Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#91

Post by civilized » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:34 PM UTC

UncleOxidant wrote: post #57

gumby wrote: post #38

I was a kid in the 70s and people were far gloomier about the future than they are now, especially after I moved to the USA. Think of yourself as swimming in the open ocean: you can't feel the big waves (low frequency/long wavelength), just the chop you are trying to paddle through. I think there are a lot of good things happening. There's finally progress on climate repair (tiny, but nonzero) which means we may have…

> I was a kid in the 70s and people were far gloomier about the future than they are now I was also a kid in the 70s and while it did seem pretty gloomy then, I think people are gloomier about the future now. > And even the re-emergence of some of the worst people (let's just aggregate them into "the racist shitheads") In the 70s there were racist shitheads, but they were pretty afraid to come out into the sunlight.…

> In the 70s there were racist shitheads, but they were pretty afraid to come out into the sunlight. Now they're just out in the open. I think I liked it better when they felt like they had to hide.

Just out of curiosity, who are we talking about here? And are we sure it's not just because of more coverage? Lots of racist stuff that would have gone completely unnoticed in the 70s now makes national news.

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#92

Post by mhzsh » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:36 PM UTC

UncleOxidant wrote: post #57

gumby wrote: post #38

I was a kid in the 70s and people were far gloomier about the future than they are now, especially after I moved to the USA. Think of yourself as swimming in the open ocean: you can't feel the big waves (low frequency/long wavelength), just the chop you are trying to paddle through. I think there are a lot of good things happening. There's finally progress on climate repair (tiny, but nonzero) which means we may have…

> I was a kid in the 70s and people were far gloomier about the future than they are now I was also a kid in the 70s and while it did seem pretty gloomy then, I think people are gloomier about the future now. > And even the re-emergence of some of the worst people (let's just aggregate them into "the racist shitheads") In the 70s there were racist shitheads, but they were pretty afraid to come out into the sunlight.…

> There wasn't right-wing news and left-wing news, there was just news.

Perhaps in part due to the revocation of the FCC fairness doctrine [0] in 1987. I wasn't old enough to understand what news broadcasting was like _before_ this, and there are some criticisms of the doctrine, but what we have now _feels_ so much worse.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#93

Post by brailsafe » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:37 PM UTC

I don't necessarily agree with at least some of your thesis, or would maybe interpret them differently, but I'm somewhat optimistic about some changing views on urban development, particularly in cities that are plagued by decades of bad patterns. To that effect, I'm optimistic that there will be a return to downtown areas in cities that have been crippled by suburbanism, and those cities will start actually trying to realize the economic gains from that, prioritizing cosmopolitanism instead of the sort of isolationist myopic hellscape they've been rollin with for 50 years

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#94

Post by ultra_nick » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:38 PM UTC

The Law of Averages

It commands that 50% of things will be better than average. For some reason, being realistic is a really positive world view.

For examples, see: https://upgrader.gapminder.org/

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#95

Post by eastbound » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:38 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #38

I was a kid in the 70s and people were far gloomier about the future than they are now, especially after I moved to the USA. Think of yourself as swimming in the open ocean: you can't feel the big waves (low frequency/long wavelength), just the chop you are trying to paddle through. I think there are a lot of good things happening. There's finally progress on climate repair (tiny, but nonzero) which means we may have…

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#96

Post by browningstreet » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:40 PM UTC

This question doesn't even reference the various texts produced in the recent past the contradicts the premise of the submission.

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#97

Post by david38 » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:40 PM UTC

dmitrybrant wrote: post #48

I have a mostly Pinkerian view of the modern world, which is to say that by nearly all metrics, the world is better today than it has ever been, and is continuing to improve. Will we go through local minima while on the path towards absolute upward progress? Of course we will. Right now we might be in a local minimum. Maybe we haven't reached the bottom of the current local minimum yet. Maybe we won't reach it during…

You “by all metrics that are people centric”.

If you look at the other 99.99999% of species, the world is exceptionally bleak.

Mass death everywhere, total ecosystem collapse, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#98

Post by MrMan » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:40 PM UTC

civilized wrote: post #91

UncleOxidant wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was a kid in the 70s and people were far gloomier about the future than they are now I was also a kid in the 70s and while it did seem pretty gloomy then, I think people are gloomier about the future now. > And even the re-emergence of some of the worst people (let's just aggregate them into "the racist shitheads") In the 70s there were racist shitheads, but they were pretty afraid to come out into the sunlight.…

> In the 70s there were racist shitheads, but they were pretty afraid to come out into the sunlight. Now they're just out in the open. I think I liked it better when they felt like they had to hide. Just out of curiosity, who are we talking about here? And are we sure it's not just because of more coverage? Lots of racist stuff that would have gone completely unnoticed in the 70s now makes national news.

militias marching heavily armed in the streets? marching in military formation up the capitol steps?

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#99

Post by golemiprague » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:41 PM UTC

rlt wrote: post #83

The renewed interest and pace of innovation in space exploration is pretty exciting. We have a non-zero chance of making humans a multiplanetary species in our lifetimes. Even if we don’t fully achieve that we’ll likely see a bunch of benefits along the way.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

#100

Post by olegious » Thu, Jul 14, 2022, 9:42 PM UTC

I think you need to turn off the day to day news cycle and focus on the macro. By almost any metric people are better off today than they were 40 years ago.

Even the war in Ukraine- Putin will likely win in the short term, but he’s already lost the future- all my smartest friends in Russia have left or are figuring out how to leave, the economy outside of natural resources is in shambles due to sanctions. What’s left of Ukraine, if they can fix their endemic corruption issues, will end up reaping the benefits of a new Marshall Plan and will show the ordinary Russians and potentially the Chinese the benefits of an open society and a much higher quality of life.