Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Are people optimistic about the future?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 100 posts

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

#61

Post by dudul »

dryarzeg wrote: post #45
revlolz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If there's one thing we can be sure about it's that people starving in Africa are not starving because an American got themselves a new lawn mower. This type of discourse may have worked 30 years ago, but not anymore.

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

#62

Post by dudul »

vanuatu wrote: post #42

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!

This reads like it was written by someone visiting from a completely different timeline...

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

#63

Post by dudul »

AznHisoka wrote: post #38

No i am not optimistic. Though if you asked people this 25 years ago or 50 years ago, or 100 years ago they would say the same exact thing

Absolutely false. 25 years ago people were absolutely bullish about what was ahead. I wasn't around in the 70s but data suggests that people were indeed happier than in the recent decades despite inflation and political issues. As for the 1920s, if we only look at America people were on a freaking cloud after the end of WW1: cars, radios, massive economic boost after the end of the war.

Yeah there was poverty, and social issues and blabla, but we're talking average and trends here.

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

#64

Post by silver_silver »

My home country has a population that’s too big for the economy, so most people live in squatter camps and build homes out of scrap wood and sheet metal. The government provides public toilets (often portable because of land ownership issues) for about 100 people to one toilet. They eat subsidised (and fortified) maize for most meals and wash with buckets when it isn’t too cold. Meat is reserved for holidays where it’s typically a gift/bonus from employers. Emergency services can’t enter the camps safely because they’re attacked and robbed, so mob justice is the rule. Neighbours sometimes try to have one another arrested (or killed) so they can steal their shack and possessions. People commute from these camps into the suburbs to clean toilets for None of this is an exaggeration. Everyone is outraged about it, and there are often riots but they’re put down with tear gas and rubber bullets. So every day the sun and GDP continue to rise.

To me this is the only realistic long term outcome of mass unemployment if the tech companies’ visions are realised. UBI is a fantasy. Everyone in the camps is on welfare, it just isn’t enough.

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

#65

Post by ChiperSoft »

dudul wrote: post #63
AznHisoka wrote: post #38

No i am not optimistic. Though if you asked people this 25 years ago or 50 years ago, or 100 years ago they would say the same exact thing

Absolutely false. 25 years ago people were absolutely bullish about what was ahead. I wasn't around in the 70s but data suggests that people were indeed happier than in the recent decades despite inflation and political issues. As for the 1920s, if we only look at America people were on a freaking cloud after the end of WW1: cars, radios, massive economic boost after the end of the war. Yeah there was poverty, and so…

Exactly. Things were so good in the 90s that people were bored with it. We had an entire subgenre of film centered around the monotony of being middle class.

Outside of computing, Y2K was extremely hyped. We were entering the future!

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

#67

Post by kai_mac »

The remaining carbon budget for limiting warming to 2°C with 66% probability was estimated (in 2022) as equivalent to 23 years of (then) current CO2 emissions. It does not seem likely that we will be anywhere near zero CO2 emissions in 19 years. We are heading towards a hothouse Earth without the technology to reverse this on any meaningful scale. So no I don't think humans will be more happy, I think they will be hotter, more underwater and more hungry.

Side note: nobody else seems to have mentioned climate change yet in this thread. The fact that we are currently in the process of determining, through our CO2 emissions, what the medium to long term future of human society looks like seems...incredibly significant! And yet people don't seem to want to talk about it. Is it ignorance? Or resignation?

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

#68

Post by al_borland »

saulpw wrote: post #27
al_borland wrote: post #12

There will be good times and bad times in the future, just as there have always been. Those times also vary by region on a macro level, and vary still at a micro level. I think there will be happy people in the future, but it won’t be a straight line, nor will everyone be happy at the same time.

You're right, of course, it's always a mix. But it's a much different future if there are only 1% of people who are happy/stable/rich, and the other 99% in abject misery, vs 90% with stability and opportunity. Also the trajectory matters; people can endure a lot of difficulty with a positive attitude if their trajectory is improving, and much less if it's worsening (even if it's already really good!).

Right, but we’ve been there before. Not “we” as in you and I, but “we” as in humanity. The Roman Empire was full of slaves while others were rich beyond measure. The dark ages weren’t so good. There was royalty and peasants. It’s said the Siddhartha Gautama started his quest which ultimately ended in the founding of Buddhism when he left the isolation of his lavish palace life and saw the suffering of the people for the first time. Even in the US, the gilded age saw immense wealth held by a select few, not to mention the divide in the south between slaves and plantation owners.

Things can and will get better, no matter how bad you think it is now or will get. A change could take 1000 years, but change is inevitable. And all things considered, thing are pretty good now, especially if you turn off the news. I just watched some compilation videos of Europeans in the US for the World Cup talking about how amazing everything is in the US and how they’ve been lied to their whole life. Chowing down on Texas bbq, in awe of Costco and Walmart, loving the beaches, free refills and self-service on soft drinks, finally understanding the value of air conditioning, etc.

The bad stuff is there if you look for it, of course, but so is the good.

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

#69

Post by JKCalhoun »

silver_silver wrote: post #64

My home country has a population that’s too big for the economy, so most people live in squatter camps and build homes out of scrap wood and sheet metal. The government provides public toilets (often portable because of land ownership issues) for about 100 people to one toilet. They eat subsidised (and fortified) maize for most meals and wash with buckets when it isn’t too cold. Meat is reserved for holidays where it…

Where is this? At first I guessed India. Now I am uncertain.

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

#70

Post by _DeadFred_ »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #23
craftkiller wrote: post #18

Not at all. At this point, I don't see improvement in the future; I'm just hoping I'll be able to maintain my standard of living. We are hurtling towards an economic collapse, an unemployment crisis, and the risk of major war. I thought I was safely beyond conscription age, but the war in Ukraine has shown that when push comes to shove the max conscription age is mutable.

> I'm just hoping I'll be able to maintain my standard of living. I used to expect that I wouldn't experience homeless retirement. But with the shift toward a 4-income economy (and the shift among the powerful, from social good to austerity), it is increasingly unclear how my geriatric self will stay housed.

Did you ever read sci-fi where the family unit was like 6 married adults for one household? Now we know how they ended up there.
Post reply on HN