Lex Fridman: belief

Transcript context

…Look, there are a lot of challenges, right, that we face and we talk about them a lot. As a historian, I see other periods that were far, far more difficult when people could have far more easily have given up hope, and sometimes did. But I don’t think we’re in one of those… Like, there are some major issues like the uncertain future of technologies, what they might do, exactly what you were talking about. I think they’re solvable problems to a certain degree. Like, if we can rein in some elites, a lot of these problems can be fixed, and that’s not like a super difficult… I mean, it’s difficult, but it’s not, like, impossible. Look, so I, I grew up during the Cold War. Let’s just take the ’80s, for example. And in the ’80s, like, there was a pervasive sense that nuclear war could happen at any time and just annihilate everything, and we lived under that. If you look at the popular culture of the ’80s, it’s, like, all, like, upbeat and cheerful and naive and- … like, there was just no correlation. And then you move into the ’90s, and the Cold War is over, and everyone’s all depressed. The music gets all, like, whiny, and it’s like, “What happened?” There’s just no correlation. Anyway, I just think that the, the, it’s a pervasive sense of hopelessness or, you know- … Despair doesn’t always match with, like, if you look at the situation objectively. I mean, yeah, it can be pretty bad. But there’s so much that’s happening that is good- … all the time, so. I think this period of human history will be– ’cause we’ve talked about the ups and downs of the Roman Empire. I think unquestionably, this period in history, the 20th, the, the late 20th century and the 21st century will be seen as the flourishing of humans. So if we actually just wake up- … it’s like what everything around us, by most measures of human flourishing- … we’re doing pretty well. The amount of, like, sheer misery is probably objectively decreasing every year. Now, you know, we’re also creating problems, yes, that will cause misery down the road. Yes. But overall, I don’t see a reason to despair and not have hope.…

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