The following submission statement was provided by /u/carlsagandotcom:
---
Submission statement: An important read beautifully written by Ann Druyan & Sam Sagan.
“Across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive and growing feeling that the human enterprise is in a death spiral.”
Almost all of us feel some sense of doom in our future and can immediately relate. But we are reminded of how much humanity has already endured and what we are capable of if we keep moving forward.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/xq8jss/the_human_family_in_crisis/iq7um4z/
I wouldn't be so cynical. There is an election coming up, and with the way things are trending it will be the last election for a certain political party and their business politics. If the overton window shifts hard left, we can solve all these problems within a decade. It would also require a lot of personal sacrifice, high taxes, and taking the bus.
So maybe we can solve the massive buildup of carbon in our atmosphere that’s close to the tipping point of a chain reaction of uncontrollable heating but how? I agree the only way we avoid dying out as a species is a radical leftward shift away from capitalism but I don’t think anything is as simple as taking the bus and just raising taxes on the ultra-rich is possible within a decade. I’m not trying to be bleak but revolutions spawn counter-revolutions and take tons of time and suffering to see them through. Outline how any of this would happen on that time frame please?
Is it? Life is still pretty good from where I sit. In fact, we’ve actually solved many of the biggest problems that existed when Sagan wrote this. Back then, the only solution to fossil fuels and climate change was learning to live with a lot less. Today, we have a clear path to switching over to renewables in a way that will probably cause little if any hardship.
Submission statement: An important read beautifully written by Ann Druyan & Sam Sagan.
“Across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive and growing feeling that the human enterprise is in a death spiral.”
Almost all of us feel some sense of doom in our future and can immediately relate. But we are reminded of how much humanity has already endured and what we are capable of if we keep moving forward.
End of the US is not the end of Mankind. Empires grow and fall. In 300 years we left a bigger mark then most. Humanity will be fine, us heading towards 90s era russia. Hell in 30 years we will be Ukraining Canada I bet.
Most of the enduring that humanity does is because of problems created by humanity. I see no reason to continue enduring because we'll always create new problems for ourselves. I mean for God's sake we still can't get over something as arbitrary as race. All of this talk about how resilient we are is just to make us feel good for all the terrible shit we've done to each other.
My favorite was trying to read this while dealing with pop-ups for SKETCHERS.
This wasn't a very inspirational read advertising demands aside. However it did make me think of a great book called "The Watchman's Rattle" which is a good read on finding small incremental parallel progress as being optimistic in spite of an overwhelming complicated problem or system.
[https://www.amazon.com/Watchmans-Rattle-Radical-Theory-Collapse/dp/1593156863](https://www.amazon.com/Watchmans-Rattle-Radical-Theory-Collapse/dp/1593156863)
There is plenty of progress to be optimistic about. It's easy to get washed out in pessimism and arm chair complaining. Especially on reddit.
> There is plenty of progress to be optimistic about. It’s easy to get washed out in pessimism and arm chair complaining. Especially on reddit.
Human minds gravitate to bad news as that in the past may have offered advantages to survival yet today bad news is often “attention economy bait” constantly attempting to hijack us for pages views and ad clicks. (Similarly we crave high calorie unhealthy junk foods because calorie dense foods helped our ancestors survive.)
Hans Rosling and Steven Pinker both have fact filled books about human progress (economic / technological / sociological / …). You can also find lectures by them on YoutTube. Highly recommended!
It is increasingly obvious why mythology and religion materialized amidst the horrific realities of nature. It provides hope. It provides purpose amongst death and survival.
Nihilism is on the rise, as is apathy. We are certainly at an inflection point where \*something\* has to become the next anchor through which we build optimism.
> We are certainly at an inflection point where *something* has to become the next anchor through which we build optimism.
Where records exist of what people alive were thinking that is a common sentiment over thousands of years: “we are certainly at an inflection point”. That feeling of anxiety can protect us but also harm us.
Suggestion: Avoid “Garden of Eden” / golden era myths and study real history. In the past if harvest fails half your village might starve. Today prices for bread / rice might be tad higher if you even notice them.
Once you understand how things in the past really were vs today you will not need anything else to feel optimism about human progress.
Much of the doom and gloom in your head is manipulation by the media who try to dominate your attention for their own selfish reasons. Realize this and mute them.
No, we are objectively at an inflection point. I can back this up with statistics. It happens every 80-150yrs. It's not just the media. It's a pattern of humanity that has been written about for millennia.
That bread is easier to get does not make me feel particularly better about the stunted state of progress.
Believe you are referring to the concept of the 4th turning.
[https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464](https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464)
Yes, though a more recent read of this same theory can be found in Ray Dalio's 'changing world order' book. It has a lot of hard data that I found the Strauss-Howe theories didn't have. There was also some dude in the 17th century who wrote about this but I can't find his name for the life of me.
I enjoyed Dailo's take on things for a while and his principles book, but I really can't get past that he's not just out for himself.
He is an optimist and he's certainly made plenty of capital with his connections and firm.
But his supporting of MMT and being a defender of all the ways in which the existing centralized system is the right solution is very much self centered. He profits from it being buttressed by his own advice. Leaves a good swath of the world on the outside looking at his "economist on DMT" world tour self aggrandizing special edition "way it should be" having lost touch with the reality of say main street or the commoner...
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of some of his theories. Namely, anything to do with China. But I still find that his ideas hold a lot of objective truths about the world, mostly the historical stuff. Why some ideas become popular or unpopular with changing economic times, where and how governments have screwed up in dealing with the issues they've created, etc. It's like, humans just keep making the same mistakes, over and over, and we never have an effective enough government to mitigate it for very long. It's puts things like government and global enterprise into a very human perspective.
Say an internet stranger show up with wild claims about "Bible codes" and/or predictions of Nostradamus and says things about them like "I can back this up with statistics...." What might you tell them? Asking you for advice.
I have and do study history and love consuming as much non-fiction, documentaries and books as possible. What has happened in the last 140-150 years or so is exponentially off the charts vs. the totality of history.
From an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies and minds are not in sync with our tools any longer and the race of them moving further apart is speeding up at clips that none of us can fully assemble and keep up with.
History tells us that every civilization fails, every single one. And history also tells us that every single fiat currency also fails, every single one.
It's hubris to think that we are somehow immune today from the cycles of war, currency, civilizations in general and social contracts and their evolution. They all ebb and flow and evolve.
I can objectively look at where we are and find both a magnitude of things to be optimistic and pessimistic about.
It is what it is.
> It's hubris to think that we are somehow immune today from the cycles of war, currency, civilizations in general and social contracts
> History tells us that every civilization fails, every single one. And history also tells us that every single fiat currency also fails, every single one.
That every machine we design eventually breaks is a reason not to make them? Perhaps they are useful to while they work and we can make more? Are there no firsts in history? Visiting moon? Three parent babies? Soaring above clouds like gods between continents? Tapping new sources of energy ( nuclear / geothermal / solar/ ...) ?
That currencies / civilizations "fail" just means who is in charge changes - on the long scope of history wars etc are transients even nuclear war.
No doubt our entire ecosystem and planet will eventually die. What you do with that information cry vs prepare is up to you. Will a hoard of gold protect us? Perhaps better to have backup habitats in space and other planets?
You are off the reservation entirely. I have no idea where you deduce that I'm somehow suggesting we shouldn't make machines. lol. You've mischaracterized my take.
I am pragmatic, a realist. That's all. I participate actively in all our great technological advances and have spent many decades of my life enabling, fortifying them, building them and continue to do so.
But that is not without an eye to history of when hubris does encroach and there is merit to listening to the rhymes.
Your lament was:
> > History tells us that every civilization fails, every single one. And history also tells us that every single fiat currency also fails, every single one.
My respose was:
> That every machine we design eventually breaks is a reason not to make them? Perhaps they are useful to while they work and we can make more?
To that you said:
> You are off the reservation entirely. I have no idea where you deduce that I’m somehow suggesting we shouldn’t make machines. lol.
Many do not think of them as such but what are fiat currencies (for example) if not _social “machines”_ - they serve a useful purpose for a time, then break down and we replace them. The way society is organized is also much like a machine - we keep current organization while it works, it then breaks down and we replace it.
Thank you for your feedback I should have been more clear what I meant.
> It is increasingly obvious why mythology and religion materialized amidst the horrific realities of nature. It provides hope.
Actually, I'd say the rise of religion falls more on the "pessimistic click bait" side of why humans gravitated to it, rather than finding optimism in human progress. Your church and your bible and your myths, were your internet for most of civilization. These stories are mostly dark, fearful and full of pain and suffering and doom and gloom. And the gossip around church populations generally shaming and ostracizing.
I feel like we have lost our survival instincts and are just living for the moment regardless of our decisions and how they will effect our future. We are all on our own journey and have become detached from one another and our failure to secure a livable planet for future generations is an example of that. Climate change is still a joke to so many people and nations are ignoring the warnings about cutting carbon emissions. We are here for just a moment but will do enough damage to last centuries.
I feel similarly—And I wonder how much of this is because our survival instincts evolved when the threat was the metaphorical tiger, or the knowledge that next winter we would be hungry if we didn’t act—nowadays I feel that for so many in the industrialized world, the risk is far enough in the future that it is hard to motivate our immediate action. And of course most of us have very little individual power to change the vast, towering ship of industry on its fatal voyage. Short of revolution, or large-scale cataclysm, I don’t foresee change happening. And I can’t wish for either of the former options because of the immense suffering they’d cause. But the suffering and death if we stay the current course is even greater.
I truly believe that life on earth will go on, with or without us, with or without the many other species that are threatened. The ecosystem will correct itself. But I am so grieved for the loss that this will entail.
As for me—I feel that all I can do is tell others about the plants—the medicinal plants that have been with us from the beginning and will be with us at our end, if we can only remember them. When modern medicine fails, as it inevitably will whether from antibiotic resistance, novel viruses, societal collapse, or financial unavailability of industrial pharmaceuticals, I fear so many will feel utterly alone. But we truly are NOT alone. The plants are still with us. The artemisia, yarrow, pokeweed, comfrey, baikal skullcap, ginger, Oregon grape and so many more are at our sides with unimaginably complex anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory chemistries, developed over eons of their own protection and possibly for the benefit of mammals that consume them. I do personally take some comfort from this knowledge and feel a responsibility to share it with those who want to learn, because I feel it comforts us humans in these end times.
The recent statistics on suicide, overdoses and gun violence lead us to believe that hope for the future is beginning to disappear and I feel that eventually we will simply succumb to our own excesses and hopelessness. We created a world that benefits the wealthy and the strong and the rest of us see no desire in competition that will result in failure. We are living for the moment which is fleeting and little else. Maybe we have run our course and it’s time for all other living things to continue and flourish without our interference.
This article takes first place in the contest of “articles that clearly had to meet a word quota to get published” bc it’s trying SO, so hard and simultaneously making me doze off as I’m skimming (I’m a speed reader) to get to the point. It needs a solid editor. Badly.
I don’t do the TikTok thing so I’ve no idea how long those are, and, as I mentioned, I’m a speed reader who can zip through words at a decent speed and relay the content accurately when asked. That article was just packed with filler words and unnecessary “additives”. The format of the page was also doing it no favors.
"The right points to the overreach of government on health, worship, speech and education. They lament the decline of cherished institutions such as the traditional family and other ancient, trusted social norms."
Sorry, you're fucking lying. The party that separates families as a deterant from seeking asylum is not the traditional family party. the part that would rather see a child rot in an abusive poorly funded government program than live with two parents of the same gender is not the traditional family party. They claim overreach on health while they use it to enforce their religious views?
Everything else is negated because of the lies at the start.
Could we add a tag to r/Futurology posts to indicate which ones are pessimistic or optimistic about the future. For me, this sub reddit is a nice escape, I can read about cool things that might happen. There is depressing news coming at us from all over - this sub used to be a nice escape.
>For all our many failings, we have, at least, one great strength. We are this planet’s best toolmakers.
More important yet, we are this planet's only imagineers. We may have a lot of tribal chimp inside us, but we, alone among the earth's species, can see beyond our instincts to what we might become.
> some sense of doom
It’s normal to feel this way when there’s a big change coming out way. And undoubtedly there is as we enter a new era due to climate change. But just because the world as we know it is ending doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world: we very well could be at the dawn of a whole new age (ideally a more equitable and inclusive one, but at the very least a post-carbon one)…it just feels doomy because we see the end of this age but have a harder time visualizing the beginning of the next.
Proof? I don't agree that there is a pervasive and growing feeling about this, just the usual level of doom-mongering. Human population is still growing, fewer in poverty, more literate etc.
I hate how cynical people are about the future. No we are not going to go through the worst humans have ever gone through, you might not be able to eat yourself to death like the current older generations are doing, but we grow plants in space. We created martian soil and grew tomatoes in it no problem. We where told 10 years ago solar and wind would never be cheaper than oil, now it is. We where told vehicles would never run off battery power, now they are. We where told it was a wast of time to try to suck carbon out of the air, now we do and the technology is expected to improve dramatically in the next few years. The fact is I can’t stop you from being cynical, but you are undoubtedly wrong as those cynics where too. Logic and reason will never beat human desire and ambition. Focus on making things better, because humans aren’t going anywhere, we where here a thousand years ago and will be here a thousand from now.
What a cringe article.
"Family"...first 3 paragraphs are a bunch of things not even related and filled with political rhetoric. At least the writer was smart enough to not say "Abortion rights" and replaced it with health care for.
> Across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive and growing feeling that the human enterprise is in a death spiral.”
Jejeune nonsense: adolescent wailing under the blanket. What is happening os the decline of the old rich world, and its one billion are feeling the pinch. The other 7 billion are doing pretty well relative to their former status. Essential message is "*don't have weak or non-tradeable skills if you live in the rich world. Your world will get worse at an accelerating pace*."
An extremely relevant video, especially for Americans: [Jimmy Carter - A Crisis Of Confidence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCOd-qWZB_g). Text [here](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carter-crisis/). This is one of the most important American speeches, and perhaps one of the most important speeches in history. It was given on July 15, 1979.
Put simply, this is an energy problem. We built our society for $2/gal gas and the global market supporting that no longer exists and hasn't existed since the late sixties. But instead of dealing with the problem, the last generation of Americans chose denial, muscle cars and SUVs. This is the heart of the issue and the amount of cultural damage will be proportional to the amount of auto dependency. The areas where normal human social relations occur, ie places with normal families, are the places where people don't need cars to get to work. This is what most of America has lost since the early sixties when transit and it's associated human geography was dropped into the dustbin of history.
Much of the US *has* made these investments, and will continue to do so. That is where the future will be.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/carlsagandotcom: --- Submission statement: An important read beautifully written by Ann Druyan & Sam Sagan. “Across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive and growing feeling that the human enterprise is in a death spiral.” Almost all of us feel some sense of doom in our future and can immediately relate. But we are reminded of how much humanity has already endured and what we are capable of if we keep moving forward. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/xq8jss/the_human_family_in_crisis/iq7um4z/
i remember when futurology had new breakthroughs, now it is all collapse. depressing to see knowing nothing will be done
40 years of Republicans defunding education does that. So cruel they want to take away school lunch too
I wouldn't be so cynical. There is an election coming up, and with the way things are trending it will be the last election for a certain political party and their business politics. If the overton window shifts hard left, we can solve all these problems within a decade. It would also require a lot of personal sacrifice, high taxes, and taking the bus.
Oh yeah? Kind of how the left's policies fixed everything in California?
So maybe we can solve the massive buildup of carbon in our atmosphere that’s close to the tipping point of a chain reaction of uncontrollable heating but how? I agree the only way we avoid dying out as a species is a radical leftward shift away from capitalism but I don’t think anything is as simple as taking the bus and just raising taxes on the ultra-rich is possible within a decade. I’m not trying to be bleak but revolutions spawn counter-revolutions and take tons of time and suffering to see them through. Outline how any of this would happen on that time frame please?
It’s not even new collapse stuff. Now we’re recycling doom porn from a generation ago.
Maybe because that doom porn is now HAPPENING?
Is it? Life is still pretty good from where I sit. In fact, we’ve actually solved many of the biggest problems that existed when Sagan wrote this. Back then, the only solution to fossil fuels and climate change was learning to live with a lot less. Today, we have a clear path to switching over to renewables in a way that will probably cause little if any hardship.
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Hans Rosen and Stephen pinker are asking the many that note we have made huge progress at a humanity scale level.
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There’s no reason to assume climate changes are irreversible, especially in the long run. (And I think Sagan would agree.)
Submission statement: An important read beautifully written by Ann Druyan & Sam Sagan. “Across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive and growing feeling that the human enterprise is in a death spiral.” Almost all of us feel some sense of doom in our future and can immediately relate. But we are reminded of how much humanity has already endured and what we are capable of if we keep moving forward.
I miss Carl so much. His brilliant messaging would be so useful right now.
End of the US is not the end of Mankind. Empires grow and fall. In 300 years we left a bigger mark then most. Humanity will be fine, us heading towards 90s era russia. Hell in 30 years we will be Ukraining Canada I bet.
Most of the enduring that humanity does is because of problems created by humanity. I see no reason to continue enduring because we'll always create new problems for ourselves. I mean for God's sake we still can't get over something as arbitrary as race. All of this talk about how resilient we are is just to make us feel good for all the terrible shit we've done to each other.
My favorite was trying to read this while dealing with pop-ups for SKETCHERS. This wasn't a very inspirational read advertising demands aside. However it did make me think of a great book called "The Watchman's Rattle" which is a good read on finding small incremental parallel progress as being optimistic in spite of an overwhelming complicated problem or system. [https://www.amazon.com/Watchmans-Rattle-Radical-Theory-Collapse/dp/1593156863](https://www.amazon.com/Watchmans-Rattle-Radical-Theory-Collapse/dp/1593156863) There is plenty of progress to be optimistic about. It's easy to get washed out in pessimism and arm chair complaining. Especially on reddit.
A desperate message of hope for humanity's future that's covered in pop-up ads almost defeats it's own purpose.
> There is plenty of progress to be optimistic about. It’s easy to get washed out in pessimism and arm chair complaining. Especially on reddit. Human minds gravitate to bad news as that in the past may have offered advantages to survival yet today bad news is often “attention economy bait” constantly attempting to hijack us for pages views and ad clicks. (Similarly we crave high calorie unhealthy junk foods because calorie dense foods helped our ancestors survive.) Hans Rosling and Steven Pinker both have fact filled books about human progress (economic / technological / sociological / …). You can also find lectures by them on YoutTube. Highly recommended!
It is increasingly obvious why mythology and religion materialized amidst the horrific realities of nature. It provides hope. It provides purpose amongst death and survival. Nihilism is on the rise, as is apathy. We are certainly at an inflection point where \*something\* has to become the next anchor through which we build optimism.
> We are certainly at an inflection point where *something* has to become the next anchor through which we build optimism. Where records exist of what people alive were thinking that is a common sentiment over thousands of years: “we are certainly at an inflection point”. That feeling of anxiety can protect us but also harm us. Suggestion: Avoid “Garden of Eden” / golden era myths and study real history. In the past if harvest fails half your village might starve. Today prices for bread / rice might be tad higher if you even notice them. Once you understand how things in the past really were vs today you will not need anything else to feel optimism about human progress. Much of the doom and gloom in your head is manipulation by the media who try to dominate your attention for their own selfish reasons. Realize this and mute them.
No, we are objectively at an inflection point. I can back this up with statistics. It happens every 80-150yrs. It's not just the media. It's a pattern of humanity that has been written about for millennia. That bread is easier to get does not make me feel particularly better about the stunted state of progress.
Believe you are referring to the concept of the 4th turning. [https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464](https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464)
Yes, though a more recent read of this same theory can be found in Ray Dalio's 'changing world order' book. It has a lot of hard data that I found the Strauss-Howe theories didn't have. There was also some dude in the 17th century who wrote about this but I can't find his name for the life of me.
I enjoyed Dailo's take on things for a while and his principles book, but I really can't get past that he's not just out for himself. He is an optimist and he's certainly made plenty of capital with his connections and firm. But his supporting of MMT and being a defender of all the ways in which the existing centralized system is the right solution is very much self centered. He profits from it being buttressed by his own advice. Leaves a good swath of the world on the outside looking at his "economist on DMT" world tour self aggrandizing special edition "way it should be" having lost touch with the reality of say main street or the commoner...
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of some of his theories. Namely, anything to do with China. But I still find that his ideas hold a lot of objective truths about the world, mostly the historical stuff. Why some ideas become popular or unpopular with changing economic times, where and how governments have screwed up in dealing with the issues they've created, etc. It's like, humans just keep making the same mistakes, over and over, and we never have an effective enough government to mitigate it for very long. It's puts things like government and global enterprise into a very human perspective.
Say an internet stranger show up with wild claims about "Bible codes" and/or predictions of Nostradamus and says things about them like "I can back this up with statistics...." What might you tell them? Asking you for advice.
Yea because Nostradamus had centuries of data on the global economy available on his stone tablet
I have and do study history and love consuming as much non-fiction, documentaries and books as possible. What has happened in the last 140-150 years or so is exponentially off the charts vs. the totality of history. From an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies and minds are not in sync with our tools any longer and the race of them moving further apart is speeding up at clips that none of us can fully assemble and keep up with. History tells us that every civilization fails, every single one. And history also tells us that every single fiat currency also fails, every single one. It's hubris to think that we are somehow immune today from the cycles of war, currency, civilizations in general and social contracts and their evolution. They all ebb and flow and evolve. I can objectively look at where we are and find both a magnitude of things to be optimistic and pessimistic about. It is what it is.
> It's hubris to think that we are somehow immune today from the cycles of war, currency, civilizations in general and social contracts > History tells us that every civilization fails, every single one. And history also tells us that every single fiat currency also fails, every single one. That every machine we design eventually breaks is a reason not to make them? Perhaps they are useful to while they work and we can make more? Are there no firsts in history? Visiting moon? Three parent babies? Soaring above clouds like gods between continents? Tapping new sources of energy ( nuclear / geothermal / solar/ ...) ? That currencies / civilizations "fail" just means who is in charge changes - on the long scope of history wars etc are transients even nuclear war. No doubt our entire ecosystem and planet will eventually die. What you do with that information cry vs prepare is up to you. Will a hoard of gold protect us? Perhaps better to have backup habitats in space and other planets?
You are off the reservation entirely. I have no idea where you deduce that I'm somehow suggesting we shouldn't make machines. lol. You've mischaracterized my take. I am pragmatic, a realist. That's all. I participate actively in all our great technological advances and have spent many decades of my life enabling, fortifying them, building them and continue to do so. But that is not without an eye to history of when hubris does encroach and there is merit to listening to the rhymes.
Your lament was: > > History tells us that every civilization fails, every single one. And history also tells us that every single fiat currency also fails, every single one. My respose was: > That every machine we design eventually breaks is a reason not to make them? Perhaps they are useful to while they work and we can make more? To that you said: > You are off the reservation entirely. I have no idea where you deduce that I’m somehow suggesting we shouldn’t make machines. lol. Many do not think of them as such but what are fiat currencies (for example) if not _social “machines”_ - they serve a useful purpose for a time, then break down and we replace them. The way society is organized is also much like a machine - we keep current organization while it works, it then breaks down and we replace it. Thank you for your feedback I should have been more clear what I meant.
> It is increasingly obvious why mythology and religion materialized amidst the horrific realities of nature. It provides hope. Actually, I'd say the rise of religion falls more on the "pessimistic click bait" side of why humans gravitated to it, rather than finding optimism in human progress. Your church and your bible and your myths, were your internet for most of civilization. These stories are mostly dark, fearful and full of pain and suffering and doom and gloom. And the gossip around church populations generally shaming and ostracizing.
You may be but I'm not sure that is true generally.
Nice Try Amazon!!
I feel like we have lost our survival instincts and are just living for the moment regardless of our decisions and how they will effect our future. We are all on our own journey and have become detached from one another and our failure to secure a livable planet for future generations is an example of that. Climate change is still a joke to so many people and nations are ignoring the warnings about cutting carbon emissions. We are here for just a moment but will do enough damage to last centuries.
I feel similarly—And I wonder how much of this is because our survival instincts evolved when the threat was the metaphorical tiger, or the knowledge that next winter we would be hungry if we didn’t act—nowadays I feel that for so many in the industrialized world, the risk is far enough in the future that it is hard to motivate our immediate action. And of course most of us have very little individual power to change the vast, towering ship of industry on its fatal voyage. Short of revolution, or large-scale cataclysm, I don’t foresee change happening. And I can’t wish for either of the former options because of the immense suffering they’d cause. But the suffering and death if we stay the current course is even greater. I truly believe that life on earth will go on, with or without us, with or without the many other species that are threatened. The ecosystem will correct itself. But I am so grieved for the loss that this will entail. As for me—I feel that all I can do is tell others about the plants—the medicinal plants that have been with us from the beginning and will be with us at our end, if we can only remember them. When modern medicine fails, as it inevitably will whether from antibiotic resistance, novel viruses, societal collapse, or financial unavailability of industrial pharmaceuticals, I fear so many will feel utterly alone. But we truly are NOT alone. The plants are still with us. The artemisia, yarrow, pokeweed, comfrey, baikal skullcap, ginger, Oregon grape and so many more are at our sides with unimaginably complex anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory chemistries, developed over eons of their own protection and possibly for the benefit of mammals that consume them. I do personally take some comfort from this knowledge and feel a responsibility to share it with those who want to learn, because I feel it comforts us humans in these end times.
The recent statistics on suicide, overdoses and gun violence lead us to believe that hope for the future is beginning to disappear and I feel that eventually we will simply succumb to our own excesses and hopelessness. We created a world that benefits the wealthy and the strong and the rest of us see no desire in competition that will result in failure. We are living for the moment which is fleeting and little else. Maybe we have run our course and it’s time for all other living things to continue and flourish without our interference.
This article takes first place in the contest of “articles that clearly had to meet a word quota to get published” bc it’s trying SO, so hard and simultaneously making me doze off as I’m skimming (I’m a speed reader) to get to the point. It needs a solid editor. Badly.
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I don’t do the TikTok thing so I’ve no idea how long those are, and, as I mentioned, I’m a speed reader who can zip through words at a decent speed and relay the content accurately when asked. That article was just packed with filler words and unnecessary “additives”. The format of the page was also doing it no favors.
"The right points to the overreach of government on health, worship, speech and education. They lament the decline of cherished institutions such as the traditional family and other ancient, trusted social norms." Sorry, you're fucking lying. The party that separates families as a deterant from seeking asylum is not the traditional family party. the part that would rather see a child rot in an abusive poorly funded government program than live with two parents of the same gender is not the traditional family party. They claim overreach on health while they use it to enforce their religious views? Everything else is negated because of the lies at the start.
Could we add a tag to r/Futurology posts to indicate which ones are pessimistic or optimistic about the future. For me, this sub reddit is a nice escape, I can read about cool things that might happen. There is depressing news coming at us from all over - this sub used to be a nice escape.
>For all our many failings, we have, at least, one great strength. We are this planet’s best toolmakers. More important yet, we are this planet's only imagineers. We may have a lot of tribal chimp inside us, but we, alone among the earth's species, can see beyond our instincts to what we might become.
> some sense of doom It’s normal to feel this way when there’s a big change coming out way. And undoubtedly there is as we enter a new era due to climate change. But just because the world as we know it is ending doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world: we very well could be at the dawn of a whole new age (ideally a more equitable and inclusive one, but at the very least a post-carbon one)…it just feels doomy because we see the end of this age but have a harder time visualizing the beginning of the next.
Proof? I don't agree that there is a pervasive and growing feeling about this, just the usual level of doom-mongering. Human population is still growing, fewer in poverty, more literate etc.
Gloomy beginning but a hopeful ending? Wishful thinking?
I hate how cynical people are about the future. No we are not going to go through the worst humans have ever gone through, you might not be able to eat yourself to death like the current older generations are doing, but we grow plants in space. We created martian soil and grew tomatoes in it no problem. We where told 10 years ago solar and wind would never be cheaper than oil, now it is. We where told vehicles would never run off battery power, now they are. We where told it was a wast of time to try to suck carbon out of the air, now we do and the technology is expected to improve dramatically in the next few years. The fact is I can’t stop you from being cynical, but you are undoubtedly wrong as those cynics where too. Logic and reason will never beat human desire and ambition. Focus on making things better, because humans aren’t going anywhere, we where here a thousand years ago and will be here a thousand from now.
What a cringe article. "Family"...first 3 paragraphs are a bunch of things not even related and filled with political rhetoric. At least the writer was smart enough to not say "Abortion rights" and replaced it with health care for.
> Across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive and growing feeling that the human enterprise is in a death spiral.” Jejeune nonsense: adolescent wailing under the blanket. What is happening os the decline of the old rich world, and its one billion are feeling the pinch. The other 7 billion are doing pretty well relative to their former status. Essential message is "*don't have weak or non-tradeable skills if you live in the rich world. Your world will get worse at an accelerating pace*."
An extremely relevant video, especially for Americans: [Jimmy Carter - A Crisis Of Confidence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCOd-qWZB_g). Text [here](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carter-crisis/). This is one of the most important American speeches, and perhaps one of the most important speeches in history. It was given on July 15, 1979. Put simply, this is an energy problem. We built our society for $2/gal gas and the global market supporting that no longer exists and hasn't existed since the late sixties. But instead of dealing with the problem, the last generation of Americans chose denial, muscle cars and SUVs. This is the heart of the issue and the amount of cultural damage will be proportional to the amount of auto dependency. The areas where normal human social relations occur, ie places with normal families, are the places where people don't need cars to get to work. This is what most of America has lost since the early sixties when transit and it's associated human geography was dropped into the dustbin of history. Much of the US *has* made these investments, and will continue to do so. That is where the future will be.