PNTP Fourth Anniversary – The Hits

Surprise! Today’s the 4th anniversary for PretendingNotToPanic.com, the blog.

News for people who are eager and anxious about the future.

The blog exists because the news is good and bad, optimistic and pessimistic, and uncertain. Unfortunately, most sources strive for the ‘clear definitive statements’ that live at the extremes of us versus them, armageddon and apocalypse versus utopias and panaceas. Despite declarations of extreme possibilities, human history has bounced around the middle. If it didn’t the species would be extinct or care-free. A more recent term captures both, apocaloptimist, the possibility that there will be an apocalypse in at least some aspect of our reality, but that the human race will continue. This all may be some maturation process that every sustainable civilization passes through, but we won’t know until we’ve met one. Come on, SETI.

In the meantime, here are the ten most popular blog posts from the first four years of the blog. Decide for yourself whether the blog’s readers are optimists, pessimists, or somewhere in between.

1. Computers Invent Their Own Language
2. Northwest Passage Opens
3. Earth Overshoot Day
4. SETI Finds – Something
5. Jet Stream Disruption
6. The $70K Salary
7. California Secession
8. Data On Real Risks
9. Sea Level Rise Data Not Debate
10. Breaking The Internet

Lately, the additional self-imposed strictures (apolitical, data-based or fact-based, and significant for our future) have limited the news sources available. But, there’s an inherent optimism that facts, data, logic, and common interests will come back into fashion. Until then, well, let’s continue pretending not to panic.