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Meaning of Life

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Problem

These years are probably the best they will ever be, or at least for a long time. We have have relatively good peace in the West, antibiotics and medicine is generally still working, average life expectancy is high, governments tend to look after the old or ill, most people are well educated, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of privacy - the list goes on. Compared to past times, we arguably live in the best period the human race has ever lived.

Yet, open any newspaper, read any major news website, speak to any up-to-date person. Despite living in arguably the best times in known human history, things have never looked so bleak. Examples of this are:

Okay, these are just some of the current happenings around the globe. What is even causing this?

Cause

I believe that there may be several causes adding towards a general feeling of discontent:

The human race didn’t evolve to have continuous connectivity every second of the day, our minds and bodies just simply aren’t prepared. Social media platforms have long been aware of this, applying filters to prevent overload. Even so, these machine learnt systems are imperfect and simply not powerful enough. These blanket rules are simply not enough.

Prediction

This will likely get worse. We are becoming more connected, not less. As I type, algorithms are being tweaked to maximize the amount of attention you give these platforms, spending more time, not less, being indoctrinated into these systems.

Solution

There are a few options available, not all within our control:

The future looks bleaker still my friends.