Can the UN be a stepping stone to an ideal world government?

So the other day, someone reading my post on ‘the matrix effect’ said, ok:  how do we make a policy of limiting global population growth actually work in practice?  Do we have a world government that can help us to set these policies?   And this made me rethink the issue of ‘world government.’  What would an ideal world government look like, anyway?

So a couple of points to start:

1)  A world government must have some federalism built in.  I am a believer in small countries being semi sovereign, to the extent possible.  I have seen, from travelling and living in a lot of countries, that people in smaller countries (i.e., with low populations, thus including Canada) are on the whole happier.   Why is this?

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How do we get to Star Trek’s vision of a future utopian Earth?

In Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry and his fellow writers came up with a vision of Earth in the 24th century which is a kind of utopia.  Because I’ve been watching the 1st and 2nd series on DVD, I’ve been thinking about the Trek writers’ vision of the future.

On the surface, their vision of Earth’s future sounds perfect, even ideal.  What are its main characteristics?

1)  ”We have moved beyond the need for accumlating personal possessions.”

2)  This means, they have moved beyond the need for money, and, perhaps, beyond the need for private property.

3) At one point they meet a greedy business capitalist dude from the 20th century, and revive him, and he says “But what do you do here, to challenge yourselves, if there is no need to accumulate wealth?”  And Picard says:  ”We challenge ourselves to become better people, physically, spiritually, and morally.”  Ok, but what does all this mean?

4)  Also, there seems to be an “end to war” at least on earth.

First, we need to clarify how this vision of 24th century Utopia Earth would actually work (if it would).  Then, we need to see if there is any practical way to get from here to there.  Can we do it?  Or is it a total pipe dream?

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On immortality–and its social consequences.

So, would you want to live forever? 

Well, I would; I think.  Under the circumstances that once you got to about age 25, the doctors could just turn off your ageing process, and then you could go for eternity with the energy and mind of a 25 year old, only you get to add more wisdom.  It’s possible that your brain might deteriorate over a period of hundreds of years, but perhaps, they could keep the cells renewing themselves, or otherwise figure out how to keep them from atrophying.

I write about this subject, not only becasue it is inherently interesting, but also because the doctors tell us that very soon, within a few generations perhaps, we might well be able to ‘cure’ ageing – i.e., stop the human ageing process, genetically.  In other words, we might finally be getting very close to one of the great goals of mankind, which has occupied us as a species ever since we woke up from our animalistic stupor, and began to think critically, and to realize that, guess what, we’re mortal, and further, that that really sucks, in many many ways. 

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