Human Progress Optimism

This is the right answer. Life is getting better for the vast majority of humanity. Less poverty, more education, better healthcare, longer life, better governments, less war, etc.The average HN reader is probably in the top 5% of humanity in terms of all these things, so from our point of view things aren't getting that much better (but even we are seeing improvements). But for the rest of humanity, this generation is massively better off than their parents' generation, who are bet

Not only is he wrong, but folks with his worldview consistently ignore the dramatic improvement in what it means to be alive today vs any time before.It's incredible how much purchasing power the average middle class person has when you look at what you're buying and what you're able to buy compared to previous generations. The power and functionality of consumer devices like computers and TVs to the fuel efficiency and cleanliness of transportation options have all drastically

What about:- Your access to mRNA vaccines- Your access to cleaner air due to electric car adoption- Ditto for energy security and renewable sources of electricity- Your chance of dying in a car going down due to new safety features- Your access to crazy advanced cancer treatments that are making progress at almost miraculous paces- Your much improved ability to work from home, cutting out ~2 hours of commuting each dayBy every metric, the world is DRAMATICALLY better today f

Always look on the bright side of Life.The non-sensicalness of it is just a phase. Remember the Tower of Babel didn't stop humanity.Here is a link that was posted a few days ago regarding how great things are compared to 200 years ago. Ice cream has only become a common experience in the last 200 years..https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-condit...

Maybe we did... The modern world is like a utopia compared to the horrors of our past. Every year the world is getting better statistically. Poverty is decreasing, wars are decreasing, life spans are increasing... You wouldn't know it if you just watched the news. Which only focuses on the bad events and the negative aspects of the world.

If it makes you feel better, by almost every metric the vast majority of humanity is living the best they have in all of human history. If you live in the west it’s even better because we haven’t had any local wars in nearly 80 years. I think a lot of people need to study history a bit more to understand how great things are now for most of the global population.

You can absolutely try and make things better, but most people have very little perspective. Countless times I’ve seen people say things about how they’d never bring a child into the world because of how bad things are now. They mean global warming, Donald Trump, or whatever happens to be in the current news cycle.We’re living in the very best time to be human so far. It wasn’t long ago that the world was living under the constant threat of global nuclear annihilation, before that two world

The world is getting almost noticeably better by the day - due to all the progress people make every day, building on top of past progress.If you're staying "stagnant" and the world is getting better, you're better off.Even if you're declining, you can be better off.If you think poor people in the US and Europe have it rough today, you should read up about what it was like to be a normal person in the 1600s in Europe.If you think poor people have it rough tod

The world is in a massively better place than 50, 20 or even 10 years ago.Just have a look at https://ourworldindata.org/ and look at the development of extreme poverty, poverty, life expectancy, child mortality, literacy, proportion of the world that lives in a democracy and even happiness and life satisfaction.

I think you could say that about the industrial revolution. However, the events in the past 20 years seem to indicate humanity is moving backwards>There's a very good chance we're living the most comfortable lives that any creature on this planet will ever experience, past and future. It's truly mindblowing how lucky we are.The disparity between the haves and the have-nots in this moment in time would truly bewilder anyone in ancient history if they could see whats happe