3 ms·

1500 years ago, or less, in Europe we see societies that were drastically poor (by modern standards), poorly educated/no formal education (the average person) a

1500 years ago, or less, in Europe we see societies that were drastically poor (by modern standards), poorly educated/no formal education (the average person) and insanely unequal society (Kings and warlords vs. Serfs and slaves) where borders (resources) were being fought over and tech was very low relative to today and even relative to a few hundred years earlier (not to get into a dark ages dispute, but the Panethon would not have been able to be build in 500AD in Western Europe). Yet this society managed to advance just fine. We are as far away from them as a Sun harvesting civilization is away from us. Civilization finds a way. At some point great minds become less important. Cutting edge research today is not coming from Patent Office clerks, it comes from large research teams that are constrained by budgets not human resources.

jbay808 6y ago
> Civilization finds a way. There's neither any strong guarantee of this, nor any shortage of historical counterexamples.
- teruakohatu 6y ago
  We have thousands of years of human civilizations rising and falling and rising again.
  - gerland 6y ago
    Each time the civilisation collapsed it's demise was brought by much stronger technological means. We might get to a point in time in which a a full restoration is not possible. One of such outcomes is of course an atomic war, but I'm more concerned with the receurring "underdog revolts". Historically the elites are always getting more stagnant and the line between the capable and the mass is blurring. Most of the revolutions were started not by the workers, but by the "middle class". Basically at some point the "almost haves" convince themselves that they are more capable than the current structure and they pull the workers into the madness. Look at all the ancient military revolts, at countries that fell to fascism or communism. So far it always begun with losers taking up the tools of their masters. Things that they were not capable enough to create in the first place. The winners create the tools of their own destruction. Communists took over the "means of production", christianity the fruits of enlightment. At this point of time, if the mass surveilance system and the information brokers fall into the wrong hands it may be impossible to recover, even if there is no military conflict. One might argue that it already happened to large degree.
raverbashing 6y ago
*Pantheon (ou you mean the Phartenon in Greece?) The Pantheon (the back part) does look like a giant Panettone to be fair

jbay808 6y ago

> Civilization finds a way. There's neither any strong guarantee of this, nor any shortage of historical counterexamples.

teruakohatu 6y ago
We have thousands of years of human civilizations rising and falling and rising again.
- gerland 6y ago
  Each time the civilisation collapsed it's demise was brought by much stronger technological means. We might get to a point in time in which a a full restoration is not possible. One of such outcomes is of course an atomic war, but I'm more concerned with the receurring "underdog revolts". Historically the elites are always getting more stagnant and the line between the capable and the mass is blurring. Most of the revolutions were started not by the workers, but by the "middle class". Basically at some point the "almost haves" convince themselves that they are more capable than the current structure and they pull the workers into the madness. Look at all the ancient military revolts, at countries that fell to fascism or communism. So far it always begun with losers taking up the tools of their masters. Things that they were not capable enough to create in the first place. The winners create the tools of their own destruction. Communists took over the "means of production", christianity the fruits of enlightment. At this point of time, if the mass surveilance system and the information brokers fall into the wrong hands it may be impossible to recover, even if there is no military conflict. One might argue that it already happened to large degree.

raverbashing 6y ago

*Pantheon (ou you mean the Phartenon in Greece?) The Pantheon (the back part) does look like a giant Panettone to be fair