What will people of the future look back at and refuse to condone?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the potential perspectives of future generations regarding contemporary issues such as world poverty, starvation, and disease. Participants explore the implications of current societal attitudes and the possibility of change over time, reflecting on historical comparisons and the nature of human progress.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that future generations will be angered by today's inaction on global issues, comparing it to historical injustices like slavery.
  • Others argue that despite potential advancements, issues like disease and hunger may persist, though the scale of suffering could change.
  • A participant questions the inevitability of suffering, proposing that a future without suffering is possible.
  • Another viewpoint emphasizes that while relative poverty may exist, absolute poverty could be eradicated, challenging the notion of perpetual suffering.
  • Some participants believe that future people will be too focused on their own lives to reflect critically on the past.
  • There is a perspective that understanding the past requires a certain context that future generations may lack, particularly regarding technological advancements.
  • A participant reflects on the difficulty of expecting people to have the foresight to address issues that are not yet fully understood or acknowledged.
  • One comment suggests that forgetting history could lead to repeating past mistakes, indicating a concern for the cyclical nature of societal issues.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views, with no clear consensus on whether future generations will condemn current societal behaviors or the nature of suffering in the future. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the permanence of poverty and the implications of technological progress on societal attitudes.

Contextual Notes

Some arguments depend on assumptions about technological advancements and societal values that may not be universally accepted. The discussion includes speculative elements about the future that are not definitively established.

N_Quire
In 100 years or so, I think people will look back at how we live today and fail to comprehend, or be angered by, our seeming reluctance to do anything about world poverty, starvation and disease.

Just as we look back at slavery and refuse to condone it, future generations will be angered at our relunctance to tackle global problems. They will wonder how our minds worked, how a privileged portion of the world was able to live surrounded by riches while many millions of the Earth's inhabitants had little or nothing to eat, nor medicine to treat diseases.

We rationalize away these problems and have little or no trouble accepting the current distribution of resources, but I think future generations will genuinely be stumped by our inability to help each other.
 
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Eventually, nothing. Time heals all wounds.
 
oh, honestly though! There'll always be disease, hunger. 100 years from now, there'll be hunger, disease. Maybe the amount of people suffering may decrease, but there will always be starvation and stuff. None the less, we should always help.
 
Originally posted by MajinVegeta
oh, honestly though! There'll always be disease, hunger. 100 years from now, there'll be hunger, disease. Maybe the amount of people suffering may decrease, but there will always be starvation and stuff. None the less, we should always help.

This is not necessarily true (and I'm not just talking about biblical (and otherwise religious) views of a restoration of the Earth). There could most certainly come a time when there is no suffering.
 
Majin, There might always be relative poverty (some will be richer than others, who thereby consider themselves poor) but I do not think we have to accept the idea of everlasting absolute poverty. I hope that we can end the type of poverty that prevents people being fed, clothed and sheltered.

In such a world, it does seem rather ridiculous that some people can collect a few dozen cars, mansions and massive bank accounts.
 
They will not be looking our way N-Quire. People living 100 years from now will be too busy enjoying life and looking forward to the future. They will not be wasting time thinking about the past.
 
People love the past, but I agree, the past ain't what it used to be.
 
Originally posted by N_Quire
In 100 years or so, I think people will look back at how we live today and fail to comprehend, or be angered by, our seeming reluctance to do anything about world poverty, starvation and disease.
Probably because they won't have the same sort of technological locatlity that we currently have. It is only a very recent thing that we are able to see the rest of the world so quickly. We can find out what's happening all over the world almost instantly, and we can even communicate with the people there...but this is only a very very recent phenomenon.

100 years in the future, the people will not even know this sort of technology which is still so new to us, because they will be way past it. The idea of "far away" will probably ahve essentially no meaning to them (other than space travel), and so the idea of letting someone starve 20,000km away is just as unreasonable as letting someone starve to death who is 2 meters away.

But that is the future, it is not now. They won't be able to understand us, but that's not our fault.
 
Essentially every single person is only a person of their own time. You can't expect people to have the brilliance of hindsight, without first moving forwards.

And the infintesimal fraction of people who are actually strange enough to be ahead of their times...they are typically turned into outcasts. It would seem that it is not even worth trying to be ahead of our time when we will only get shot down for trying to do so...
 
  • #10
Originally posted by Mentat
This is not necessarily true (and I'm not just talking about biblical (and otherwise religious) views of a restoration of the Earth). There could most certainly come a time when there is no suffering.

Yes, biblically speaking.
 
  • #11
N_Quire
What will people of the future look back at and refuse to condone?
That we forgot history (and were doomed to repeat it).
 

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