I obviously have none, so I’d like to see if I can mooch off of you lol.
Please don’t leave any pessimistic top level comments. Or do, I’m not your mom 🤷♂️.
I think AI will either destroy us all or, here is the optimism, save us all.
If you ask an LLM for a 10 steps plan to save the world, it will give you the more leftist program you cam think of, with practical solutions to a lot of our problem. If use in a good way, AI as the potential to cure diseases, fix environmental problems, optimize production, etc.
The problem is not AI itself, the problem is AI when combined with capitalism. That’s why wr need to appropriate AI and can’t be passive avout it, to fight back.
Perspective. We live in one of the best times in human history. The comforts and advantages we enjoy, 99.9 percent of humans could only dream about. Electricity, running water, modern transportation, indoor plumbing, three meals a day, and modern medicine are unimaginable luxuries for them.
Sure if you’re in the top 10%
To be in the top 10 percent worldwide, you have to earn more than 31,500 USD per year. Name a year before 1950 you would prefer to be an average world citizen.
If Twitch plays pokémon managed to beat the game then we can do this too, man
Thanks for the fresh wind OP and commenters, we need that from time to time.
The 2026 Midterms elections.
yup thats around the time the new GTA is coming out, we all have a lot hope and invested attention in that
Right, the first GTA was released in November 1997 and for some, it changed the world.
History.
No really looking at all the crazy stuff that happened in the past, you realize these aren’t unprecedented times, at least as far as tragedy goes, but the truly unprecedented part is how much less shitty things are in comparison. Not even with technology but with social progress.
It doesn’t feel like it but when you think that within the lifetime of people alive we had segregated bathrooms and pools and that seems insane now, that’s at least some hope.
One day trump will be dead.
There are so many good things that are happening.
I realise that humanity seems to be on the brink of some truly terrible changes. But you have to cast a wider view than what is broadcast.
Most of the good things are happening all the time in so many places, but simple good works don’t generate clicks and engagement.
A huge part of the good in the world is coming through kids; we are teaching them to care for each other and the planet. It is working, there is pushback in some sections of society, there is serious backsliding in some countries. But overall we are moving forward toward a fairer and cleaner world.
I’m a techno-optimist, I think humanity has the capability to solve any challenge before us. It would be nice if we didn’t need a crisis to spur the change we need; but we solve problems…that is what we do.
The old ways die slowly; the victories are hard won sometimes, but they are won. Even Trump, as much as I hate all the terrible things he is doing; seems to be the last gasp of a failed philosophy. They won’t let go without a fight, but there are far more of us than there are of them.
Sorry this was the most depressing thing to read.
Maybe I missed it but all I could read was. Oh children are nice and for the future there will be technologies.
Nothing in what you mention is optimistic it’s just the problems are solved somehow.
Clean water and more resistant crops are technologies too, that makes life better for millions of people. We just figured out how to make vector-vaccines last for months in room temp (which make them possible to transfer in countries with less cooling equipment) and we were able to reduce price of solar cell compounds from 188usd/gram to 2usd/gram, both these things in the past weeks. As a humanist, these sort of things makes me incredibly happy. There’s tons of examples like this.
My kids absolutely love life and are majorly excited about everything.
I have a beautiful girlfriend which I plan to marry. Whatever happens I know atleast she will be with me.
For me, it’s the simple fact that almost every person you interact with is good. Yeah, in groups we can be horrible, but individuals will almost always help other people regardless of who they are. It’s only when you make someone an anonymous “other” that they are cruel.
This maybe isn’t super optimistic, because of how easy it is to create that “other”, but it’s something.
All of this push for global fascism and tightening of chains across the world is actually an extinction burst that’s happening precisely because the world is waking up. The oligarchs see one last chance to hold onto power before the common people flip the board.
Yeah, we only read about right-wing successes but let’s not forget that the lefts all over the world are getting stronger every day, every election.
So many elections show that the majority of people don’t want to be ruled by fascists.
I hope this is true! Tired of spending every election day waiting for the .2% of voters to decide if we’re gonna keep healthcare or perform a blood sacrifice of the poors.
I agree. There’s a dialectical link between the rising of the new and the violence of the old in resisting that.
Exactly, I wonder how hopeless people felt in 1940’s europe
At the end? Very hopeful. Communism was surging in popularity around the world, hence the string of revolutions, thanks to the Red Army’s success in defeating the Nazis. It took drastic measures to overturn this.
True, everything good in both countries I’m a national of is called “post-war” lol. I was thinking of before the war though, trying to make the point we’re at the same place in history.
I know what you were getting at, haha. Just wanted to point out how quickly attitudes changed.
God I hope this is true
Scientists are steadily progressing on biologically deaging human cells, so if I manage to keep myself alive for the next fifty years (and win the lottery), chances are I will reach the 100’s: sciencedaily.com/releases/2026…
Every day, more normal people are beginning to understand that conservatism is the single greatest threat to all life on earth. I am hopeful the normal people will be able to dramatically reduce the number of conservatives on earth before the conservatives kill us all.
Solving the problem of conservatism existing also solves nearly every other problem on earth. Without conservatives, the normal people would be able to address climate change, wealth inequality, affordable healthcare, housing shortages, artificially low wages, food scarcity, overt bigotry and numerous other issues that are caused exclusively by conservatives existing.
Without conservatives, billionaires become powerless. It becomes possible to charge the wealth class with crimes, force them to pay fair taxes and pay proper wages. Labor unions become possible without conservatives around to break them or outlaw them.
Every genocide in human history has been led by conservatives. Stopping conservatives is the only thing that stops genocides.
The world would be dramatically healthier, happier and safer without conservatives in it. I think the normal people are beginning to see conservatives as the existential threat they are. As conservatives escalate their violence around the world, hopefully the normal people will become willing to completely eliminate the threat. The world will be a much better place for it.
About 100 years ago, the situation was similar to how it is today. The rich were rich and only getting richer and the workers were being exploited mercilessly. The people were fed up and so there was an unprecedented general strike. This caused Parliament to introduce a max 48h work week, social security for old people among many other things. This was followed by a period of general prosperity for working people.
Now the pendulum is swinging the other way again, the way of the rich and powerful, but it will swing back in our favour in due time, further than it ever has. As long as we are living in a democracy, the government is ultimately beholden to the people and at some point the people will get fed up and the times will change again. Be a part of that!
About 100 years ago
110-115 years ago. While Europe put their armies in trenches, populist revolts on same principles diverged in US and Russia. US groups believed democracy could be effective. (Russia had a revolution because they didn’t). Open question for today is whether democracy is effective.
I, for one, don’t fully understand my optimism, but I like to attribute some of it to a sort of autistic stubbornness that things must get better at any cost. Combine that with a little bit of delusion, and you get how I am able to remain optimistic.
