They've been predicting the end of the world any second now for decades. We also habitually overlook or downplay it anytime anything actually gets fixed. Y2K d

They've been predicting the end of the world any second now for decades. We also habitually overlook or downplay it anytime anything actually gets fixed. Y2K did not result in a global banking meltdown. Instead, it quietly fixed and VCRs stopped being conveniently programmable. When Iraq lit oil wells on fire on its way out of Kuwait, it was expected to burn for years and be a global climate catastrophe. Crack teams from around the world converged on the country, invented new techniques and thereby dramatically shortened the projected time for putting them out. In the aftermath, the desert bloomed like no one could remember seeing. That detail was a footnote in more dramatic stories. No one wakes up in 2023 and thanks whatever gods they believe in that those two apocalypses were averted. We just go online and handwring about the latest bad news and predict that it's unfixable and we're doomed.