John Green promises 'the world will change' in latest YouTube video

Often it seems the world is getting worse, or is much worse than it used to be. In his latest video, one half of the vlogbrothers channel John Green points out that actually, things are indeed much better than they were before -- and will continue to improve in time.

Green is currently working on a book about the history of tuberculosis, and used the vast improvement of tuberculosis care over time to make the point that even when things seem at their worst, there is always hope that things will change for the better.

"We can't see the future coming," he said in the video. "We can't see the ways we're going to work together to make the world better for each other."

Right now, it may feel as though things in the world are never going to improve. Just looking at the news cycle over the past few months can send anyone into a spiral of emotional despair in an instant. But that is because we are living in real-time, experiencing everything as it happens with no idea how things might look in 10 years, or five, or even in six months from now.

Green points out in the above video that less than 10 years after experts were lamenting that tuburculosis would never be cured, a cure was found. It did not fix everything instantly, but looking back, it was the start of revolutionary health care that continues to improve and save lives today.

He's right. We don't know what the future holds. We don't know the discoveries that will be made, the policies that will be put in place, the people who will change the course of global history for the better. Maybe many of these things are already in the works and we just haven't seen their mass positive impact yet.

The only way to see how the future will turn out is to continue living until the future becomes now.