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Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

Would it really though? I would still have to attend that early meeting tomorrow. Still have to go grocery shopping. Still have to pay my mortgage.

Finding signals from aliens on some distant planet would be interesting for one news cycle. Then everything would continue on as before.

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Your confusing the long-term impact on humanity and short-term impact on your life. That guy who took the shit out of the stables still had to do it for the rest of his life even after the Renaissance happened.

I actually believe it would - it would inspire generations to work towards something greater than even humanity. Whether that resulted in beauty or disaster is besides the point. It might bring some greater sense of unity amongst humans, and direct our efforts for millennia.

Our society - and your life - are controlled far more by culture and far less by material scarcity/“innate human nature” than most people believe, at least partially because the powerful perpetuate the phenomenon wherever they can. How would your mortgage change if the whole city/country/world decided that they shared some meaningful goals?

Plus, more fundamentally, I think most people intuitively find knowledge itself valuable. Even if bringing much joy to many people doesn’t erase mortgages, this dismissive attitude seems unjustified. Imo

I think that speaks more about you than society

Failure of imagination on your part I think. Its easy to get thinking that the world cannot and has never changed.

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