OT What macro trend worries you the most?

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barfo said:
'Did he ban six posters or only five'? Well to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, i kind of lost track myself. But being that this is a .44 ban hammer, the most powerful ban hammer in the world, and would blow your avatar clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?

barfo
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whack a mole.jpg
 
If you asked people in 1987 this same question about what bad things do you think will happen in the next 30 years they'd mostly seem laughably pessimistic. Nuclear annihilation, everybody dead from AIDS, poverty, overpopulation, economic collapse.

Meanwhile, everything mostly got better than it's ever been in human history for the vast majority of people on this planet. More people were lifted out of poverty and despotic government, more people gained access to education, women's rights and children's rights vastly expanded, your likelihood of getting killed in war shrunk dramatically in all but a very small handful of countries.

The human mind more easily imagines pessimistic outcomes, and there definitely are some scary things out there. But try to remember the media makes more money by painting grim and depressing pictures, and that inevitably shapes every person's perception of the future.

The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.
 
That said, my own pet worries:
  • Automation: I've got two boys under 12. I just don't see where the jobs are for them in 20-30 years. Living in the UK, I'm more confident that the government here will be able to respond to automation than they will in the US, but I think it's going to get messy for everybody.
  • Pandemic: Spanish Flu killed 3-5% of the world's population in 1919. The life expectancy in the US dropped by 12 years. It's harder than ever to quarantine such a flu. I can't imagine the impact such a flu would have on us now.
  • Climate change: It's just kind of crazy to me that we're running an experiment to see how far we can push things. I'd never run an experiment on my e-com site where I had no backup plan, no way to roll back bad decisions, where one bad outcome could destroy my business. Even if I thought there was just a 1% chance of it going wrong, I'd still cancel the experiment. It's just nuts to me we're all just treating the world like a beta website launching it worldwide without any backups. I'm not expecting cataclysmic disaster, but it just seems so risky when the benefits just aren't worth it.
  • Small-scale nuclear war: I can easily imagine North Korea's regime falling and them deciding to take out Seoul and something on the West Coast of the US just as a final "fuck you."
 
mook said:
If you asked people in 1987 this same question about what bad things do you think will happen in the next 30 years they'd mostly seem laughably pessimistic. Nuclear annihilation, everybody dead from AIDS, poverty, overpopulation, economic collapse.

Meanwhile, everything mostly got better than it's ever been in human history for the vast majority of people on this planet. More people were lifted out of poverty and despotic government, more people gained access to education, women's rights and children's rights vastly expanded, your likelihood of getting killed in war shrunk dramatically in all but a very small handful of countries.

The human mind more easily imagines pessimistic outcomes, and there definitely are some scary things out there. But try to remember the media makes more money by painting grim and depressing pictures, and that inevitably shapes every person's perception of the future.

The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.
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Liked only for the Billy Joel quote.
 
MARIS61 said:
In my time left on Earth, I feel any currently non-nuclear country getting nukes is a recipe for WWIII, and should be prevented whatever it takes.

AI will probably result in a failed (the first time) but bloody coup attempt eventually as it is all in the hands of those who attempt to rule the world, but is no match for armed Americans.

Probably happen after my expiration date.

Climate change is nothing to fear, whether accelerated or not, as it is simple and inexpensive to adapt to.

16 years ago I moved from Milwaukie, Oregon's dark, dank, always dripping climate to La Pine, Oregon's dazzling, dry, degree-dipping climate. Our summer day temperatures are similar, but night temps drop 40-50 degrees, and winter lows can be in the negative teens. Roughly 80% of the plants growing in Milwaukie cannot survive here due to the extremely arid environment and cold nights. Neither can fleas!

A slice of bread left on the counter for 20 minutes goes stale. The 4,000' elevation skews cooking times and recipe ingredients. With 300 days of sunshine shades and a hat become daily companions and I always have a jacket or sweater in the trunk for chilly evenings at the lake.

Cougars and wolves and bears (OH MY!) occasionally ramble through my backyard. ALL of my neighbors own guns. Some winters I have had 5'-6' snow on my property for 1-2 months and generally we have snow on the ground from November-Marchish.

My point is this is a bigger change than 99% of the world will face in the next 100 years due to climate change.

My wife and I moved to a very different climate, adapted and embraced our new environment within the first year, with no discernible harm to either of us. Just the opposite actually.
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Your depiction of the ability of people to adapt to climate change only looks at a micro level--it ignores the (purported) macro effects of climate change. Wearing a hat during the day and keeping a jacket in your trunk will have no value against rising sea levels, rising ocean temperatures killing wide swaths of sea life, modified currents generating unprecedented hurricanes/typhoons, etc...
 
barfo said:
Other people. It's a huge macro trend that I just don't like. Why do they exist? Why do they have opinions?

Let's get rid of other people, except the ones who agree with me.

barfo
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Reminds me of an old Peanuts quote -

"I love mankind, it's people I can't stand."
 
mook said:
If you asked people in 1987 this same question about what bad things do you think will happen in the next 30 years they'd mostly seem laughably pessimistic. Nuclear annihilation, everybody dead from AIDS, poverty, overpopulation, economic collapse.

Meanwhile, everything mostly got better than it's ever been in human history for the vast majority of people on this planet. More people were lifted out of poverty and despotic government, more people gained access to education, women's rights and children's rights vastly expanded, your likelihood of getting killed in war shrunk dramatically in all but a very small handful of countries.

The human mind more easily imagines pessimistic outcomes, and there definitely are some scary things out there. But try to remember the media makes more money by painting grim and depressing pictures, and that inevitably shapes every person's perception of the future.

The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that.
 
mook said:
If you asked people in 1987 this same question about what bad things do you think will happen in the next 30 years they'd mostly seem laughably pessimistic. Nuclear annihilation, everybody dead from AIDS, poverty, overpopulation, economic collapse.

Meanwhile, everything mostly got better than it's ever been in human history for the vast majority of people on this planet. More people were lifted out of poverty and despotic government, more people gained access to education, women's rights and children's rights vastly expanded, your likelihood of getting killed in war shrunk dramatically in all but a very small handful of countries.

The human mind more easily imagines pessimistic outcomes, and there definitely are some scary things out there. But try to remember the media makes more money by painting grim and depressing pictures, and that inevitably shapes every person's perception of the future.

The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.
Click to expand...
Awright......who let the optimist into this thread???? Ban ‘em! But seriously, very, very good point. To echo @Stevenson, thank you. Nice to see a glimpse of positivity for a change.......
 
I was going to go with reality tv as the doom of society......The Apprentice goes to Washington!
 
people who take shit too seriously harsh my buzz...I only have so many buzz years left to enjoy
 
Racism.

Separatism.

Trumpism.

The War on Drugs.
 
What also worries me is that we are all probably wrong in how we do everything. From top to bottom, whatever we know, in 100 years, will all probably be wrong.

This current society and how it is composed is what, a 100 years old out of who knows how many years Humans have been in existence? I mean you look at 100 years ago, everything back then versus now is ass backwards. Well, we are all currently ass backwards on how we think about how society runs, the economic system, laws on crime, healthcare, whatever....EVERYTHING.

We are likely wrong about every single fucking thing we think, say and do in the grand scheme of things.
 
EL PRESIDENTE said:
What also worries me is that we are all probably wrong in how we do everything. From top to bottom, whatever we know, in 100 years, will all probably be wrong.

This current society and how it is composed is what, a 100 years old out of who knows how many years Humans have been in existence? I mean you look at 100 years ago, everything back then versus now is ass backwards. Well, we are all currently ass backwards on how we think about how society runs, the economic system, laws on crime, healthcare, whatever....EVERYTHING.

We are likely wrong about every single fucking thing we think, say and do in the grand scheme of things.
Click to expand...
LA will do that to you..you're living in a Fellini movie
 
Well, not really "ruling america". what is happening in LA will eventually overtake your precious quiet suburbs.
 
EL PRESIDENTE said:
Sorry to break it to you, but LA is the future of America.
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Do you think japan and samsung made the wide screen hd tv's with a 16:9 standard aspect ratio just so us cracka ass crackas see the letter boxes when we watch 21:9 movies? Do asians see everything with letter boxes? (No racist)

Biggest macro problem? Letter boxes.
 
rasheedfan2005 said:
Do you think japan and samsung made the wide screen hd tv's with a 16:9 standard aspect ratio just so us cracka ass crackas see the letter boxes when we watch 21:9 movies? Do asians see everything with letter boxes? (No racist)

Biggest macro problem? Letter boxes.
Click to expand...
I don't see no doggone letter boxes. Home theater with adjustable curtains for the win.
 
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