Alright, so we pump energy into a chaotic system and obviously the extremes will get more exteme. Stronger hurricanse, colder hurricanse and snap freezes, deeper floods, wet bulb events further north than you think possible, whatever. This is the known unknown.

I am existentially afraid of the unknown unknowns. At what point do the phytoplankton I'm currently breathing the poop of have a mass extinction event? All of human civilization is about to drown on dry land and I spend 5 days a week maintaining software that charges people for turning on their lights.

I crave death I crave oblivion death to america death to capitalism death to me.

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[–] betelgeuse@hexbear.net 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I am existentially afraid of the unknown unknowns.

You don't know that everything will be okay. And you don't know a situation in which that unknown could be known. It's an unknown unknown. You can't be afraid of all the unknown unknowns because that's just being afraid of what you don't know, which is everything. You can live your entire life and only know what you know, but never the things you can't know. Climate change is just an excuse to vent about a deeper fear and lack of control.

Everyone fears the unknown unknowns. Every generation. Every person who would never get to live in a world where climate change was possible. You're not the first person or the first group of people in history to fear them. You push on, not because you'll eventually known the unknowns or survive them, but because you don't actually know what's going to happen. Because you don't know what moment of history you're actually in, because history hasn't happened yet. You're still living it. The hand-wringing comes from trying to imagine yourself from a future where your life is history, but that's not how time works for us.

[–] BigHaas@hexbear.net 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

bruh this is bleak af and I know you know that

[–] betelgeuse@hexbear.net 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can't have it both ways. I mean, you can, but we don't have to take you seriously about it. You can't lean on all this rational epistemology stuff to prove that we're doomed and the immediately throw it out the window when it works against you. If you want to stick with the realism of the situation then you can't be a doomer and if you disregard realism then there's no reason to choose to be a doomer.

[–] BigHaas@hexbear.net 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've yet to see anything refuting my arguments though. What is working against me? I see nothing against me. Reality is on my side, we're all about to drown.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 6 points 9 months ago

They literally just did. Unknown unknowns are literally just as likely to be positive events as negative events, because they are by definition unknown. You can fear it, but it is not a rational fear, unlike a fear of climate change and catastrophe, which are pretty well substantiated fears if you've been following the science. That is not a fear of unknown unknowns, that is a fear substantiated in scientific hypothesis, which means it can be addressed and possibly solved rationally. Unlikely at this point, but the point stands, what you fear is based on what you know, not on what you do not know.

You can always be irrational, just don't expect us to take you seriously.