I’d say dirt cheap solar panels and CRISPR based vaccines are pretty cool. I’m also quite optimistic about the proliferation of plausible SMR designs. That new concrete that self heals and sequesters carbon is cool too.

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fhennig a day ago | parent | next [-]

I think it's a category error. The optimism isn't about tech, but rather about society changing in ways that make life better:

> More peace, no apartheid, no Soviet union, removing borders between countries in Europe, tech felt like a way to connect us.

If I read your comment charitably, one could maybe argue that we're actually making decent progress in the electrification of things, and that we're also improving health globally, but I'm not sure if that's the case. It doesn't quite feel like it at least.

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ch4s3 a day ago | parent [-]

> It doesn't quite feel like it at least.

I think that's a function of social media and living in a society where things are objectively already really good for the vast majority of people compared to 50 years ago.

	▲	fhennig a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		We're talking about the whole earth here, not just the societies that we live in. And globally, things are not so rosy. Specifically the point of electrification, might be that we electrify more, but globally the CO2 emissions are on the rise still, and have continuously risen in the past 50 years.
	▲	epolanski a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's only good if you over focus on material things. As soon as you start looking at: mental health, drug addiction, loneliness rate, sexual activity, going out, etc, by all metrics we're way worse than our parents, let alone our grandparents.

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vermilingua a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And we have the administration of the ex-hegemon working to demonise most of the cool innovations we do have.

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frereubu a day ago | parent | prev [-]

These are much better examples.