[shipp02]

>actually think this kind of low-information escapism about the future

I think this is called techno-utopianism. The "leaders" in technology have been doing this ever since the industrial revolution.

People sold the idea that street lights would fix "public morals" and eliminate crime.

Also see the progress trap and professor Simon Penny's work and what he calls the end of the anthropocene.

[kaonwarb]

There is some evidence that street lights reduce crime! E.g. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10940-020-09490-6

[pdimitar]

Reduce, yes, absolutely. Eliminate -- no.

[Ukv]

Were there any serious claims that street lights would entirely eliminate crime? A "sizable reductions in nighttime outdoor index crimes" sounds like a pretty positive result.

[pdimitar]

I can't claim anything objectively because I never truly looked at it scientifically.

I simply come from bad neighborhoods and the amount of times I heard "shhh, don't go there, people will see you" from guys who clearly were looking to start for trouble, was substantial in its own right.

Anecdotal evidence, sure, but from a psychological point of view the people who want to steal or harm others feel much safer doing so in the darkness, I have found.