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> The low-hanging fruits of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are calling to public health far more urgently than this pie in the sky limitless life. Still,

> The low-hanging fruits of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are calling to public health far more urgently than this pie in the sky limitless life. Still, it's definitely worth it to continue research along these lines and plenty of other ridiculous lines. Even if they don't come to anything. We have such a tremendous abundance of intellectual capacity as a species. If we dedicate all our intellectual capacity to solving the low-hanging fruits in healthcare (or to increasing the click-through rates of ads, among other things) it would require us to allocate many people to no task at all, just because there was already an excessive abundance of resources already dedicated to the tasks. It's a little fun and encouraging to think about, but the more people there are alive, the more important unimportant things become, because with more people there are more problem solvers.

TimTheTinker 8y ago
> with more people there are more problem solvers I really appreciate this perspective. More people is fundamentally a good thing. Some would vehemently argue otherwise, but I believe the problems they bring up come down to a calculus that depends first on other things, like profit vs. environmental stewardship, etc., not primarily the birth and death rates.
- Koshkin 8y ago
  > More people is fundamentally a good thing. "Fundamentally," perhaps. In all other cases, not so much. Having more people in my house or even in the city where I live would be a bad thing.
- Iv 8y ago
  More educated people who can spend some time on problem solving, yes, it is a good thing. People starving or kept busy in bullshit jobs, we have plenty and they just put a burden on the whole ecosystem. Now problem solvers are very busy trying to find ways to produce food and energy for the 11 billion people we should reach in a few decades. Seriously, until we don't reach 100% of well-fed educated people, demographic growth will be more of a problem than a solution to anything.
  - readme 8y ago
    Questions (don't feel obliged to answer): - What do you consider a bullshit job? - What level of education would you prefer everyone in the world have? Basic literacy, high school, college? - What problem will be solved once everyone is educated (at the aforementioned level)?
    - allanmacgregor 8y ago
      Not necessarily my point of view but I keep seeing the term bullshit jobs being used frequently, this is the best summary I could find: In Bullshit Jobs, American anthropologist David Graeber posits that the productivity benefits of automation have not led to a 15-hour workweek, as predicted by economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930, because of "bullshit jobs": workers who pretend that their role isn't as pointless or harmful as they know it to be. Graeber contends that more than half of societal work is pointless, both large parts of some jobs and, as he describes, five types of entirely pointless jobs: - flunkies, who serve to make others feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants - goons, who act aggressively on behalf of their employers, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations - duct tapers, who fix problems that shouldn't exist, e.g., programmers repairing shoddy code - box tickers, e.g., performance managers, in-house magazine journalists, leisure coordinators - taskmasters, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals Graeber argues that these jobs are largely in the private sector despite the idea that market competition would root out such inefficiencies. In companies, he credits "managerial feudalism" as employers need underlings to feel important. In society, he credits the Puritan-capitalist work ethic for making the labor of capitalism into religious duty: that workers did not reap advances in productivity as a reduced workday because, as a societal norm, they believe that work determines their self-worth, even as they find that work pointless. Graeber describes this cycle as "profound psychological violence". Graeber holds that work as a source of virtue is a recent idea, that work was disdained by the aristocracy in classical times, but inverted as virtuous through radical philosophers like John Locke. The Puritan idea of virtue through suffering justified the toil of the working classes as noble. As a potential solution, Graeber suggests universal basic income, a livable benefit paid to all without qualification, which would let people work at their leisure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

TimTheTinker 8y ago

> with more people there are more problem solvers I really appreciate this perspective. More people is fundamentally a good thing. Some would vehemently argue otherwise, but I believe the problems they bring up come down to a calculus that depends first on other things, like profit vs. environmental stewardship, etc., not primarily the birth and death rates.

Koshkin 8y ago
> More people is fundamentally a good thing. "Fundamentally," perhaps. In all other cases, not so much. Having more people in my house or even in the city where I live would be a bad thing.
Iv 8y ago
More educated people who can spend some time on problem solving, yes, it is a good thing. People starving or kept busy in bullshit jobs, we have plenty and they just put a burden on the whole ecosystem. Now problem solvers are very busy trying to find ways to produce food and energy for the 11 billion people we should reach in a few decades. Seriously, until we don't reach 100% of well-fed educated people, demographic growth will be more of a problem than a solution to anything.
- readme 8y ago
  Questions (don't feel obliged to answer): - What do you consider a bullshit job? - What level of education would you prefer everyone in the world have? Basic literacy, high school, college? - What problem will be solved once everyone is educated (at the aforementioned level)?
  - allanmacgregor 8y ago
    Not necessarily my point of view but I keep seeing the term bullshit jobs being used frequently, this is the best summary I could find: In Bullshit Jobs, American anthropologist David Graeber posits that the productivity benefits of automation have not led to a 15-hour workweek, as predicted by economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930, because of "bullshit jobs": workers who pretend that their role isn't as pointless or harmful as they know it to be. Graeber contends that more than half of societal work is pointless, both large parts of some jobs and, as he describes, five types of entirely pointless jobs: - flunkies, who serve to make others feel important, e.g., receptionists, administrative assistants, door attendants - goons, who act aggressively on behalf of their employers, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations - duct tapers, who fix problems that shouldn't exist, e.g., programmers repairing shoddy code - box tickers, e.g., performance managers, in-house magazine journalists, leisure coordinators - taskmasters, e.g., middle management, leadership professionals Graeber argues that these jobs are largely in the private sector despite the idea that market competition would root out such inefficiencies. In companies, he credits "managerial feudalism" as employers need underlings to feel important. In society, he credits the Puritan-capitalist work ethic for making the labor of capitalism into religious duty: that workers did not reap advances in productivity as a reduced workday because, as a societal norm, they believe that work determines their self-worth, even as they find that work pointless. Graeber describes this cycle as "profound psychological violence". Graeber holds that work as a source of virtue is a recent idea, that work was disdained by the aristocracy in classical times, but inverted as virtuous through radical philosophers like John Locke. The Puritan idea of virtue through suffering justified the toil of the working classes as noble. As a potential solution, Graeber suggests universal basic income, a livable benefit paid to all without qualification, which would let people work at their leisure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs