do you think humanity advancing, in terms of intellectualism and such?

[snorkel]

I honestly don't think it is. There is more rapidly developing technology and ideology today, because there's more people with more access to means of communication. The dark ages weren't, probably, an absence of good ideas--it's just that anyone who had them was most likely illiterate and stuck on a manor. 3,000 years ago early Greek philosophers contributed as much to our understanding as anyone today is. It's true that less wars are being fought as we progress through the centuries, but I don't believe there's been a significant decrease in bigotry.

Today, as millennia ago, most people are still crude idiots. I don't think human civilization will ever get to a point where fucking itself over isn't inevitable; we might be able to harvest the energy of galaxies someday, but it will be because of machines and a few persons' discoveries, and most likely a great deal of coercion by ruling parties.

I also think that what we have so far in history is only a tiny, tiny fraction of what will eventually be the story of human civilization, so maybe in some millions of years we'll have better biological imperatives than sex and violence.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

I dont think we'll last.

[Socks]

why do you have to bring this up at 1:15 am?  


great topic and insight, i'll sleep on it before putting in my 0.02

[YPrrrr]

On the entire scale of humanity, of course we've advanced, on an individual scale? It depends what you would call advancement. It's mostly just a building on ideas people from previous generations have had...

If we're talking about humanity as a whole, then of course the middle ages weren't an absence of good ideas. The Arabs were discovering all manners of medicine, philosophy, and technology... I wouldn't make sense to merely focus upon Europe when evaluating humanity although it is certainly easier to do given the Western education

[snorkel]

On the entire scale of humanity, of course we've advanced, on an individual scale? It depends what you would call advancement. It's mostly just a building on ideas people from previous generations have had...

If we're talking about humanity as a whole, then of course the middle ages weren't an absence of good ideas. The Arabs were discovering all manners of medicine, philosophy, and technology... I wouldn't make sense to merely focus upon Europe when evaluating humanity although it is certainly easier to do given the Western education

My point exactly. With regard to the amount of achievements made in a small period of time, we've hit the same high in different cultures all over the world, millennia apart, in a random and dispersed fashion that's not evidence for any sort of general advancement. You can argue about relative "quality of life" now compared to various points in history, but I think it's a bit meaningless when the civilizations being compared most likely have ideologies completely separate from one another.

I say again: we're better off now than the 17th century because we have better food, more sanitation, more education, and other tangible things like that, but we still have the same level of idiocy and incompetence as a species. 

[The artist formally known]

I think we are, it's just not as known or talked about. I mean 3,000 years ago, sure there were some smart as people, but that was a minority. Back then lots of people didn't read or write or know jack shit about anything. Today people are more educated but we don't see that as much because we're surrounded by it, and yes there are TONS of dumbasses today but back then there were more.

[Mando Pandango]

Guys why is snorkel posting serious discussion topics in general discussion?

[Selkie]

I don't think we will ever escape our extreme greed and heartlessness.

it seems like only a few people I meet actually have a true, genuine care for other people.

[Socks]

I tend to give very little credit to technological and scholarly advancements. I see it not as a mark of the advancement of man, merely human ingenuity. One one hand such a state is but a culmination of centuries of gathered knowledge and independently connected discoveries. On the other hand it reflects upon the triumph of science, brought upon by stability from rationality and reason. However, what is the purpose of modern society? More and more I see humanity detached from the natural world and consumed within a self induced circle of circumstances. People today have the opportunity to gain access to preserved empirical knowledge. Does that make one an "intellectual"? There is a profound gap between consuming such and applying it for socially created needs and questioning the very essence of man's place within the world, the universe etc... Seeking to find a peace within the natural order of things and making connections between effort and purpose is much more important to me. There is a tendency to view things from the inside out and not stray through arbitrary walls imposed by some supposed common moral value. People of the past had a greater sense of mortality, a greater sense of higher spiritual purpose. We may look back on this and sneer at wasted effort towards religion, but really, in context, are the self proclaimed "intellectuals" of today any different? One overarching ideology has simply been replaced with another, because the tendencies of man have surely not changed. I give our antiquity ancestors much much credit, we would have a hard time in their shoes and environment, they would have an easier time in ours. But at what cost has this change come with?

I agree that as a species we are still in our infancy. 200,000 years of biological existence, 50,000 years of creative expression, and 10,000 years of civilization is not even a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things. So far we have made more strides toward technological advancement and material gain than we have toward spiritual clarity and collective purpose. Until that trend reverses, or becomes equal, humanity's greatest chapters still remain to be written.

[Minus;]

I don't think we will make it very far.

[Sa Da MA]

To simplify my opinion, I think some humans are advancing and some aren't. 

[Oh]

 It's kind of a weird thing, there is an increase of informed and educated people thanks to the internet, but at the cost of normal people becoming more and more stupid at a faster rate than the people who are informed.

[Minus;]

I completely agree.
Some are advancing more than others.

[Josh]

I can honestly see the movie Idiocracy happening to us. 

[Nyerp]

i lost faith in humanity because you left the word "is" out of the title of this thread