News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Did the W-boson just “break the standard model”? by r3trohack3r on Saturday April 30, 2022 @12:46PM (#31217301)
According to many metrics, it seems the world is indeed improving over time. The news is a poor source for evaluating the net sum of human suffering - the incentive model is all wrong.

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_is_the_world_getting...

Re:Did the W-boson just “break the standard model”? by FollowingTheDao on Saturday April 30, 2022 @12:52PM (#31217340)
As the island of improvement grows, so grows the shores of suffering.

But can a dataset really encapsulate human suffering? Is there a lower percent of people suffering but are they each suffering more individually? What is the quality of the suffering? Is it better to suffer 30 years with pain or to die after a month of it?

Re:Did the W-boson just “break the standard model”? by tick_tock_tick on Saturday April 30, 2022 @03:37PM (#31218609)
> But can a dataset really encapsulate human suffering?

Yes

> Is there a lower percent of people suffering but are they each suffering more individually?

No

> What is the quality of the suffering?

Lower

> Is it better to suffer 30 years with pain or to die after a month of it?

Depends on quality of life.

Re:Did the W-boson just “break the standard model”? by FollowingTheDao on Saturday April 30, 2022 @04:37PM (#31219086)
>> But can a dataset really encapsulate human suffering?

> Yes

Suffering its subjective so it is impossible. And you proved it with:

> Depends on quality of life.

because quality of life depends on how much suffering you can live with.