Fixing the ozone layer was fucking awesome! But bear in mind, it's not "fixed" after these couple of decades. We only stopped making it worse. Global warming will take centuries to reverse before we turn the tide on CO2 and CH4 emissions. I know that sounds cynical and, "You can't predict future tech!", but I can predict there is no magical way to pull 100s of billions of pounds of carbon out the air.

My children

Right with ya, but the Holocene Extinction is something that will take millions of years to naturally reverse.

Imagine explaining to someone 200-years ago that Europe is now one huge political block. Mind. Blown.

I've been out of work for 2-years. It's no fucking picnic. No boulder, no motivation for me. Only thing that got me going lately was my wife's request for a fish tank. Digging out and cleaning the old gear, plus a pretty large living space reorg kept me going to a couple of days. More to come! I need to get that smart power switch working... brb.

Yeah see, this is the problem.

The post scarcity "pursue your passions" model doesn't work unless you're an actual hedonistic degenerate. For the rest of us this is an actual nightmare. I am really not looking forward to the day when I don't need to work.

Also bad news about the nature... I winced when I saw this comment because it's so naive, but this thread isn't the place for me to mention the Brazilian election, or how BC is about to be clear cut, or...

I better go.

yes, but at the same time I feel bad for kids. We are handing everything to them in a destroyed and broken state, including their education and the economy they will need to survive. There is also less joy and authenticity in the world as the boomers break everything in one last fit of childishness and self centeredness before they kick the bucket. They have taught the world that being shitty to each other is the only way to go. Everything is now monstrous.

The plastic thing has interested me for a long time. I bet my grandkids will be horrified at our casual use. Plastic wrapped single potatoes?! AHH! But nature can't ignore that monster energy source for long.

The Deepwater Horizon power dumped oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists predicted decades of devastation. It was a big deal at the time, but nature healed almost supernaturally fast. (Not discounting the monstrous human effort!) We didn't think Gulf seafood would be edible for 10+ years, but even filter-feeding oysters where quick to be deemed safe.

Oil-eating microbes showed out and chowed down. After all, oil leaks were a natural thing long before humans, the bacteria were always there. This event was a feast. Nature can't let a compact energy source go to waste. :)

Nothing you just named can come anywhere near climate change in terms of severity. Humanity (and the majority of complex organisms) won't survive climate change, but the planet will. In a million years it will be like we were never here, and life can start over. That's the kind of pragmatic optimism that I find comforting.

I know that there are good people everywhere who will keep trying. It will take some time, but the pendulum will swing back the other way. People will always keep trying.

This is the way

History gives me hope. It's funny/not-funny seeing people on Western social media freak out like this is the end of all things. Human history is cyclic, and America in particular is on a monster downswing. Consider Europe in 1940 vs. 1960 vs. 1990 vs. 2020. Pretty radical changes for the better! China's up to bat to run the 21st century. Let's see how that plays.

Global warming is the only new thing in the room. But humans are the AR-15s of the animal world. Not the best at anything, but multi-purpose and wildly adaptable for whatever use case is required. Humans now live in places where even insects can't hang! We'll be fine. Eventually.

Kids are nicer now.

I am more listened to at work (as a woman) than in the past.

We did clean up Tampa Bay, and at least the clean energy tech is growing so fast.

So, so so much less violent here than when I was a kid

Ok first off "post scarcity" is never going to happen, we are the resource their system extracts from and it will never give anything back. But if it did somehow, if we built a loving god? That'd be dope as hell. If you genuinely don't have interests beyond your needs to pursue right now I hope you find some. There's nothing hedonistic or degenerate (nazi buzzword btw) about passion and engagement. What gives your life meaning beyond meeting those needs as-is?

Antidepressants

Seriously, when you're depressed to the point of self unaliving ideation it's inconceivable to be optimistic. But when you're not depressed it's hard even to imagine the level of misery depressed person is going through. All of this to say, hopelessness and despair isn't normal -- even in modern times.

A lot of people I know is on antidepressants or used to be at some point. Talk to random acquaintances about potential psychiatrist visit and some of them could actually get you some leftover drugs for free. Sometimes taking just one week course is enough to feel that it's working.

You're right.

"Soon" means different things to different people, and I would not hazard to define when. But no matter which way you time it, between the failing body he inhabits, the murderous inner circle of sycophants who all want his power, the crimes he openly commits, the women and girls he has wronged, and the sheer number of paybacks both large and small that this motherfucker is racking up daily around the world, I completely agree: dude is not long for this earth.

There will be a day when this world is again a place without him in it, where the madness of yesterday turns into cold revulsion at the memory of the disease he was, where they stop running his pictures in the media because he is no longer among the living, where his name gets mentioned less and less, and every time it does it is necessarily in the past tense and people here are bitching that anyone is still talking about him.

Goddamn I feel better already, lol

Yes. Because they got greedy and tried to do the fast grab, they got the average person's attention and we actually have a chance.

I just watched a Guardian short of Tel Aviv, where thousands (their number) are marching in the streets ahead of the Israeli elections, wanting Netanyahu out. What was most telling were the people they stopped to talk with, who all seem aware of just how involved Netanyahu was in the events of October 7 and keeping the war going: the people marching want peace in their region, and they recognize that Bibi is war. One guy was saying something like, "We've been through October 7th, and the fact that the government that is responsible for it are even running again is insane. They should have been gone like the day after."

It's a far cry from the nationalistic shit we get fed daily on the other side of the world, to say the least. People are waking up. And the more they do, the better chance we have.

I was expecting someone saying this haha but I agree my statement still feels positive. But I don't agree that humanity is going to be wiped off to planet because of climate change. Our numbers will dwindle but we will come out of this.

Don’t lose hope, that’s what I wanted to express with my original comment. The world and humanity are in a deep crisis, on oh so many fronts. You have a choice though: invest in the future, make a positive change. Dont just consume the (bad) news, engage yourself, vote, protest! And enjoy the small things in life; if we run out of coffee, damn replace it with tea. Call me naive…

I don't like having things. I prefer to not have them but want them but for there to be no actual way to ever get them. If it was possible to have the things that I want, then there would be no more fun in wanting them. It's a hedonistic treadmill.

It's like debugging code. The fun part is the debugging. The worst part is when you actually fix the bug. Pushing the boulder is what makes life enjoyable.

EDIT: Probably worth explaining why this relates to LLMs. LLM's, and a post scarcity world, promises all bug-fixing and no debugging. It's like playing a videogame with a difficulty slider; you could play with the difficulty on high but you always know that you could reduce it if you needed to. Takes the fun out of the game.

I do appreciate your attitude, despite the wincing 😉

I'm not sure how to cut out bad news without cutting out all news completely.

Im just born like this tbh

I was in the ICU for six months once, even on what every probability said was going to be my deathbed I was hopeful a new set of lungs would come and I would get my transplant, and they did. I had one moment in those six months where I really did think “this could be it” but even that, it was a maybe, I always had hope. I think I would have died hopeful.

For me it’s just an inborne trait or at least a trait I developed so early I don’t remember not being like this

The idea that the people wrecking the world are playing 5d chess and only pretending to be delusional idiots becomes less believable by the day. Things may get worse, but their plans are going to blow up in their faces, because they don't contend with reality and that makes for bad plans.

Funny, I’m done being the one always having to take it on the chin for “the greater good”. Let’s have OTHER era’s step up.

How are you commenting then?

Humans will inevitably do the right thing when they have exhausted all the wrong things to do.

https://youtu.be/NB5uSHCIgS0

It could be, but cockroaches like him hang on forever. And when he dies, there will be a concerted effort to move past and not hold all of his traitorous co-conspirators accountable. We can’t let that happen.

Lula!

Generally speaking, the world just keeps getting better in ways that matter.

Despite all the wars going on, this is probably the most peaceful time in human history; we just see every single conflict thanks to modern telecommunication.

There has always been terrible stuff going on in the world. Very little of the terrible things in the modern day are really new, it's just a new form. And usually the new form is a bit friendlier than the last one.

Frankly, how bad the past was makes it hard to be anything but optimistic about the future. Overall, the best time to be alive in all of history is right now. There's no reason to think that trend won't continue.

We'll defeat diseases, and get more efficient at producing the things we need, and develop technologies to solve problems. Sure, a lot of that will be expensive for a while if capitalism persists, but going into debt for cancer treatment beats dying of cancer.

And it's never been easier to coordinate with such a huge number of people. We have the tools at our disposal to actively make the future better. We have to use them, but we do have them. And it really seems like people are starting to get interested in using those tools, and they're only getting easier to use, which means with a little elbow grease we could progress from "better, year over year" to "actually good".

The boomers are dying, the techbro bubble is almost ready to pop, the kids are organizing. I feel privileged to get to witness the next 50 years.

Ty

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Would you say most of your material needs are met now? I'm somewhat behind on mine, and freedom from the constant struggle of not quite meeting them sounds (and is) too good to be true. I'm not against offloading that burden to a machine in principle or out of an attachment to want itself, I'm against it because that machine has been well-proven not to be acting in our best interests or capable of shouldering that burden even if its operators would ever allow it

One thing is way fewer people dying of climate-related causes and natural disasters than ever before.

My material needs are certainly met. My family will likely never buy a home but I've never wanted to so that's no loss for me. We have food, water, shelter and access to education for our children (for all the good that will do them).

I have had times in my life where my material needs were very far from being met. Either as a result of lack of funds or as a result of being located somewhere hostile to those needs. Though the fear of a post scarcity economy has been one I've had since I was a child (ironically the most materially unstable portion of my life) so this has been a consistent character trait, whether or not I could articulate it.

I didn't mean it as a callout or gotcha, just seemed relevant to the potential appeal of having them met by a machine. I certainly wouldn't feel lost or directionless in that scenario, there's so much I want to do but can't now. Liberation from the chop wood/carry water processes that occupy more time than I've got would unlock so much potential

There's one thing that's happened this year that inspired actual hope in me. (I am generally a cynic, having read too many history books.)

I made a video about Flock buying out their employees and, in researching it, learned that Flock (as of a month ago) had lost nearly 400 contracts in 36 states. An independent outfit is tracking it because, obviously, major media outlets don't want to talk about the unpopularity of fascism.

Thing is, this accelerated last summer, which means a lot of people who are otherwise apolitical are learning about Flock, going to city council meetings and doing boring, pedestrian and effective political organizing for a good cause.

That is objectively a good thing.

Which is why I've been saying for two years, "Stop talking about 'Trump' did this.' Talk about 'the Republicans did this'.

I notice when the topic of a post-scarcity/post-work environment comes up the reactions tend to be roughly sortable into 2 camps. People with my perspective and people who would be excited about this. It's interesting that you mention liberation from chop wood/carry water because that actually sounds rather lovely, and that's coming from someone that did manual/industrial labor for the first half of their working life.

I wonder what the psychology of that is? Why some people would find the absence of toil freeing and others would find it dreadful.

Getting some historical perspective is amazing. We live in one of the best times on earth, possibly the best ever. Most people just don't realise it because we don't have the lifespan to experience the difference ourselves.

People, particularly men, often drop dead after retiring. It's not what most are imagining when they're hating their day job.

The bullshit with Putin and Ukraine as well as Trump and Iran is heavily incentivizing the adoption of EVs.

You're more than welcome to come pitch in. I feel like it has a lot to do with how someone's currently handling their burdens. If you're thriving now, fundamental change is a threat. If you're struggling, there's room to see it as salvation. I think it sounds lovely to be warm and have enough to eat, and am quite confident I could find another goal should those suddenly be achieved. Maybe it's just the grass being greener as usual :p

"What, and ze English too?"

"Err, well, they were for a little while, but then decided to pull out"

"Eh! I tell you, you can depend on ze English to do something stupid. Perhaps one day they will come to their senses!"

They could have a time boxed relationship with the site, and use it only on a laptop. That's what I do for some websites.

What is the cost of lies?

About 3.6 Roentgen

I'm sorry to hear that. Hang in there man, it's supposed to get better.

- fellow unemployed job seeker

Thank you for your service.

I am surprisingly hard to destroy.

I hope it's quick and painless.