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this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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To understand how unhinged our society is one only needs to understand how we constantly improve our technology, but don't use it to improve us as a society.
Primitive metallurgy was used to create weapons for millennia before it became commonly used for cookware. Technology has always been primarily used as vector for human beings to control and dominate one another, rather than to assist/improve society.
Didn't say we used to be better. We've always been a shitshow.
Agreed. It just seems more absurd now because of the contrast between our advanced technology and our primitive sociopolitical structures.
Oh man, this is a thing I wish more people understood. The day of the first real human flight and the day a human being walked on ground that wasn't earth only have about a 66 year gap. A lot of old folks who watched the moon landing saw the invention and proliferation of the airplane in their lifetime.
However, the engrams and algorithms that make up the human mind have been in constant development for tens of thousands of years. Far, far longer if you want to count previous versions that led up to what we're packing. A popular trope in some older fiction was to displace prehistoric critters into the modern world and detail the chaos. But that's us. We're it. We're the cavemen in a world of microscopic circuit boards.
Our achievements have far outpaced our ability to constrain them. Like, when we discovered radiation, we started putting that shit in everything. Fucking toothpaste. And sure, we learn, we improve, we adapt. Humans are exceptionally good at that. But it just seems to me as it has seemed to far bigger minds than my own that we're still banging rocks together and fighting over resources, it's just now the rocks have a faint glow and the resources are measured in GDP
To be fair, that was back when wildlife was much more of a threat. And probably also a lot more risk of criminals or other bandits. Making a weapon to protect your tribe is not really in the same ball park as this.
I see your point, but I would argue that in a world with nuclear weapons, climate change, and all sorts of shit that seems to be an existential risk, plus the media barrage, people today aren't exactly feeling safe or comfortable. Hence the desperate hoarding of resources and brutal competition.