5 ms·

It's actually true, of course people believed in it.

by midislack 4y ago

cm2012 4y ago
For most of the world this is obviously the best time to be alive in human history.
- leadingthenet 4y ago
  There are definite arguments to be made in favour of pre-industrial / pre-agricultural society, shorter lifespans and lack of cures for various diseases notwithstanding.
  - hossbeast 4y ago
    Short version of said arguments?
    - chubot 4y ago
      Search for Jared Diamond (polymath author of many great books) on agriculture as a mistake, e.g. https://equitablegrowth.org/agriculture-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race-todays-economic-history/ https://equitablegrowth.org/agriculture-the-worst-mistake-in... https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mist... Agriculture made us a lot unhealthier and shorter in stature (monoculture/unbalanced diets), and it also lead to massive power imbalances -- modern people spend more of their lives working. This is a very mainstream observation -- it's also supported by Sapiens, the popular human history book of the last 5 years (recommended by Obama, Gates, etc.). David Graeber's recent book argues that many early human societies purposely avoided agriculture, and then got "trapped" into the inequality of agriculture. The argument is that there is enough for everybody, but agriculture leads to power imbalances, which make most people's lives miserable. It's true that they were more miserable say in the 1500's in Europe than today. We have "recovered" from Europe of the 1500's, but that doesn't mean that this is the best time ever!
      - hossbeast 4y ago
        Interesting, thanks
WhompingWindows 4y ago
I think the average person living in today's world has it way better than 99% of humans in history, it's easily the best time to be alive. Infant mortality, life expectancy, chances of dying to violence or starvation or preventable disease, all kinds of gruesome things have drastically declined over the course of history and civilization. When else was it possible for most healthy people to live to 70, to travel the world a few times, and to live in relative peace and harmony? And entertainment, joy in the arts, categories of aesthetics have vastly improved as well. Look at art and film and music in the past five hundred years. Look at the works of Bach and anyone before him, he's clearly the greatest musician known in the world up to 1750, and since him in just 275 years, we've had hundreds of phenomenal musicians that outrank any before Bach. This is one mere slice of culture which is evidence of the vast improvement in human capability in modern times.

It's actually true, of course people believed in it.

cm2012 4y ago

For most of the world this is obviously the best time to be alive in human history.

leadingthenet 4y ago
There are definite arguments to be made in favour of pre-industrial / pre-agricultural society, shorter lifespans and lack of cures for various diseases notwithstanding.
- hossbeast 4y ago
  Short version of said arguments?
  - chubot 4y ago
    Search for Jared Diamond (polymath author of many great books) on agriculture as a mistake, e.g. https://equitablegrowth.org/agriculture-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race-todays-economic-history/ https://equitablegrowth.org/agriculture-the-worst-mistake-in... https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-worst-mist... Agriculture made us a lot unhealthier and shorter in stature (monoculture/unbalanced diets), and it also lead to massive power imbalances -- modern people spend more of their lives working. This is a very mainstream observation -- it's also supported by Sapiens, the popular human history book of the last 5 years (recommended by Obama, Gates, etc.). David Graeber's recent book argues that many early human societies purposely avoided agriculture, and then got "trapped" into the inequality of agriculture. The argument is that there is enough for everybody, but agriculture leads to power imbalances, which make most people's lives miserable. It's true that they were more miserable say in the 1500's in Europe than today. We have "recovered" from Europe of the 1500's, but that doesn't mean that this is the best time ever!
    - hossbeast 4y ago
      Interesting, thanks

WhompingWindows 4y ago

I think the average person living in today's world has it way better than 99% of humans in history, it's easily the best time to be alive. Infant mortality, life expectancy, chances of dying to violence or starvation or preventable disease, all kinds of gruesome things have drastically declined over the course of history and civilization. When else was it possible for most healthy people to live to 70, to travel the world a few times, and to live in relative peace and harmony? And entertainment, joy in the arts, categories of aesthetics have vastly improved as well. Look at art and film and music in the past five hundred years. Look at the works of Bach and anyone before him, he's clearly the greatest musician known in the world up to 1750, and since him in just 275 years, we've had hundreds of phenomenal musicians that outrank any before Bach. This is one mere slice of culture which is evidence of the vast improvement in human capability in modern times.