Futurology

The study of futurology was his forte.

Futurology includes notions of probabilities.

"Do you think about the future?" "Yeah, I like futurology." "What do you think of the future of humanity?" "Well, if we survive major calamities, the future may be postbiological. But, that scenario may be a catastrophe for us organics."

It is now the 26th of November of 2013. I am undecided if I am more like Arthur C. Clarke, Samuel R. Delany, Olaf Stapledon, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, or Larry Niven, but I prefer these scenarios depicted as futurology. Somewhere amongst them is the near truth.

It seems that Elon Musk is wondering why the Japanese are not firing rockets into space as crazily, and as frequently, as his SpaceX. My guess is that the Japanese are waiting for better technology, waiting until there is a better time (maybe now is too early), waiting for lower costs, or waiting for a big war (inevitable for some) that would shake global politics and destroy the status quo. There are proponents of teleportation, as Michio Kaku, a Japanese-American physicist, futurologist, and writer. The Japanese do not have the same "now, now, now" culture as the Americans. Their "now" culture comes from the mindfulness of the present moment, Zen, unlike American. Many Japanese like also futurology, which has become a religion on its own, there. Elon Musk and others may think that safe teleportation may be a long, long time from now, if ever. In the interim period until such technology would arise, sophisticated rockets may be the only way to get to another planet. Elon Musk has been correct many times, judging from his material and financial successes. (He has admitted that maybe a self-sustaining society on Mars and a "multiplanetary" human civilization would probably arise after his own lifetime.) Americans like "brute force," but maybe it is not the Japanese way. The Japanese have a much longer view of time than do the Americans. They believe in spirits everywhere in nature (Animism) that Americans maybe do not sense.