The Not-So Good Old Days

[Arrian]

Originally posted by VetLegion
On a serious note, back when the average lifespan was 25 years, it didn't mean nobody lived past 25. If you lived till 20 you had a solid chance of living to 50 or more. All those kids dying was what skewed the statistics.

For example, during the Roman times the average lifespan was ~20 years or so, but it took about that many years (I forgot exactly how many) of service in the Legions to get a pension. It wouldn't have made sense if nobody lived past 30.

Sure it does. The government doesn't actually want to pay out money, silly! Just like when Social Security was first created, not all that many people lived much past 65 yrs old. Free money for the gummint.

Of course the point about child deaths skewing the average is also true.

-Arrian

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Winston
"The Environment" is doing just fine.

More people than ever before are doing just fine.

The only one who's truly miserable is General Ludd, which really can't be helped.

Well he could start by avoiding the ravages of that ohhh soo nasty technology. Dropping internet access would be a good start (both for him and us).

[Q Classic]

Ludd is, in many senses, a Luddite.

What can you expect? Some people hate technology, and it can't be helped, other than letting them live their all natural, savage and brutish lives without the benefits of say, penicillin and electricity.

[Kidlicious]

I don't believe that technology is bringing us towards the perfect society, or that life as a caveman was all that great.

I think there is an end to technological advancement, but life will continue to pretty much suck with a few moments of pleasure that keep most of us from commiting suicide.

[Provost Harrison]

Didn't Rameses II live until his 90s? That was a virtually unheard of life expectancy in those days...

[Al'Kimiya]

Don't forget those ante-diluvian guys, like say Methuselah, living for almost a thousand years. Off course, they had almost perfect genes.

Also, the "fossil record" is revisionist crazytalk.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by Kidicious
I think there is an end to technological advancement,

You sound just like those physicists at the turn of the 20th century.

Technological advancement will never end; those before a revolution of any sorts, however, often can't see the future, nor predict the aftershocks.

Pre-industrial societies didn't forecast the industrial revolution; looking back, it's hard to imagine that they missed the signs.

I personally think we're approaching another such revolution; we've already crossed one, the Internet/Information one, but there's another just around the corner.

[Kidlicious]

Q cubed,

The only things that I beleive have not start and end are time and space. Nothing that I know of has a beginning, but not and end. Why do you think technological advancement is different?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Q Cubed



I personally think we're approaching another such revolution; we've already crossed one, the Internet/Information one, but there's another just around the corner.

My guess is genetic manipulation on much broader scales.

[Zkribbler]

It is usually forgotten that the main breakthru in lifespans came with the discovery of germs and the institution of public sanitation.

Flush your stuff down the toilet; don't toss it into the street for other people to walk thru.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
It is usually forgotten that the main breakthru in lifespans came with the discovery of germs and the institution of public sanitation.

Flush your stuff down the toilet; don't toss it into the street for other people to walk thru.

True, but in the caveman days you could just **** in the cave and move to the next one.

[Sandman]

The human race has never had it so good.

[Datajack Franit]

I wonder how they managed to survive without dentists

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
I wonder how they managed to survive without dentists

Big rocks.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Q cubed,

The only things that I beleive have not start and end are time and space. Nothing that I know of has a beginning, but not and end. Why do you think technological advancement is different?

It's my understanding that time and space both began at the instant of the Big Bang. However, many current theories suggest that the universe will not collapse in on itself, and thus have no "end".

What does cosmology have to do with it? I don't know, but hopefully that explanation might suggest why, exactly, we might differ on some parts.

Personally, I think that technology is simply a form of progress, of change, and since it never ends...

Something about thermodynamics, blah blah blah, philosophical thoughts.

...so, in short, to say that technology has an end point, is, in my personal (and obviously correct) opinion, folly.