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I was very surprised to learn just how new this symbol is. I'm a bit too young for it but apparently there were times in my parents' lifetimes when few American
by Cyberdog 3y ago
I was very surprised to learn just how new this symbol is. I'm a bit too young for it but apparently there were times in my parents' lifetimes when few Americans would have understood it.
- Animats 3y agoIt's not new. It's been an European standard traffic sign since the 1930s.
- jstanley 3y agoThat's pretty new!
- webwielder2 3y agoPretty much everything except farming and church is new.
- ginko 3y agoFarming has been around for over five times longer than the church.
- d0gsg0w00f 3y agoUhh...I don't have sources but I'd imagine humans prayed to _something_ before they went mammoth hunting or picking berries long before farming.
- marcosdumay 3y agoOrganized religion, writing, and agriculture were a self-supporting set. The people today that didn't develop that set don't pray.
- robocat 3y agoAgriculture == 4chan/internet Religon == memes Writing == telling memes to others
- tialaramex 3y agoThe Church requires that you've decided this needs to be organized, all you need to start praying before you go hunt for food is superstition. The Princes Alice experiments show why superstition might be valuable (and so get preserved in a culture) if you don't have much technology to provide oversight. Children were told to perform a task and that an (invisible) Princess, Alice is watching to check they don't cheat while the adults are away. Superstitious children didn't cheat because they believed in Alice watching them. The non-superstitious children cheated, after first verifying that in fact Alice does not seem to exist (e.g. passing their hand through space supposedly occupied by the invisible princess)
- samatman 3y ago"The church" is a metonym for Christianity.
- gpvos 3y agoIn this case I think it refers to organized religion in general, which is older, roughly dating to the beginning of agriculture and city formation.
- samatman 3y agoThat interpretation only works if you desperately want the comment containing the phrase "the church" to be wrong. If you insist on this unusual interpretation, then yes, farming isn't at least five times older than the church. But if you go with the usual interpretation of "the church" as a metonym for Christianity, as was very clearly intended by the implications of the statement, it is correct. Why not go talk to some Muslims about the Islamic church? Or some Hindus about the church of Shiva? I'm sure you'll find the discussion edifying!
- gpvos 3y agoOops, yeah, you are correct about the relative ages, I wrote a bit too fast there.
- dredmorbius 3y agoThere was an HN discussion in 2020 about the oldest business or commercial establishment in various countries and/or continents. Many of those are involved with, variously, food service, alcohol, teaching, construction, or banking. In part because those are activities which have been with humans (or at least civilised, that is, inhabiting-cities humans) since the beginning, and have not been supplanted by some newer activity. <https://businessfinancing.co.uk/the-oldest-company-in-almost-every-country/ https://businessfinancing.co.uk/the-oldest-company-in-almost...> HN discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22426289 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22426289>
- cratermoon 3y agoYou do know what "the oldest profession in the world" refers to, though?
- marcosdumay 3y agoThe symbol has existed for some good 2/3 of the time international standards existed as a concept. As the articles says on the end, we don't know how old non-standardized versions of it are.
- themadturk 3y agoIf you think about it, though, the symbol has been around longer than most people today have been alive, and for a substantial amount of the time people have been driving. Compared to other symbols, it may be fairly "new" (for example, the Christian cross or Islamic crescent), but in the realm of widely standardized symbols, it's pretty old.
- SamBam 3y agoThat doesn't necessarily contradict what GP said...
- fsckboy 3y ago> an European standard traffic sign since the 1930s and how's the standardization drive going? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibitory_traffic_sign#No_motor_vehicles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibitory_traffic_sign#No_mo... (link somebody else posted)
- Symbiote 3y agoFine? They are all essentially the same, with different artistic style. There can be regional differences on what signs are required. I only checked the Italian one, but that sign only prohibits cars, motorcycles are still allowed. If both are prohibited, they presumably display both signs, or prohibit all vehicles (including bicycles) with that sign.
- fsckboy 3y ago>Fine? They are all essentially the same, with different artistic style. many don't have the slash; some do
- gpvos 3y agoPretty well, so to see.