On Being a Human Being in the Time of Collapse (2022) [pdf]

Role of reflection in technical education

• Several commenters welcome this kind of “big picture” lecture in engineering/CS, arguing that university should develop citizens, not just workers.
• Others worry about timing and tone (e.g., right before exams) and about assuming students already accept a “collapse” framing without arguing for it.
• There’s a sense that engineering curricula over-emphasize “what/how” and neglect “why,” with calls for an ethics-like “Hippocratic oath for engineers.”

Pessimism, collapse, and survivorship bias

• Some view the talk as bleak or nihilistic, arguing that humanity has repeatedly survived predicted disasters and overall prosperity has risen.
• Critics of that optimism point to near-misses (nuclear crises) and historical/social collapses to argue that survival so far is contingent and fragile.
• A minority outright reject the premise of “brink of collapse” as alarmist or anti-human environmentalism.

Engineering mindset: fixing vs feeling

• Multiple threads compare “problem-solving” reflexes to emotional support needs, including gendered stereotypes about men as solution-oriented.
• A side debate explores whether constantly “solving” is itself a bias that can block reflection, but also whether pure reflection leads to paralysis.

Helping, self-efficacy, and nihilism

• One line of discussion echoes the paper’s claim that “helping” means rejecting both neutrality and despair, and redirecting skills away from harmful systems.
• Others warn that “helping” can become martyrdom when underlying behaviors or structures don’t change.
• A long subthread argues that perceived self-efficacy is central to avoiding nihilism; repeated small actions that visibly change one’s world can counter learned helplessness.

Democracy, propaganda, and structural problems

• Many see a “crisis of democracy” tied to vulnerable electorates, targeted online propaganda, and radicalization through personalized media.
• Others emphasize neglected material issues (housing, infrastructure, inequality) as the real drivers, with propaganda riding on genuine grievances.
• There’s debate over whether the core problem is institutions captured by wealth, media ecosystems that shatter any shared reality, or electoral rules that entrench duopolies.

Ethics of tech work and complicity

• Several software workers describe leaving mainstream tech because so much work feels socially or environmentally harmful, especially around surveillance, consumption, or military uses.
• Others argue nearly all economic activity is environmentally damaging, so singling out software is misplaced, though small behavioral changes can still matter.

Critiques of the lecture and alternatives

• Some call the lecture defeatist, “nihilistic garbage,” or arrogant and outside the author’s expertise, preferring narratives that emphasize agency and incremental action (“red pill vs black pill”).
• Supporters stress that the point is not to induce despair but to force ethical reflection on what kinds of systems we build and legitimize.