Item — HN Reader

Nothing new. During WW2 (and probably other wars) gambling houses, racetracks, pubs, hotels and many other similarly frivolous services had lots of traffic and customers. People simply needed to escape from reality every now and then and enjoy themselves.

Sure, we can do more to help the world. But if we're unable to live ourselves we can't do sh*t.

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Some people consider human consciousness as a singularity in the human evolution which shouldn't have evolved at all. Human consciousness, as a powerfull problem solving tool, helped us to climb to the top of the food chain and to conquer the whole planet. We can sustain human life under water, in the arctic, even in space. The most of us in the developed world have no existential problems any more, don't starve or freeze to death, don't get eaten by wolves. But human consciousness has a big drawback. It can not be turned off, even if all of the problems needing a solution are gone. So why not work on [put a big burning issue here] to feel occupied and having a meaningful life?

There come video games and other drugs helping us turning our consciousness off, at least for a couple of hours.