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Pretty silly suggestion if you knew a bit about ancient history, or not so ancient. Slavery, oppression by any means (taxation or force), fights to the death a

Pretty silly suggestion if you knew a bit about ancient history, or not so ancient. Slavery, oppression by any means (taxation or force), fights to the death as entertainment, hideous punishments, genocide, immense inequity, tyrants killing at whim, women usually treated like crap, forced prostitution, rape with little or no recourse for the victim, minimal to no education for most... which part of that do you consider civilised.

ThalesX 7y ago
This is taking what the poster above you said, hammering it into your own world view and then accusing him of a misunderstanding of civilization. > A civilization or civilisation is any complex society characterized by urban development, social stratification imposed by a cultural elite, symbolic systems of communication, and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment. I tend to agree with this definition and as you can see, there is no asterisk (*) regarding ```Slavery, oppression by any means (taxation or force), fights to the death as entertainment, hideous punishments, genocide, immense inequity, tyrants killing at whim, women usually treated like crap, forced prostitution, rape with little or no recourse for the victim, minimal to no education for most```. Now, going back to the poster's argument, it is possible that an artificial intelligence will start developing society in its own understanding of it and it might emulate some aspects of early civilizations (yes, even the ones containing rape, minimal education, genocide, immense inequity), and perhaps it is important to study those in order to understand a possible new one. So try to retaliate his argument with another one in the context set by him rather than trying to hammer in your civilization not compatible with things you don't like world view...
- tempguy9999 7y ago
  I'd actually agree with you, that I misrepresented him (and didn't check the meaning of civilisation - good catch there!) except for his last line, to wit "Perhaps the Ancient Intelligence can help retain our humanity as we transition?" I take 'humanity' here to mean not doing the evils I was talking about - but which ancient cultures did in fact do in horrible abundance.
goto11 7y ago
When talking history, civilization describes a form of human society. It is not some kind of moral value judgement.
dr_dshiv 7y ago
That's like refusing bread because of all the holes in it. Yes, there are gaps within the goodness of human civilization, but outside it, things were typically much worse! Surely you don't think the society we live in would be possible without having gone through the very real process of developing a civilization? It's hard to judge their actions by today's morality. The important point is that the transmission of humanistic writing formed the basis for the enlightenment -- and the moral values of modern society.

ThalesX 7y ago

This is taking what the poster above you said, hammering it into your own world view and then accusing him of a misunderstanding of civilization. > A civilization or civilisation is any complex society characterized by urban development, social stratification imposed by a cultural elite, symbolic systems of communication, and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment. I tend to agree with this definition and as you can see, there is no asterisk (*) regarding ```Slavery, oppression by any means (taxation or force), fights to the death as entertainment, hideous punishments, genocide, immense inequity, tyrants killing at whim, women usually treated like crap, forced prostitution, rape with little or no recourse for the victim, minimal to no education for most```. Now, going back to the poster's argument, it is possible that an artificial intelligence will start developing society in its own understanding of it and it might emulate some aspects of early civilizations (yes, even the ones containing rape, minimal education, genocide, immense inequity), and perhaps it is important to study those in order to understand a possible new one. So try to retaliate his argument with another one in the context set by him rather than trying to hammer in your civilization not compatible with things you don't like world view...

tempguy9999 7y ago
I'd actually agree with you, that I misrepresented him (and didn't check the meaning of civilisation - good catch there!) except for his last line, to wit "Perhaps the Ancient Intelligence can help retain our humanity as we transition?" I take 'humanity' here to mean not doing the evils I was talking about - but which ancient cultures did in fact do in horrible abundance.

goto11 7y ago

When talking history, civilization describes a form of human society. It is not some kind of moral value judgement.

dr_dshiv 7y ago

That's like refusing bread because of all the holes in it. Yes, there are gaps within the goodness of human civilization, but outside it, things were typically much worse! Surely you don't think the society we live in would be possible without having gone through the very real process of developing a civilization? It's hard to judge their actions by today's morality. The important point is that the transmission of humanistic writing formed the basis for the enlightenment -- and the moral values of modern society.