Are we at Peak Humanity now?

Surveyor

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dLockers said:
I can only assume you all tune into the wrong news sources to have such a dismal view of the world. Humans are incredible despite being deeply flawed, and we have achieved things that only 5 or 10 years ago would have seemed simply impossible. Our trajectory is still exponential but unfortunately the disparity between haves and have nots is growing far too large. Inequality is currently feeding our economic growth and the next industrial revolution (automation) is going to be a key turning point. Things like universal basic income are going to be critical as not everyone will have productivity we want to pay for. The marginal cost of items will be close to 0 so everyone can have everything. I'm not sure what that means for the cost of experiences but it'll surely be high in demand when everything else has an abundance of supply. It's not the best example but we're seeing this now in consumer tech where folk are holding onto devices longer than ever before, shifting the world towards services and subscriptions. People who are standing still (I'd argue quite a few of the posters above given their comments) are going to be distinctly left behind unfortunately. No different to every other generation of folk musing about the good old days.
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Eight billion people can have everything? Cool.
 

dlockers

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Surveyor said:
Eight billion people can have everything? Cool.
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Read the book, Abundance. It is a kind of dystopia that is somewhat inevitable as the cost of everything due to automation reaches 0 per unit. Just because all 8 billion people can have anything doesn't mean they would want everything.
 

Hagar

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dLockers said:
Said the tribes of people having 5 kids on the basis at least 3 may die... Or the people who got caned at school... Or the people who fought and died for their country to maintain basic freedoms.
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Your second example is mild compared to one and three. Caning at school although immediately painful had few lasting consequences.
 

Surveyor

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dLockers said:
Read the book, Abundance. It is a kind of dystopia that is somewhat inevitable as the cost of everything due to automation reaches 0 per unit. Just because all 8 billion people can have anything doesn't mean they would want everything.
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The vast majority will want more than they have, in many cases a lot more. How is that sustainable?
 

dlockers

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Surveyor said:
The vast majority will want more than they have, in many cases a lot more. How is that sustainable?
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Read Abundance, it's an interesting perspective. Then read Factfulness. Some of the very pitfalls mentioned on this topic in this thread are put to death. It's why growth is still a useful measure despite people saying perpetual growth is not possible. All about growing the pie before slicing it.
 

RxR

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In the wider (global economic trends) scheme of things, there is a view that the 'highdev' days of the west are kinda over. At least, I think that is what the journalist is implying, using PwC to shore up his view.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05...-growth-china-missing-budget-speech/100136466

Though I note it has been a recurring theme of that writer / journo/ analyst - much comment (observation?) about the decline of the West, and perhaps what he imagines (or quotes others on his articles) is its inevitability.

e. Removed ramble!
 
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BUDFORCE

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R.P.L said:
Our peak was around 20 years ago - arguably earlier. Back when we had technology to make our lives easier, but we were still allowed to be actual people. All I see now for us is some weird segregated future, Demolition Man / Equilibrium style.
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Agreed, about 20 years ago. Turn of the millennium just after maybe.
 
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mrk

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I was round a mate's house Friday night and between him, his wife and myself this very topic was discussed. We are all of the same age so grew up in the 80s and 90s and we all agreed that our generation is the first and last to properly have lived through a pinnacle time in modern humanity. We had all the most memorable cartoons, cereals with actual toys inside the box and in some cases even computer games (My orginal Theme Hospital CD-ROM was off the back of a cereal box lol), toys that in later years were valued at collector levels of monies.

We saw the start and evolution of the internet, we used the very first multimedia home PCs, we lived through the first iMac, the first smartphones, the Walkman which evolved through the various formats from tape, to CD to Minidisc to MP3 to the cloud, cars that all uniquely felt and sounded cool and you changed the gears yourself for added interactivity... Multiplayer games where you had to invite 3 other mates round and you'd sit around 2 CRT TVs back to back to fight each other in Mario Kart 64 or 4 player Streets of Rage via a Y Splitter and sections of screen blanked out with taped newspaper.

Technologies we used but at the same time still enjoyed our time with people physically. Now kids of the same age are shouting and being drama queens on streams to gain more likes and @donations@ from other viewers and all the controversy that emerges regularly through doing all this.
 
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