3 ms·

I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today duri

I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it), so human history simply happens in cycles or waves. The underlying conflict is the same, but a new set of humans deal with it with the technological tools of the day. Simply put, if the human lifespan were longer, we might give less fucks about natural disasters because we've seen them before.

Wowfunhappy 5y ago
> I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it) I’m splitting hairs, but aren’t these two separate problems? If I lived 1,000 years, I’m not sure I’d be able to remember things that happened 200 years ago super well. I can’t remember things that happened 20 years ago very well.
- 7thaccount 5y ago
  The assumption that I'm going under (I assume others as well) is that if we can halt aging, we might be able to do something with memory as well. Although I kinda personally believe (more on hope than any technology being available) that we can move to a non biological medium with nearly infinite storage, speed of light processing speed, effective immortality...etc. The only needs would be entertainment and energy. Of course, we have zero idea if that is even possible.
gibbsnich 5y ago
Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) There was an article about Dune on DLF (sorry it‘s in German) that makes exactly this point https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generationen-ueber-das-menschliche.1184.de.html?dram:article_id=486695 https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generati...

Wowfunhappy 5y ago

> I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it) I’m splitting hairs, but aren’t these two separate problems? If I lived 1,000 years, I’m not sure I’d be able to remember things that happened 200 years ago super well. I can’t remember things that happened 20 years ago very well.

7thaccount 5y ago
The assumption that I'm going under (I assume others as well) is that if we can halt aging, we might be able to do something with memory as well. Although I kinda personally believe (more on hope than any technology being available) that we can move to a non biological medium with nearly infinite storage, speed of light processing speed, effective immortality...etc. The only needs would be entertainment and energy. Of course, we have zero idea if that is even possible.

gibbsnich 5y ago

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) There was an article about Dune on DLF (sorry it‘s in German) that makes exactly this point https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generationen-ueber-das-menschliche.1184.de.html?dram:article_id=486695 https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generati...