from Hacker News

Why Spy Agencies Say the Future Is Bleak

by alxmrs on 4/17/21, 6:32 AM with 33 comments

  • by sergefaguet on 4/17/21, 11:55 AM

    A lot of what they are saying is that governments are losing legitimacy and ability to deliver what people want, and this will shift governance and power to other institutions that will take over much of how humanity interacts.

    I guess that is bleak for the spy agencies but not for the world overall. People will be happier with a reversal of the tendency of governments to get larger and a return to more fragmented communities that humans have evolved to be happy in.

    I’m surprised they have the balls to say this though

  • by bhdy55 on 4/17/21, 9:57 AM

    It would be rather surprising were a spy agency to say "the world is fine and living in harmony, guess you don't need us spies anymore ..."

  • by andai on 4/17/21, 3:33 PM

    The article is a summary of this government report (from March 2021):

    Global Trends 2040 by the National Intelligence Council

    https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/GlobalT...

  • by AlexanderDhoore on 4/17/21, 9:22 AM

    CO2 levels at 418 ppm right now. It's not just rising but accelerating up. When are we going to start fixing this exactly? https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2

  • by nickdothutton on 4/17/21, 11:24 AM

    I’ll just leave this here. https://youtu.be/1XKFQVJlmZY

  • by tim333 on 4/17/21, 3:07 PM

    I don't see the future to 2040 as bleak, kind of the opposite mostly as I'm kind of a Kurzweil techno optimist and think we should be able to get that sort of stuff going, possibly including uploading, immortality, interplanetary travel and the like.

  • by tmaly on 4/17/21, 6:46 PM

    Martin Gurri, a former intelligence analyst, wrote a book on this subject called Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium. Part of his thesis covers the power the public holds with decentralized information flow .

  • by Mobleysoft on 4/17/21, 8:59 AM

    Here is link without the paywall: https://archive.is/Y1sm1

  • by fithisux on 4/17/21, 12:27 PM

    Because this is how they designed it.