Hopefully we can replicate some of this behavior either among ourselves or in the AI we create, unless the bonobo is a unique situation due to isolation and abundant food supplies.

Hopefully it’s possible to have an intelligent, populous species that still displays those personality improvements - either via education, mating for xenophilia, or more ethically controversial approaches.

Hopefully we can evolve to be more like them unless their behavior is uniquely tied to their small population and lack of predators.

Awesome if this trend holds and doesn’t get offset by rising total energy demand or growth in carbon-intensive manufacturing and agricultural processes.

Historically migration from poorer countries to richer ones benefits both sides as the migrants, even if they don’t return, send money back and/or vacation in the old country. In a more zero-sum economy due to tightening supply chains that might not work though.

Getting stabbed in the back by your own rising lifespan would be a pretty shitty end for a civilization.

This I’ve heard in relation to electric cars in particular. Countries with a strong car culture have tons of batteries that at any given time are either idle or being used for low-energy applications like music, gaming, or cooling (cars are much smaller then even tiny apartments).

The competition between robots and humans for inherently scarce or finite resources could get ugly.

Americans of the future: “I’m 1/4 Polish, 1/2 Hungarian, and 1/4 robot. Beep boop.”

2020 and 2021 were basically the first years on record where the world as a whole got worse, according to UN HDI stats dating back to 1992. Combined with Internet sensationalism and the tendency of humans to be averse to declines, you get a lot of dark thoughts even here.

2020 and 2021 saw the first declines in global human development on record, fyi. So maybe there’s some hysteria, but there has been a real disruption in records going back at least to 1992.

Other factors:

There was a global run of, on average, improving living standards from 1946-2008/2019 (depending on country). That ending puts us in a situation without a good frame of reference within living memory.

A lot of the more utopian scenarios have been foreclosed upon by either the limits of physics and finite natural resources or by the realities of human nature/the behavior of organisms in a large and complex society.

News media and social media highlight the negatives, because neutral events or gradual progress are the assumed status quo.

Jair Bolsonaro, Florida man.

Hell, even the AI/robotics developments of the 2020s to date (3 years) has been mind-boggling for me. I feel like a god-damn Transformers character, and I didn't grow up watching Transformers. Obviously the digital 1990s-2010s were cool, but the theme was mostly making it easier for humans in Place A to communicate with humans in Place B. Nowadays, many if not most vehicles have AI inside of the vehicles and the venerable Black Hawk helicopter is being replaced by a tilt-rotor that can fly and transform autonomously.

Until an absolute turkey of a leader takes power. Look at Xi Jinping for an example.

The 2020s: The (first?) Transformers-movie decade.

Enjoy life and don't screw it up for future "incarnations" of "yourself". That is all.

(Imagine Transformers movies where the Autobots and Decepticons really are highly advanced, deep-cover classified projects that even the POTUS isn't aware of)

Of course there’s an appropriate Transformers clip

Because that’s Transformers tech, not Terminator tech.

>The 2020s

>An elaborate Transformers movie

They’re the same picture

Plot twist: It’s all viral marketing for the new Transformers movie dropping next summer. All of it, like I mean every single event since December 2019.

If anything, this could inflame the sectarian angle of the current crisis.