If we (the US) did not waste so much time, energy and other forms of wealth on what is essentially busywork, we would be forced to deal with the full ramifications of how we have transformed our world.
The amount of time, energy and money wasted on this "problem" is staggering to me. Imagine if we put that time, money and resources to better use to solve real problems that affect peoples lives day in and day out.
In my opinion humanity has put in the effort to get first world countries running water, sewer systems, electricity, access to the internet - all luxuries that a lot of the world can not afford. Because we don't have to worry about these things, I believe we are obliged to spend time to problem solve and tackle the biggest challenges the world has today - and not waste it watching 200 8 second videos before -- drooling off to sleep -- (not the best way to put that)
Every single problem in the world could have been averted. However, there is only so much time, money, and resources, so we have to chose what to prioritize. There are even entire fields of professionals that deal with this, such as engineers and politicians.
This is true, but we have a lot of work to do before we have the first part sorted.
Right now we're looking at a scenario where attention's becoming a marketable commodity, but the penalty for failing to maximize it is starvation and ruin, because food and shelter are far from being a given.
Now if we could get every person educated and productive, we could solve tens of billions of problems. Unfortunately, most people are just trying to survive.
Seriously more people need to realise this. Is there a shortage of interesting problems to solve? No. Then why do we keep spending our valuable energy on trivial things.
What I do is I think about the massive challenges like climate change and then compare it with what I'm doing. Immediately makes me realise what is worth my time and what is not.
Climate change was just one example. There are some things in my personal life that are just as scary as climate change for me. Immediately snaps me out of wasting my time.
Or focus all resources on the wrong problem and ensure everyone is trying to optimize the wrong thing, thereby actually exacerbating the very problems that we as a society need to address. Sometimes the wrong solution is much worse than doing nothing.
Wasting man years is precisely the problem. Our collective knowledge is boundless, but time is finite. See the problem here? Why would we want to waste the effort of future generations with the problems of yesterday?
So that an individual can live more comfortably with exclusive privileges to something that benefits all of mankind? We shouldn't be working towards selfishness and arbitrary contractual law.
Maybe if we were overwhelmed by all the bad things that we should be doing something about it would eventually lead us to a point where we would be doing something instead of just living our lives doing nothing (for the most part)?
If we are already talking about changing the human cognition, might as well add an ability to function while being aware of the issues
The world isn't so black and white. We don't have to have everyone working on solving clean drinking water and nobody working to improve the quality of life for people in western countries.
Consider the implications of most western people having more free time. If we had an extra billion people on the planet who didn't work full time but decided to dedicate some of their free time to trying o solve some of the issues you're advocating we spend our time on, that would be a net win wouldn't it?
Solving big problems doesn't necessarily = profit, especially in the short-term, which is what drives most companies and businesses. Unless you got billions of disposable income (ala Google), you just don't have the luxury to delve into "big problems".
We live in a modern world with many advanced technologies. But in a way, we're not unlike the hunter gatherers who had to spend their hours worrying about survival. We spend the vast majority of our 24 hours commuting, and working for The Man instead, worrying about paying our bills, loans, mortgages, putting food in the table, college tuition, etc.
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