There are anti bullying shows sometimes on television or in other media. Dr. Phil, for instance has made a couple of schools sign a pledge to intervene if someone is being bullied. The net outcome might be in a positive direction, but I don’t think bullying will end so easily.
Which is too bad, really because some of those who die might directly be the next great artist or scientist. Some might think the living bullied might become stronger because of the old saw ‘what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger’. I take offense at this statement because it is patently untrue. Some of the bullied might have been a great architect or engineer and end up craving obscurity and become a dishwasher in a restaurant.
I think that we are years behind in the arts and sciences and fine arts because we have let some bullying go.
It might be most obvious in technology where civilization could have taken us already. Space elevators might already exist to get us out of Earth’s gravity well. And if we were in a hurry, private rockets would take us into space that much faster.
Anti gravity belts might make us lighter than a bird so flapping our arms (in the correct way) would allow us to fly. Maybe this wouldn’t be as Utopian as we think, now having three dimensions to avoid having an accident in.
Invisibility articles already litter some of the science literature. By now maybe we’d have perfect invisibility for one and all. There might be downsides to this as well. Most magic tricks could be done with someone in an invisibility suit so this art (science?) might go down the crapper. Plus we would have many more ways to have accidents with a large percentage of the public invisible. True anonymity might be nice.
Obviously I know there will be downsides with almost every breakthrough technology. I still think the advantages will outweigh the downsides. Even if they cancel each other out, future technology will make the world more interesting.
So fast forward the future by taking a bite out of bullying (or the bullies!). And if the sciences change everything, imagine what the new marvels in the arts and the fine arts will be.
