Infant circumcision (common in the US).
Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#22making schooling not about actually useful information and skills, and maybe focused based on aptitude early on
this might depend on the country, with some being better, or a lot better than others
for example, in school, my teachers taught me useless trivia about Historical figures (some of which I later learned could be fictitious), I was also "taught" how to use sandpaper on an ornamental piece of wood (instead of learning how to use the tools to cut wood to make something useful, like a chair or a table)
wasting time on those useless things, instead of first aid, handling money (basic financial information, like savings accounts, how interests can work for you, or agains you, loans, etc.), laws (as in, what's legal, and illegal, and why), knowledge that should be universal, like the declaration of human rights
I also think shielding children from "bad language", and the knowledge of sex, and death does them a disservice, but I don't have an alternative that could be at least seen as reasonable
also, religion, at least the way it's "introduced" on chilren (forced on them, really)
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#23The existence of the military and state sanctioned murder squads. https://www.radford.edu/gmartin/Immoral%20to%20serve%20in%20... At the moment, it seems that the vast majority of people carve out a special ethical exception for the military but I suspect this will change over time. Many futurist/sci-fi dystopian scenarios have the general shape of the Terminator movies with autonomous killing machines roaming the pl…
I didn't even think of this, I live in a country where there is no military, but yes, this
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#24Infant circumcision (common in the US).
this, holy cow, this is certainly uncouth
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't see how that would be possible, unless every country is equally wealthy and all wars and conflicts cease. What's anyone's incentive for staying in Syria, Iraq, Cuba, or Ukraine when bad things happen? What is going to keep people in their birth place, when they could earn orders of magnitude more in other countries? Then again, the far reaching implications of extensive automation could lead to this. We'll se…
Those that can leave, leave. Why leave the poor behind to be fodder in a war?
The ease of straight up abandoning countries could have a minor rise in extremism leading to a full-on takeover. All the decent people would want none of that, and life would be easier elsewhere anyway.
Such infighting and geopolitical issues would just get us back to where we are now, with maybe a few more EU-esque bubbles remaining.
Sounds rather dystopian.
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#26Would like to point out that we're still allowing 18 year olds to pick up smoking, and we're still emitting greenhouse gases.
I think driving is one thing humans will clearly not be doing in 100 years and it will be considered incredible that we put up with the human toll (injuries & deaths) that it caused.
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#27The existence of the military and state sanctioned murder squads. https://www.radford.edu/gmartin/Immoral%20to%20serve%20in%20... At the moment, it seems that the vast majority of people carve out a special ethical exception for the military but I suspect this will change over time. Many futurist/sci-fi dystopian scenarios have the general shape of the Terminator movies with autonomous killing machines roaming the pl…
Good point, the military is a necessary evil right now, but it could be disbanded if we learn to solve conflicts the proper way. I see robot vs robot battles as and intermediate step in this direction.
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#28The existence of the military and state sanctioned murder squads. https://www.radford.edu/gmartin/Immoral%20to%20serve%20in%20... At the moment, it seems that the vast majority of people carve out a special ethical exception for the military but I suspect this will change over time. Many futurist/sci-fi dystopian scenarios have the general shape of the Terminator movies with autonomous killing machines roaming the pl…
Good point, the military is a necessary evil right now, but it could be disbanded if we learn to solve conflicts the proper way. I see robot vs robot battles as and intermediate step in this direction.
> the military is a necessary evil right now
Good example of social stigma.
No, in its current form, it's not. Troops amd toys at home, to protect people, not power and profits.
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#29Would like to point out that we're still allowing 18 year olds to pick up smoking, and we're still emitting greenhouse gases. I think driving is one thing humans will clearly not be doing in 100 years and it will be considered incredible that we put up with the human toll (injuries & deaths) that it caused.
We're replacing those with Marlboro Greens, so, no biggie.
Re: Ask HN: What are we doing wrong now that will be painfully obvious in 100 years?
#30Usage of Oil and Gas Which feeds religious fundamentalists
You're allowed to say Saudi Arabia, this isn't Twitter.