I think there are lots of easily measurable metrics by which things at least seem better today than in the past. If nothing else, technology has definitely gotten better and cheaper over time (particularly computers and microchips). These metrics may be naive and not capture the full picture, of course, and even if things are just objectively better now there’s lots of scary things happening right now and on the horizon that make the future a little uncertain and troubling. Overall I’m not sure I would believe that people in general are happier or better off now than they were at certain points in the past… I’m certainly struggling with that in many ways and some modern day problems are definitely impacting me and on my mind… That said, I’m not sure what time period in the past I’d rather live in instead? Maybe one where housing is cheaper, haha.
Of course not, but it’s a very easy to see indication of technology improving (and something that is used to develop more technologies and solutions to help people in the future). There are plenty of medical examples too, things like the MRNA vaccines recently have a lot of potential to make the world better, there are better pharmaceuticals today, and we have better tools, diagnostics, and knowledge than ever before. Cancer treatments are better, etc. Is it perfect? No. Is it distributed equitably? Absolutely not. But these are things that are better and hopefully we can improve access to these things in the future.
FWIW, I’m not an optimist, and I think there are many things wrong with the world right now socially and politically, but technology and knowledge (as well as access to these things) has definitely improved dramatically, and these are useful tools that can (and do) make people’s lives better (and possible) in a bunch of different ways, and they do give us more tools to tackle future problems as well (even if there may be problems with their usage). To be clear, I am also not a fan of the assumption that technology will rescue us in any scenario and am fully of the opinion that it is very much a double edged sword, and I do think there’s a particularly problematic belief that we should expect future technologies to save us from preventable disasters now (this could end up being the case, but it seems bad to depend on it happening)… But that said, at the end of the day this is something that has objectively improved over time, and I think has largely made the world a better place for it. I don’t feel like everything is hunky dory in the world right now, either, and we definitely face a number of issues… But I’m also not totally convinced I’d be better off living hundreds of years ago or whatever.
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I am eager to hear examples.
Access to information
I think there are lots of easily measurable metrics by which things at least seem better today than in the past. If nothing else, technology has definitely gotten better and cheaper over time (particularly computers and microchips). These metrics may be naive and not capture the full picture, of course, and even if things are just objectively better now there’s lots of scary things happening right now and on the horizon that make the future a little uncertain and troubling. Overall I’m not sure I would believe that people in general are happier or better off now than they were at certain points in the past… I’m certainly struggling with that in many ways and some modern day problems are definitely impacting me and on my mind… That said, I’m not sure what time period in the past I’d rather live in instead? Maybe one where housing is cheaper, haha.
computers being cheaper isn’t an indicator of the world getting better…
Of course not, but it’s a very easy to see indication of technology improving (and something that is used to develop more technologies and solutions to help people in the future). There are plenty of medical examples too, things like the MRNA vaccines recently have a lot of potential to make the world better, there are better pharmaceuticals today, and we have better tools, diagnostics, and knowledge than ever before. Cancer treatments are better, etc. Is it perfect? No. Is it distributed equitably? Absolutely not. But these are things that are better and hopefully we can improve access to these things in the future.
FWIW, I’m not an optimist, and I think there are many things wrong with the world right now socially and politically, but technology and knowledge (as well as access to these things) has definitely improved dramatically, and these are useful tools that can (and do) make people’s lives better (and possible) in a bunch of different ways, and they do give us more tools to tackle future problems as well (even if there may be problems with their usage). To be clear, I am also not a fan of the assumption that technology will rescue us in any scenario and am fully of the opinion that it is very much a double edged sword, and I do think there’s a particularly problematic belief that we should expect future technologies to save us from preventable disasters now (this could end up being the case, but it seems bad to depend on it happening)… But that said, at the end of the day this is something that has objectively improved over time, and I think has largely made the world a better place for it. I don’t feel like everything is hunky dory in the world right now, either, and we definitely face a number of issues… But I’m also not totally convinced I’d be better off living hundreds of years ago or whatever.
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