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mhornberger t1_jbtzupy wrote

It's an exceedingly difficult subject to find good conversation on. Unless you're a doomer, and then you can find plenty of validation. HN has a lot of reflexive contrarians and intuitive conservatives who default to a new (to them) idea being dumb until it is proven otherwise. A recent discussion on agrivoltaics did not impress me. Many defaulted to "solar roadways!" and other versions of it being an obviously dumb idea.

There are plenty of talks and lectures on Youtube on futurology. Tony Seba, Andrew McAfee, Ramez Naam, Isaac Arthur (more about the long term), etc. But for discussion, the signal to noise ratio is drowned out by doomerism, advocacy for "radical population reduction," degrowth, etc. Any discussion of tech solutions usually veers into lectures that "we can't technology our way out of this..." and similar. Many here would rather see the world burn than for technology to address problems but there still be capitalism.

I'm not saying those people don't get to exist, or have their opinions, or express themselves. Just that I haven't found a lot of discussion spaces I find valuable, mainly due to that s/n ratio. Plus it does effect me to see such frequent advocacy on this sub for killing millions of people.

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ahivarn t1_jby6zb2 wrote

Well they are not wrong completely. Technology isn't the solution for social ills. Unless you consider biotechnology modified wheat a solution for Egyptians during pyramids.

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mhornberger t1_jby7t2y wrote

Not for social ills like racism, no. But some social ills are due to problems that technology can in principle address. Such as controlled-environment agriculture, cultured meat, cellular agriculture, and other tech incrementally addressing food security and water security, by reducing the amount of arable land and water needed to produce your food. Or by electrification, renewables (and/or nuclear), and BEVs incrementally reducing the problems associated with fossil fuel dependence.

To me pollution is a technology problem. To others it's a social problem. But people are going to way, say, transportation. An ICE Lada burns the same fuel whether it was made in a capitalist auto plant or one under communism. You need to replace the ICE vehicle with better technology. Mass transit exists too, but many people still want or need automobiles. It would be silly to forego electrification until that hypothetical future date when we've changed society so no one wants or needs an automobile.

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