←back to thread

222 points dougb5 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
rich_sasha ◴[] No.45124117[source]
It's weird. All of our attributes which we hold and value, and develop via a mix of genes and training - intelligence, but also strength, stamina, reflexes - we acquired, if you strip it all off to basics, to feed and to procreate. That's all evolution cares about.

Now, we are social animals, and we grew to value these thing for their own right. Societies valued strength and bravery, as virtues, but I guess ultimately because having brave strong soldiers made for more food and babies.

So over time, we tamed beasts and built tools, and most of these virtues kind of faded away. In our world of prosperity and machine power on tap, strength and bravery are not really extolled so much anymore. We work out because it makes us healthy and attractive, not because our societies demand this. We're happy to replace the hard work with a prosthetic.

Intelligence all these millenia was the outlier. The thing separating us from the animals. It was so inconceivable that it might be replaced that it is very deeply ingrained in us.

But if suddenly we don't need it? Or at least 95% of the population doesn't? Is it "ok" to lose it, like engineers of today don't rely on strength like blacksmiths used to? Maybe. Maybe it's ok that in 100 years we will all let our brains rot, occasionally doing a crossword as a work out. It feels sad, but maybe only in the way decline of swordsmanship felt to a Napoleonic veteran. The world moved on and we don't care anymore.

We lost so many skills that were once so key: the average person can't farm, can't forage, can't start a fire or ride a horse. And maybe it's ok. Or, who knows, maybe not.

replies(3): >>45132076 #>>45132544 #>>45132890 #
gyomu ◴[] No.45132544[source]
It’s okay only if you’re okay deferring all power and agency to people who control the production and distribution of the tools.
replies(1): >>45134547 #
rich_sasha ◴[] No.45134547[source]
Do you feel particularly anxious that you delegated your walking stamina or horsemanship to car manufacturers?
replies(2): >>45134919 #>>45135980 #
1. gyomu ◴[] No.45134919[source]
I feel very grateful that I live in a country where the social contract between the government and its constituents has guaranteed extensive, affordable public transit and biking infrastructure for everyone.

I do feel quite sorry for people living in countries where that is not the case, often due to extensive lobbying from car manufacturers — and as a result are subservient to the severe constraints of car ownership.

Having lived in such an area earlier in my life, my quality of life was absolutely worse off for it, and having to bike on roads only suited to motor vehicles in the southern US summer heat to go grocery shopping or go to school did induce anxiety, yes.