There are plenty of great news in this world we live in. Modern science, medicine, and technology has never been better!
We have giant telescopes, humongous particle accelerators, all sorts of different satellites, and so much more that is helping to further the collective human knowledge of the world around us! We know so many different unique and beautiful forms of life large and small, so many interstellar objects captured on telescopes with stunning clarity (see JWST, Vera Rubin Observatory, Hubble…), we can predict everything from the weather tomorrow to when will that star will go supernova to when you will be able to see a solar eclipse to when the earth will shake and when the waves will tower over cities (and we promptly evacuate/prepare civilians before that happens, which would have never been possible before without modern science!)
Less people are dying every day, less people are suffering every day. Antibiotics, vaccinations, X-rays, MRI machines, and a far better understanding of how the human body function all contribute to a healthier, happier life. In the middle ages, dense populations had no proper plumbing, no modern medicine, water contamination was rampant, garbage and human shit covered the streets, farmers had animals that shit and pissed everywhere, a complete hygiene nightmare. In the modern age, we’ve got regular health checkups, treating illnesses before they get out of hand, proper good medicine to fight against the microscopic invaders, we have garbage disposal, it has been widely accepted that shitting in the streets isn’t something that is very hygienic, mental health is getting recognised more and more, showers, washing your hands, and brushing your teeth is now common practice in most countries, we are getting closer than ever to defeating the tyrannical monsters that plagued human civilisations for millennia, life expectancy is at at an all-time high (many are living to over 100 due to improved medicine, good diets, and good exercise!), and the dangers of alcohol, drugs, smoking, and all that is now general knowledge.
Moore’s law has been followed since it was first suggested, everyone knows has a supercomputer that can run trillions of operations per second with magical scratch resistance glass, a method of storing charge that can store power for said supercomputer for an entire day or more (especially with silicon carbon, phones are now reaching multi day battery which is insane!), digital media lets people create content, enjoy content, and modify content at rates never before seen. Displays can display images near-retina clarity with fantastic colours and impressive brightness, speakers can get LOUD and surround sound is one of the most amazing forms of media humanity has ever produced, VR lets you experience digital worlds and creations like never before, 3D printing lets people create functional items at home, online retailers make it ridiculously easy to get food, aforementioned supercomputers and other super technologies, healthcare, tools, clothing, and everything else!
Also, could I rant about human rights actually became a thing? It’s mad that everyone set aside their selfish interests and agreed not to do X horrible things to each other. Of course, there are assholes who don’t care about human rights, but generally the world at large condemns these assholes for being horrible people. We have agreed as an international community not to recklessly not to go to war, the nation state as a concept is a thing (rather than a mess of conflict for every inch of the world, most countries have accepted each other as sovereign nations and respect their right to exist), international aid for developing nations for no reason other than to be a nice person (although you could argue some countries do it for other reasons, but in either case, people in need are getting the medical care, food, shelter, and all sorts of other essentials! That’s AMAZING, good job us humans!), we have agreed not to use our most powerful weapons to obliterate each other for most part (see nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons), the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS THE MOST AMAZING HUMAN COOPERATIVE INITIATIVE EVER, IT’S SO AWESOME, PEOPLE AREN’T BLOWING EACH OTHER UP IN SPACE, WE HAVE AGREED TO USE IT FOR THE GOOD OF SCIENCE AND HUMANITY, we have agreed as an international community to create organisations to handle international disputes, international aid, researching medicine and science, preservation of historical sites, discussion, ecological conservation and all sorts (most notably, the U.N., where countries big and small sit as equals where they can discuss issues, disputes, and crisises. The U.N. also has many branching organisations specialising in all sorts of other stuff!), the Red Cross/Crescent and various other NGOs made of international volunteers helping people simply for the sake of HELPING PEOPLE, even in zones of war and conflict, I could go on! Humanity has recognised that other humans should be treated, well, humanely. In the modern age, mass killings of populations, reckless war, intentionally burning down forests, etc. are unthinkably evil when they were common practice in ancient civilisations. There are still some assholes who do horrible, truly horrible things (see Israhell doing all their “pre-emptive self defenseman” that somehow requires the mass starvation of Palestinians + denial of international aid for mentioned starving Palestinians, ICE in the U.S. terrorising communities, Russia kidnapping children in Ukraine, neo-Nazis doing Nazi bullshit in Australia, Europe, and everywhere else, but even so, the world condemns these horrible people and they denounce their actions and horribleness)
If not the national governments condemning them, PEOPLE are angry. They are mad, and they are making a statement. Protests against horrible things are everywhere, even with crackdowns by governments that are sucking the toes of orange Cheeto dust man (with none of the cheesiness. Definitely the dryness and powderyness though) the people still want their opinions heard, and they still take action! That should be proof of the humanity of, well, humanity, how people can fight for the rights, freedoms, etc. of other people!
All the knowledge and resources that have built this wonderous technological world we live in, are finite, and it would only take a few well placed/timed natural/man-made disasters to revert us permanantly back to the iron age (at best) within months.
(Seriously, a large solar flare alongside a highly contageous and deadly disease could not only wipe out all electronics but also the majority of the minds and bodies required to mine, trade, manufacture, build and operate them.)
And that’s without even acknowledging the looming catastrophic climate collapse and resource depletion coming for us this century. Without stable climates, arable land and fresh water, there is no life.
Enjoy the last of the abundance we have, but don’t be so optimistic as to be blind to it’s precariousness.
There are plenty of great news in this world we live in. Modern science, medicine, and technology has never been better!
We have giant telescopes, humongous particle accelerators, all sorts of different satellites, and so much more that is helping to further the collective human knowledge of the world around us! We know so many different unique and beautiful forms of life large and small, so many interstellar objects captured on telescopes with stunning clarity (see JWST, Vera Rubin Observatory, Hubble…), we can predict everything from the weather tomorrow to when will that star will go supernova to when you will be able to see a solar eclipse to when the earth will shake and when the waves will tower over cities (and we promptly evacuate/prepare civilians before that happens, which would have never been possible before without modern science!)
Less people are dying every day, less people are suffering every day. Antibiotics, vaccinations, X-rays, MRI machines, and a far better understanding of how the human body function all contribute to a healthier, happier life. In the middle ages, dense populations had no proper plumbing, no modern medicine, water contamination was rampant, garbage and human shit covered the streets, farmers had animals that shit and pissed everywhere, a complete hygiene nightmare. In the modern age, we’ve got regular health checkups, treating illnesses before they get out of hand, proper good medicine to fight against the microscopic invaders, we have garbage disposal, it has been widely accepted that shitting in the streets isn’t something that is very hygienic, mental health is getting recognised more and more, showers, washing your hands, and brushing your teeth is now common practice in most countries, we are getting closer than ever to defeating the tyrannical monsters that plagued human civilisations for millennia, life expectancy is at at an all-time high (many are living to over 100 due to improved medicine, good diets, and good exercise!), and the dangers of alcohol, drugs, smoking, and all that is now general knowledge.
Moore’s law has been followed since it was first suggested, everyone knows has a supercomputer that can run trillions of operations per second with magical scratch resistance glass, a method of storing charge that can store power for said supercomputer for an entire day or more (especially with silicon carbon, phones are now reaching multi day battery which is insane!), digital media lets people create content, enjoy content, and modify content at rates never before seen. Displays can display images near-retina clarity with fantastic colours and impressive brightness, speakers can get LOUD and surround sound is one of the most amazing forms of media humanity has ever produced, VR lets you experience digital worlds and creations like never before, 3D printing lets people create functional items at home, online retailers make it ridiculously easy to get food, aforementioned supercomputers and other super technologies, healthcare, tools, clothing, and everything else!
The world is great, it is amazing!
Also, could I rant about human rights actually became a thing? It’s mad that everyone set aside their selfish interests and agreed not to do X horrible things to each other. Of course, there are assholes who don’t care about human rights, but generally the world at large condemns these assholes for being horrible people. We have agreed as an international community not to recklessly not to go to war, the nation state as a concept is a thing (rather than a mess of conflict for every inch of the world, most countries have accepted each other as sovereign nations and respect their right to exist), international aid for developing nations for no reason other than to be a nice person (although you could argue some countries do it for other reasons, but in either case, people in need are getting the medical care, food, shelter, and all sorts of other essentials! That’s AMAZING, good job us humans!), we have agreed not to use our most powerful weapons to obliterate each other for most part (see nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons), the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IS THE MOST AMAZING HUMAN COOPERATIVE INITIATIVE EVER, IT’S SO AWESOME, PEOPLE AREN’T BLOWING EACH OTHER UP IN SPACE, WE HAVE AGREED TO USE IT FOR THE GOOD OF SCIENCE AND HUMANITY, we have agreed as an international community to create organisations to handle international disputes, international aid, researching medicine and science, preservation of historical sites, discussion, ecological conservation and all sorts (most notably, the U.N., where countries big and small sit as equals where they can discuss issues, disputes, and crisises. The U.N. also has many branching organisations specialising in all sorts of other stuff!), the Red Cross/Crescent and various other NGOs made of international volunteers helping people simply for the sake of HELPING PEOPLE, even in zones of war and conflict, I could go on! Humanity has recognised that other humans should be treated, well, humanely. In the modern age, mass killings of populations, reckless war, intentionally burning down forests, etc. are unthinkably evil when they were common practice in ancient civilisations. There are still some assholes who do horrible, truly horrible things (see Israhell doing all their “pre-emptive self defenseman” that somehow requires the mass starvation of Palestinians + denial of international aid for mentioned starving Palestinians, ICE in the U.S. terrorising communities, Russia kidnapping children in Ukraine, neo-Nazis doing Nazi bullshit in Australia, Europe, and everywhere else, but even so, the world condemns these horrible people and they denounce their actions and horribleness)
If not the national governments condemning them, PEOPLE are angry. They are mad, and they are making a statement. Protests against horrible things are everywhere, even with crackdowns by governments that are sucking the toes of orange Cheeto dust man (with none of the cheesiness. Definitely the dryness and powderyness though) the people still want their opinions heard, and they still take action! That should be proof of the humanity of, well, humanity, how people can fight for the rights, freedoms, etc. of other people!
The higher we soar, the harder we fall.
All the knowledge and resources that have built this wonderous technological world we live in, are finite, and it would only take a few well placed/timed natural/man-made disasters to revert us permanantly back to the iron age (at best) within months.
(Seriously, a large solar flare alongside a highly contageous and deadly disease could not only wipe out all electronics but also the majority of the minds and bodies required to mine, trade, manufacture, build and operate them.)
And that’s without even acknowledging the looming catastrophic climate collapse and resource depletion coming for us this century. Without stable climates, arable land and fresh water, there is no life.
Enjoy the last of the abundance we have, but don’t be so optimistic as to be blind to it’s precariousness.
I thought the point of this was to be positive, and not be super pessimistic?
Yeah, I’m probably not helping much. Blind optimism hurts a lot more when it lets you down though.