PretendingNotToPanic.com is a blog based on “news for people who are eager and anxious about the future“; with additional constraints like factual, data-driven, logical, and apolitical. It’s that last one that seriously limited the number of posts this year. Facts, data, and logic are being attacked by politics leaving far fewer news items to read, consider, and capture here. And yet, the most important situations aren’t academic, and the most promising solutions can come from those purposely avoiding interactions with arcade, anachronistic, or archaic institutions. Within what’s left, here are the top ten posts from 2019.
- Computers Invent Their Own Language
- North Pole Shifting
- Sand Shortage
- Productivity Versus Compensation
- Ocean Oxygen Decline
- Locked In Warming
- US Suicides Rise
- Income Inequality And Suicide
- Sea Ice Free Alaska
- Puerto Rico Insect Collapse
In other words:
- technology is advancing faster than expected
- the world is shifting in ways we can’t control
- the world is changing in ways we can control but have decided not to
- economies are bifurcating, allowing some to surge ahead while others fall so far that “death by despair” is a reality
…and it is easier to find pessimism than optimism, hopefully because solutions are seeds finally beginning to sprout but are hard to see within the weeds.
For decades, activists tried to warn about a disruptive future. The future is happening. Action is required now. The debate has turned into a reality that won’t be ignored.
Pretending Not To Panic 