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Nuclear weapons have killed very few people and have made further large scale war between great powers unthinkable. Global warming is a problem that we will dea

Nuclear weapons have killed very few people and have made further large scale war between great powers unthinkable. Global warming is a problem that we will deal with, as we have all other problems we have solved before. The problems with global warming are easily worth it compared to not having an industrialized society.

tablespoon 5y ago
> Nuclear weapons have killed very few people and have made further large scale war between great powers unthinkable. Eh. We're probably a couple malfunctions away from a nuclear war. IIRC, there have been a few near misses in the past, and my understanding Russia has an automated launch system setup to fail deadly. > Global warming is a problem that we will deal with, as we have all other problems we have solved before. The thing about existential threats is that you successfully deal with them all until you don't. Then the story stops. Now I don't think global warming is going to make humanity extinct, but it's quite possible it will cause massive suffering and lead to a future where we're noticeably worse off and diminished.
- tomjen3 5y ago
  I am not saying global warming is great, but unless it will reduce us to something worse than an industrialized society it is worth it. And worse than an industrialized society is 90%+ living at subsistance levels and 50%+ under 5 mortality.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > I am not saying global warming is great, but unless it will reduce us to something worse than an industrialized society it is worth it. What if it's industrialized, but can only manage output comparable to, say, the world in 1930? So it'd be like a housewarming party so wild it renders the house uninhabitable and you have to go back to living wherever you did before. And this exchange is a good illustration of "why idea of progress fell out of favor in the course of the 20th century": there are legitimate reasons to expect the future will be worse than today. When we were optimistic about progress, we couldn't see the cliff ahead that we can see now. Also, we've been myopic in a way very typical of a tech forum: focusing on technology and forgetting about everything else.

tablespoon 5y ago

> Nuclear weapons have killed very few people and have made further large scale war between great powers unthinkable. Eh. We're probably a couple malfunctions away from a nuclear war. IIRC, there have been a few near misses in the past, and my understanding Russia has an automated launch system setup to fail deadly. > Global warming is a problem that we will deal with, as we have all other problems we have solved before. The thing about existential threats is that you successfully deal with them all until you don't. Then the story stops. Now I don't think global warming is going to make humanity extinct, but it's quite possible it will cause massive suffering and lead to a future where we're noticeably worse off and diminished.

tomjen3 5y ago
I am not saying global warming is great, but unless it will reduce us to something worse than an industrialized society it is worth it. And worse than an industrialized society is 90%+ living at subsistance levels and 50%+ under 5 mortality.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > I am not saying global warming is great, but unless it will reduce us to something worse than an industrialized society it is worth it. What if it's industrialized, but can only manage output comparable to, say, the world in 1930? So it'd be like a housewarming party so wild it renders the house uninhabitable and you have to go back to living wherever you did before. And this exchange is a good illustration of "why idea of progress fell out of favor in the course of the 20th century": there are legitimate reasons to expect the future will be worse than today. When we were optimistic about progress, we couldn't see the cliff ahead that we can see now. Also, we've been myopic in a way very typical of a tech forum: focusing on technology and forgetting about everything else.