coRtALoS
-=[ Retired BF Admin ]=-
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2002
- Messages
- 4,278
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- Location
- Massachusetts
- Website
- www.BattleForums.com
... and you would recognize some themes from it, please let me know if any of this sounds familiar.
(Taken from Reddit)
You may be right, but on the other hand humanity has only been in its current form for a few thousand years. Sure, it hasn’t really gone all that well but there’s no going back to the Paleolithic for us. Give it another 10-20 thousand years and perhaps our biology and culture will have adjusted to each other in such a way that we will have turned into a much better functioning super-organism.
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The problem is the time scales are out of sync. Our societal maturity hasn’t kept up with our scientific abilities. Humans have existed in their current evolutionary form and mental capacity for about 40,000 years. It took 30,000 to develop farming and settle in one place long enough for “specialists” to emerge that would become the first engineers and bureaucrats, which lead to writing and cities and *civilization.* Then it took another 9,000 years to develop the first mechanized tools. The mechanical revolution took about 500 years to go from horse-powered grinding mills to steam engines. Then it took 200 years to go from steam engines to flying machines, and then 50 years to space travel. Computers in 1930 took up a building, by 1960 they took up a room. By 1980 they fit on a desk and by 1990 they fit on your lap. Now, your phone has thousands of times more computing power than the most powerful computer that existed when we sent men to the Moon and can access data from, and connect you by text, voice, or video to, any corner of the globe.
Despite mankind’s collective ability to generate technology, in aggregate we are still mentally and physically best adapted for basic agrarian society. We don’t have the collective intelligence and maturity for the technology we have attained. Throughout the industrial revolution we have followed a pattern of: development -> adoption -> proliferation -> tragedy -> regulation -> responsible use. We are currently in the beginning of the tragedy phase of digital tech.
Found in this topic
(Taken from Reddit)
You may be right, but on the other hand humanity has only been in its current form for a few thousand years. Sure, it hasn’t really gone all that well but there’s no going back to the Paleolithic for us. Give it another 10-20 thousand years and perhaps our biology and culture will have adjusted to each other in such a way that we will have turned into a much better functioning super-organism.
-----------------------------
The problem is the time scales are out of sync. Our societal maturity hasn’t kept up with our scientific abilities. Humans have existed in their current evolutionary form and mental capacity for about 40,000 years. It took 30,000 to develop farming and settle in one place long enough for “specialists” to emerge that would become the first engineers and bureaucrats, which lead to writing and cities and *civilization.* Then it took another 9,000 years to develop the first mechanized tools. The mechanical revolution took about 500 years to go from horse-powered grinding mills to steam engines. Then it took 200 years to go from steam engines to flying machines, and then 50 years to space travel. Computers in 1930 took up a building, by 1960 they took up a room. By 1980 they fit on a desk and by 1990 they fit on your lap. Now, your phone has thousands of times more computing power than the most powerful computer that existed when we sent men to the Moon and can access data from, and connect you by text, voice, or video to, any corner of the globe.
Despite mankind’s collective ability to generate technology, in aggregate we are still mentally and physically best adapted for basic agrarian society. We don’t have the collective intelligence and maturity for the technology we have attained. Throughout the industrial revolution we have followed a pattern of: development -> adoption -> proliferation -> tragedy -> regulation -> responsible use. We are currently in the beginning of the tragedy phase of digital tech.
Found in this topic
