Jun 20, 2023·edited Jun 20, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick
This is terrific. Shed the noise, the politics, the scary crazies on both ends of the spectrum, and there is every reason to be optimistic about the future of our world. People at/around my age (damn near 70) have a hard time with having SO much change zooming around us at once, but it's GOOD! I'm enjoying spending so much time learning, and blowing the minds of the coffee and tavern table gangs trying to find the world's end date. More, please!
The important thing is to have an exciting and optimistic conception for what the future may hold. The news media has misled generations of people into believing that the world is getting progressively worse, and that the future is going to be worse than the present.
At some point, if enough people believe in a dark future, it will become its own self-fulfilling prophesy. We need to highlight just how far we have come and where we could go, so the younger generations can make it happen.
Great post Packy. Reminded of Hans Rosling and his book - Factfulness. Through data he demonstrated that world is only getting better and better on all indicators . He cut the fluff and focused on data .
This should be the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s: fusion was 10 years away in each of those decades. Oh but we're going to see it in 2030s...
Cancer has also been 10 years away from being solved...for 30 years? 40 years? More?
Self driving: after having destroyed public transit and taxis both - now the robot cars are going to what? Reduce air pollution? Reduce traffic? Lower ride share costs?
“Their generation’s entrepreneurs will get to build products with the assumption that energy is practically free.” I think this is the most profound observation of the whole piece and largely unnoticed. Today when we think of cheap or free energy, we think in terms of what we do now that will now simply be cheaper. But designing projects, products, and processes with practically no concern for energy consumption is a complete paradigm shift I would argue on par with the printing press. This will generate not just new things that we might recognize as simply better versions of what we have today, but rather entirely new ways of thinking about problems as the available solutions will be orders of magnitude more diverse than they are currently.
Well said. I think about this all the time. Not just about the timeline of when my kids are my age, but with an expected lifespan of 80+ years, what will life be like in 2100 (where there will be 86 and 80 respectively).
This is terrific. Shed the noise, the politics, the scary crazies on both ends of the spectrum, and there is every reason to be optimistic about the future of our world. People at/around my age (damn near 70) have a hard time with having SO much change zooming around us at once, but it's GOOD! I'm enjoying spending so much time learning, and blowing the minds of the coffee and tavern table gangs trying to find the world's end date. More, please!
The important thing is to have an exciting and optimistic conception for what the future may hold. The news media has misled generations of people into believing that the world is getting progressively worse, and that the future is going to be worse than the present.
At some point, if enough people believe in a dark future, it will become its own self-fulfilling prophesy. We need to highlight just how far we have come and where we could go, so the younger generations can make it happen.
This is your best one yet. Give your mom a raise!
I truly hope and pray we all see this future! I wonder how different countries will be if this all happens
Loved it!
It's true, progress is good. Most people benefit from every great leap forward, of course, most people still complain.
Great post Packy. Reminded of Hans Rosling and his book - Factfulness. Through data he demonstrated that world is only getting better and better on all indicators . He cut the fluff and focused on data .
This should be the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s: fusion was 10 years away in each of those decades. Oh but we're going to see it in 2030s...
Cancer has also been 10 years away from being solved...for 30 years? 40 years? More?
Self driving: after having destroyed public transit and taxis both - now the robot cars are going to what? Reduce air pollution? Reduce traffic? Lower ride share costs?
Or None Of The Above?
At some point, credibility gets lost.
“Their generation’s entrepreneurs will get to build products with the assumption that energy is practically free.” I think this is the most profound observation of the whole piece and largely unnoticed. Today when we think of cheap or free energy, we think in terms of what we do now that will now simply be cheaper. But designing projects, products, and processes with practically no concern for energy consumption is a complete paradigm shift I would argue on par with the printing press. This will generate not just new things that we might recognize as simply better versions of what we have today, but rather entirely new ways of thinking about problems as the available solutions will be orders of magnitude more diverse than they are currently.
Well said. I think about this all the time. Not just about the timeline of when my kids are my age, but with an expected lifespan of 80+ years, what will life be like in 2100 (where there will be 86 and 80 respectively).