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Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

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Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#41

Post by conception »

techteach00 wrote: post #16

Deeply pessimistic. I'm of the view that the powerful are extracting less and less capital from the average person. It doesn't seem worth it to them. So housing and now cars are marketed to the rich and wealthy, we're losing things we took for granted. Anonymity is basically dead on the internet. Worse being they don't just want my ID to participate but scans of my face, God knows who they are selling this data too.…

Generally agree but I can’t take both parties as being the same seriously. You honestly believe the world stage would be the same with a different administration today?

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#42

Post by vanuatu »

I'm very optimistic. I think most diseases being cured, extended lifespans, physical abundance, and zero poverty are within reach in our lifespan, due to technology.

I think humans will be about the same in terms of happiness, due to how quickly to acclimate to our situation. But they'll look back on us with shock at how we ever lived like this!

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#44

Post by benoau »

ilovecake1984 wrote: post #33
thelastgallon wrote: post #5

No, it feels like its game over for most people. No more lives left to play. Most people whose parents went from farming --> jobs now feel their parents made a fatal mistake. There is nothing for them to fall back on. It is hard to go back to farming. Which is made worse because there is no land, the lands for sold for a pittance, which now costs a substantial amount of money.

Anyone who has every done any horticulture knows that being a smallholder is a terrible idea.

There is a tier of farming below that, subsistence farming, where you're keeping a few small animals and growing food for your own consumption. It's still very common outside of developed countries and cities. Although it's really a "shit hit the fan" outcome for people in developed countries and cities.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#45

Post by dryarzeg »

revlolz wrote: post #21
mbgerring wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t listen to the daily news == Don’t worry about the massive program of deprivation, destruction and death carried out on your behalf to secure the aforementioned “unprecedented wealth”

I don't understand this logic, just existing means you genocide someone and it's illogical.

I'm NOT supporting the OP, but I thought that maybe what's he's saying is somewhat similar to the following position: according to some basic principles of economy (at least as I know them), all resources are limited. Therefore, by taking up enough resources to "just exist", you may prevent someone else from existing, essentially "killing" them - because there's not enough resources for two of you. Alternatively, if you consider a larger scale - because economic resources in the world are limited, the USA has one of the wealthiest middle classes in the world, while millions of people in Africa are starving to death, and those who don't are suffering from diseases that could easily be cured by advanced US medicine.

But (an important "but"), first, while resources are limited, there may be enough for all of the humanity (probably; at least that's what I think, maybe I'm wrong), so by using some resources to "just exist" you're not killing someone else because they still have some resources to just exist as well - so in terms of individuals this logic may, maybe, apply to billionaires but not to people who "just exist"; and second, it's not all that simple, and while there's some "grain of truth", the real world is a bit more complex.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#46

Post by vforgione »

I am not optimistic about the future. I am very worried about what kind of world my kids are inheriting. Their grandparents’ generation doesn’t seem to give a flying fuck so long as their standard of living continuously improves. My grandparents are spinning in their graves.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#47

Post by mindcrime »

groan wrote: post #40
mindcrime wrote: post #37

> Do you think humans in the future in general will be more or less happy than they are now? I honestly have no idea. I strongly want to be optimistic and I am generally an optimist by nature. But recent events have made it hard to justify a lot of optimism. I have a fear that we are rapidly sliding into a straight-up cyberpunk dystopia to rival anything from sci-fi. And sadly it's not just what's going on with techn…

The surge of authoritarianism is a response from people who, much like you, have tried to unplug but who realized closing their eyes does not stop the changing world around them. Medicine is often times not only bitter, but outright toxic to the body. It needs to be, because it has a job to do. I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong, I’m saying there are people who have had a head start on your current conundrum…

> The surge of authoritarianism is a response from people who, much like you, have tried to unplug but who realized closing their eyes does not stop the changing world around them.

I'm not really following your logic there. If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the proximate cause of the surge of enthusiasm for authoritarianism. I believe it has more to do with macro-scale world events. And I'm sure one could construct a "just so story" to run the trail back as far as one wants, but I think an awful lot of it can be traced back to the 2008 financial crisis. That along with the continued deterioration of the middle class, rising wealth inequality, etc. And, as much as I kinda hate to say it, I think there's a hint of lingering White angst over having had a Black POTUS for the first time not so terribly long ago.

I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong,

No worries. And for what it's worth, I'm not - for various reasons - going to elaborate on everything that's on my mind, or every action I still take, or hope to take, in the name of trying to support the aforementioned "freedom and Enlightenment ideals". I'm not trying to write an essay here on HN or anything. :-) My reasoning is in part that if I stop sending time engaging with people on Facebook / Twitter / etc. then I can spend that time on higher value activities.

That said, I'm just a regular Joe (er, "Phil") and I'm no hero. I figure I do what I can in the end I can live with that.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#48

Post by mindcrime »

techteach00 wrote: post #16

Deeply pessimistic. I'm of the view that the powerful are extracting less and less capital from the average person. It doesn't seem worth it to them. So housing and now cars are marketed to the rich and wealthy, we're losing things we took for granted. Anonymity is basically dead on the internet. Worse being they don't just want my ID to participate but scans of my face, God knows who they are selling this data too.…

Speaking as Libertarian, I generally agree that the two major parties have been more alike than different over most of my 50+ years on Earth. But right this minute, I think the Dark Enlightenment dorks and their neo-fascist bullshit have completely captured the Republican Party to the extent that the Democrats are clearly much more favorable. For my part, I'm at a place I never thought I'd be: actively donating money to Democratic candidates and overtly supporting their campaigns, and planning to vote for some of them in the upcoming election. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth for sure, but to me it feels like what has to be done in the moment.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#49

Post by groan »

mindcrime wrote: post #47
groan wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The surge of authoritarianism is a response from people who, much like you, have tried to unplug but who realized closing their eyes does not stop the changing world around them. Medicine is often times not only bitter, but outright toxic to the body. It needs to be, because it has a job to do. I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong, I’m saying there are people who have had a head start on your current conundrum…

> The surge of authoritarianism is a response from people who, much like you, have tried to unplug but who realized closing their eyes does not stop the changing world around them. I'm not really following your logic there. If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the…

> If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the proximate cause of the surge of enthusiasm for authoritarianism.

No, I am saying they tried the thing you tried, and realized they are no better off for it, and eventually landed upon the hypothetical that authoritarianism may be the thing that would make the difference. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong either, just that enough of people’s lives converged to such a conclusion that it has become an issue. Once upon a time, they too tried to take the high road.

Re: Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

#50

Post by mindcrime »

groan wrote: post #49
mindcrime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The surge of authoritarianism is a response from people who, much like you, have tried to unplug but who realized closing their eyes does not stop the changing world around them. I'm not really following your logic there. If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the…

> If the argument is that people choosing to disengage allows the rise of authoritarianism, I could buy some of that. And I'll accept whatever guilt I deserve. But I don't see how that could be the proximate cause of the surge of enthusiasm for authoritarianism. No, I am saying they tried the thing you tried, and realized they are no better off for it, and eventually landed upon the hypothetical that authoritarianism…

Interesting. I think I see what you're getting at, and I can kinda buy that.
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