4 ms·

> we can fix ourself looking at the history of the human race, it seems unlikely we'll ever "fix ourself". > wars, fanatical religions, police states, etc. ma

> we can fix ourself looking at the history of the human race, it seems unlikely we'll ever "fix ourself". > wars, fanatical religions, police states, etc. may stay with us forever. if anything i believe the wars, fanatical religions will stay with us forever since they're a part of human nature. regardless of which planet we're on.

Rastafarian 15y ago
Civilization changes human nature. The same way our civilization produces dogs, caws, sheep, etc. it also changed us into a less aggressive, more cooperative being with way way way higher self control. EDIT: I can give you countless examples. Compare the human reactions in developing countries with those of say a London native. You'll see that just a few centuries of life in big cities have given Englishmen incredible manners and self control.
- tsotha 15y ago
  Oh yes, we saw that over the summer.
  - calebmpeterson 15y ago
    A good point. The question then is "does civilization change human nature itself or just the contract between members of said society?" Extreme circumstances seem to break the social contract of a civilization and reveal that human nature didn't change much if at all.
ricree 15y ago
>looking at the history of the human race, it seems unlikely we'll ever "fix ourself". I disagree. We're barely a couple thousand years away from mass crucifixion as a legitimate punishment by civilizations that were considered advanced for their time. We're only a couple hundred years away from legitimized slavery as the norm. There are probably some human flaws that will never go away unless we deliberately engineer them from our biology. Even so, if you look at history there's been a massive trend towards improvement. Even if our flaws today seem insurmountable, I think history shows a solid track record of improvement.
- SoftwareMaven 15y ago
  Unfortunately, if you look at things that have happened in Africa and the Middle East, you'll see we aren't thousands or even hundreds of years removed from those things. People are still sold and stoning still happens (don't know about crucifixion).

Rastafarian 15y ago

Civilization changes human nature. The same way our civilization produces dogs, caws, sheep, etc. it also changed us into a less aggressive, more cooperative being with way way way higher self control. EDIT: I can give you countless examples. Compare the human reactions in developing countries with those of say a London native. You'll see that just a few centuries of life in big cities have given Englishmen incredible manners and self control.

tsotha 15y ago
Oh yes, we saw that over the summer.
- calebmpeterson 15y ago
  A good point. The question then is "does civilization change human nature itself or just the contract between members of said society?" Extreme circumstances seem to break the social contract of a civilization and reveal that human nature didn't change much if at all.

ricree 15y ago

>looking at the history of the human race, it seems unlikely we'll ever "fix ourself". I disagree. We're barely a couple thousand years away from mass crucifixion as a legitimate punishment by civilizations that were considered advanced for their time. We're only a couple hundred years away from legitimized slavery as the norm. There are probably some human flaws that will never go away unless we deliberately engineer them from our biology. Even so, if you look at history there's been a massive trend towards improvement. Even if our flaws today seem insurmountable, I think history shows a solid track record of improvement.

SoftwareMaven 15y ago
Unfortunately, if you look at things that have happened in Africa and the Middle East, you'll see we aren't thousands or even hundreds of years removed from those things. People are still sold and stoning still happens (don't know about crucifixion).