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by TideAd 1238 days ago
(Related: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/02/09/considerations-on-cost...)

A way I sometimes think about it: humans have made great technological leaps, but every day is a battle against decay. Everything that actually looks stable is mostly kept that way through effort:

- most large internet sites that seem automated actually have engineers on-call 24/7. it requires constant operational work

- every machine has parts that must be replaced periodically

- the friend group tries to meet at least twice a month so you can all remain in each others' lives

So it is not unusual to see progress happening concurrently with decay. I feel similarly to the OP but I think we're bound to end up with a bunch of things that are getting worse in a given year.