Ask Lemmy

My family used to have a bird when I was growing up. A parrot that would bite everyone. Only if you let it bite you enough would it start to let you hold it, but even then it would randomly bite you. Made me never want a bird again.

But after my parents passed I moved into an apartment complex with our dogs. And when I woild walk the dogs I would pass by this bird that was always outside on someones second story patio. Not only always outside, but in a small cage, barely any toys, never covered, and kept underneath LED light straps that never got turned off. Plus, the patio was facing the only open field in the place so it had no nearby friends or cover from the wind.

I woukd walk by and whistle; eventually it leaned my whistles and would call them back. Figured it would give him some stimulation at least. And I knew it deserved a better life, but there was no way I would take it as ive had the previous bird and it didn't go well. But eventually winter came, and still the bird was outside, uncovered, and underneath the lights.

So I ended up writing a note and leaving it on their door asking to have the bird since it was one of the only things besides my dogs that brought me joy. And eventually they texted me saying I could come grab him.

Well, this bird is amazing. I was hoping he would maybe just chill on my shoulder from time to time, but he loves to hang out there. Plus I can rub his neck and he'll close his eyes in comfort. And I give him showers. And he loves chewing paper. He eats seeds I crack from my mouth. I bought him a backpack so he can come on walks with us or go to fairs and stuff like that

Not only is he a stable part of my family, but a few people i know have bought birds of thier own because they love him so much

All this to say, you really dont know what the future will bring. Even if you say you really dont want something, life may bring it to you in a way that makes you question why you were so scared to begin with.

But yeah. Here's Wilson in all his glory

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One day the news will come that I have outlived Trump.

Knowing that people are not evil. We're just animals who conform. It's too late for some to get better and be more empathetic but not everyone.

My uncle had to move states for work and he went from a MAGA tattoo trumper to a protester in the span of two years because he was isolated from his "friends" and met some fellas at work who took his ignorant ass in. Played pool in one of their garages every Wednesday and Friday with the rest of their friends. Found community. Doted on his coworkers trans daughter to the point where he pitched in a third for her first car. People are all the same but are easily tricked and will do anything to fit in. It gives me hope that love can spread too. Not just hate.

Declining fertility rates

That, eventually, humans will destroy humanity for greed.

Kids these days. They are nicer than when I was in school, and mine and their peers got much better education than I did (though that has declined again, there are like 20 consecutive years of kids who were better served by the school system that are just now young adults).

The rise of renewable energy marching on.

The drop in the birth rate. Not because I'm anti-natal, but because it seems like nature is working, that's a much gentler means of reducing population than most.

The fact that insect life cycles are so short. The insect apocalypse is to me the most dire and frightening thing happening, but if we can address it at least the rebound wouldn't take as long as with other creatures.

That there's a bunch of stuff I don't know and odds are that some of it is good.

The past wasn't as great, and the future won't be as bad, as we think they are.

That this too, shall pass.

people being kind
my past successes
family & friends

The goodness of people. I run into it every day. People holding the door, saying kind words, going out of their way to help. I know there's also a lot of cruelty, but that's predominantly in the media, not in my life.

Recently, not much

Living a principled life, based on humility, empathy and introspection, and seeing how that positively affects those around me.

Related philosophical pondering:

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
― Vaclav Havel

Sometime in the near future, possibly 2050ish give or take 10 years, if we make it there, I will never have to work again. By then computers will be smarter than people, and then much smarter than people.

We will either get terminators destroying humanity, or a star trek post-scarcity future paradise.

Either way, no problems after that.

Others ITT have already mentioned people as a source of hope. For me, this is something of a paradox, as I’m fairly misanthropic. I believe most people are—on balance—good or at least prosocial. They want to get along with others and not cause harm. However, I also think we’re inherently tribal and self-centered. Our capacity for empathy within our closest social circles is quite high, but outside of them it barely exists. We tend to make good choices when it comes to those we know, but beyond that we tend to be fairly apathetic and callous.

So, I am hopeful based on people’s desire to be good and make the world a better place for all. But our historical record demonstrates a failure pattern at scale that is anything but inspiring. Overall, I think we tend to hit at the middle of the road or slightly below it. I see the history of human civilization like a corkscrew: progress is made, but only very slowly and through many repetitions of past mistakes.

Ultimately, I don’t have much hope. Humans perform best in small groups; in large ones (10,000+ people) we splinter and start treating each other very poorly. We evolved to function in small groups of just a few families. When we settled down and started developing our civilization (only 15,000 years ago—no time for evolution to change us), we struck out into territory we were not prepared for. Human civilization is effectively an experiment, and I would argue it’s returned mixed results at best.

EDIT: I also think one of the chief problems with us as a species is that we are innately myopic. That is to say, we don’t truly recognize problems until they start to affect us directly. We had all the information we needed to predict the impacts of human-driven climate change in the 1950s, if not earlier. But people trying to draw attention to them were dismissed as alarmists. Only when we began truly witnessing the impacts around the turn of the century did we acknowledge the problem and start acting on it. I think the same will be true for AI, but much worse. We intellectually understand the threats that AI poses to our species, but won’t start acting on them until they actually start to take effect, and by that point, it will be too late.

Knowing that my daughter is not experiencing brain rot by having social media. Also that she is not only school smart but daily life smart and not brain dead that needs help with everything in life.

A nice full pint of lager.

A miss-heard name on Driving Miss Daisy.

Protesting, volunteering, and finding other people who still have energy and hope that we can make something better.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think everything will suddenly get better but the more you do, the more you'll find little wins here and there, and those small wins make it feel worth it.

My kids. Even if we can’t fix the mess the world is currently in, they can

Pandora

when I wake up early enough and my stool is soft enough that I can actually take a shit.

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There are people who are actively protesting against hatred, against xenophobia, against racism, against LGBT-phobia, I live in a city that overwhelmingly voted against trump.

I don't exactly talk to neighbors, honestly I have fear about strangers (dealing with depression and possible PTSD after a shitty police encounter), but at least I don't have to worry about nazis that much. (There are still racists around here, but at least there is no lynch mobs)

I really felt moved by the anti-police-brutality protests after George Floyd was brutally murdered by some piece of shit cop. I was a victim of unjustified, and, in my view, an illegal arrest (but courts would see it as legal), and it was practically psychological torture. The fact that the entire nation protested against police brutality really brings me hope. I know that the fight is far from over, but I know that we the people have the spirit, we just need that spirit reignited. Perhaps, one day, the tyrants of the world would be defeated. Its gonna be an uphill battle, but I have hope, I have to. Otherwise I would lose my will to live. And I'm not ready to die yet. Its a rare roll of dice for me to even exist, I can't give up just yet. I yearn for the day that I see the downfall of tyrants.