3 ms·

I grew up in the 60's and read a lot of Science Fiction in the 70's as a teen. I found a lot of optimistic takes on the future, which are largely being born out

I grew up in the 60's and read a lot of Science Fiction in the 70's as a teen. I found a lot of optimistic takes on the future, which are largely being born out: incredible advances in medical technology, home computers and now computers that fit in a pocket, affordable ability to communicate, video conference or travel anywhere in the world, the failure of totalitarian communism, amazing space telescopes, civilian space travel, phasing out fossil fuels for solar and other renewable energy and so on. I'm optimistic we will invent technology to deal with climate change and food/water shortages. Yet after the Vietnam war, race riots, Charles Manson, the oil embargo and 12% inflation, the media just loves to promote doom and gloom about the future. I think anxious people shop more to distract themselves. Sometimes I feel like a lone optimist.

sebmellen 5y ago
That feeling of being a lone optimist is ever-present for me as well. Sometimes I think it’s just a lack of real transcendent and great art. If science fiction’s heyday is over, which artists are seeing and imagining the future today? My personal biases incline me to think psychedelics have an important role to play.
- exporectomy 5y ago
  Yet another lone optimist here too :) I grew up with a TV show called "Beyond 2000" about the miraculous things the future would bring. The future was widely seen as exciting and better than the present. But nowadays, popular culture seems pretty negative about it, as does science fiction. Maybe the really influential technologies like cars, transistors, computers, and space travel have finished their initial rapid growth and over-hyped stage? But why isn't machine learning or some of the new biotech technologies taking its place? They're as exciting as buggery to me!
Hammershaft 5y ago
It seems to me the pace of technological improvement over the last 20 years has gotten smoked by the pace of environmental degradation.
- varjag 5y ago
  To be fair outside of computing there's been little visible change to our habitats and way of life since 2001.
- okareaman 5y ago
  It's been uneven. For example, before the clean air and water act the Cleveland River was on fire and you couldn't see through the smog in Los Angeles. Lately, Greenland announced the end of oil exploration, just one example of progress. We are learning as we go. We recently discovered the coral of The Great Barrier Reef is dying. I believe we will find solutions like we have in the past.
jonnycomputer 5y ago
We learn a lot for dystopian fiction. But when dystopia becomes and end to itself, where any optimistic vision of the future is laughed out of the room as naive, I think we've lost something vital.
Aeolun 5y ago
If the media shows doom and gloom, doesn’t that mean people work harder to prevent it? Maybe we reach a point where it gets so bad that more people give up than fight against it?

sebmellen 5y ago

That feeling of being a lone optimist is ever-present for me as well. Sometimes I think it’s just a lack of real transcendent and great art. If science fiction’s heyday is over, which artists are seeing and imagining the future today? My personal biases incline me to think psychedelics have an important role to play.

exporectomy 5y ago
Yet another lone optimist here too :) I grew up with a TV show called "Beyond 2000" about the miraculous things the future would bring. The future was widely seen as exciting and better than the present. But nowadays, popular culture seems pretty negative about it, as does science fiction. Maybe the really influential technologies like cars, transistors, computers, and space travel have finished their initial rapid growth and over-hyped stage? But why isn't machine learning or some of the new biotech technologies taking its place? They're as exciting as buggery to me!

Hammershaft 5y ago

It seems to me the pace of technological improvement over the last 20 years has gotten smoked by the pace of environmental degradation.

varjag 5y ago
To be fair outside of computing there's been little visible change to our habitats and way of life since 2001.
okareaman 5y ago
It's been uneven. For example, before the clean air and water act the Cleveland River was on fire and you couldn't see through the smog in Los Angeles. Lately, Greenland announced the end of oil exploration, just one example of progress. We are learning as we go. We recently discovered the coral of The Great Barrier Reef is dying. I believe we will find solutions like we have in the past.

jonnycomputer 5y ago

We learn a lot for dystopian fiction. But when dystopia becomes and end to itself, where any optimistic vision of the future is laughed out of the room as naive, I think we've lost something vital.

Aeolun 5y ago

If the media shows doom and gloom, doesn’t that mean people work harder to prevent it? Maybe we reach a point where it gets so bad that more people give up than fight against it?