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s_e_t_h's avatar

I think your analogy might need to account for people sitting in the back seat to whom everything outside is a blurry mess. Without any means for controlling the vehicle or even anticipating the road conditions, why shouldn’t they entertain themselves while waiting for the inevitable deer to come plunging through the windshield.

What would you do or say to these newly awakened back seat drivers that’s more useful than keeping their heads down?

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Stephen Lindsay's avatar

Short run trends are not good, but I’ve stopped worrying. I’ve concluded that long term progress requires periodic reality checks. Given humanity as what it is, the “maladaptive” cultural baggage will only get shaken off through a crisis. If history (or prophecy) is any guide, culture will re-calibrate during the down-turn (dark age or whatever) and come out stronger than ever in ways that we couldn’t possibly engineer via rational design.

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