I agree that we should try to adjust to the world we find ourselves in, but there’s only so much problem-solving effort
to go around, and I think most people are already trying to do what they can. It’s tough to reshape society on a dime.
Then you misunderstand my comment. The point is not to say we shouldn't try, the point is that we need to get real about what needs to be done. If we approach everything from "How do we fix this without inconveniencing ourselves, because we're the most important thing on this planet?" then we are screwed.
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.
I think what is most insidious about this world view is that working on solutions to the issues appear as support for the viewpoint. We're all problem solvers here and we all know that the first thing to creating something new is recognizing a problem that can be solved. It can then be broken down into many sub problems that can either be worked on individually or need to be solved in tandem. But breaking down our problems and revealing its complexities are often not seen as the first steps towards solutions, but rather seen as a larger force that we need to overcome. It ignores the momentum that we see every day in our solutions: hardest at first, but once the ball is rolling things start to fall into place (often making progress, unfortunately, difficult to measure. Especially when you're in the thick of it). That frustration and setbacks can make it hard to move forward, but we always find a way in the end. We wouldn't be problem solvers if we didn't.
I don't know about you all, but I'm not willing to say "fuck it." There's enough beauty in the world to enjoy and seek to preserve. We've clearly made changes in the past and made things better. While we stand on the shoulders of giants, they are in reality 3 dudes in a trench coat sitting on one another. Personally, I take pride in trying to build a better future for my (non-existent) children and generations to come. We're all in this together and I think a lot of us want to build that Sci-Fi utopia that we read about and dreamed of as children. We can still make that world, but not if we say "fuck it."
The reality is that our decisions determine if we live in the Cyberpunk Dystopia or the Sci-Fi Star Trek-esk Utopia. Giving up is choosing the former and actively participating in its creation.
Sometimes solving problems means working with the situation as it is and with what you actually have to work with. Very often that means doing more with less.
The world has gotten worse many times before. We need to be able to find ways to cope with and mitigate that rather than just hoping that things will work out and that we can keep on having more, more, more, more and more without ever making sacrifices.
Preventing further catastrophe can sometimes do a lot more to make the world better than making the next big shiny thing would. Ambition doesn't put bread on the table in and of itself.
I believe it's an unsolvable problem, too many variables, too many incompatibles interests/goals. Humans aren't made to solve world wide / very long term issues. The covid pandemic showed we're not able to handle any kind of global stress collectively.
We're apes trying to live like ants, but we lack the organisation and selflessness. We'll do what we do best, wait until we have our backs against the wall and find some half assed solution, it's going to be a free for all until some kind of reset event happens.
It feels like we're at the beginning of one of these Hollywood "end of the world" movies in which you can see TVs in the background of early scenes showing crazy reports about climatic/social/war events while the heroes are focused on their meaningless daily struggles.
The opposite point of view is that there are way less actual problems in the world, and thinking everything is a problem that should be 'solved' is a problem in itself and hides the realistic efforts we can make on the few actual problems in our power to deal with.
The constant drumbeat of 'we should all panic now' is not really helping anyone and seems to be mere attention seeking.
I agree, though I think we have plenty of real problems left to solve still. We are not quite at Star Trek level economy, where hole digging might make even more sense.
Most of us don't have any meaningful avenues to do so (although there's plenty of simulacrums if one just wants to feel like they're "doing something").
But, more importantly, it's generally not something that can be done on a timeframe that would actually benefit you and solve your immediate problem. Yes, we should be fixing systemic problems at proper scale, but meanwhile we still have to function within the current messy state of affairs.
I'm agreed with you on that point. I wish we lived in that world and I think we should work harder to get there. As long as we don't, though, I'm resigned to recognizing the public costs of these private failures.
I agree there's a lot of work to be done! What do you suggest folks who are interested in helping to solve the problem do if not researching solutions or trying to economically scale existing ones by working at the companies which are doing that?
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