Someone today sent me the link of this TED talk whose presenter is Steven Pinker, who is a Professor and cognitive psychologist at Harvard University.

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Well a lot of people are hit by nostalgia and tend to think that Past was much better than the Present. However, Professor Steven Pinker proves in his talk that the world today is much better than it was 30 years ago. And he has numbers to prove it. So, let's see some of those numbers.

Homocide

30 years ago, the rate of homocide in USA was 8.5 per hundred thousand, while last year it was only 5.3 per hundred thousand.

Poverty

30 years ago, the poverty rate in the USA was 12%, while last year, it was just 7%. As far as the whole world is concerned, 30 years ago, 37% of the world population was living in extreme poverty, while last year, only 10% of the world population was living in extreme poverty.

Wars

30 years ago, there were 23 wars going on around the world, while last year, there were only 12 ongoing wars. Last year, there were 238 terrorism related deaths in Western Europe, but in 1988, there were 440!

Literacy

Before the 17th century, only 15% of Europeans could read or write. However in the middle of the 20th century, Europe and United states achieved universal literacy. Today, more than 90% of the world's population under the age of 25 can read and write.

Happiness

With everything else, happiness has increased too. In recent decades, happiness has increased in 86% of the world's countries.

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I personally believe that happiness will increase and the world will get better with improvements in technology. With ground breaking technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Asteroid Mining, Vertical Farming, 3D printing of large structures and Nuclear Fusion etc, we could ultimately achieve Post-scarcity economy and/or Universal Basic Income, which would allow everyone to meet their basic needs at least.

I would also love to read your opinions on this.