Do you believe the world is (a) getting better, or (b) getting worse?
Please explain. Please, no more "both/neither" answers: choose just one
{ 2008 06 08 }
{ 2008 06 08 }
Do you believe the world is (a) getting better, or (b) getting worse?
Please explain. Please, no more "both/neither" answers: choose just one
Francisco Palm | 08-Jun-08 at 9:56 pm | Permalink
The world is getting better in despite of local-anomalies, time-constrained and pipe-narrowed visions. The world is learning beyond human kind misleadings.
Norman | 08-Jun-08 at 10:03 pm | Permalink
Better
Ted | 08-Jun-08 at 10:29 pm | Permalink
Worse:
Aristotle Pagaltzis | 08-Jun-08 at 11:10 pm | Permalink
I believe the world is:
Changing.
Or more verbosely:
Some of the change is good; some of the change is bad; some of it merely is. And more than likely, a small handful of things are even staying the same.
Of course, both statements are useless – because they are correct.
joXn | 08-Jun-08 at 11:23 pm | Permalink
I have a hard time answering this question; it seems like a problem in utilitarian calculus (unless one is something of a Platonist and can judge if the world is becoming more and more a model of The Good; I appreciate the viewpoint but it’s not mine).
I think that there are more intellectual tools available now than there ever have been for doing good. (”Intellectual tools” being both technological and philosophical in nature.)
I think that despite that, human groups are still just as disinclined to use them for the benefit of all as they ever have been, and just as hungry for tangible power and superiority over others as they always have been. (On average, of course.)
So, in terms of unfulfilled potentiality, the world is getting worse — our possibilities for good increase while our selfishness inertially remains level, or decreases slowly; so the gap between what we are capable of and how we actually behave (a measure of whether or not we are doing our best) increases.
Adam | 08-Jun-08 at 11:42 pm | Permalink
At the most fundamental level, existence is neither good nor bad, it simply is. Without good nor bad, we have no measuring stick of better and worse. I agree with Aristotle Pagaltzis: “the world is changing”.
But the answer to the question is irrelevant. All that matters is that we spend as much life energy as possible helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
Bart | 08-Jun-08 at 11:45 pm | Permalink
I’m quite certain it’s both getting better and getting worse.
I will be a little more specific if you answer the following questions:
You are asking my opinion on a slope in a graph without specifying the dimensions of the axes.
Personally I tend to be on the pessimistic of things when integrating over all time, all things (including life) and all locations (including earth) due to the second law of thermodynamics:
Entropy will only increase for isolated systems.
On the other hand… Sometimes I like a little extra entropy in my life.
Dalius | 08-Jun-08 at 11:47 pm | Permalink
I actually believe we can’t value current state of world as we can’t predict even our own future. Our current view on the world is based on rather old information and naive intuition to adopt that information to current situation. There are a lot of secret information that might affect our world just tomorrow. There are a lot of things that makes our world better place to live: open source, world becoming more green (that’s only fashion now but who knows what it will become). There are some things that makes world a little bit worse place but I believe that current situation (oil price, possible famine in some countries because of bad politics) will show what has gone wrong and how it could be fixed.
Is world better for me? Yes, it is.
zgoda | 09-Jun-08 at 12:25 am | Permalink
Better.
Of course, there are thigs that changed to worse, but in general world is much better place to live than it was, say, 30 years ago (yes, I remember late 70’s).
Eric | 09-Jun-08 at 12:30 am | Permalink
Worse.
Calm, thoughtful, honest, compassionate behavior on the part of Those In Charge (and anyone, really) is not the default, and not to be taken for granted. It’s something that needs to be consciously fought for, and consciously maintained. After a relatively good few decades, humanity as a whole is currently losing this fight.
Logan | 09-Jun-08 at 12:36 am | Permalink
The quality of the world is equivalent to the measure of my personal happiness, which has been reliably increasing over time. Therefore, (a).
Nicola Larosa | 09-Jun-08 at 1:07 am | Permalink
If by “world” you mean “humanity”, it’s already getting worse, slowly but surely.
More specifically, it’s been getting better for us in the “developed” countries in the last centuries, to the expense of the rest of the world; from now on it’s going to get worse for everyone. Our children will not have it easy as we had; our grandchildren much less so.
This is from three years ago:
http://www.writingshop.ws/html/perfect_storm.html
If by “world” you mean “planet Earth”, well, give it a few million years, and the human infestation will be gone and forgotten. ;-)
simon | 09-Jun-08 at 1:11 am | Permalink
Worse:
Crisis,
Eric Florenzano | 09-Jun-08 at 1:16 am | Permalink
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time
Ian Lewis | 09-Jun-08 at 1:42 am | Permalink
(a)
The reasoning is that if you give the world some arbitrary integer factor “goodness” which is defined by the formula:
goodness factor = goodness + badness
then the goodness side more than offsets the badness.
I think that humans have learned quite a bit about how to run societies and to avoid social, political, and financial crises, and how to distribute limited resources much better than in the past.
Malthe Borch | 09-Jun-08 at 3:01 am | Permalink
Since entropy is a monotonous, strictly positive function, I think it’s fair to say that it’s going towards the worse; what’s interesting then, is if it came from something better, or worse. Which way?
David, biologeek | 09-Jun-08 at 3:54 am | Permalink
Cyclicly worse.
Reinout van Rees | 09-Jun-08 at 4:16 am | Permalink
Better.
There’s going to be (forced) improvements to the environment compared to now. It is going to be a challenge to find a worse president than Bush, so that’ll probably improve. Energy problems (combined with environment) will mean that we’ll come up with some nice durable solutions. With some luck, it will at the same time make energy affordable for developing countries, just like they’re now using cell phone networks instead of impossible-to-build fixed land lines.
I do think we’ll hit a temporary low first, though. Read http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/ for some scary background information on some of the scary stuff that could come up. USA economy: with the Euro on the rise and the oil market (handled in dollars) volatile, the USA almost cannot escape serious deficit problems. Especially with an inflation at 4% (instead of a nice 2%, see http://tinyurl.com/4g5yoz). I’m comfortably in the Netherlands, but USA hurt hurts all economies.
sam | 09-Jun-08 at 5:17 am | Permalink
In the short term (in terms of decades), the world is probably getting worse. We’ve got wars, disease, political strife, economic difficulties and the social system hasn’t been greased enough lately.
But in the longer term (centuries), the world is definitely getting better, one bit at a time. We’ve definitely got a higher standard of living than 500 years ago, and that should keep on rising, blips aside. People are more educated, there’s better medicine, science and technology; these things will also improve.
Of course, in the longest term, we’re all dead anyway, so worse from our perspective.
Stan Seibert | 09-Jun-08 at 6:20 am | Permalink
@Malthe Borche: Thankfully, constant energy input from the Sun short circuits around the second law of thermodynamics, at least when you consider the Earth system narrowly. The entropy of the Earth as a whole does not have to be a monotonically increasing function.
Although, entropy is not a particularly useful measure of good. A low entropy world be extremely boring. :)
Jiri Barton | 09-Jun-08 at 6:47 am | Permalink
Better. People start to realize they can influence a lot and actually achieve something. It takes a lot time though. Linux and Ubuntu is one of them, BitTorrent is another. It shows only things for people and only the things people want prevail. I believe it will catch up in politics, energy production, and other areas too.
Lennart Regebro | 09-Jun-08 at 7:22 am | Permalink
It’s getting better. Why?
Easy: http://www.gapminder.org/downloads/presentations/human-development-trends-2005.html
You get similar scores if you look at how democratic the world is, how many armed conflicts i going on, how free the economy is, etc, etc.
The world has never been as free, democratic, rich and peaceful as it is now. How can that be “worse”?
Suraj | 09-Jun-08 at 8:10 am | Permalink
Just like increasing entropy, world is always getting better. In some localized experiments, it may seem that entropy is decreasing but the overall entropy is always increasing.
Kumar McMillan | 09-Jun-08 at 8:49 am | Permalink
Everything goes in cycles (economics has proven this) — I believe that currently things are mostly getting worse and pretty soon they will start to get better again. One small example is that once Bush leaves office and if a Democrat is elected president, the war in Iraq will be over, the US dollar will probably start to strengthen again, the price of gas will go down, and the US housing market will make a comeback. These would be small indications of “the world getting better” in my opinion.
Ken Kuhlman | 09-Jun-08 at 8:58 am | Permalink
Worse.
Given Ian’s phrasing, we’re forced to determine our own value function & then plot along it.
a) The ultimate value is the continuation of intelligent life.
b) With every technological progression, it becomes more likely that one of our toys will get put to the wrong use (through either immoral or incompetent behavior). From nuclear proliferation to the possibility of a global pandemic, this risk is on an upward trend.
Generally, I think our odds are still good, despite the fact that they’re trending the wrong way.
Ken Whitesell | 09-Jun-08 at 8:58 am | Permalink
The “world” is what it is - a mostly liquid, mostly spherical body orbiting a star.
If you’re asking about the general conditions of the biological parasites that infest its surface, then I’d have to say it’s getting worse, and going to become much worse.
Everything that we have accomplished over the past ~150 years regarding the ability to sustain the existence of 8,000,000,000 humans on the globe all depend on relatively cheap oil. When the oil becomes economically impractical to extract and use, then you’re going to see things go downhill in a hurry.
And of a different nature, while more of the globe is generally at peace, society itself is falling apart at the seams.
Chris McAvoy | 09-Jun-08 at 9:15 am | Permalink
Better.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a “better index,” which would be nice to point to and say, “because of this, this and this, things are better than they were the last time we referenced the index.”
Overall though, things, IMH(naive)O, things always get better.
mike bayer | 09-Jun-08 at 9:28 am | Permalink
Worse, because Ian Bicking is demanding a false dichotomy….
Stan | 09-Jun-08 at 9:52 am | Permalink
Better. Steven Pinker explains why:
Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/163
This video is really worth watching, especially for those who used (limited) anecdotal evidence to argue that the world is getting worse.
Magnet | 09-Jun-08 at 9:57 am | Permalink
We can’t even agree on “to what end?”, so how could we possibly provide an answer limited to two naive choices?
Ian Bicking | 09-Jun-08 at 11:20 am | Permalink
FWIW, I’m more interested how people feel the world is trending. (Thanks for the Human Development Trends link though, very interesting and recommended to any readers — also fits in line with the TED talk.)
rgz | 09-Jun-08 at 11:33 am | Permalink
Better in the long run. Worse in the short one.
Humanity has been making steady progress in the last 10000 years, things getting better at an amazing rate.
But we have our crisis once in a while, and right now we are heading into one hell of a mess, governments are becoming totalitarian, specially the US and China superpowers. The muslims (ok, the aggressive muslims) are taking over Europe, religion has regained power over state, and the ecosystem is going awry.
But when everything is over we will have gained a lot of tech and consciousness.
garbas | 09-Jun-08 at 12:49 pm | Permalink
better for someone means worse for someone else. so the only answer is both.
but for sure you will get some statistcs about your readers “fealing”.
so, let me also help you here. for today i would say its going for better:
return home
really great song is going thru my head the whole day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkcBuUlgOTI)
didnt lose a job
i miss my girlfriend even more
bought my sisters realy nice presents
found that plone community is awesome as always :) …
who knows what tomorrow may look like…
garbas | 09-Jun-08 at 12:50 pm | Permalink
feeling*
well you got the point :)
Robert Brewer | 09-Jun-08 at 1:05 pm | Permalink
Worse the older I get, of course.
randomwalker | 09-Jun-08 at 2:04 pm | Permalink
Better.
@Stan 29: thank you. That video must be required watching before commenting on this thread. In fact, it must be required watching for everyone in the world :-)
chris | 09-Jun-08 at 2:18 pm | Permalink
worse, because:
people should have learned from the past but still too many dictators, wars, hunger etc
people seem unable to learn from mistakes made
Matt Perry | 09-Jun-08 at 2:30 pm | Permalink
Worse (but with long term opportunities for making things much better).
Virtually our entire global economy is reliant on cheap sources of energy. There is real evidence, due to peaking of oil production, that within our lifetime our access to such cheap energy will be severely diminished. Food, medicine, transportation, infrastructure - without coal/oil/gas it will be almost impossible to maintain at current rates. No cheap fuel == dramatic decrease in economic output and dramatic changes in our lives if we want to survive.
But those changes could lead to a much brighter future in the long run.
Armin Ronacher | 09-Jun-08 at 4:03 pm | Permalink
Better. As an European I just have to look back the last 100 years and I can see huge improvements.
Jack Diederich | 09-Jun-08 at 4:25 pm | Permalink
Better in regards to technology. We can do more with fewer resources than at any time in history and there is no reason to think the trend will reverse. Instead it actually seems to be accelerating.
Static in regards to humanity. We do more with fewer resources but it is the same old people stuff. Utopians have always promised to “end poverty in our time” but poverty is a people problem and not a technical problem. On the other hand Jesus (hmm, is he considered a Utopian?) said “The poor will always be with you.” IMHO that is the safe way to bet.
mike bayer | 09-Jun-08 at 5:11 pm | Permalink
I “feel” the world is getting better (i.e. Obama, high oil prices are finally going to force the conservation issue in the US), but don’t want to jinx it by saying so.
Bill Mill | 09-Jun-08 at 9:03 pm | Permalink
Your clarification in the comments makes this an answerable question, where previously it was not.
I feel like the world (where world ~= human society for this human observer) is getting better at an astoundingly rapid pace by nearly every possible metric.
Joe Grossberg | 10-Jun-08 at 6:48 am | Permalink
Better.
Seriously, what do you think people living in, say, 1908 would say about a world where polio and smallpox have been eradicated, starvation is a freak occurrence and a majority of the world’s population lives in democracies? That it looked dreary?
And, while I realize this answers the question “has the world gotten better”, I don’t think we’ve been thrown off that course.
David Jones | 10-Jun-08 at 9:40 am | Permalink
Hmm. I’m a technological optimist, so I was going to say better. But then I read all the dreck in the comments; the quality of thought is depressing. It’s worse man, so much worse.
Mary Knox | 11-Jun-08 at 5:48 am | Permalink
Overall, I feel that the world is getting better, though with significant hiccups along the way.
(This is a false dilemma, having to choose one or the other answer; really my feelings are mixed, but when I try to put them all together, this is where I come out)
Sridhar Ratnakumar | 12-Jun-08 at 10:56 pm | Permalink
Worse. Peak Oil. Better for you, if you prepare in advance for the worse.
Mark Hughes | 13-Jun-08 at 1:51 pm | Permalink
Evolution (biological or cultural) is not a ladder towards perfection. It’s a branching tree, optimizing for local conditions. Suboptimal adaptations can survive in environments with low competition, but will generally be replaced with ones more fit for the environment.
The false dichotomy of “better” or “worse” assumes a fixed environment, which does not and can not exist. The world changes, and individuals either adapt or die, eventually producing entirely new cultures.
fauigerzigerk | 23-Jun-08 at 5:50 am | Permalink
I believe there is a tendency for the world to get better because we humans get better at acting in our own self interest (some of which we all have in common). We take decisions based upon better information, better analysis, using better tools. There are very fundamental obstacles, like religion and other kinds of ancient evil. But still, I think, if we are able to improve at least those things that we can all agree on, the world will be a better place.
Mike Gratton | 23-Jun-08 at 6:37 am | Permalink
Worse.
Western cultures are getting more partisan, less likely to agree on any international or domestic issues and hence less able to act decisively to any existing or new issues that arise.
Relatedly, corporations have succeeded in embedding themselves in the political apparatus to varying degrees in Western countries, allowing them to manipulate the system in subtle ways to their profit and everyone else’s detriment.
Damage to the environment has certainly gone past the point where any individual action can have an appreciable effect and likely gone past the point where political or corporate action (unlikely anyway due to the points above) can do anything.
Finally, peak oil is finally starting to kick in, will only get worse and in the end will have a catastrophic effect on the industrialized world, leading to more war and perhaps even the collapse of nations.
Strap yourself in, we’re in for an interesting ride…
/Mike
ShawnMilo | 25-Jun-08 at 9:29 am | Permalink
Better
Religion is on the decline. The less we make decisions based upon irrational beliefs the better off we all are.
Jeanetta | 28-Jun-08 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
Better, that is, my little world. Beauty and good friends and family are treasures.
Jeanetta | 03-Jul-08 at 3:23 pm | Permalink
from my 98 year old friend: better. animals do not have a conscience, early humans probably didn’t either, now we do.
Brian Boyer | 08-Jul-08 at 8:21 am | Permalink
Better.
Progress is a saw-toothed curve, but on average it’s a much better time to be alive now than any point in history.
dehande | 10-Jul-08 at 7:19 am | Permalink
The world is getting better in despite of local-anomalies, time-constrained and pipe-narrowed visions. The world is learning beyond human kind misleadings