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What are we overlooking today that will be obviously a bad decision 100 years from now?

musiciangames 3y ago
I hope I’m wrong, but fear it will be that democracies protect themselves poorly from populists/demagogues. Watching a documentary on the fall of the Roman republic, it was hard to think it couldn’t happen here. Or as wrongly attributed to Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
- pugworthy 3y ago
  Well, it was sort of obvious 2000 years ago - another 100 won't matter much!
bee_rider 3y ago
The obvious answers are things like plastics, but we can already kind of tell those are bad. I dunno, actually, it is hard to say because we tend to be a little pessimistic nowadays, I don’t think we overlook much, it is just that there’s an all encompassing feeling that every choice has negative outcomes and we have to pick one. Maybe that’s the thing we’re overlooking, cynicism disguised as skepticism resulting in total paralysis.
berkes 3y ago
I'd say we are overlooking the willingness of humans to change, have less, or reduce their impact. I'm pessimistic, but I doubt the human race can bring up the sacrifices needed to save itself from slow (or fast) annihilation. We have the tech, the knowledge, the urgency and the funds to change. I'm convinced all that's holding us back from actually fixing stuff is social.
Ekaros 3y ago
My guess will be under investment in nuclear energy... I just don't believe in global grids and scaling of storage.
porkbeer 3y ago
Drinking water and sewage water treatment, and its ineffectualness when difficult to filter chemicals become concentrated.
Wytwwww 3y ago
But it wasn't a bad decision. Unless we believe that investing ICE or steam engines was a bad decision. Based on technology available at the time electric batter powered cars were a dead end. The market was just too small to justify the massive investment required to make them competitive with ICEs.

I hope I’m wrong, but fear it will be that democracies protect themselves poorly from populists/demagogues. Watching a documentary on the fall of the Roman republic, it was hard to think it couldn’t happen here. Or as wrongly attributed to Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.

pugworthy 3y ago
Well, it was sort of obvious 2000 years ago - another 100 won't matter much!

bee_rider 3y ago

The obvious answers are things like plastics, but we can already kind of tell those are bad. I dunno, actually, it is hard to say because we tend to be a little pessimistic nowadays, I don’t think we overlook much, it is just that there’s an all encompassing feeling that every choice has negative outcomes and we have to pick one. Maybe that’s the thing we’re overlooking, cynicism disguised as skepticism resulting in total paralysis.

berkes 3y ago

I'd say we are overlooking the willingness of humans to change, have less, or reduce their impact. I'm pessimistic, but I doubt the human race can bring up the sacrifices needed to save itself from slow (or fast) annihilation. We have the tech, the knowledge, the urgency and the funds to change. I'm convinced all that's holding us back from actually fixing stuff is social.

Ekaros 3y ago

My guess will be under investment in nuclear energy... I just don't believe in global grids and scaling of storage.

porkbeer 3y ago

Drinking water and sewage water treatment, and its ineffectualness when difficult to filter chemicals become concentrated.

Wytwwww 3y ago

But it wasn't a bad decision. Unless we believe that investing ICE or steam engines was a bad decision. Based on technology available at the time electric batter powered cars were a dead end. The market was just too small to justify the massive investment required to make them competitive with ICEs.