The Future is Bright

To start this off, I would like to state that I will not be refuting my opponent's case in this round. This round shall be for my opening remarks. My opponent has clarified in a PM that this debate is for a bright future over the next two centuries, rather than generations. The future does not look bright. From a technological standpoint, our technology is rapidly advancing and the robotic revolution could be upon us any day now. From a political standpoint, democracy is beginning to decline throughout the world as more nations begin to look to other forms of government and the current democratic governments in power fall into economic and political decay. To wrap it all up, from the moral standpoint, we see atheism on the rise and now the world's code of moral ethics is in danger of being thrown off to the side. THE TECHNOLOGICAL STANDPOINT: As highlighted in my first source [1], the robotic revolution is upon us. As according to Natural News, within three generations the working class of the world could be eliminated as they are replaced by these robotic laborers. In a new Oxford study [2], it has been shown that, currently, 47% of all jobs are at risk of being replaced by robots. I have a question for my opponent in his rebuttals. When robots inevitably control the working class world and we work to create the first sentient robot, what are we to do when the first sentient robot leads the entirety of the world's workforce against all of mankind? We cannot kill them with mere bullets for they do not bleed and, as they grow in knowledge of the world, we will fall. Humanity will fall to our own creations. We cheer for the Terminator films as science-fiction now but what will we think when that actually happens? That is not a bright future to me. [1] http://www.naturalnews.com...# [2] http://www.futuretech.ox.ac.uk... THE POLITICAL STANDPOINT: As I stated above, democracy is in decline. With the Middle East facing its very own series of revolutions, it is looking to other forms of government. Some temporary democracies may be in place but other uprisings are occurring as cries of corruption and poll rigging run rampant through these governments. On top of this, we're watching the decline of freedom in the world. "In its annual survey, the monitoring group Freedom House, which uses a range of data to assess social, political and economic freedoms, found that global freedom plummeted for the fifth year in a row in 2010, the longest continuous decline in nearly 40 years. In fact, there are now fewer elected democracies than there were in 1995." [3] This is not the example of a bright future for the next two centuries. If our current political standpoint in the world is a nice aim at our trajectory for the future, this is the opposite of bright. In fact, I would go as far as to say we are looking at a rather bleak future where governments don't listen to the people they rule. All this will lead to is dischord and civil wars across the planet as people attempt to overthrow tyrannical governments and these tyrannical governments plunge into wars with other countries to advance their own sinister agendas. [3] http://www.thenational.ae... THE MORAL STANDPOINT: Atheism is on the rise. [4] Now, I'm not stating that an atheist cannot be a moral person however, they don't have to live by a strict moral code, unlike those that belong to a religion. All religions have their own code of conduct and, as such, the devout tend to live a more "moral" life than those that aren't under the fear of not getting into their respective paradises. I would be happy to elaborate further upon this if my opponent finds it necessary. [4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com... I eagerly await my opponent's rebuttals.