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> I don't understand how can there be countries ignoring this. Any preventable scenario requires people ignoring it to happen. Which I guess in itself isn't ve

by awvcs 8y ago

> I don't understand how can there be countries ignoring this. Any preventable scenario requires people ignoring it to happen. Which I guess in itself isn't very helpful. It is just that people tend to assume that dysfunction isn't normal when it is usually the opposite. That anything functional often requires long deliberate and concerted efforts. There are for instance still plenty of people dying in traffic.

matt4077 8y ago
Dysfunction largely isn't normal. The universe of things that are going well is far greater than that of issues that threaten us. It's just that we really don't pay attention to the earth not being destroyed by a meteor today.
- awvcs 8y ago
  I don't think "going well" is the same as not being dysfunctional. That someone can e.g. have decent life as a upper middle class American doesn't take away from the fact that the systems themselves are dysfunctional. There are millions and millions of people who lack de facto good access to health care, education, housing, transportation and other things that should be a basic in a modern society. In most of the rest of the world it might be even worse. Especially if you also consider the size of countries like India and China. Most countries have only had peace for less than a century. New technologies end up abusing, if not killing, hundreds of thousands of people. The global economy seem to experience one large crash every decade. A lot of things are getting better, but I certainly wouldn't say the are getting more functional. I would even say that a lot of development is more unsustainable today than ever. When a million people don't die in traffic every year I will get more hopeful about humanities ability to handle existential threats. Until then let's hope for a something smaller event first (I don't really know the distribution of something like a meteor).

by awvcs 8y ago

matt4077 8y ago

Dysfunction largely isn't normal. The universe of things that are going well is far greater than that of issues that threaten us. It's just that we really don't pay attention to the earth not being destroyed by a meteor today.

awvcs 8y ago
I don't think "going well" is the same as not being dysfunctional. That someone can e.g. have decent life as a upper middle class American doesn't take away from the fact that the systems themselves are dysfunctional. There are millions and millions of people who lack de facto good access to health care, education, housing, transportation and other things that should be a basic in a modern society. In most of the rest of the world it might be even worse. Especially if you also consider the size of countries like India and China. Most countries have only had peace for less than a century. New technologies end up abusing, if not killing, hundreds of thousands of people. The global economy seem to experience one large crash every decade. A lot of things are getting better, but I certainly wouldn't say the are getting more functional. I would even say that a lot of development is more unsustainable today than ever. When a million people don't die in traffic every year I will get more hopeful about humanities ability to handle existential threats. Until then let's hope for a something smaller event first (I don't really know the distribution of something like a meteor).