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Is it All Hopeless?

2022-03-11 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, heavy topic

Starting from his tweet asking whether we will still use phones in 200 years, Hank pushes back on the common joke that humans won't last that long: the pandemic, a dictator's war on a neighbouring country and climate change are real, but joking about hopelessness makes giving up look cool, and since no one is actually acting hopeless, he stays hopeful.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Will we still use phones in 200 years? Why they are called phones and the answers Hank got

  • ★★ Hank tweeted a question earlier this week (week of 7 March 2022): will we still be using phones, meaning little hand computers, in 200 years? — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank maintains we call these devices phones because their implications were so overwhelming that we needed a familiar name; being a phone is one of its 500 functions, and Steve Jobs fixed the name. (playful) — 00:00:00

  • ★★ Hank says he doesn't hope to stop using his phone: he likes it, uses it not just from addiction, and calls it a shockingly useful rectangle. — 00:00:29

    “It is a shockingly useful rectangle.”

  • ★★ Of the answers he got, Hank doesn't see a return to a slower traditional way of life, or a metaverse without physical objects, as likely in 200 years. — 00:00:50

  • ★ Hank thinks phone functions being implanted in eyes or skin is possible, but a sturdy little rectangle would still be nice to have. (hedged) — 00:00:50

00:01:19 — The 'will humans even be around' joke: today's crises, why giving in to hopelessness is a betrayal, and why Hank stays hopeful

  • ★★★ Admitting he is the more optimistic brother, Hank says both he and John agree humans will exist in 200 years, probably with much more advanced technology: the most likely outcome. (hedged) — 00:01:19 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank understands the gloom: the pandemic isn't over and we are entering the instability of a dictator with nukes starting a horrific, unnecessary war on a neighbouring country. — 00:01:19 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Hank says this happens under a global climate changing faster than it maybe has ever changed in the planet's history. (hedged) — 00:01:49 · climate change
  • ★★ Hank adds the cultural upheaval of a communications revolution coinciding with an energy revolution, and that humans have weapons to destroy themselves many times over. — 00:01:49
  • ★★★ Hank likes the 'will humans be around' joke less and less: its hopelessness vibe makes giving up seem cool, which it isn't; it betrays the future, the past and the present. — 00:02:18
  • ★★★ Hank says we are only past saving when we believe we are, and he sees no one acting that way: people work hard for families, countries and planet, and disagree, but don't give up. — 00:02:18
  • ★★ Hank says this is a hard moment, bad on different scales for different people; he doesn't know what to do, and experts say they don't know how to fix it or what's ahead. (unsure) — 00:02:47
  • ★★ Hank says when he graduated from college he couldn't imagine smartphones (his mp3 player held 13 songs), yet now he can hardly imagine a future 200 years on without them. — 00:02:47

  • ★★★ Hank concludes we never know where we're headed and times are rarely precedented, but no one is acting hopeless, which gives him plenty of hope. — 00:03:16 · hope

    “Times are rarely precedented.”

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank doesn't know what to do when the world defies his expectations, but knows giving up is the wrong thing. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: hope · smartphone

Also: climate change · COVID-19 pandemic · cynicism · iPhone · nuclear weapon · Russian invasion of Ukraine · Steve Jobs · Vladimir Putin

Also centred on smartphone: On Prepositions

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