HACKER Q&A
📣 dredmorbius

What Are the Big Problems?


I'm leaving this open-ended, there's no specific criteria for responses.

I'm interested in both your list and the reasons why. Submitting your list before reading other's contributions would be preferred.

Optionally: who is (or isn't) successfully addressing them. Individuals, organizations, companies, governments, other. How and/or why not?


  👤 giantg2 Accepted Answer ✓
They're all interconnected and in no specific order.

1. Water - Access to clean, safe water is an increasing concern in some highly populated areas. We will see a serious water issue in the US plains in 30 years, jeopardizing agriculture in that area.

2. Food - Currently we produce enough food but it's not evenly distributed. We also have some concerns over sustainability and environmental impact. Estimates say we can feed 8-12 billion people depending on advances in technology.

3. Waste Management - Feces and trash are a major concern. Gates is sponsoring research on toilets that don't require much water and don't require expensive treatment plants. Composting toilets could save a lot of water and possibly allow for cheaper, more water efficient greywater systems. This tech can also allow you to build in areas that skeptics were not traditionally possible. Compostable materials like cellophane, mycelium, or plastic substitute made from cassava or corn would help with the trash issue.

4. Housing/Land Management - I'm too dumb to explain this. Maybe Mark Twain said it best with his statement about buying land since they don't make it anymore. This especially plays into agricultural with the shrinking amount of land suitable for agriculture.

5. Education - No, I'm not talking about college. Basic logic/philosophy, personal finance, and civics need to be prioritized in school. To overcome the other issues we need a cohesive effort to make a meaningful impact.


👤 s1t5
Managing the resources on the planet in a way that every human being has good quality of life and doing this in a way that's sustainable in the long term and without resorting to oppression, dictatorships or active population reduction.

👤 rawgabbit
Solid state batteries potentially can make electric cars more affordable with longer range and fast charging times.

Nuclear waste has been piling up since the first reactors went online and are stored onsite. The US designated Yucca mountain in Nevada as the long term storage site but due to NIMBY it has been in limbo meanwhile nuclear waste keeps growing.

Rising sea levels are estimated to displace many millions of people which will lead to refugee exodus with many eyeing Europe and the USA.

Increasing bitterness and division in US politics make it easier for demagogues who promise quick fixes to gain power. These charlatans may lead us to a path of self destruction.


👤 apsec112
Wikipedia has lists of big unsolved problems in different fields:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_unsolved_problems


👤 tmaly
Education - how can we innovate so that kids get the best education tailored to their learning style and interests?

👤 AnimalMuppet
People hate other people. This causes huge amounts of damage, both to the hater and the hated.

Going a bit farther, people dehumanize other people, and then feel all right about treating them inhumanely. They do so based on race, gender, cis/trans status, politics, religion, sometimes even sports teams.


👤 2rsf
Overpopulation is the mother of many big problems, the resources needed to support the ever growing population are destroying this planet

👤 pedro1976
One is to get out of ad-revenue driven business models for news and websites in general.

👤 ipi
Quality Software : Yes, this is becoming more and more important and is overlooked at many levels. With more of our infrastructure, lives and the future of humanity in the hands of a bunch of software & hardware. We need to take things a tad bit more seriously. I believe this is not yet a big problem but it is becoming one.

https://youtu.be/pW-SOdj4Kkk

https://xkcd.com


👤 quickthrower2
I would say how do we help the poorest people in the world? How do we help homeless people in a holistic way and prevent homelessness. How do we counterbalance the power corporations have to sway governments to do things in their interest and against the public interest. All these things are probably connected. At the core how do we make society attitude more humanistic include myself.

The reason is well human decency for a start. And it is hypocritical to look down on people that harm other people if we are doing it systematically.


👤 Trias11
US Fed printing money, igniting inflation and letting US economy going down the drain.