No. Every century had its challenges and circuses.
Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
71–80 of 139 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#72I think it will be organic. I’ve severely curtailed my discretionary spending. The restaurants suck now, bad service and low quality food for a high price. Bars are barely open during adult hours, many being closed at 8 or 9pm. Theaters, concerts, and sporting events seem to run on a skeleton crew of people that are clueless. It’s time to walk the walk. Plenty of people have a doomer mindset about the future. Prepare…
> It’s just like everybody upset about the climate, but none of them have installed solar and geothermal on their home. Average cost of a residential geothermal system: $15k to $38k[1] Average cost of solar panel roof: $11k to $14k after tax credits[2] Also your roof shingles should be 10 years old or less before installation[3] (my roof shingles are definitely that old), so for a lot of people they'd have to replace…
To which I'll add that renters can't install those things even if they have the money, and people seem to be renting for more of their life than they used to.
There's no shortage of articles about people being priced out of ever owning a home. If true, they also won't be able to install solar panels or other environmentally beneficial home improvement technologies, which is bad for everyone. I've never heard of a landlord of a small proprty doing it, but surely some of them do.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#73This is a very dangerous narrative, for some reason popular nowadays — the scarcity mindset, the story of “limited resources”. If you go back 5000 years ago you’ll see there’s only so many people the planet can feed. The actual fact is that people _create_ resources when they cooperate (this is why now our planet can afford so many people that ancient would never imagine possible). It’s not about the technology but a…
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Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#74The book, Enlightenment Now, by Steven Pinker makes the opposite argument that over time, life is getting better. It tracks various aspects of human life throughout history with research, statistics, and graphs that tell a different story.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#75The book, Enlightenment Now, by Steven Pinker makes the opposite argument that over time, life is getting better. It tracks various aspects of human life throughout history with research, statistics, and graphs that tell a different story.
Do you know about the "The Turkey Fallacy" ?
"the story of a turkey who is fed by the farmer every morning for 1,000 days. Eventually the turkey comes to expect that every visit from the farmer means more good food. After all, that’s all that has ever happened so the turkey figures that’s all that can and will ever happen. But then Day 1,001 arrives. It’s two days before Thanksgiving and when the farmer shows up, he is not bearing food, but an ax. The turkey learns very quickly that its expectations were catastrophically off the mark. And now Mr. Turkey is dinner."
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#76If you really want to scare yourself, read:
Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, by William R. Catton
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't call the changes "smaller". Climate change is an existential threat. Possibly the greatest one we've ever faced, certainly the greatest since WWII and so far we're definitely NOT rising to the occasion.
Climate change might be the greatest challenge we've ever faced, but it's hardly an "existential threat" (ie. something that threatens our existence). Even under the worst IPCC forecasts, there won't be enough land lost (eg. by flooding or desertification) to wipe out humanity. Don't get me wrong, billions dying or displaced would be a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, but isn't something that threatens our…
There is a risk that plants can't adapt fast enough to climate change and die off, causing a domino effect. Phytoplankton, for example, produce 50% of the earth's oxygen. So if they go, well, we might be along for the ride.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s just like everybody upset about the climate, but none of them have installed solar and geothermal on their home. Average cost of a residential geothermal system: $15k to $38k[1] Average cost of solar panel roof: $11k to $14k after tax credits[2] Also your roof shingles should be 10 years old or less before installation[3] (my roof shingles are definitely that old), so for a lot of people they'd have to replace…
To which I'll add that renters can't install those things even if they have the money, and people seem to be renting for more of their life than they used to. There's no shortage of articles about people being priced out of ever owning a home. If true, they also won't be able to install solar panels or other environmentally beneficial home improvement technologies, which is bad for everyone. I've never heard of a lan…
Right. Since renters usually pay the electric bill, what incentive is there for landlords to help tenants save on utilities?
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Climate change might be the greatest challenge we've ever faced, but it's hardly an "existential threat" (ie. something that threatens our existence). Even under the worst IPCC forecasts, there won't be enough land lost (eg. by flooding or desertification) to wipe out humanity. Don't get me wrong, billions dying or displaced would be a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, but isn't something that threatens our…
There is a risk that plants can't adapt fast enough to climate change and die off, causing a domino effect. Phytoplankton, for example, produce 50% of the earth's oxygen. So if they go, well, we might be along for the ride.
Possibly, but even if 90% or even 99% of humanity dies it still isn't an existential threat.
If 100k humans survive that's more than enough to carry on humans and civilization as a whole.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world going to shit?
#80"Fruit flies and yeast in a bottle are embarked upon suicidal endeavors. They can’t help it. They don’t know any better, lacking the cognitive equipment to 'know' anything at all.
"Human beings, we are told, are different.... But history teaches us that all too often, human beings simply refuse to apply [what they know] and, like the mindless fruit flies, march blindly into oblivion. [Recent examples follow.] [0]"
[0] https://www.permaculturenews.org/2010/09/20/fruit-flies-in-a...
It's not that we're doing nothing. But we're doing too little too late. Human lives a century from now will be much more limited because of this failure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism
1798 book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_P...