I forget the numpad has math operators on it lol
Don't think I've ever used those keys in my life, maybe I should just rebind my whole numpad to something
The availability of knowledge we have is just too great
Anyone, anywhere, can read more about the history of the world, the inventions and discoveries we've made, than the richest 1% in most country could just a few centuries ago
Education is improving rapidly even in developed countries
Sure Moore's Law is dying and we're running into some sustainability issues, but exponential growth could never be sustainable
And sure there're plenty of lazy/dumb/... people, but there always have been
The difference is that fewer of them are in power, and even those not in power have access to knowledge
I could see technological progress stagnating a bit, but no way do I foresee any regression like was seen in the middle ages
It's also worth noting that society doesn't need as many productive people, and so by natural efficiency, we'll get lazier
When 50% of our population is no longer necessary to hunt/gather/farm, we have a lot more people available
And that's for something like a 10% drop in GDP/life expectancy. No way in hell (okay maybe in hell, they don't seem to export much) is anyone losing 90% of their GCP/cap or over half of their average lifespan
We're at a point in time where we're on the brink of discovering cures to all sorts of diseases
I could foresee people alive right now who won't die until 150
Given the somewhat more scientific (though still dumb) diet/exercise trends many are participating in, the things we'll know how to cure by the time we're old, and the aging societies in some parts of the world that will probably lead to discussions about how to better take care of society's increasing elderly population
Assuming someone doesn't figure out how to make a disease with CRISPR that kills every human on the planet
Well, all of them'd be a stretch, but getting 90% would be pretty trivial I think
Just give it a fairly long incubation period before symptoms show up, release it in a bunch of major cities all at once, it'll infect billions before, a few months later, a significant chunk of the world's population suddenly has a disease with what would ordinarily have a 20-50% mortality rate, but with hospitals completely non-functional and such ridiculous demand for medical or even basic survival supplies that even healthy young adults are likely to succumb to one thing or another