3 ms·
Man had to learn how to think, then acquire knowledge. This question is part of what inspired Harry Binswanger’s book, “How We Know”: “Mankind has existed for
by abtinf 7y ago
Man had to learn how to think, then acquire knowledge.
This question is part of what inspired Harry Binswanger’s book, “How We Know”:
“Mankind has existed for 400,000 years. But 395,000 of those years were consumed by the Stone Age. The factor that freed men from endless toil and early death, the root cause of the elevated level of existence we now take for granted, is one precious value: knowledge. The painfully acquired knowledge of how to master nature, how to organize social existence, and how to understand himself is what enabled man to rise from the cave to the skyscraper, from warring clans to a global economy, from an average lifespan of less than 30 years to one approaching 80.”
http://www.how-we-know.com/ http://www.how-we-know.com/
- chrisco255 7y agoHunter-gatherers who made it to age 25 were just as likely to live to their 60s as modern folks are today. The 30 year old average life expectancy of Neolithic man comes from two things: one, we cannot properly age skeletal fossils to a degree of certainty after wisdom teeth have fully grown in. You can't tell from a 10k year old fossil if it was a 30 year old or a 55 year old at time of death. Finally, infant mortality was extremely high and remained very high until modern medicine. These infant deaths decreased the average life expectancy but it masks the lifespan that healthy adults would typically experience.
- bad_user 7y agoInfections were a major cause of death, including in infants. Also starvation, violence and the elements. You can argue that those who survived infections, the elements, violence and starvation were in much better shape to survive everything else. Also contrary to popular belief, cardiovascular disease happened before modern times, and even if we might be talking of Neolithic only, this happened even in hunter gatherer populations. Found these pretty interesting: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067361360598X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067361... https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2757994 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle... In modern times what we have is much less violence, vaccines, antibiotics, a healthcare system capable of healing injuries or restore you after heart attacks, etc and in spite of prevailing beliefs we’ve got proper nutrition and at least in the industrialized countries we aren’t dying of starvation or nutritional deficiencies anymore. Our problem is “energy poisoning”. Once we figure out how to not eat so damn much, we’ll eliminate most chronic disease we have today.