Ask HN: What are the most burning problems of the next decade?

[mpaal]

Hi, I am in my late twenties and was wondering how can I maximize my positive impact by inquiring:

What do you think are the most important issues bothering the world which should be addressed within the next decade?

What is the most impactful thing a person with a CS degree can do to address one of these problems? (Personally I am mostly interested in data science and engineering but other sub fields of CS are more than welcome)

I encourage you to join the discussion and hope this thread will get a lot of attention because the more opinions the better. I believe a certain style of a reply to my question consisting of a pair problem-solution is preferable but feel free to use a different style should you wish.

[ta_u]

- Post truth era

- Lifestyle diseases (anxiety, obesity…)

- Disappearance of anonymity and privacy

- Loliness epidemics

- Climate change

- US-China decoupling

And many others. Also see:

bbc.com/future/article/20170331-50-grand-challenges-for-the-21st-century

[askafriend]

Media businesses are eternally interesting and important.

Social media and communication will continue to be important and impactful especially as people look for alternatives to existing options.

There also seem to be interesting things happening in healthcare.

[markus_zhang]

Trying to ask the big countries not to fight each other.

[buboard]

- boomers retiring

- overpopulation

- immigration

I am not sure if "solving specific problems" is a fruitful strategy though. Attacking problems head-on often does not work (faster horse etc). The solutions almost always come from side channels.