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It really hits home how much effort and ingenuity can go into a terrible thing.

A few years back I watched a lot of videos on nuclear tests (one can find them at archive.org - the video and audio quality is terrible, and the resolution is tiny, but it is well worth the time), and I was struck by the same thought - if only we could spend that much effort, money, time and creativity into building a better society, ending hunger and disease, what would the world look like today?

It is really depressing to think about this for too long.

Don't be too down on society. Humans are doing a lot of horrible things but we're also doing some wonderful things too.

Just look at the many billionaires who are doing amazing things with their wealth http://givingpledge.org/

Yes. And we are still on a massive, unprecedented progress run that has created abundance.

I just hope we stay on that path.

This must surely be a joke.

Well, if your stance is that war is a part of human nature and nuclear weapons prevent it (MAD), then nuclear weapons actually make human existence better.

I still want to believe that we can do better.

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