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94 sats \ 8 replies \ @ContraMundum5 17 Mar \ on: Can Name Some Failed Predictions that Keep Being Repeated Over and Over Again? Politics_And_Law
A classic example is the “peak oil” theory. For decades, we’ve been hearing that we were running out of oil, that the world would hit a point where production couldn’t keep up with demand. Yet, new technologies like fracking and vast new reserves discovered keep disproving this. Still, the narrative keeps popping up as if it’s inevitable. It’s a good reminder that while some predictions can sound credible, they don’t always age well.
PEAK OIL! Yes, forgot that one. I mean most of the battery car people if asked would probably tell you we are gonna run out of oil. I'm not opposed to battery cars but man has that prediction been a flop.
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There are also a ton of analogous predictions for pretty much every other mineral and metal. I remember a section on this in my undergrad geography class and knowing at the time how dumb it was. Guess what? We haven't run out of any of those materials, despite increasing our rate of consumption.
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There are also a ton of analogous predictions for pretty much every other mineral and metal. I remember a section on this in my undergrad geography class and knowing at the time how dumb it was. Guess what? We haven't run out of any of those materials, despite increasing our rate of consumption.
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Another one that comes to mind is the “Y2K bug.” We were all told that when the year 2000 hit, computers would crash, planes would fall out of the sky, and chaos would ensue. It was such a big deal, and then… nothing happened. Yet, people still remember the panic around it, even though it turned out to be much ado about nothing.
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Y2K was a big one.
It was over-hyped and largely fixed before it caused any issues.
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Maybe there was just a lag, because planes seem to be falling out of the sky now.
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Haha. True. But I think they’ve always been falling, just never reported as much.