4 ms·

Went to Athens last month and saw the mechanism (a replica) in person in one of the museums. Overall, for me it was a strange experience looking at the ancient

by lini 4y ago

Went to Athens last month and saw the mechanism (a replica) in person in one of the museums. Overall, for me it was a strange experience looking at the ancient Greek civilization - these people were not thinking about simple things like sustenance or other basic needs. They were very much involved in improving their minds in any way possible - democracy, arts, science. All that time they spent on improving their civilization in every way got me thinking of all the time we lose today in meaningless stuff like social media, or looking selfishly at the world and other people.

rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 4y ago
> these people were not thinking about simple things like sustenance or other basic needs. Of course not, they had slaves for that.
jrockway 4y ago
I think an interesting exercise is to go back through newspaper archives and just take a peek at some random front pages. The theme is that everything is terrible and the sky is falling. That continues today. What was missed at the time was that the sky wasn't falling and that everything wasn't actually that terrible. Humanity will endure Tik Tok, wars, pandemics, climate change, and pretty much whatever else the big random number generator in the sky throws at us. Find something that's meaningful to you and spend your time there. We're all going to be OK!
- marcodiego 4y ago
  > pretty much whatever else the big random number generator in the sky throws at us. It didn't work that well with dinosaurs.
  - ByteJockey 4y ago
    It worked pretty well for them for >150 million years. If we can't deflect an asteroid by the time we've been around that long, we kinda deserve it.
jazzyjackson 4y ago
> all the time we lose Who's we? I imagine ancient greece had its share of diversions and time-wasting while a small minority went hard on improving the state of the arts.

4 ms·

Went to Athens last month and saw the mechanism (a replica) in person in one of the museums. Overall, for me it was a strange experience looking at the ancient

by lini 4y ago

rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 4y ago
> these people were not thinking about simple things like sustenance or other basic needs. Of course not, they had slaves for that.
jrockway 4y ago
I think an interesting exercise is to go back through newspaper archives and just take a peek at some random front pages. The theme is that everything is terrible and the sky is falling. That continues today. What was missed at the time was that the sky wasn't falling and that everything wasn't actually that terrible. Humanity will endure Tik Tok, wars, pandemics, climate change, and pretty much whatever else the big random number generator in the sky throws at us. Find something that's meaningful to you and spend your time there. We're all going to be OK!
- marcodiego 4y ago
  > pretty much whatever else the big random number generator in the sky throws at us. It didn't work that well with dinosaurs.
  - ByteJockey 4y ago
    It worked pretty well for them for >150 million years. If we can't deflect an asteroid by the time we've been around that long, we kinda deserve it.
jazzyjackson 4y ago
> all the time we lose Who's we? I imagine ancient greece had its share of diversions and time-wasting while a small minority went hard on improving the state of the arts.