3 ms·

> you imagine that - hopefully - the general progression of technology is forward. I think this might be the key myth of our times. Our entire history is a bli

by dTal 7y ago

> you imagine that - hopefully - the general progression of technology is forward. I think this might be the key myth of our times. Our entire history is a blink of an eye along the timescales Earth normally changes on. But the last couple hundred years really takes the cake - within a couple human lifespans, we've gone from a lifestyle broadly recognizable to any human from history, to some kind of ravenous sci-fi techno-megamind with spaceships and robots. We should be scared - even on our human timescales things are changing rapidly. On Earth timescales, this is not a steady state but an event - a sudden, runaway, exponential, violent event. We have such a short perspective that we are lulled into thinking of it as a "natural progression". But that's like jumping off a cliff and concluding the natural progression is freefall. We know this state of affairs cannot possibly last. Why keep pretending?

neuronic 7y ago
What I always find massively baffling is, that any transmitted and recorded history is less than 15,000 vears old. First hints at sedentariness appear around the construction of Göbleki Tepe [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe However, biologically speaking we has Homo sapiens sapiensis are around for approximately 250,000 years. That's ~6% of our biological existence where we suddenly went from running around, building like 3 stone-wood tools and wearing animal skins to communicating across the planet in real-time.
fallingfrog 7y ago
I totally agree. I have in the past gotten into online arguments with people who claim that this kind of exponential change will continue forever, and I just find it so baffling. The only explanation I can come up with is that this is a core ideological precept of our current economic system and people are just not prepared to challenge it. Like asking a medieval person to believe that god is not real. It’s seen as blasphemy.
toyg 7y ago
> We know this state of affairs cannot possibly last. Talk for yourself. I personally think this is just the beginning. Your freefalling similitude has the big flaw of making completely unsubstantiated assumptions. For all we know, we might be elegantly diving into a pool, or having propelled ourselves onto an orbit where we'll forever spin - we just don't know.

by dTal 7y ago

neuronic 7y ago

What I always find massively baffling is, that any transmitted and recorded history is less than 15,000 vears old. First hints at sedentariness appear around the construction of Göbleki Tepe [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe However, biologically speaking we has Homo sapiens sapiensis are around for approximately 250,000 years. That's ~6% of our biological existence where we suddenly went from running around, building like 3 stone-wood tools and wearing animal skins to communicating across the planet in real-time.

fallingfrog 7y ago

I totally agree. I have in the past gotten into online arguments with people who claim that this kind of exponential change will continue forever, and I just find it so baffling. The only explanation I can come up with is that this is a core ideological precept of our current economic system and people are just not prepared to challenge it. Like asking a medieval person to believe that god is not real. It’s seen as blasphemy.

toyg 7y ago

> We know this state of affairs cannot possibly last. Talk for yourself. I personally think this is just the beginning. Your freefalling similitude has the big flaw of making completely unsubstantiated assumptions. For all we know, we might be elegantly diving into a pool, or having propelled ourselves onto an orbit where we'll forever spin - we just don't know.