>> It’s almost as if we’re an entirely reactive species that can’t think ahead forward on solving problems that aren’t as a result of some massive tragic event

>> It’s almost as if we’re an entirely reactive species that can’t think ahead forward on solving problems that aren’t as a result of some massive tragic event That's not a characteristic of the species but of specific tendencies within Western civilization. There's certainly people ringing all sorts of alarm bells for digital technology, the climate, food production, etc etc, and they are very often dismissed as "alarmist". And then there's the motivated reasoning of industrial interests. Think tobacco, asbestos, oil, leaded gasoline, and so on. It's not that we don't know the possible harms, it's just that monetary interests trump the need for health and safety, a.k.a. "health and safety gone mad".