In the past, we’ve had issues with women suffrage, slavery, and sanitation, among many other things.
Today we have gun control, AI, intended/unintended false information, vaccines, etc. as consistently hot topics.
In a few decades’ time, what views do you have now that may spark major social debate in the future? What conservative and/or progressive stances do you take today that might be too far on either extreme in the far future?
Honestly, not that far into the future I think more and more people will be consuming various forms of media acknowledging in very scientific and real terms the end of the human race.
All the attempts at curbing global climate change will finally be acknowledged as being a pipe dream and even the ultra wealthy will come to see that they won’t survive in their bunkers and instead will die like the rest of us.
I also hold a very dark view that the end of human existence is not the end of human suffering, but that’s a tale for another day.
Climate change is real and really fucking shit up (am an Earth Scientist), but I’d be more worried about a global nuclear incident.
Climate change may do us in, but in all likelihood it will just increase the stresses on food and water supplies. Humans are extremely adaptive and will likely persist unless there is a cataclysmic event that kills nearly all food for decades or more. Scarcity of resources will dictate just how populous we will be 20, 10, 1, 0.1, 0.001 billion?
We’ve survived the Pleistocene when the earth was about 6°C cooler. We expanded greatly just after and have continued extremely well through the Holocene, making it our own (now Anthropocene). We’ve inextricably changed the environment for the worse, but it alone will probably not be the action that wipes us out.
This is very good to keep in mind. It doesn’t completely refute my very negative viewpoint, but puts some realistic caveats on it and points out that it is probably unlikely. Thanks.
And today’s that day! Go on…
I believe that the suffering you impart on other beings during your lifetime is directly experienced after death.
Oh, so karma, Buddhist style?
More or less, but not so direct. The dark part is that I don’t believe you have to have had a direct involvement with the suffering, it can be very indirect and you’ll still go through the suffering anyways.
Personally I’m the opposite, I feel like even if we can’t stop CO2 emissions fast enough, there is always geoengineering to counteract it, and human brain uploading will probably be a thing by the start of next century? At which point humanity can basically live until the heat death of the universe, because of how durable electronics can be compared to squishy human flesh.