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This is true. That's why it's alarming that most people's energy today is wasted on useless zero-sum activities like social media, finance, marketing, bureaucra
by cryptica 7y ago
This is true. That's why it's alarming that most people's energy today is wasted on useless zero-sum activities like social media, finance, marketing, bureaucracy... The problem is actually quite simple, the people who control capital today are not intelligent enough and so they don't have the confidence to take the measured risks that are necessary to really innovate.
If you look at the generations who were working between 1980 and 2000 (spanning 20 years), they delivered mind-blowing innovations: personal computers, graphics cards, databases, the internet, countless vaccines... It's impossible to list everything. What did the newer generations do in the last 20 years? Facebook, Twitter, Snap, Youtube, Netflix, Uber, Bitcoin... The only genuinely impressive thing that we achieved was the successful commercialization of the electric car. Our generation sucks. We are stupid and unwise. We can't allocate capital.
- folbec 7y agonot sure that we cannot allocate capital, the previous generation harvested most of the low hanging fruits, it can be argued that most modern progress needs more and more energy, and we are on a path of diminishing returns. See the various options under : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_stagnation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_stagnation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_inve... the world is not infinite, and economic growth can not be infinite. I have no proof if we are effectivelly at "the limits to growth" or not. It sure starts to feel like it.