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There’s been evidence that pollution is reducing. Shouldn’t we take a step back and be objective? If this shows how we are trashing the planet then what good are humans to the planet? It’s an honest question. And isn’t social distancing nice for a change? Or for those that don’t go to a job now. Isn’t that nice? All I’m saying is why don’t we take a step back and look at the big picture?
What is so great about going out into civilization anyways? Even before this happened, most people were just on their phones anyways. Do you really miss the packed subways and the endless traffic? Didn’t that get old? I feel like we were living in The Matrix. What’s so great about that life?
Just please hear me out. Most people do not interact anymore outside the house. It’s a different time. And do you really need to go to concerts anymore? Or to basketball games? The best seat in the house is your living room and you can watch on a high def tv.
You have to look at the future and be honest. Self driving cars are coming. You think now jobs are becoming automated well what about 5, 10, or 15 years from now? Most jobs are not needed and money doesn’t exist in the way we think it does. It’s just a system. A flawed one and in the future we’ll have to come up with a better and more practical one. And this pandemic can occur again. We have to stop living in The Matrix. We are beginning to see things for what they are.
The world is quieter, more tranquil and peaceful. We don’t need the hectic lifestyle anymore. You just think you do. That’s the past. The world doesn’t need tons of people going to work and polluting the airs. You see how many people can work from home. Schools don’t need to reopen, we have the internet which is better. We don’t need people traveling to go on business trips. Use Zoom. In a few years we will think that going on a business trip is unthinkable and unnecessary. We won’t even have to travel for vacations due to Virtual reality. Oh yes.
In a few years, malls and movie theatres will be far and few between. They really aren’t needed. Many types of businesses are going to close. Remember before Facebook and smartphones? Life became different after and people adjusted and started to care more about likes than real life. And now with this pandemic we are entering a new way of life just like we did with smart phones and social media. And social media will become virtual so it feels like we are in the same room with other people.
Let me ask you. What is so great about socializing too closely and going out? Stay home is the new motto. It used to be stay drug free and don’t smoke. Now it’s stay home. Like you’ve heard, this is our new normal.
I do hope & suspect that business travel will decline after this as businesses realize that employees are just as effective over video as in-person.
I work at a company that was just crazy for business travel before this outbreak- we'd travel just to go to another location to close the books, which is something that is done only on computers (that we bring with us). We can easily do this work from our office without traveling. We even flew 5 people to Europe just to effectively say hello to the Europeans, and every year fly upwards of 30 people to a central location just for networking. It's a nice-to-have, but I doubt if it makes even a dollar of improvement in efficiency, yet costs tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's bad for the business and bad for the environment.
I hope this event is an eye opener for business travel. It's a bit selfish because I hate business travel personally, but also find it extremely wasteful for the environment.
I do hope & suspect that business travel will decline after this as businesses realize that employees are just as effective over video as in-person.
I work at a company that was just crazy for business travel before this outbreak- we'd travel just to go to another location to close the books, which is something that is done only on computers (that we bring with us). We can easily do this work from our office without traveling. We even flew 5 people to Europe just to effectively say hello to the Europeans, and every year fly upwards of 30 people to a central location just for networking. It's a nice-to-have, but I doubt if it makes even a dollar of improvement in efficiency, yet costs tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's bad for the business and bad for the environment.
I hope this event is an eye opener for business travel. It's a bit selfish because I hate business travel personally, but also find it extremely wasteful for the environment.
100% agree. A good portion of business travel was really not needed and if you look at the gallons of fuel these frequent flyers used, it's just absurd, much more than any RVing couple towing their boat. Add to this that many companies now see that a good chunk of their workforce really does not need to show up to the cube. They have to pay a fair amount of money to transport workers to these expensive metros and if they realize they can save that and get rid of COL adjustments they will be much more flexible to working from home.
Things will not go right back to the way the way they are. Even if the leisure travel sector bounces right back (I'm doubtful it will come back 100%, I think people will take closer trips), business travel and commuting to work will drop a fair amount.
This is a long term benefit to the planet. The OP is being overdramatic and sounds like the typical coastal person who sees the outside world from the news tv screen and thinks the entire world is falling apart by 2040. The things listed above needed to change, but having gatherings for concerts, funerals, family reunions, game nights... those will bounce right back after this is over because those are big parts of enriching peoples social experience. It's not going to make people more introverted. However, hopefully all these people going for walks because there's nothing else to do will realize there's a beautiful world out there right in their "backyard" to explore.
I'm an introvert and even I am getting sick of staying at home!
Right - because I don't leave the house to see PEOPLE, necessarily. I leave the house to DO stuff...to SEE stuff. When I go to a concert I don't do it to be with people though there is something about the excitement of the crowd you don't get on tv - same for sporting events.
Working from home and with no weekend activities, the days all run together. The weekends are BLAH - there is so little to look forward to other than "hey, at least I'm not working!". But I want to drive to a state park and hike...go to a performance...etc. People need variety - and beyond a variety of people but a variety of experiences.
Right NOW, with COVID-19 restrictions, is more like "The Matrix" where everyone is living a "virtual life" and consuming far fewer resources by staying home.
I'm a big proponent of VR/AR and I foresee a "Ready Player One" future, in a few decades, where we mostly live in tiny efficient boxes, but contact lenses that project directly onto our corneas convince us we are billionairs flying around in private jets and living in mansions. We save money for occasional "real" trips to places we otherwise visit virtually through VR/AR.
The next step, in a few hundred years, would be a matrix into which we can plug ourselves and just consume a bare minium of nutrition to keep our brains functional. 70% of the population or more are simply plugged-in "coppertops" while 30% spend time in the real world maintaining critical systems. Resource useage per person is very low.
Finally, maybe in a thousand years, a complete digital migration of our consciousnesses into a simulated world, where we only require the energy to run the computer memory systems in which we reside. No one exists in a physical brain made of cells anymore. We all live in the machine. Those who want to see the "real" can explore the universe through uploading themselves into powerful robots/androids. Most people just occupy the simulated world of their choice as electric signals inside computers. Everyone is an immortal algorithm stored on an invincible network of multiply-backed-up heavily-fortified widely-distributed mainframes. At this point, AI would probably be indistinguishable from those who were originally human.
A very few people might still exist in actual bodies, but only for the experience, or for the purpose of creating new humans prior to their upload.
However, in the mean time, we are all stuck here in our meat bodies/brains, susceptible to deasease and death. Seeing the world through a screen and perpetually living indoors, separated from other humans is not acceptable, for most people, at our current level of technology. I've had gamer roommates who were completely happy to live this way, but that sort of life is not acceptable to the majority of human beings. Reducing the barriers between simulated and real worlds is a good goal. Improving our MMI so that we can't tell the difference between the "real" experience and a simulated one, is a good idea. Eventually it could lead us to a social, economic, and ecological utopia. However, we are still technologically FAR from capable of reaching such a nirvanna.
There’s been evidence that pollution is reducing. Shouldn’t we take a step back and be objective? If this shows how we are trashing the planet then what good are humans to the planet? It’s an honest question. And isn’t social distancing nice for a change? Or for those that don’t go to a job now. Isn’t that nice? All I’m saying is why don’t we take a step back and look at the big picture?
What is so great about going out into civilization anyways? Even before this happened, most people were just on their phones anyways. Do you really miss the packed subways and the endless traffic? Didn’t that get old? I feel like we were living in The Matrix. What’s so great about that life?
Just please hear me out. Most people do not interact anymore outside the house. It’s a different time. And do you really need to go to concerts anymore? Or to basketball games? The best seat in the house is your living room and you can watch on a high def tv.
You have to look at the future and be honest. Self driving cars are coming. You think now jobs are becoming automated well what about 5, 10, or 15 years from now? Most jobs are not needed and money doesn’t exist in the way we think it does. It’s just a system. A flawed one and in the future we’ll have to come up with a better and more practical one. And this pandemic can occur again. We have to stop living in The Matrix. We are beginning to see things for what they are.
The world is quieter, more tranquil and peaceful. We don’t need the hectic lifestyle anymore. You just think you do. That’s the past. The world doesn’t need tons of people going to work and polluting the airs. You see how many people can work from home. Schools don’t need to reopen, we have the internet which is better. We don’t need people traveling to go on business trips. Use Zoom. In a few years we will think that going on a business trip is unthinkable and unnecessary. We won’t even have to travel for vacations due to Virtual reality. Oh yes.
In a few years, malls and movie theatres will be far and few between. They really aren’t needed. Many types of businesses are going to close. Remember before Facebook and smartphones? Life became different after and people adjusted and started to care more about likes than real life. And now with this pandemic we are entering a new way of life just like we did with smart phones and social media. And social media will become virtual so it feels like we are in the same room with other people.
Let me ask you. What is so great about socializing too closely and going out? Stay home is the new motto. It used to be stay drug free and don’t smoke. Now it’s stay home. Like you’ve heard, this is our new normal.
I disagree. I hope it's not the new normal. Check back with us a year from now.
I disagree that people will lose interest in movie theaters and concert halls. People love live music and always will. Some movie theaters may close, but others won't. I live in a big film town; there are two or three small theaters that are run by film societies, basically, showing indie films, imported films, historic films. And then there are the megaplexes. One of those closed a couple of years ago so there are two left. Movie houses aren't going anywhere in this town. Same with indie bookstores. The bookstores and their special events have devoted followings. You can't duplicate that experience online.
And then there are the lecture series, the literary lectures sponsored by a non-profit grant-making organization in town, the science lectures sponsored by the local national science lab and environmental orgs, art lecture series sponsored by museums and local art institutes, etc. etc. Those will remain popular.
There are also dance venues of all kinds. People need places to mix and mingle. Otherwise, you'll be eventually facing a nation of single people living in their little cubbies, thinking they're experiencing intimacy through online exchanges, only to discover half the time that they've been scammed. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Humans are social animals. Already, some people are feeling stressed, because they can't socialize. A few are starting to go bonkers. A surprising number of people are incapable of being alone with their own thoughts for any length of time. Others just plain get bored and aren't able to find ways of keeping themselves constructively occupied. People need clubs, hobby groups, volunteering, different ways of sharing experiences with others. It's the way humans are wired, pretty much.
If you want a society where people are content to live in their caves alone, with little to no interaction with another human, move to the Himalayas and become a monk. But even most monks live in huge institutions with hundreds, even thousands, of other monks, in some cases.
1) There really is no 'good' or 'bad' for 'the planet'. Both good and bad are human constructs. The planet is simply a chunk of iron/oxygen/silicon/magnesium/trace elements. The Earth is no 'better off' having a biosphere than Mercury or the rest of the planets are 'better off' for not having one.
2) As with the planet, the things are neither good nor bad for the biosphere. They just are. The great evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr estimated that roughly 50 billion species have existed since life began on Earth. Now, there are somewhere less than 10 million - more than 4999 out of every 5000 that have ever lived are gone. That is neither good nor bad - it is just a result of evolution and natural selection.
3) All the good and bad notions of 'caring for the Earth' are constructs of human interest, either practical or aesthetic. That doesn't mean we should not have them. But beyond us, it does not matter. Except to other species. And like us, they are all self-interested.
4) If you really want to measure 'good for the planet' by a metric of, say, biodiversity, it should be noted that while every extinction event in Earth's history has resulted in a short-term crash in biodiversity, it has also resulted in a long-term increase in biodiversity. The vast opening of biological niches allows those niches to be filled not only by sister species of those species rendered extinct (by an asteroid, outgassing, climate change ... or another species run amok) as well as by other species that were previously completely unable to penetrate this niches. Thus, mass extinctions are ultimately drivers of biodiversity. Again, this is neither good nor bad but merely a dynamic of life.
PS - The last part of your post is just complaining about how much 'the world these days sucks'. And people have been doing that, while idolizing 'the world of a generation or two ago' for as long as there has been writing for people to record their thoughts (and probably before - we just can't know about it).
I love your post. Wish I could rep it 100 times. I agree with all you said, and you explain it way better than I ever could. Far too many have some sort of set criteria of the way thing should be and if it doesn't materialize, they think everything is horrible and by default start to romanticize the past. There is no end game for humanity as a whole. As individuals we just want to live as happily as possible but there is no pass/fail grade for humanity. We will eventually all die out one day like every other species. Not good or bad, just the way it is.
So you’re saying since the Earth is polluted might as well just keep doing it? Isn’t the planet more important than people?
Um.. NO!
The planet is a rock with life forms that arise and extinguish, just like the planet someday.
So people and the planet are one, whether you like the result or not.
"When the Each is ended and the All's suspended,
Resting briefly, hung in space,
Everything that was, erased,
When identity is taken and our earthly works forsaken,
Melted, lost for ALL of Ever..
Will we be remembered?
NEVER!"
T. Guirato, circa 1977
Last edited by PamelaIamela; 04-20-2020 at 02:59 PM..
We are clan by survival. No man is an.island.
I just prefer my island a bit further out there.
Yes some eco systems are not being diluged by chemical waste. True that even pollution and air quality are affected.
I'm miffed that some who can't even 'cut' the cord of technology are biting at the bits to get out and about. For what? To sit on a park bench and play on your device?
Man can survive and thrieve without economic carrots dangling at them.
Commune living proved that. Provided it's not mulled with radical preaching or inappropriate behaviors....
Tribes have sustained ...
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