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I would expect "I'm from Earth" to get about as much respect as "I'm from Olduvai Gorge". Well, isn't that nice for you, basically, but that's it. It's not a ha

by jerf 1y ago

I would expect "I'm from Earth" to get about as much respect as "I'm from Olduvai Gorge". Well, isn't that nice for you, basically, but that's it. It's not a hard guess, we already don't reward people just because they were born near the origin of humanity. It'll be a while, though. There will certainly still be a long period of time where Earth is the most powerful by sheer inertia, no matter how fast space civilization develops.

evan_ 1y ago
> I would expect "I'm from Earth" to get about as much respect as "I'm from Olduvai Gorge". Maybe that's because we don't have cultural traditions that identifiably connect us to that. (We probably do, but they're so deeply ingrained that we can't even identify them as "culture"). People of Italian extraction have a certain affinity for Italians, German-descendants for Germans, etc- Unless we just totally forget about Earth-That-Was I think it's reasonable to think we'd find it interesting in 1000 years.
- kragen 1y ago
  We're talking about a much longer period of time than 1000 years. Like, 4.5 billion years. Or at least 500 million. People who speak Indo-European languages such as English, Hindi, and Portuguese descend from migrants from the Caspian steppe. Do they have strong Caspian steppe affinities? And that's only been about 4000 years.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
    We're much better at recording history nowadays though. People seem to find the Yamnaya culture interesting, we just know rather little about it. Nowadays we have ubiquitous, effortless recording and copying capabilities. The struggle for historians will be to sort through all the data in order to identify a coherent narrative.
    - kragen 1y ago
      Right, to distinguish fanfic, incorrect conspiracy theories, myth, and AI-generated hallucinations from what really happened.
0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
How much interesting stuff is there to learn about Olduvai Gorge though? I expect Earth will be viewed as we view Athens now. There's a lot of important history which happened there, and schoolchildren spend a lot of time studying it, but the center of the action has moved elsewhere. Instead of "How often do men think about ancient Rome?", people will ask: "How often do men think about ancient Earth?"

by jerf 1y ago

evan_ 1y ago

> I would expect "I'm from Earth" to get about as much respect as "I'm from Olduvai Gorge". Maybe that's because we don't have cultural traditions that identifiably connect us to that. (We probably do, but they're so deeply ingrained that we can't even identify them as "culture"). People of Italian extraction have a certain affinity for Italians, German-descendants for Germans, etc- Unless we just totally forget about Earth-That-Was I think it's reasonable to think we'd find it interesting in 1000 years.

kragen 1y ago
We're talking about a much longer period of time than 1000 years. Like, 4.5 billion years. Or at least 500 million. People who speak Indo-European languages such as English, Hindi, and Portuguese descend from migrants from the Caspian steppe. Do they have strong Caspian steppe affinities? And that's only been about 4000 years.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
  We're much better at recording history nowadays though. People seem to find the Yamnaya culture interesting, we just know rather little about it. Nowadays we have ubiquitous, effortless recording and copying capabilities. The struggle for historians will be to sort through all the data in order to identify a coherent narrative.
  - kragen 1y ago
    Right, to distinguish fanfic, incorrect conspiracy theories, myth, and AI-generated hallucinations from what really happened.

0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago

How much interesting stuff is there to learn about Olduvai Gorge though? I expect Earth will be viewed as we view Athens now. There's a lot of important history which happened there, and schoolchildren spend a lot of time studying it, but the center of the action has moved elsewhere. Instead of "How often do men think about ancient Rome?", people will ask: "How often do men think about ancient Earth?"