3 ms·

It's not the point of all advancement. The Amish for instance have accepted certain developments but with caution, and with a centralized system of governing te

It's not the point of all advancement. The Amish for instance have accepted certain developments but with caution, and with a centralized system of governing technology so that it doesn't get out of hand. Or consider the Mayans, who tempered their advancement with their limitations in terms of resources. We shouldn't do it, and we should stop and be happy with what we have and learn how to live better with what we have instead of inventing more trash like AI.

danielbln 3y ago
I'm not sure taking a cult like the Amish is a prime example, because if we'd all live like that child mortality would still be enormous and we'd fall short on a myriad of things that make our lives easier and better, because there'd be no scientific discovery.
- vouaobrasil 3y ago
  I don't believe scientific discovery is making much better. Some yes of course, but the majority of inventions like smartphones, social media, AI, 5G, fast transportation, fossil fuel extraction, global meat industry, are making it worse. Technology does make certain TASKS in life easier, but I'd argue that it's NOT a logical consequence that technology makes life BETTER.
  - Aerbil313 3y ago
    Agreed. People of the past lived happier, more in peace and more fulfilling years of life than modern people despite worse material conditions, violence, diseases and child mortality. Technology has been only harmful to humanity, and this is by principle, it’s not a side effect. Human body and mind is literally designed to live in a no-organization-dependent[1]-technology world, whether you believe in creation or evolution. We are literally not designed to live in a world of convenience. 1: Kaczynski’s term. Read his manifesto or even better the book Anti-Tech Revolution.
    - jfk13 3y ago
      > People of the past lived happier, more in peace and more fulfilling years of life than modern people That's a pretty broad claim. How far back is "the past" that was so much better? Which people did you have in mind? The Irish peasants starving because of potato blight? European villagers during the Black Death? The slaves building pyramids in ancient Egypt?
    - dale_glass 3y ago
      People of the past are not well recorded in history. We don't know much about miserable medieval peasants, because they as a whole didn't know how to write, and the little the rare educated one wrote is unlikely to have been preserved. We know mostly what the rich or at least decently well off of the times have left, a lot of it biased or self-aggrandizing. Some of those wrote on things that they themselves didn't experience. When you imagine happy peasants you should question who wrote on them and why, and if in those times there was any likelihood of anybody caring about the plight of suffering people, being allowed to write about it, and it being preserved to this day. But besides that, even with the luck of having a life with a comfortable existence with work you enjoy, you still could one day die from something like an accident with a farm animal, a bad tooth, or childbirth.
  - trashtester 3y ago
    One could argue that the most important benefit we get from technology, is that allows more of us to survive, and for longer. Eugenicist may argue that this is not really a good thing, since it leads to a larger and larger fraction of the population having poor health, some of which will be hereditary.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
Amish attitude towards technology isn't about technology per se, but about desire to keep their style and size of communities working - something new technology tends to disrupt. The Mayans didn't "temper their advancement with their limitations in terms of resources" - they were limited by available resources and time, therefore they did not advance as much and as fast as the others. Advancement is driven by the basic need to make things better, whether for yourself or other. And it stacks.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

danielbln 3y ago

I'm not sure taking a cult like the Amish is a prime example, because if we'd all live like that child mortality would still be enormous and we'd fall short on a myriad of things that make our lives easier and better, because there'd be no scientific discovery.

vouaobrasil 3y ago
I don't believe scientific discovery is making much better. Some yes of course, but the majority of inventions like smartphones, social media, AI, 5G, fast transportation, fossil fuel extraction, global meat industry, are making it worse. Technology does make certain TASKS in life easier, but I'd argue that it's NOT a logical consequence that technology makes life BETTER.
- Aerbil313 3y ago
  Agreed. People of the past lived happier, more in peace and more fulfilling years of life than modern people despite worse material conditions, violence, diseases and child mortality. Technology has been only harmful to humanity, and this is by principle, it’s not a side effect. Human body and mind is literally designed to live in a no-organization-dependent[1]-technology world, whether you believe in creation or evolution. We are literally not designed to live in a world of convenience. 1: Kaczynski’s term. Read his manifesto or even better the book Anti-Tech Revolution.
  - jfk13 3y ago
    > People of the past lived happier, more in peace and more fulfilling years of life than modern people That's a pretty broad claim. How far back is "the past" that was so much better? Which people did you have in mind? The Irish peasants starving because of potato blight? European villagers during the Black Death? The slaves building pyramids in ancient Egypt?
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    People of the past are not well recorded in history. We don't know much about miserable medieval peasants, because they as a whole didn't know how to write, and the little the rare educated one wrote is unlikely to have been preserved. We know mostly what the rich or at least decently well off of the times have left, a lot of it biased or self-aggrandizing. Some of those wrote on things that they themselves didn't experience. When you imagine happy peasants you should question who wrote on them and why, and if in those times there was any likelihood of anybody caring about the plight of suffering people, being allowed to write about it, and it being preserved to this day. But besides that, even with the luck of having a life with a comfortable existence with work you enjoy, you still could one day die from something like an accident with a farm animal, a bad tooth, or childbirth.
- trashtester 3y ago
  One could argue that the most important benefit we get from technology, is that allows more of us to survive, and for longer. Eugenicist may argue that this is not really a good thing, since it leads to a larger and larger fraction of the population having poor health, some of which will be hereditary.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Amish attitude towards technology isn't about technology per se, but about desire to keep their style and size of communities working - something new technology tends to disrupt. The Mayans didn't "temper their advancement with their limitations in terms of resources" - they were limited by available resources and time, therefore they did not advance as much and as fast as the others. Advancement is driven by the basic need to make things better, whether for yourself or other. And it stacks.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]