs can be found in that list:

• Spanish Eyes:  Al Martino
• Your Cheating Heart:   Hank Williams  
• Blue Hawaii:  Elvis Presley   
• Edelweiss:  from The Sound of Music 
• The Prayer:  Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion
• My Way:  Frank Sinatra

Which leads to my #97 song, My Way.  I do a semi-decent version of Sinatra, but I rarely get to sing it in Japan because someone always beats me to it.  Why?  In this country, there is the company way, or university way or the government way.  There is no my way.  Individuality is verboten if you want to be successful.  But singing this song is allowed.

For me, My Way almost perfectly represents my life.  The end is indeed getting near for me.  I've lived a full live, traveled, have had a few regrets, but did it mostly my way.  The end will also be my way.

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