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Comment by Flere-Imsaho | Hacker News Reader

Yes, also see chess which as far as I'm aware is more popular than ever... Despite machines ruling in this cognitive challenge as far back as the 90s.

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Athletes, chess, fitness... Have you guys seen regular people? Obesity is worse than ever. Most people are overweight and completely incapable of even basic locomotion without heavy assistance. Most people these days haven't even picked up a book, let alone play chess or otherwise exercise their brains for fun. Sure, a few weirdos might keep exercising their brains, and a few more might find that interesting. A bit like the C obfuscated code contest or something. But most people are going to rot.

> Obesity is worse than ever.

Obesity is actually decreasing today, due to GLP-1 receptor agonists. We are already over peak obesity.

It's just masking the symptoms. I suppose the equivalent for the mind would be everyone on anti-depressant and sedatives. Paints quite the grey picture of our future.

It's a picture that's been painted in a different scifi novel,

     Hug me till you drug me, honey;
     Kiss me till I'm in a coma;
     Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny,
     Love's as good as soma."

Still, I'm optimistic. With obesity, who cares about the underlying cause if you can easily cure the symptoms?

I would prefer not to need an expensive drug for the rest of my life.

Yeah, but I think the price will come down over time. There are already purely oral formulations being developed, which will likely be even more effective than first generation injectable GLP-1 agonists, and much cheaper.

> Most people are overweight and completely incapable of even basic locomotion without heavy assistance.

I'm sorry, what? Heavy assistance? The overwhelming majority of people are completely capable of walking on their own two feet. The number of people relying on "heavy assistance" for "basic locomotion" is overwhelmingly tiny, and primarily limited to the elderly

Most people can't walk more than a kilometre or so. They use cars and other motorised transport for the vast majority of travel.

This is just simply completely untrue. The overwhelming majority of people can walk a kilometer.

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