3 ms·

Just yesterday I was ranting on hn about how we don’t value solving the big problems. But I don’t know the answers. As an individual I try to learn and improve

by dgb23 5y ago

Just yesterday I was ranting on hn about how we don’t value solving the big problems. But I don’t know the answers. As an individual I try to learn and improve minimizing my negative impact and working towards a sustainable business. But that is so small and insignificant in comparison to solving problems like these. Maybe we have to think very long term and improve the effectiveness and reach of education. Maybe the hope is that future generations are smarter and more empathetic than us.

mistermann 5y ago
For one, I don't think humanity has developed thinking/communication styles and models that are sophisticated enough to engage in sufficiently cooperative behavior at scale. For two: > But I don’t know the answers. Very few people are able to do what you just did: realize that they do not actually know something (see: politics, covid, any culture war topic, etc). This is actually a sophisticated skill, and to say that we do not teach it would be a massive understatement. > Maybe the hope is that future generations are smarter and more empathetic than us. My concern is that even if they are much smarter at what we teach, if we're not teaching the skills that are needed (which may not be definitively known yet), we would still fail. It seems entirely possible to me that humanity is a dead species walking, but we are simply not able to properly and broadly conceptualize that to the degree necessary to wake up and change course.
7952 5y ago
Yeah the biggest problem is human cooperation. We will put feet on mars before we ever come close to solving that. And curiously space exploration is something that does seem to be able to inspire people to work together. Lack of cooperation in everything else is why we can't have nice things.

3 ms·

Just yesterday I was ranting on hn about how we don’t value solving the big problems. But I don’t know the answers. As an individual I try to learn and improve

by dgb23 5y ago

mistermann 5y ago
For one, I don't think humanity has developed thinking/communication styles and models that are sophisticated enough to engage in sufficiently cooperative behavior at scale. For two: > But I don’t know the answers. Very few people are able to do what you just did: realize that they do not actually know something (see: politics, covid, any culture war topic, etc). This is actually a sophisticated skill, and to say that we do not teach it would be a massive understatement. > Maybe the hope is that future generations are smarter and more empathetic than us. My concern is that even if they are much smarter at what we teach, if we're not teaching the skills that are needed (which may not be definitively known yet), we would still fail. It seems entirely possible to me that humanity is a dead species walking, but we are simply not able to properly and broadly conceptualize that to the degree necessary to wake up and change course.
7952 5y ago
Yeah the biggest problem is human cooperation. We will put feet on mars before we ever come close to solving that. And curiously space exploration is something that does seem to be able to inspire people to work together. Lack of cooperation in everything else is why we can't have nice things.