Civilized discussion on hard topics -- There seems to be a large amount of shouting matches going on right now. We need to be able to discuss things in a calm and respectful manner even when we strongly disagree with the other side. There are a lot of buzz words that get thrown out that to me have lost meaning (racist, sexist, etc.). These words do have meaning and there are absolutely people doing these things that need to stop. However, lets stop name calling and start sharing our stories with the intend to do just that, share. When the only goal is to get everyone to believe what you believe, it likely won't be a productive conversation.
Agreed. Though I will also say, how to achieve this is exactly what is taught in Crucial Conversations.
Crucial conversations are moments when (1) opinions vary, (2) stakes are high, and (3) emotions run strong. How to have them, how to recognize when stakes start ramping up and people go into fight-or-flight, how to shift out of that, are all covered.
It starts with oneself and then the important relationships in our lives. Most of us have difficulty with crucial conversations with people we care about and our close relations. If we cannot even share meaning with people close to us, then we have no hope of sharing meaning with strangers.
This is what I have been working on myself. It has been challenging. And though I have not fully mastered it, I see a lot of results and relief.
This, but I also think we can't just do this in a pure "freedom of speech" way. In order to have a space where we can talk about things calmly and respectfully we will need to shut-out "bad faith" actors, supremacists and ideologues. Otherwise they will pervert the dialogue in order to win some political battle and we risk the wrong outcomes.
We have to come at this very directly from the perspective of the outcomes we wish to achieve and those that we wish to avoid ("consequentialism") rather than through some mindless repetition of an ideal that we believe to be sacred ("free-speech is so important"). Free-speech might be important but maintaining peace and achieving good outcomes for all involved should probably be held in higher regard [0] than some abstract principle, particularly when that abstract principle is a shibboleth of the people on one side of an issue but not the other.
[0] I'm talking about people that want to argue about racism and sexism while incidentally subjecting those they're arguing with to the most extreme and potentially toxic people in their group in the name of 'free speech'.
Would up vote this a thousand times if I could. Most of the other problems listed in other threads would be easier to solve if we could just have the tough conversations and find better ways to meet in the middle.
Decentralized social media, decentralized chat platforms, decentralized almost everything that we depend on the Internet for. Users of the platform have more control over which provider to use, can freely move around and even start things on their own to connect into well defined interoperable systems and protocols.
This is more of a pipe dream than a hope, but I would be ecstatic to see such a world. Like Peter Sunde of Pirate Bay said recently, it looks like we can do only some damage control now. [1]
This could be something that blockchain technology might have an impact on. This article gives examples of how blockchain can be used to decentralize many aspects of our current dynamics.
Renewables to destroy the fossil fuels industry on price. A win for the environment, and some of the oil states will descend into utter irrelevance. Cheap, clean energy will be utterly transformative to the planet and will dramatically raise living standards globally.
Agreed with the notion, but will point out that many of the "oil states" are not oblivious to the writing on the wall and as a result have begun allocating significant portions of their "fossil fuel" profits into alternative channels, in many cases into energy as well. The sheer amount of deployable capital at their disposal leads me to believe they will not "descend into utter irrelevance" as you suggest. At the very least they will succeed in maintaining their relative prosperity, but envision there is a state of the world in which they successfully transition into being champions of Renewable energy going forward. It's not very difficult to build an new industrial energy empire when you have trillions of dollars to spend.
I'll take a liberty to answer it in two ways, one thing for tech and one thing for non-tech.
Tech - Fixing Battery/Energy
This is one of the most important breakthrough we absolutely need. Current situation is like of ancient age, where civilisations used to be near/along the water sources like rivers, sea, etc. Same thing is happening today due to our energy dependencies. It limits the geography where a person can dare to live or explore without worrying or sacrificing the safety of communications. there are some ways currently, I agree, but we need more widely adopted solution. Energy consumption should not be co-related to the guilt! :p
There are two things about this:
1) Better energy backup in relatively portable size
2) Quick recharge ( or maybe disrupt the recharge concept:p ?! )
If we achieved this, it will be an amazing achievement for our species. Currently, healthcare system works on trial and error method. Most drugs don't really work without any side effects. We haven't understood our own defence mechanisms completely. Maybe using our own killer T-cells to do a targeted strike on aliens in our body will be more useful for our species than hunting aimlessly for aliens in outer space. I don't mean to undermine the importance of ET search efforts and it's implications, but from value proposition point of view, I'll favour human health system. Well, I'm deliberately avoiding to list why health is SO lagging even in 2017, it's better to assume that it's about time to solve health related problems inclusively rather than just keeping it exclusive filed for the health professionals and pharmas.
No more first past the post in the UK and US as it makes politics partisan and uninteresting hysterical carping from wing to wing. There isn't enough centerism and pragmatism.
This is really the most frustrating thing for me. The outcomes of our political system at determined so much more by how we elect people than who we elect. The system is so broken, and people want change, but you're never going to get real change just by putting different people in charge.
Information: Decentralized telecommunications. Removal of centralized mobile carriers in favor of alternate mesh and private (micropayments-based?) local wireless access rental popularization. The major technical barrier at present is the user experience around default mesh support on phones (startup anyone?)
Social: Non-government reputation systems worth their salt finally enter commerce and sociopolitics to automate supply chain management, RFQ processes, SLAs, incident handling, direct political representation, etc. A revolution in education, international sociopolitical movements bypassing national political systems to address global challenges, increased respect for the environment.
Physical: Reformation of global logistics with distributed manufacturing and laws and the requirement for commercial product part designs to be published with every sale for independent consumer repairs.
Food: At least one city feeds itself largely from automated rooftop farming.
It is really hard to say just one thing but if I could only name one I would say find a cure for cancer. That in and of itself would have wide impact on families who are emotionally and financially devastated as a result; should help reduce the cost of healthcare overall given that cancer treatment is exorbitant; and would allow researchers to focus on other illnesses or worldwide problems.
"Cancer" is such a broad term, with ~200 different "types". I agree that "cancer" is a huge problem (my brother had childhood leukemia at 9 months until he was about 6 years old), and its effects on the family cannot be understated. Unfortunately, we've only begun to scratch the surface towards a cure for very few of the 200 types of cancer out there.
People don't actually need that much. It's better to have 100/100 guaranteed for example than to spend a lot of money providing very fast internet when they use it over WiFi only for example.
After just updating from sub-10Mbit/s connection to 50Mbit/s, I don't really see why this would be something for which to waste a free wish. I honestly can't think what I'd do better with a gigabit connection.
Custodial land assignments. Instead of selling lots, which you'll never fully own as allodial titles no longer exist, set up a system which qualifies individuals and families to be awarded land. The idea that we are thrust into this world which requires us to follow a fairly strict path of hurdles just to have a home is a sadly maligned truth plaguing our existence.
The rest of people's lives, and their quality of life, is based on good health.
We may not all end up in the same place, nor even wanting the same things. But good health can help each person achieve their personal maximum.
And, if you don't believe human life is a zero sum game, as I don't, then that increases humanity's overall wealth -- cultural, not just material.
P.S. There is also the opportunity to leverage much greater advances. Putting money towards treatment instead of profit-taking including a significant amount of rent-seeking.
And I, for one, would be much more willing to share my medical data were I assured it would not be used against me, neither in denying me treatment nor in denying me work nor other participation in society. The types of research and advances such data mining might produce, could be both profound and readily at hand.
Discussion where people don't selectivly choose which facts to talk about. I'm seeing this a lot right now with all the hot topics, both sides will take the moral high ground and pretend that they have never said or done the same thing when the shoe was on the other foot, most notably Trump: Obama; Charlottesville:Dallas.
[+] [-] night815|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hosh|8 years ago|reply
Crucial conversations are moments when (1) opinions vary, (2) stakes are high, and (3) emotions run strong. How to have them, how to recognize when stakes start ramping up and people go into fight-or-flight, how to shift out of that, are all covered.
It starts with oneself and then the important relationships in our lives. Most of us have difficulty with crucial conversations with people we care about and our close relations. If we cannot even share meaning with people close to us, then we have no hope of sharing meaning with strangers.
This is what I have been working on myself. It has been challenging. And though I have not fully mastered it, I see a lot of results and relief.
[+] [-] lhnz|8 years ago|reply
We have to come at this very directly from the perspective of the outcomes we wish to achieve and those that we wish to avoid ("consequentialism") rather than through some mindless repetition of an ideal that we believe to be sacred ("free-speech is so important"). Free-speech might be important but maintaining peace and achieving good outcomes for all involved should probably be held in higher regard [0] than some abstract principle, particularly when that abstract principle is a shibboleth of the people on one side of an issue but not the other.
[0] I'm talking about people that want to argue about racism and sexism while incidentally subjecting those they're arguing with to the most extreme and potentially toxic people in their group in the name of 'free speech'.
[+] [-] atonse|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] newscracker|8 years ago|reply
This is more of a pipe dream than a hope, but I would be ecstatic to see such a world. Like Peter Sunde of Pirate Bay said recently, it looks like we can do only some damage control now. [1]
[1]: https://thenextweb.com/eu/2017/06/09/pirate-bay-founder-weve...
Edit: Added interoperability for the sake of clarity.
[+] [-] juliansamarjiev|8 years ago|reply
- https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/23/companies-of-the-future-n...
[+] [-] patrickk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xf8|8 years ago|reply
edit:spelling
[+] [-] allpratik|8 years ago|reply
Tech - Fixing Battery/Energy
This is one of the most important breakthrough we absolutely need. Current situation is like of ancient age, where civilisations used to be near/along the water sources like rivers, sea, etc. Same thing is happening today due to our energy dependencies. It limits the geography where a person can dare to live or explore without worrying or sacrificing the safety of communications. there are some ways currently, I agree, but we need more widely adopted solution. Energy consumption should not be co-related to the guilt! :p
There are two things about this: 1) Better energy backup in relatively portable size 2) Quick recharge ( or maybe disrupt the recharge concept:p ?! )
Non-Tech - Understand humans better, physiologically.
If we achieved this, it will be an amazing achievement for our species. Currently, healthcare system works on trial and error method. Most drugs don't really work without any side effects. We haven't understood our own defence mechanisms completely. Maybe using our own killer T-cells to do a targeted strike on aliens in our body will be more useful for our species than hunting aimlessly for aliens in outer space. I don't mean to undermine the importance of ET search efforts and it's implications, but from value proposition point of view, I'll favour human health system. Well, I'm deliberately avoiding to list why health is SO lagging even in 2017, it's better to assume that it's about time to solve health related problems inclusively rather than just keeping it exclusive filed for the health professionals and pharmas.
Disclaimer: No offence to anyone! :)
[+] [-] Quarrelsome|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baron816|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|8 years ago|reply
Social: Non-government reputation systems worth their salt finally enter commerce and sociopolitics to automate supply chain management, RFQ processes, SLAs, incident handling, direct political representation, etc. A revolution in education, international sociopolitical movements bypassing national political systems to address global challenges, increased respect for the environment.
Physical: Reformation of global logistics with distributed manufacturing and laws and the requirement for commercial product part designs to be published with every sale for independent consumer repairs.
Food: At least one city feeds itself largely from automated rooftop farming.
[+] [-] Powerofmene|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marpstar|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattkenefick|8 years ago|reply
We're already having a hard enough time with crops for coffee, avocados, and more due to high demand and climate change.
[+] [-] acconrad|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avaer|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] strangetimes|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stefantheard|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] champagnepapi|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hoschicz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] distances|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] amingilani|8 years ago|reply
It's what I've been dreaming about ever since CRISPR.
[+] [-] taf2|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] two2two|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobochan|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pasbesoin|8 years ago|reply
The rest of people's lives, and their quality of life, is based on good health.
We may not all end up in the same place, nor even wanting the same things. But good health can help each person achieve their personal maximum.
And, if you don't believe human life is a zero sum game, as I don't, then that increases humanity's overall wealth -- cultural, not just material.
P.S. There is also the opportunity to leverage much greater advances. Putting money towards treatment instead of profit-taking including a significant amount of rent-seeking.
And I, for one, would be much more willing to share my medical data were I assured it would not be used against me, neither in denying me treatment nor in denying me work nor other participation in society. The types of research and advances such data mining might produce, could be both profound and readily at hand.
[+] [-] WWKong|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Apreche|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pdog|8 years ago|reply
This is achievable if Bitcoin grows at an annualized rate of 72% for the next ten years.
[+] [-] taf2|8 years ago|reply
Extended human life to treat any illness
[+] [-] vxNsr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hliyan|8 years ago|reply