Philosophy
Metaphysics
Ontology
Theology
Epistemology
Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Science
Axiology
Ethics
Political Philosophy
Virtue Philosophy
Aesthetics
Mathematics
Logic
Natural Science
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Wave Physics
Thermodynamics
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Chemistry
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Biology
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Social Science
Economics
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Political Science
Sociology
Psychology
Linguistics
History
Futurology
Impossible Advances
Improbable Advances
Academic Progress
Technological Progress
Industrial Progress
Sociopolitical Progress
Challenges
Possible Catastrophes
Timeline

Human theories of mind include:

Idealism is the thesis that reality consists ultimately of mind and ideas rather than matter.
Dualism is the thesis that reality consists ultimately of both the material or physical and the ideal or mental.
Substance Dualism is the thesis that the material and the ideal or mental constitute two different and fundamental kinds of objects.
Property Dualism is the thesis that the material or physical and the ideal or mental constitute two different and fundamental kinds of properties. Property dualism can be a form of materialism if it says that mental properties are nevertheless fundamental material properties (analogous to mass or charge).
Materialism is the thesis that reality consists ultimately of matter.
Logical Behaviorism is the thesis that mental states can be fully and best explained in terms of behaviors and behavioral dispositions.
Identity Theory is the thesis that mental states and brain states are identical.
Functionalism is the thesis that mental states are functional states consisting of causal relations among components for processing information.

Idealism is incorrect because its explanation of matter is either inadequate or unparsimonious. Dualism is incorrect because it unparsimoniously posits a realm of the ideal. Logical Behaviorism is unsatisfactory because behavioral explanations are too unwieldy. Identity Theory is incorrect because it holds that the essence of mind is its construction instead of its function.

Where Earth is going

Earth rotates on its axis once every 23.93 days (23h 56m 4.09s), for a speed of 0.5 km/sec at the equator. Earth's axis precesses every 25,800 years around a circle with a diameter of 47 degrees.
Earth revolves around the Sun once every 365.24 days (365d 5h 48m 45.51s), at an average speed of 30 km/sec.
The Sun is drifting amongst nearby stars towards 18.1h+30� at 20 km/sec.
Sun and nearby stars revolve around the center of Milky Way once every 226 million years, at an average speed of 200 km/sec.
The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are moving towards each other at 50 km/sec within the Local Group.
The Local Group is pulled within the expanding Virgo Supercluster toward the central Virgo Cluster at 170 km/sec, reducing to 930 km/sec the speed at which the Virgo Cluster recedes due to the expansion of the universe.
The Virgo Supercluster is falling at 600 km/sec (relative to the 3K cosmic background), toward the Great Attractor 150 Mly away at 10h-20�.

5.4. Social Science / Psychology
Psychology: the study of mind.

1. Sensation.
2. Perception.
3. Learning.
4. Memory.
5. Cognition.
6. Motivation.
7. Cognitive Development.
8. Social Development.
9. Psychological Disorders.

Governments vary by who wields power:

Anarchy
Democracy
Republic
Oligarchy
Autocracy
Monarchy

Governments vary by how much power is wielded:

liberal
authoritarian
totalitarian

Governments vary by how their power is justified:

democracy
theocracy
aristocracy
tyranny

Man-made Catastrophes

Nuclear Catastrophe. Nuclear power could result in three kinds of catastrophe: radioactive pollution, limited nuclear bombing, and general nuclear war. Accidental or deliberate radioactive pollution could kill tens or hundreds of thousands, but is quite unlikely to happen. Regional nuclear conflict in the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent could kill several million. Nuclear terrorism against Washington D.C. or New York City could kill more than a million and set back human progress by up to a decade. General nuclear war would kill hundreds of millions and could trigger a nuclear winter that might starve hundreds of millions more. While such a worst case would set back human progress by one or two centuries, existing nuclear arsenals could neither extinct humanity nor end human civilization.

Cultural Decline. Some humans fear that vice, crime, and corruption indicate ongoing social decline or impending collapse. Other humans fear that problems of class division, pollution, education, and infrastructure indicate economic decline or impending collapse. These fears are perennial and unfounded. Past examples of the drastic decline or collapse of a culture or civilization have almost always been due to environmental change, or infection or invasion by outside humans. But after the advent of continental steam locomotion in the mid-1800s, no society remains unexposed to the infections of the others. Similarly, all societies have been made part of a single global human civilization which is not subject to invasion by outside humans. Environmental change indeed poses a set of challenges, but they seem to represent constraints on growth rather than seeds of collapse.

Cultural stagnation is another possible (but milder) kind of potential catastrophe. As in Ming China, Middle Ages Europe, or the Soviet Bloc, stagnation can result if a static ideology takes hold and suppresses dissent. Such a development seems unlikely, given the intellectual freedom and communication technology of the modern world. Ideologies with totalitarian potential include fideist religions, communism, and ecological primitivism.

Bioterrorism. Could a pathogen be genetically designed to be virulent enough to extinct humanity? A pathogen would have to be designed to spread easily from person to person, persist in the environment, resist antibiotics and immune responses, and cause almost 100% mortality. Designing for long latency (e.g. months) might be necessary to ensure wide distribution, but no length may be enough to infect every last human.

Robot Aggression. Some humans fear that the combination of robotics and artificial intelligence will in effect create a new dominant species that will not tolerate human control or even resource competition. These fears are misplaced. Artificial intelligence will be developed gradually by about 2200, and will not evolve runaway super-intelligence. Even when AI is integrated with artifactual life by the early 2200s, the time and energy constraints on artifactual persons will render them no more capable of global domination than any particular variety of humans (i.e. natural persons). Similarly, humanity's first Von Neumann probes will be incapable of overwhelming Earth's defenses even if they tried. To be truly dangerous, VN probes would have to be of a species with both true intelligence and a significant military advantage over humanity. Such a species would be unlikely to engage in alien aggression.

Nanoplague. Self-replicating nanotechnology could in theory become a cancer to the Earth's biosphere, replacing all ribonucleic life with nanotech life. The primary limit on the expansion of such nanotech life would, as for all life, be the availability of usable energy and material. Since any organic material would presumably be usable, the primary limit on how nanocancer could consume organic life would be the availability of usable energy. Fossil fuels are not sufficiently omnipresent, and fusion is not sufficiently portable, so nanocancer would, like ribonucleic microorganisms, have to feed on sunlight or organic tissues. Ribonucleic photosynthesis captures a maximum of about 10% of incident solar energy, while nanocancer should be able to capture at least 50%. The only way to stop nanocancer would be to cut off its access to energy and material or interfere with its mechanisms for using them.