Given breakthroughs in life extension or a very reasonable belief in reincarnation, these problems may be ours, and not just those of our children. The important question for both the present and the past is not as much the technology as the human systems. Will capitalism transform us or kill us? Will we transform it, or kill it?
Will government, on its own, be able to ban urban and highway use of gas burning cars, replacing them with electric (preferably tethered, rather than battery)? We can tether cars the same way we tether electric trains - and computer control of both (as well as limited access in urban areas) will end automobile deaths. However, until workers are more involved in consumption (as well as production) and government decisions, the comity of capitalists will never escape the power of big oil.
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