Ask HN: Is now the best time to be alive? I’ve been thinking a lot about how we live in a world of abundance, and somewhat more depressingly realizing that the earth is being ravaged by climate change and grateful to be alive now rather than 100 years from now. Anyone else feel the same way? |
We have abundance of food and can pick what and when we eat. We can travel freely and its relatively cheap. We work less hours and the work is physically not demanding. We have time for self fulfillment and hobbies. Medicine is widely available at least in Europe. Technology and communication is widely available and cheap.
What could be better? As a westerner and tech worker I can't really even imagine what else could be better in everyday life. More money wouldn't change much or make my life better. I don't want to live 150 years old if it means just existing.
This time is definitely the best time we've had, but the future looks very interesting. I long for immortality tech not because I fear for death, I fear missing out on what the future holds.
Nothing is all good, and nothing is all bad. Now is as good a time as any other to be alive.
As for 100 years from now, the future of the world hasn't been written so it is up to the people of today and tomorrow to make sure we write a good one. If we succeed then 100 years from now may just end up being a better time to live in.
There is a lot of work being done on reversing age related diseases, so maybe in another 30 to 100 years, we will reach escape velocity so to speak, and people will no longer die of "old age".
This assumes we don't make humans extinct through warfare.
If we just procrastinate and say let our children worry about it and they do the same it'll definitely be too late. We can't always just pass the buck and hope someone else figures out a fix.
I really think thought it really comes down to economics. Even if they do believe it's happening and it's urgent, the people's livelihoods who are threatened by elimination of carbon are going to come up with an infinite amount of rationalizations to put it off. It's also easy when it's not your job/money on the line to say "yeah we should fix this".
The biggest risk is probably when a lot of people in a given place will want to move at the same time (and/or into the same destination), as it can cause political instability.
Politically I think water wars could be big depending on how much water is lost as a result of evaporation and polution, I think this could be more pronounced in Africa and the Middle east, but we could have issues between Mexico, AZ, California and the south western USA where it's more draught ridden. Forest fires will continue to get bigger and more frequent causing a change in ecosystems where forests may turn to baren deserts.
Lack of water also will cause farming to be tougher. I'm hopeful we eventually science the shit out of all this stuff, but then we could get an asteroid the next year that wipes us out anyway, no use really fearing but doesn't hurt to prepare as best we can.
