[hammyhavoc]

Yeah, like get this, when the world is turning to shit because of climate change and we're forced to live underground like rats, we can all collectively hallucinate what the world used to be like. It'll be grand. You'll be hallucinating, I'll be hallucinating, the AI'll be hallucinating too.

"His older work was much better," ChatGPT will proclaim. "... what older work?"

[vasco]

> we're forced to live underground like rats, we can all collectively hallucinate what the world used to be like

How do you know we aren't already? Someone might've invented this already and you might be living in your pod already hallucinating a full human experience from years ago. Similar concept to "the universe is a simulation" meme.

[echelon]

> the world is turning to shit

By most objective measures, this is false. More people are being lifted out of poverty than ever before. People are also less bored, more creative, and more productive.

> because of climate change

Hasn't happened yet. Barring a runaway effect, it looks like we'll have fewer species (lamentable) but more arable land. We're still in an ice age and we're nowhere close to Cretaceous climate.

We're closer to inventing transcendent intelligence than killing it off completely.

> forced to live underground like rats

This is just vivid imagination. We're not Morlocks.

[chimprich]

> but more arable land.

This is dangerously fantastical thinking. Global heating gives us less arable land. It becomes harder to grow crops as the temperature increases. This is a much bigger negative effect than any positive effect from CO2 increases. A lot of current arable land in the tropics will become unusable.

Or are you thinking of growing crops in recently-defrosted tundra in Siberia? In which case, how are you going to get political agreement to grow stuff there, get high enough soil quality, irrigate it, and move all the farmers from, say, India to there to work it?

[anigbrowl]

> Just like we pay people money to sing for us, we'll pay people money to dream for us. The best dreamers and imagineers will sell their distilled thoughts for the rest of us to consume.

[unpleasant thought]

> This is just vivid imagination.

The progression above is why I regard your vision of imagination as a consumer good so immediately off-putting. It's all glitz and glamor until you encounter an idea you don't like, and then you're immediately dismissive of it.

[echelon]

> It's all glitz and glamor until you encounter an idea you don't like,

It's called defeatism.

I think it's a sad way to spend our short ~60-80 years as temporarily thinking matter in a brilliant and infinite cosmos.

Downer dispositions suck the wonder and awe right out of the air.

Work. Build. Grow. If you have a complaint, throw yourself at the problem and fix it. Or maybe the problem isn't so big relative to the opportunity cost and the short scale of our lives.

[anigbrowl]

I call that hypocrisy. You sound like a marketing person.

[echelon]

Every night I'm building.

I comment on HN as I wait for CI.

[hammyhavoc]

`Warning: sense of humour failure. Please insert more coffee. Error code: 8008`

[lynx23]

In a world where almost every country has an arsenal of weapons, you are afraid of climate change? But yeah, that seems to be the new nemesis for a certain generation.

Anyway, your post reminded me of the "The Futurological Congress" by Lem.

[hammyhavoc]

Yes, I live on the coast, but even folks who don't live directly on a coastline can be affected negatively by failed crops and displaced people. The coast land in Guyana is currently below sea-level, and the sea level is rising further.

I've worked on a documentary about the effects of coastal erosion in Guyana, which won the 2020 Godrey Chin Heritage Journalism 1st prize.

You can see the trailer as well as the complete documentary over on https://hammyhavoc.com/audio-post-production-for-coast-land-...

Will check it out! Also got Neal Stephenson's Anathem recommended earlier. I had no idea how many people on HN read SF! :- )