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Often, when bad things happen, humans tend to go broad and deep and question everything around them. This is the wrong approach, IMO. Nobody has the power to al
by pembrook 7y ago
Often, when bad things happen, humans tend to go broad and deep and question everything around them. This is the wrong approach, IMO. Nobody has the power to alter everything around them, so nothing gets done.
If we look at history, we see tiny, continuous improvements in reaction to bad events are what have led to the relative stability of modern life. Bad thing happens, we figure out the (usually small) root cause, then we stop it.
For example, when the automobile emerged, we learned that allowing people to drive without rules resulted in gridlock and frequent crashes. Did we ban automobiles altogether? No. We created regulations (traffic rules), and improved the issue.
Then we then learned that more people die in car crashes if they have nothing protecting their body in a crash, so we created seatbelts. Then we learned they still needed cranial protection in a crash. We created airbags, and improved the issue. And so on.
After coronavirus, the solution is not to lock down global supply chains and force everybody to stay indoors forever. The solution is easy. We simply change regulations and practice around the storage of certain animal species. Until the next thing comes along, and we tweak our model of the world again to address it.
This is not complicated. Human life is one giant continuous improvement model.
- hilbertseries 7y agoThe wet markets were already illegal. I’m not sure that betting we can prevent another pandemic is the right approach here.
- cultus 7y agoThey actually banned them after SARS, but then legalized them again after it all wound up being sold on the black market anyway, but with worse safety.
- int_19h 7y agoThere are many things in history that don't really fit the "tiny, continuous improvements" mold. How many modern Western democracies got where they are politically through some kind of revolution, for example? Or, if we're sticking to the time period after that was all over, consider public healthcare or public education.