I know this is a bit off topic, but is anyone excited for the future?

I'm only 20, but everyone used to talk about how excited they were for the future. I don't know anyone who is excited for the future.

It upsets me I never got to live the "glory days" of cars, technology, outdoor activities, music, entertainment, etc.

I only see it getting significantly worse too. It's hard not to fall into the trap of doomerism but what is the point anymore?

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flumpcakes 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm a bit older than you, I can remember the late 90s and the early 2000s as a child: the future was so exciting.

I now feel the same as you (despite being a bit older), the future looks depressing as hell. It seems to me that things are just progressively getting noticeably worse in the last 10 years or so.

	▲	throwup238 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		[dead]

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Nifty3929 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am super excited for the future! Medical advancements are accelerating, fusion power is on the horizon, space travel is exciting again. This is really an amazing moment in human history.

I think we really can conquer cancer, Alzheimer's and maybe even senescence in the next 20-30 years.

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stouset an hour ago | parent [-]

That’ll all be really cool if you’re in the 5% of the planet that can afford it.

	▲	bobsomers an hour ago \| parent [-]
		5% is awfully optimistic! More like the 0.01%.

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zythyx an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was excited about the future...

I've always been a tech nerd, from my first Gameboy in 1998 when I was 10, to my first PC, then getting all sorts of gadgets and upgrades. Always an early adopter to many things, even social media and AI. I was basically a day 1 adopter of Facebook when it became available worldwide. I was there before Gangnam Style hit the 313 YouTube views limit (I was the 214th watcher)

Tesla was a brand I was fully on board with and planning as my first 'new' car. I loved the idea of self-driving cars (mainly because I hate driving). But then Elon became a menace and I had no interest in what would have been my dream car. It still is, and I would easily buy if Elon didn't have his name attached.

Technology has SO MUCH potential today, more so than in the past. But EVERYTHING these days from MBAs: If it doesn't make money, it gets dropped. It all has a subscription, not a one-off purchase. Every tiny thing has a cost of business involved. Games are no longer about having fun, they're about how much money or activity can I extract from the player (yes, even the indie experience is tainted: buy off Steam and 30% of that purchase goes to the platform for just existing).

The future with AI is ultimately the untimely demise of creativeness. And it will be shoved down our throats, and we will thank them (the ruling class) for it.

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johnfn an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is astounding to me that people are not excited for the future. I live in a moment in time where I can ask AI to do something and it can think about it rationally, work on it for an hour, and basically do what I want. This is incredible and amazing.

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teaearlgraycold an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’m optimistic, but I’ve been like 99th percentile lucky.

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archagon an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am excited for the counterculture movements that will emerge in opposition to the slopified mainstream. There will be some truly weird art and technology coming from this sphere. And we’re right on the vanguard.

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danans 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> It upsets me I never got to live the "glory days" of cars, technology, outdoor activities, music, entertainment, etc.

The best is ahead for your generation - you just need to create it from grass roots. I mean actually "Think different" instead of what Apple and the others marketed to you. Take back power and culture from the centralized corporations and taste-makers that feed/market their slop to you. Reclaim tools. Reclaim community. Don't seek salvation in consumerism - it's what got us here.

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HDBaseT an hour ago | parent [-]

Whilst true, its your generation who got us here. I didn't have the choice (or agency) to make decisions and changes to fight back against the silo'ing of all digital spaces, ownership, and freedoms.

I think its incredibly easy to say "You just need to do everything yourself" when you put us here. When you lived the free life before, your fulfillment is mostly met, even if it does go down hill from here since you lived through some of the best eras of human history.

	▲	danans 26 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Whilst true, its your generation who got us here. You are right, and you have a right to resent what many in the previous generation did (or tacitly ignored) to get us here. > I think its incredibly easy to say "You just need to do everything yourself" when you put us here. Don't do it yourself. Do it with others. > When you lived the free life before, your fulfillment is mostly met, even if it does go down hill from here since you lived through some of the best eras of human history. Don't mistake the illusion of freedom sold to previous generations through consumerism (which I'm inferring from your initial comments referencing all kinds of consumable things previous generations had). Today, we have incredibly freeing technologies that were unimaginable generations earlier, like for example, distributed carbon-free energy generation and storage. The best things you will do will be to rebuild a better world than the ones your predecessors left you, and it will be way cooler than our gas guzzlers and Gameboys ever were.