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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Walking around in pure terror is one option, but is probably more media inspired than reality based. You could also be optimistic in the face of the future. We are here because of a long line of good fortune and optimism, despite war, disease, famine. The human race has really faced some incredible odds. And technology while an accelerant for destruction could also be our liberator. Solve energy problems, get us off…
this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by deleuze: "There's no need to fear or hope, but only to look for new weapons." I guess we can also translate as tools, given the techno-solucionist atmosphere ;)
I think about this every hour, if not several times an hour. The cognitive dissonance between saving for retirement, expecting a stable government, and this are huge. I don't understand how every parent isn't filled with sheer, abject terror at their child's death from starvation, thirst, disease, or violence.
> I don't understand how every parent isn't filled with sheer, abject terror at their child's death from starvation, thirst, disease, or violence. I also find it hard to believe that the default stance (even from non-religious people) seems to be that having kids is normal. It is amazing how even as a male, "oh you'll change your mind, everyone wants to have kids some time!" is brought up. It is absolutely baffling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_...
https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393
It is his "witness statement" on how he has personally observed enormous environmental changes over his ~70 year career documenting wildlife throughout the world.
This comment on reddit has me in a very gloomy mood for the last 24 hours https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/lqqfgv/freshwate...
We were supposed to have an ice-free artic year around by now, but here we are. Not sure I’d put much weight on the worst case scenarios. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/17/arctic-c...
That aside, many of the other comments here, filled with deep existential dread about our future world, are straying into the manic given how terrible humans are at predicting anything at all over the long term. There are far too many unknown unknowns for us to be sure of any aspect of catastrophe for 2100 or even for earlier years. Never mind years beyond 2100.
It should serve as very serious food for thought just how much reactions to COVID by public officials, scientists and the media as well were bungled, confused and fraught with false claims (notable examples: masks don't work, the virus has a 1-3% mortality rate) in just a single year because of science and politics mixing heavily in a media charged atmosphere. Yet somehow, the far, far more complex theme of global climate patterns over decades combined with human trends during the next 70 years, is taken as a near given of planetary catastrophe to the point where many of you are firmly convinced that having children now is barely a step below slow murder...
I think about this every hour, if not several times an hour. The cognitive dissonance between saving for retirement, expecting a stable government, and this are huge. I don't understand how every parent isn't filled with sheer, abject terror at their child's death from starvation, thirst, disease, or violence.
I think about this every hour, if not several times an hour. The cognitive dissonance between saving for retirement, expecting a stable government, and this are huge. I don't understand how every parent isn't filled with sheer, abject terror at their child's death from starvation, thirst, disease, or violence.
I think it's only in the last 200 years or so that people could actually live comfortably with periods of not worrying about the things you mention. How many famines, wars and water shortages happened since the dawn of man? How many people worried about those things vs how many people were born? Not discounting the severity of the issue, just outlining how lucky people have been in the last few centuries.
Childhood mortality rates in the US for the last 200-ish years:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041693/united-states-al...