4 ms·

I definitely agree (I mean in general - not that you specifically have a narrow view). As a people we keep deciding that ancient life = stupid / moronic. If we

I definitely agree (I mean in general - not that you specifically have a narrow view). As a people we keep deciding that ancient life = stupid / moronic. If we were alive back then, would we not consistently have that same critical thinking, technical solution oriented brain when confronted with the problems of the day. Isn't it possible too that the percentage of people that had to come up with innovative ideas was much higher than it is today? So we may have had a population that was more adept at solutions, working together, and creating than we do now. It's just that the toolkit and problem set was different. Now we still have members of society that share in this innovation, but I am curious if we're down to 0.00001% of society that really thinks through things vs just being handed bread and work.

bluGill 7y ago
I think of it the opposite way: most of the easy stuff has been invented already, so 99.99999% of the population needs to work before there can be a new invention.
6510 7y ago
In the generalized sense people got a lot dumber and less creative over the last few decades. If we assume linearity our ancient ancestors must have been brilliant renaissance men. It makes good sense too! Like this we are much more dependent on technology and on others. Most of us cant grow crops and our [specialized] schedule is so full we need others to make simple things like pizza. Socially we are now lacking but in productivity we are [as-if] one giant tightly knitted organism.
- jhoechtl 7y ago
  > and our [specialized] schedule is so full we need others to make simple things like pizza Well put! The past two years I made a home made power generator of mostlY scrape parts of all sorts. Took me a long time on the internet, various forum, etc. to find out about the vasics of mechanics, transmission, chemistry, etc. At one german speaking forum of electrical engineering I got particularly upset because instead of explaining me things like how three phase power etc.works, all I got was stop it, it's to dangerous, you are about to violate rule number xyz. I honestly believe we would no longer be able to fly to the moon or build the pyramids.

bluGill 7y ago

I think of it the opposite way: most of the easy stuff has been invented already, so 99.99999% of the population needs to work before there can be a new invention.

6510 7y ago

In the generalized sense people got a lot dumber and less creative over the last few decades. If we assume linearity our ancient ancestors must have been brilliant renaissance men. It makes good sense too! Like this we are much more dependent on technology and on others. Most of us cant grow crops and our [specialized] schedule is so full we need others to make simple things like pizza. Socially we are now lacking but in productivity we are [as-if] one giant tightly knitted organism.

jhoechtl 7y ago
> and our [specialized] schedule is so full we need others to make simple things like pizza Well put! The past two years I made a home made power generator of mostlY scrape parts of all sorts. Took me a long time on the internet, various forum, etc. to find out about the vasics of mechanics, transmission, chemistry, etc. At one german speaking forum of electrical engineering I got particularly upset because instead of explaining me things like how three phase power etc.works, all I got was stop it, it's to dangerous, you are about to violate rule number xyz. I honestly believe we would no longer be able to fly to the moon or build the pyramids.