Things are getting better!

[yung.carl.jung]

Quote from the article:

Where's the problem here? Just build a few more aluminum factories bro. The soil won't mind. We have plenty of oil left, right? Just throw a few thousand tons of plastic garbage into the seas everyday bro. Where's the harm? Take another plastic bag willya. Just pump some more meds into this chicken bro he ain't fat enough. It's probably good for the kids anyway. Just pour some more HFCS syrup over my deep-fried avocado bacon abomination bro. Just pop a roofie and a xannie and some antidepressants and some opiates and forget about it all. Bro.

Anybody who wants to argue that things were better pre-enlightenment, ie under feudal monarchies, is just arguing to hear themselves argue. They can't really be taken seriously.

If you take humans as a measure, maybe. If you take literally any other lifeform on this planet.. No.

 

[Yeekim]

If you take humans as a measure, maybe. If you take literally any other lifeform on this planet.. No.

Indeed, I hear Variola major and Variola minor are having a rough patch.

 

[Ryika]

If you take humans as a measure, maybe. If you take literally any other lifeform on this planet.. No.

Do you think that life as a wolf in the wilderness is better than life as a dog?

 

[Yeekim]

Do you think that life as a wolf in the wilderness is better than life as a dog?

Depends. Does the dog live in China?

 

[Ryika]

Depends. Does the dog live in China?

Now things are getting complicated!

 

[civvver]

There's a healthy balance between complacency and whining.

... and that fixed amount will probably take another ~120 years to be mined entirely.
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/10486/when-will-the-last-bitcoin-be-mined
God only knows how much electricity this will take.

Spoiler :

Key Network Statistics
Description Value
Bitcoin's current estimated annual electricity consumption* (TWh) 49
Annualized global mining revenues $7,225,206,933
Annualized estimated global mining costs $2,449,987,805
Country closest to Bitcoin in terms of electricity consumption Singapore
Estimated electricity used over the previous day (KWh) 134,245,907
Implied Watts per GH/s 0.235
Total Network Hashrate in PH/s (1,000,000 GH/s) 23,849
Electricity consumed per transaction (KWh) 650.00
Number of U.S. households that could be powered by Bitcoin 4,537,014
Number of U.S. households powered for 1 day by the electricity consumed for a single transaction 21.98
Bitcoin's electricity consumption as a percentage of the world's electricity consumption 0.22%
Annual carbon footprint (kt of CO2) 24,010
Carbon footprint per transaction (kg of CO2) 318.72

https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

In short... you're a smart guy, WTH are you smoking?

jesus christ, I feel a lot better about driving an suv now! and people want to argue it's sustainable as a currency with numbers like that

 

[metalhead]

Sperm counts are down by friggin half since the bad old days. Keep your smartphones I want my great-grampa's sperm count & fresh air.

How could anyone possibly know this?

Also, if your great-grampa lived in a city, do you realize how terribly polluted the air he breathed was? If he lived on a farm, do you realize how much more heavily polluted his soil and streams were? If he worked in a factory, do you realize how many times more indoor pollution he was subjected to for 12 hours a day, compared to a factory or office today?

You're looking backwards to a time that never actually existed. Everything was much, much dirtier, ESPECIALLY people, and infectious diseases were lethal. Yeah, that's a past worth going back to

 

[Gori the Grey]

For all that, though, I think "happiness" is a slippery concept. It will no doubt partly be a function of matters like those that have been listed: security, prosperity, cleanliness, health. But I think it's also partly a function of how well the reigning ideology of your era equips you to deal with what suffering there unavoidably is in life. It may be that people of previous eras, who were coached to believe life was fundamentally a vale of tears, actually found more total joy in their lives than we maximally free, healthy and prosperous Xanax-poppers seem to. How is one gonna get a fix on that kind of factor, if something as (comparatively more) straightforward as sperm counts from three generations back aren't an available data point?

 

[Farm Boy]

I think there is something to it Gori. I can't tell where it begins and where it ends, but in the spirit of show don't tell:

Spoiler 17:00 to 19:00 :

 

[metalhead]

For all that, though, I think "happiness" is a slippery concept. It will no doubt partly be a function of matters like those that have been listed: security, prosperity, cleanliness, health. But I think it's also partly a function of how well the reigning ideology of your era equips you to deal with what suffering there unavoidably is in life. It may be that people of previous eras, who were coached to believe life was fundamentally a vale of tears, actually found more total joy in their lives than we maximally free, healthy and prosperous Xanax-poppers seem to. How is one gonna get a fix on that kind of factor, if something as (comparatively more) straightforward as sperm counts from three generations back aren't an available data point?

It may be. Or it may be that we merely perceive that our ancestors were happier and more joyful, when in reality they existed in a time where social norms condoned men beating their children and/or wives as an outlet for their frustrations in life, because Xanax hadn't been invented yet and self-medicating with alcohol all the time made people unproductive. Maybe they found way less joy because they didn't have more efficient means of managing their emotional well-being.

 

[Lexicus]

Streams and soil were definitely less dirty 200 years ago than they are today.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Or it may be that we merely perceive that our ancestors were happier and more joyful

I'm not going so far as to say I do perceive it that way. I'm sticking with my original formulation, that I think levels of happiness, culture to culture, era to era, must be extremely difficult to get a fix on, because it's not just the externals, but how people experienced those externals that matter to happiness (Farm Boy's clip is apt). I guess I'm only prompted to say this because living now, in these supposedly best times ever (with the forms of progress that I for one would never lightly discard), I nevertheless see so many miserable people.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Do you think that life as a wolf in the wilderness is better than life as a dog?

it's an entirely arbitrary question since I acknowledge that no lifestyle can be inherently better than the other. the beauty lies in the choice, however the choice to live in the "wilderness" will simply not even be available in a century. if we however really are comparing dogs and wolves here then wolf is the obvious choice for me, I would hate to be reliant on someone else for my food and my.. business.

 

[Ryika]

however the choice to live in the "wilderness" will simply not even be available in a century.

I don't think dogs care too much about choice.

if we however really are comparing dogs and wolves here then wolf is the obvious choice for me, I would hate to be reliant on someone else for my food and my.. business.

Compared to... being hungry half of the time, potentially starving, and as an alternative being likely to die young because of an infection or a wound? I don't know about that. I mean... might be an interesting looking choice for humans, but I think for animals, the only real way we can quantify how "good" an animal's life is by how much suffering it has to endure.

And there I have to say, on average the suffering of being a dog in society is likely much lower than the suffering of a wolf in nature.

But sure, in the end it boils down to opinions.

 

[metalhead]

Streams and soil were definitely less dirty 200 years ago than they are today.

200 years ago, prior to the introduction of chemical dumping, probably, though I'd still not want to have my drinking water anywhere near farm runoff. 100 years ago was more the time frame we were talking about. Chemical dumping galore, along with few, if any, regulations involving fertilizer runoff or altering local ecology for farming purposes.

 

[Yeekim]

jesus christ, I feel a lot better about driving an suv now! and people want to argue it's sustainable as a currency with numbers like that

Yep.
1 liter of diesel creates about 2,6 kg of CO2. Hence, 1 BTC transaction equals roughly 120 liters of burnt diesel.

 

[Farm Boy]

I can chisel plough somewhere around 30 acres of ground with the carbon emission of a 1 BTC transaction? Something feels off. The accounting seems like it has to be weird.

 

[Hygro]

100 years ago was more the time frame we were talking about. Chemical dumping galore, along with few, if any, regulations involving fertilizer runoff or altering local ecology for farming purposes.

But a lot less plastic.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

My motto: People are butt holes and society is a misshapen stillborn freak. But both still always are able to grow and improve. And amazingly, they do. Very crappy-like, as usual, but still, hey!

 

[Yeekim]

I can chisel plough somewhere around 30 acres of ground with the carbon emission of a 1 BTC transaction? Something feels off. The accounting seems like it has to be weird.

I'm afraid it's correct. That's what "decentralization" where all transactions must be verified by majority of all parties in an ever-growing blockchain gets you.
Look and marvel:
https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
http://theconversation.com/the-bitcoin-and-blockchain-energy-hogs-77761