No it's not. Don't be a misanthrope.
Everything is awesome. Every year gets better and better for most of us on average.
Be glad we're not an icy hellscape like Pluto. Or that we don't not exist.
Everything is awesome. Every year gets better and better for most of us on average.
Be glad we're not an icy hellscape like Pluto. Or that we don't not exist.
A look at the historic human population numbers on this planet, which exploded to unseen heights only very recently (200 years or so), coupled with looking at the also vastly increased impact of every single person compared to far more spartan living ancient humans, might give one some ideas that extending past trends might be an especially bad idea in our times. Sure, we as a species lived through a lot for hundreds of thousands of years - but none of that past is of much use to predict our future.
No, it’s not that “better”. Life expectancy increase but stress increase, smartphone penetration grow as well as children working in mines, there’s less and less food shortage but people eat crap and die from obesity. Meanwhile slums continues poping and growing everywhere - even in rich countries - and there’s a ton more lung cancer even for non-smokers.
Is it being misanthropic to point out what feels wrong in our world ? Not being mad or sad does not makes you more a humanity lover.
A man falling 50 stories feels just fine as he passes the 10th floor.
> Be glad we're not an icy hellscape like Pluto.
If we'd evolved on Pluto, we'd be adapted to Pluto. And you'd be saying "Be glad we're not on a flesh-vaporizing hellscape like Earth."
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 better off than their parents' generation, and so on. Obviously there are places in the world that are not having a great time at the moment, but on average it's getting better.
So it also did in Rome until it all fell apart. True, things could be worse. But they could be a hell of a lot better too.
If you're freezing cold and start burning your living room everything also gets better and better, on average, for a while
edit: removed mixed metaphors