Why Unrealistic Optimism Will Kill Us All — Literally

Shelly Fagan
7 min readAug 1, 2021

Positive thinking feels nice, but it won’t fix the climate

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

— Albert Einstein

Not too long ago, I warned a coworker that our jobs would end due to technological unemployment. I showed them a press release announcing that our employer planned on replacing us with artificial intelligent computer programs.

My background includes researching and writing about Universal Basic Income, so my interest had exposed me to the the realities of disappearing jobs.

“I suggest you update your resume,” I said. “The company announced they intend to transition to artificial intelligence by the end of the year. These positions are never coming back.”

At the time, it didn’t occur to me that this information would not be welcomed. Had I been on the receiving end of this news, I would have been…

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Shelly Fagan

Complicated subjects made accessible. Politics, Basic Income, Philosophy. I follow back.