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There's something (maybe innate) about belief in advancement vs a cycle. Historian Will Durant noted that the ancient Greeks thought of history as a vicious ci

There's something (maybe innate) about belief in advancement vs a cycle. Historian Will Durant noted that the ancient Greeks thought of history as a vicious circle that repeated again and again. E.g. there was no mention of progress in the works of Xenophon, Plato, or Aristotle. Related, ancient Greek historian Polybius pushed a theory called anacyclosis, with six repeating stages of history, a concept explored by others as well. Polybius’ stages were monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and ochlocracy (mob-rule). Support for this theory came from the historical evidence that the ancient Greeks had, looking around at their 1500 city states. Notably, the six stages come in pairs that proceeded through a good-bad sequence (for example monarchy as the good form and tyranny as the bad form). Those city state examples tended to proceed in the order listed and not the reverse. Thus, the cycle. So the weird research concept (whether good or bad) can be seen as a symptom of our times?

alephnerd 2y ago
Ancient Greece was also a society that was much closer to the Stone Age than ours. I'm not sure we can really internalize many lessons from what were at best Iron Age societies, and the fruits of technology weren't well spread. When my great-grandfather was born, people in our village eeked a hand-to-mouth existence that wasn't much different from that our ancestors would have lived 1500 years ago. When I was born, vaccines became normalized, electricity existed, indoor plumbing became common, etc. The fact that human capital is now being nurtured and enabled in most societies, we can actually see major changes being unlocked. I mean, if we're brutally honest - has scientific and engineering research really slowed down? Artifical Intelligence, Genetic Engineering, Global Communication, and Handheld Oracles have become normalized in just 25 years. This is the kind of technology you'd see in science fiction 30-40 years before today. For every negative about a technology you can also point to a positive. It's not technology that's the issue - it's humans.

alephnerd 2y ago

Ancient Greece was also a society that was much closer to the Stone Age than ours. I'm not sure we can really internalize many lessons from what were at best Iron Age societies, and the fruits of technology weren't well spread. When my great-grandfather was born, people in our village eeked a hand-to-mouth existence that wasn't much different from that our ancestors would have lived 1500 years ago. When I was born, vaccines became normalized, electricity existed, indoor plumbing became common, etc. The fact that human capital is now being nurtured and enabled in most societies, we can actually see major changes being unlocked. I mean, if we're brutally honest - has scientific and engineering research really slowed down? Artifical Intelligence, Genetic Engineering, Global Communication, and Handheld Oracles have become normalized in just 25 years. This is the kind of technology you'd see in science fiction 30-40 years before today. For every negative about a technology you can also point to a positive. It's not technology that's the issue - it's humans.