What do you think humanity will be most ashamed of 100 years from now

- Short answer: The most likely source of future shame is how we treated other humans and the planet when we already knew better—especially pervasive inequality, avoidable suffering (like extreme poverty and preventable disease), and environmental destruction that jeopardized future lives. - Key terms - Moral responsibility — duty to act when actions affect others’ wellbeing. - Intergenerational justice — fairness between present and future people. - Structural injustice — social systems that create persistent harm. - How it works - Knowledge accumulates: scientific and moral insights make harms foreseeable. - Institutions lock harms in: laws, markets, and norms can perpetuate injustice. - Unequal burden: disadvantaged groups and future generations bear consequences. - Moral hindsight: later generations judge earlier choices by what was knowable. - Simple example - Continuing fossil fuel use despite clear climate science, causing avoidable disasters for later generations. - Pitfalls or nuances - Predicting shame depends on future values—what we now see as shameful might shift. - Technological fixes could reduce or reframe blame (but also create new harms). - Next questions to explore - How should current institutions be reformed to reduce future shame? - What moral frameworks best capture duties to future people? - Further reading / references - The Moral Status of Future Generations — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (search query: "intergenerational justice Stanford Encyclopedia") - Why Are We Unhappy? — The Atlantic (essay on social progress and shame; search query: "The Atlantic why are we unhappy progress")