Posted by Matt Wilson [108.162.221.128] on Thursday, November 09, 2017 at 04:09:17 :
In Reply to: better hurry Kiss the good times goodbye posted by clueless [108.162.210.247] on Wednesday, November 08, 2017 at 16:20:55 :
That is just one man's OPINION. The man may be smart and well-informed, but it is still just his opinion. Everything he states is a view of the future based on certain current trends, extrapolated to a one-sided extreme going into the future. Some elements of what he predicts may come true, but I would be surprised if a lot of them do, or at least to the extreme he claims. Eventually, perhaps, more of them will start to happen, but one cannot predict the future, and it will certainly be surprising if they happen in the next 10 - 20 years. The demise of the internal combustion engine has been predicted for decades by some folks, and it has not happened yet, and doesn't appear to be all that close, even now.
The things he predicts, and his writing style, seem to have hallmarks of alarmist writings. There is a long history of alarmists making predictions that never come true, or at least nowhere close to the degree predicted. Now, it could be that they don't come true because they are extremist views and don't reflect reality, or it could be that they don't come true because articles like this tend to generate legislative and social action on the part of interested parties who don't want to see a such a future. I don't know if he wrote the article because he truly believes it all, or because he wants to illicit a certain response in hopes that people and industry will take action in the other direction. He may not be around in another 20 years to see it all, but he still may have other reasons for wanting push in a certain direction.
So while some trends we see currently are a little discomforting, I'm not going to jump on his bandwagon any time soon.
Now, having said the above....I admit that I could always be wrong....it is, after all, just my OPINION.