Re:The perils of short-termism
by lazyjones on Sunday September 29, 2019 @11:53PM
(#21111647)
The opposite is true. We're currently so occupied with imagined problems from the future that we forget to take care of present issues. The interesting time span for normal folks and most politicians to deal with should be the next 5 years, not the end of the century. Leave that to science fiction authors. Better and more interested people will deal with problems in 81 years, whatever they will be.
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Re:The perils of short-termism
by SamReidHughes on Monday September 30, 2019 @02:08AM
(#21112180)
A lot of great projects -- subways, tunnels, bridges, constitutions, the metric system, manifest destiny, the marine chronometer, GNU -- wouldn't have happened if people only cared about the next five years.
All of these were built in order to immediately improve the current situation, not the one in 100 years.
Re:The perils of short-termism
by SamReidHughes on Monday September 30, 2019 @06:16PM
(#21120184)
It takes longer than 5 to pay back the investment, and many are planned in anticipation of future growth.
You forgot pyramids, cathedrals, and great walls :)
Re:The perils of short-termism
by SamReidHughes on Monday September 30, 2019 @02:11AM
(#21112201)
And trees.
The horizon of our problem-solving should be based on the scope of our activities. If we are making decisions with 100 year outcomes then we should certainly be thinking about 100-year problems.
> If we are making decisions with 100 year outcomes then we should certainly be thinking about 100-year problems.
Can you name a few decisions that were actually made only with 100 year outcomes in mind and not to solve current problems?