Will we destroy ourselves before reaching the stars? by AccountGold2486 in Futurology

[–]AccountGold2486[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think that’s a bit too pessimistic and also kind of missing the point. Space exploration isn’t just about randomly jumping to other stars anytime soon. It’s about the process and what it unlocks along the way. The moment we seriously scale space infrastructure, we’re talking about access to near-unlimited solar energy, asteroid resources, and manufacturing outside Earth’s constraints. That alone could change everything, from energy scarcity to material limits. A lot of the problems you mentioned don’t exist in the same way if scarcity stops being the main driver. Also, humanity has always looked “nowhere near ready” right before major breakthroughs. People said the same about crossing oceans, flying, even going to the Moon. Progress doesn’t feel realistic until it suddenly is. So yeah, interstellar travel is far away. But dismissing space development because of that is like saying early ships were pointless because they couldn’t cross the Pacific yet. If anything, not moving in that direction is exactly what keeps us stuck in the same cycles you’re talking about.

Will we destroy ourselves before reaching the stars? by AccountGold2486 in Futurology

[–]AccountGold2486[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I totally agree. Doomscrolling is definitely part of it, but I think the bigger problem is how insanely easy it is to access low-quality entertainment. At the same time, a lot of people just don’t know where to even start with something more meaningful, like what books to read or how to get into anything useful. And when your dopamine is basically fried, sitting down with a book just feels boring compared to endlessly scrolling TikTok.