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We’re going straight from “we don’t really know if something is happening” to “it’s too late anyway so why bother” without going through the troublesome “we sho

We’re going straight from “we don’t really know if something is happening” to “it’s too late anyway so why bother” without going through the troublesome “we should try to stop this” phase.

xwdv 7y ago
If the world were a fine place worth fighting for, maybe you’d have a point. But increasingly, I just look around, see the news, see the social media, and think why bother? Humanity will never be anything more than this. Things seem to be wrapping up, don’t have kids, don’t try to save the world, just savor what is left till it’s gone. In the coming decades we will begin to see a loss in the knowledge of mankind, as people become more dependent on machines and fewer and fewer people know how to work them. Progress will begin to slow down, wealth will continue to consolidate, and people will be left working hard back-breaking jobs to sustain themselves. The world of the future will have more farmers and less engineers, and even fewer people who even understand code and how to write it.
- crispyporkbites 7y ago
  Do you live on the same planet as me? The world is an incredible place and gets better every day! I look at my children and their experiences growing up and it’s far better than mine ever were. If I had the choice I’d be born today.
  - NeoBasilisk 7y ago
    People at the beginning of the 20th century were incredibly optimistic, only to be hit with loss of life on an unprecedented level in world wars. Things can improve in some ways and get worse in others. The climate of the planet that our grandchildren inherit will be worse than the one that we enjoy.
  - save_ferris 7y ago
    I respectfully disagree here. The US has seen a sharp decline in children earning more than their parents. 90% of people born in 1940 earned more than their parents, compared to just 50% in 1985, a trend that we simply aren't doing enough to correct[0]. We're on our way to a new gilded age, but perhaps your kids will among the fortunate and not of the "useless class", as Yuval Harari would say. As technology and AI continue to progress, it's going to become harder to educate and train the workforce, and perhaps more importantly, re-train them as human skills continue to fall into obsolescence. I look at my baby nephew and hope that he'll be able to find solid-paying work one day, but that just isn't a given anymore. 0: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/504989751/u-s-kids-far-less-likely-to-out-earn-their-parents-as-inequality-grows https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/504989751...
    - rv-de 7y ago
      what crispy means is that s/he is doing well.
      - noir_lord 7y ago
        Or isn’t American, the US standard of living has dropped but for many people around the world, this is as good as it’s been for them in centuries or longer.
  - tjr225 7y ago
    I tend to be a pretty pessimistic person and I happen to agree with you. Regardless of how hopeless our current position might seem to some, there is an absurd amount of sheer panic and terror that you just happen to be exposed to because you are on the internet. It is a wild gnashing of teeth with little productive thought taking place.
  - xwdv 7y ago
    What experiences are that? Right now I see some fat kids with necks bent at 90 degrees staring mindlessly into a tablet watching some YouTube video of other people playing video games and shouting nonsense. Or babies and toddlers watching whole playlists of AI generated crap trying to get ad revenue. These kids are not getting a good start in life. Wouldn’t be surprised if the end of their lives doesn’t look much different from the beginning.
    - danso 7y ago
      If you had to make an off-hand estimate of the total number of teens and children you've witnessed either in YouTube videos or watching YouTube, how does that number compare to the number of teens and children currently alive in this world at this moment?
  - tzs 7y ago
    > Do you live on the same planet as me? The world is an incredible place and gets better every day! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJvJaad-LS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJvJaad-LS4
- tzakrajs 7y ago
  Thanks for the breath of fresh air. People stumbling over each other trying to foolishly validate the status quo makes me lose hope for this world.
- jointpdf 7y ago
  The only known habitable planet in the universe, one filled to the brim with millions of unique forms of life, isn’t worth fighting for because...social media? Do I need to elaborate on the irony of this?
- rv-de 7y ago
  I second this. Personally, I'd prefer to see the world working in unity to mitigate or even stop man made global warming, poverty, wars etc. won't happen, though. from a global perspective humanity is basically just a disease. I know it's rather cynical but I actually see a terrifying beauty in the vision of our civilization just fading away. I'm not looking at it from a moral perspective. the world is not a better place without us, but it isn't a better place with us either. I have difficulty understanding why someone would want to subject a child to this drama unfolding. most people seem to be living and thinking in some bubble it appears to me.
krapp 7y ago
Because it is too late. We're realizing now that it was too late decades ago.
- mikeash 7y ago
  It’s never too late to decrease the damage being done.
  - watertom 7y ago
    There are at least 5 positive feedback loops operating right now, ocean water temps, phytoplankton populations which impacts both oxygen production and cO2 conversion, phytoplankton is also the basis for the marine food chain, and their populations is down 40% since 1950. The other positive feedback loops are permafrost thawing, glacier melts and ocean salinity. The earth and climate are already driving each other. We disrupted a delicate balance, creating these positive feedback loops. Usually positive feedback loops run until they exhaust the resources, unfortunately the amount of greenhouse gases sequestered in the oceans, permafrost and glaciers is absolutely massive, when these feedback loops exhaust their resources it’s going to be vastly different planet, and it’s going to happen a lot quicker than anyone expects, we are seeing the acceleration already. The only thing that disrupt these feedback loops is a global event, like a super volcano erupting, or a huge meteor strike, but both would have devastating impacts to the current life on the planet.
    - ShinTakuya 7y ago
      Perhaps slightly insane, but perhaps a doomsday device is literally what could save the planet, at the expense of most of the current population?

xwdv 7y ago

If the world were a fine place worth fighting for, maybe you’d have a point. But increasingly, I just look around, see the news, see the social media, and think why bother? Humanity will never be anything more than this. Things seem to be wrapping up, don’t have kids, don’t try to save the world, just savor what is left till it’s gone. In the coming decades we will begin to see a loss in the knowledge of mankind, as people become more dependent on machines and fewer and fewer people know how to work them. Progress will begin to slow down, wealth will continue to consolidate, and people will be left working hard back-breaking jobs to sustain themselves. The world of the future will have more farmers and less engineers, and even fewer people who even understand code and how to write it.

crispyporkbites 7y ago
Do you live on the same planet as me? The world is an incredible place and gets better every day! I look at my children and their experiences growing up and it’s far better than mine ever were. If I had the choice I’d be born today.
- NeoBasilisk 7y ago
  People at the beginning of the 20th century were incredibly optimistic, only to be hit with loss of life on an unprecedented level in world wars. Things can improve in some ways and get worse in others. The climate of the planet that our grandchildren inherit will be worse than the one that we enjoy.
- save_ferris 7y ago
  I respectfully disagree here. The US has seen a sharp decline in children earning more than their parents. 90% of people born in 1940 earned more than their parents, compared to just 50% in 1985, a trend that we simply aren't doing enough to correct[0]. We're on our way to a new gilded age, but perhaps your kids will among the fortunate and not of the "useless class", as Yuval Harari would say. As technology and AI continue to progress, it's going to become harder to educate and train the workforce, and perhaps more importantly, re-train them as human skills continue to fall into obsolescence. I look at my baby nephew and hope that he'll be able to find solid-paying work one day, but that just isn't a given anymore. 0: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/504989751/u-s-kids-far-less-likely-to-out-earn-their-parents-as-inequality-grows https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/09/504989751...
  - rv-de 7y ago
    what crispy means is that s/he is doing well.
    - noir_lord 7y ago
      Or isn’t American, the US standard of living has dropped but for many people around the world, this is as good as it’s been for them in centuries or longer.
- tjr225 7y ago
  I tend to be a pretty pessimistic person and I happen to agree with you. Regardless of how hopeless our current position might seem to some, there is an absurd amount of sheer panic and terror that you just happen to be exposed to because you are on the internet. It is a wild gnashing of teeth with little productive thought taking place.
- xwdv 7y ago
  What experiences are that? Right now I see some fat kids with necks bent at 90 degrees staring mindlessly into a tablet watching some YouTube video of other people playing video games and shouting nonsense. Or babies and toddlers watching whole playlists of AI generated crap trying to get ad revenue. These kids are not getting a good start in life. Wouldn’t be surprised if the end of their lives doesn’t look much different from the beginning.
  - danso 7y ago
    If you had to make an off-hand estimate of the total number of teens and children you've witnessed either in YouTube videos or watching YouTube, how does that number compare to the number of teens and children currently alive in this world at this moment?
- tzs 7y ago
  > Do you live on the same planet as me? The world is an incredible place and gets better every day! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJvJaad-LS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJvJaad-LS4
tzakrajs 7y ago
Thanks for the breath of fresh air. People stumbling over each other trying to foolishly validate the status quo makes me lose hope for this world.
jointpdf 7y ago
The only known habitable planet in the universe, one filled to the brim with millions of unique forms of life, isn’t worth fighting for because...social media? Do I need to elaborate on the irony of this?
rv-de 7y ago
I second this. Personally, I'd prefer to see the world working in unity to mitigate or even stop man made global warming, poverty, wars etc. won't happen, though. from a global perspective humanity is basically just a disease. I know it's rather cynical but I actually see a terrifying beauty in the vision of our civilization just fading away. I'm not looking at it from a moral perspective. the world is not a better place without us, but it isn't a better place with us either. I have difficulty understanding why someone would want to subject a child to this drama unfolding. most people seem to be living and thinking in some bubble it appears to me.

krapp 7y ago

Because it is too late. We're realizing now that it was too late decades ago.

mikeash 7y ago
It’s never too late to decrease the damage being done.
- watertom 7y ago
  There are at least 5 positive feedback loops operating right now, ocean water temps, phytoplankton populations which impacts both oxygen production and cO2 conversion, phytoplankton is also the basis for the marine food chain, and their populations is down 40% since 1950. The other positive feedback loops are permafrost thawing, glacier melts and ocean salinity. The earth and climate are already driving each other. We disrupted a delicate balance, creating these positive feedback loops. Usually positive feedback loops run until they exhaust the resources, unfortunately the amount of greenhouse gases sequestered in the oceans, permafrost and glaciers is absolutely massive, when these feedback loops exhaust their resources it’s going to be vastly different planet, and it’s going to happen a lot quicker than anyone expects, we are seeing the acceleration already. The only thing that disrupt these feedback loops is a global event, like a super volcano erupting, or a huge meteor strike, but both would have devastating impacts to the current life on the planet.
  - ShinTakuya 7y ago
    Perhaps slightly insane, but perhaps a doomsday device is literally what could save the planet, at the expense of most of the current population?