zlacker

There's a wide swath of things we could go fast on. It's not monolithic. Fixing problems, yes. Introducing new conveniences, "better living through chemistry", no.

>>colord+(OP)
New conveniences are nothing bad.

>>Random+k
Easily shown to be wrong with fossil fuels, microplastics, and countless other "advances" that end up harming individuals and society as a whole. More accurate is that some are bad, and some are not. Certainly not "nothing".

>>colord+1T
Not sure that is true. Claiming the overall use of fossil fuels was net negative for humans needs some strong citations, I'd say. Would it be better if the industrial revolution never happened?

>>Random+u51
I was just giving examples of questionable advances. Fine, if you want to be pedantic, try to justify leaded gas, thalidomide, and cigarettes.

>>colord+Ka1
Leaded gas helped the Allies win World War II.

>>colord+Ka1
Thalidomide as a substance has a wide range of beneficial medical applications.

Cigarettes is interesting, growing tobacco certainly help some poor communities, it had cultural significance etc. Not easy.

>>sokolo+Ie1
Unbelievable. The creator of leaded gas knew it was extremely toxic before it was even released.

I'm guessing you are also a supporter of sarin gas, depleted uranium munitions, white phosphorus, zyklon b, and agent orange.

>>Random+Lv1
It's very easy. There is no valid defense of cigarettes. The industry new they caused disease and lied about them. They hired Edward Bernays to market them to women. They paid doctors to sell them as health products. It's an unbelievable stretch just for the sake of argument and inability to admit being wrong on the internet to say that cigarettes are a positive advancement for humanity. WTF.

>>colord+bA1
Always nice to be able to see the world so clearly black and white (btw., cigarettes have many hundreds of years of history you seem to ignore).

>>colord+4A1
If you don't like weapons that's a fair point, but not sure in a world with aggression they are necessarily bad as such (and the Nazis used everything for evil).

The discovery (then in its white allotrope) of phosphorus was critically important for many things down the line - not sure we could survive without knowing about that element.