We are, collectively, a society of morons

There's something I've been pondering for a long time that I wanted to share, and it's really relevant to ATS, and that is that we view ourselves today as being far superior, or technologically advanced, or more intelligent than our ancestors, and it simply isn't true.

We think societally because we have mobile phones, and digital cameras, and computers, and TV, and planes, automobiles, etc that we're somehow "better" than our ancestors, but how many of us here actually know, intimately (and therefore any more than our ancestors) how any of the stuff we use actually works?

Sure we know how to press the buttons and make the things do stuff, but could you design, build, or replace any of the gadgets you have?

It's only a handful of people who have improved the world through their ingenuity, but we blindly tag along on their coat tails believing that we too, somehow, have made a big difference.

And we haven't.

Think about how we laugh at societies today, and those from our own past where witchcraft was or is believed in, where people were burned at the stake for being in league with the devil - then think about how many people here believe in spirits, spirit dimensions, ghosts, demons, astrology, tarot cards, premonitions, psychics, mind reading, horoscopes, and all of the rest.

If you believe in spirits and demons, or believe that a Ouija board can summon demons and infest your life with them, then how can you scoff at others who accuse people of witchcraft?

If a piece of wood with some letters painted on it can summon demons, then there must be other ways, and since a witch is traditionally supposed to be in league with Satan and demons, then how can you seperate one from the other?

Surely there re other ways to summon demons, and those who can do it must be witches.

Therefore in your beliefs witches must exist, and therefore you are not 400 years more advanced than your predecessors, you're less than 1mm away from them.

My own interest and realisation that we're not so far removed from the past came from my interest in antique porcelain.

It might seem to be irrelevant but hear me out.

In the 1740's there was a rush in Britain to find out how to make porcelain like the Chinese could, since it was revolutionary compared to the ceramics we had in Europe, and anyone who could make it would (they thought) become rich.

And so, even though they didn't have the right materials, or electron microscopes, or computers, or any other gadgetry, they came up with alternative ways of making it, from adding ground glass, to soapstone, to bone ash into the clay (which is of course where bone china comes from - because it has roughly 50% animal bone in it).

This was from experience, knowledge, thought, and experimentation.

These "savages" who didn't even have inside toilets, running water, electricity, or anything you take for granted today worked it out and made an industry of it that was so strong it employed thousands of people and was worth in todays terms probably $Billions.

Or think about the Darbys who made the worlds first Iron Bridge (at the aptly named Ironbridge in Shropshire in the UK, which is somewhere I highly recommend going to, it brings you directly in touch with our past), where they had no prior precedent, no prior information to work from, and the bridge itself is constructed as though made from wood (i.e. woodworking joints, since rivets hadn't been invented), and then went onto making other things from iron.

We believe ourselves to be superior to our ancestors, we believe that because we have the use of technology that didn't exist then that we're superior to them, but we aren't - we know if we're brutally honest how to press buttons, but we don't know how it works, we couldn't replace it or design our own variants.

We ride off the back of the genius of others, allowing that to shape our societies and destinies, just like they did hundreds of years ago.

We have huge percentages of the populus that believe in nonsense like astrology, spirits, "spirit dimensions in different vibrations or frequencies", etc.

It's not the question of whether any of these things, UFO's, aliens, etc exist or not that I'm talking about, but rather the way in which we STILL ignore the facts to feed what we want to believe.

And this is why I say that we are not 400 years ahead of the witch burners of old, but rather we're less than 1mm away from them.

We individually and personally are no more advanced than the tribes who've lived in the rain forest for hundreds of years with no outside contact - we'd like to think we are, but the only difference is that we have mobile phones and facebook, and they don't.

reply to post by Power_Semi


Life is amazing.
I agree that 'people' are no smarter now than they ever have been. But it is not people who are doing it. People are manifestations of the supreme intelligence.

reply to post by Power_Semi


Speak for yourself.

I have yet to meet a contraption that if broken, I couldn't fix.
I don't believe in magic, demons, angels, or spirits either.

But I can pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time.

I guess that makes me the cutting edge of human evolution.

reply to post by Power_Semi


S&F for a very interesting, thought provoking post!

Personally, I think we are 1/3 morons -
1/3 average and 1/3 exceptional.


But morons are like the anchor beneath our wings.

reply to post by Power_Semi



WE have lost a lot of what once sustained us, at one time we didn't need phones or even speech to communicate.

Now we sit divides by a computer screen, that dull our senses even more.

"Sure we know how to press the buttons and make the things do stuff, but could you design, build, or replace any of the gadgets you have?"

It is a worthwhile pursuit to learn to use computers for content creation (programming, authoring, solving problems, as art tools, etc.)/as tools vs. as consumption devices. This is how I will encourage my child to interact with technology.

This is the problem I have with countless kids running around with iPod touches/iPads today -- they are spending tons of time with these literal "black boxes", not having the kind of chance that people who grew up experimenting with personal computers had years ago.

I realize that there is PLENTY of worthwhile content on these devices. But that is a different subject.

Do your kids a favor and buy them a Raspberry Pi instead of an iPad. You'll save a lot of money that you can put towards something else, and your kid will be the better for it.

Originally posted by Power_Semi

There's something I've been pondering for a long time that I wanted to share, and it's really relevant to ATS, and that is that we view ourselves today as being far superior, or technologically advanced, or more intelligent than our ancestors, and it simply isn't true.

We think societally because we have mobile phones, and digital cameras, and computers, and TV, and planes, automobiles, etc that we're somehow "better" than our ancestors, but how many of us here actually know, intimately (and therefore any more than our ancestors) how any of the stuff we use actually works?

Sure we know how to press the buttons and make the things do stuff, but could you design, build, or replace any of the gadgets you have?
------
We have huge percentages of the populus that believe in nonsense like astrology, spirits, "spirit dimensions in different vibrations or frequencies", etc.

It's not the question of whether any of these things, UFO's, aliens, etc exist or not that I'm talking about, but rather the way in which we STILL ignore the facts to feed what we want to believe.

And this is why I say that we are not 400 years ahead of the witch burners of old, but rather we're less than 1mm away from them.

We individually and personally are no more advanced than the tribes who've lived in the rain forest for hundreds of years with no outside contact - we'd like to think we are, but the only difference is that we have mobile phones and facebook, and they don't.

You have made a very astute observation of how most of the people in our " so called " Modern Age live.

What has happened since the industrial revolution, is that we " The People " at Large have learned to Specialize in our work and job tasks and then " Pool " the results, so that " We All " Benefit from the " Collective Work " and Knowledge of Everyone Else.

During and after WWII this newer and more efficient work and production concept was perfected as never before in history that we know of. The Modern Day Assembly Line Concept - I think it was Henry Ford and the model A's and T's production line that started and perfected it all. This Production Line concept was so successful that of course it has been Copied and Repeated over and over again throughout the industrial world.

Of course most of us don't know how to do every job there is under the sun, but anyone that has the desire to learn different new work skills usually can at the various college's and training centers.

However, your " Main Observation Point " is still valid, and I think most everyone world wide understands our " Collective Limitations " that we all face on a daily basis. For example: most of us own our own cars, but we do not own our own refineries to produce the gas we burn in our cars. We have learned to Exchange the Fiat Currencies World Wide to buy the gas for our cars.

We are all living in a " Very Interesting Time " in world history to say the least. Where all of us in the World go from here is yet to be seen.

Hopefully we all Live to See the Future without having to see it through a Hazy nuclear fallout cloud of death...!

reply to post by Power_Semi


Some people seek the truth and not what they are told. If there is a lot of people believing that chakras or something similar to it exists then would it not be smart to verify if there is any reason for it?

Just because you have not experianced it does not make the phenomenon untrue.

Reality is not reality.
The Observer in Physics Double Slit Experiment and Example in Nature
www.youtube.com...

Quantum Superposition and entanglement.


Understanding 4th Dimention


But I agree people living in Platos cave and thinking they know everything about the outside based on faith alone can be a bit silly. I definetly understand to little but are having fun experiancing things.

Question everything especially what you have been taught and conditioned.

reply to post by Power_Semi


What you are talking about is also known as the dichotomy between hard science and social or human science, a dichotomy which comes from the fact that we have always separated the body from the mind, and this is an error. If today we are able to launch a robot on planet Mars, with all the correct mathematical and scientific predictions that the feat implies, while at the same on earth we still commit genocides and we are still shut in archaic superstitions like religions, it is because of that dichotomy. We view the mind/spirit/soul like a divine gift, and we view the body as the expression of what is earthly, lowly terrestrial. We consider hard science as the measurement of the lowly terrestrial and social science as the measurement of that divine gift. But what is considered divine, is also considered perfect, a finished product, and it is considered impossible or even blasphemy to try to change the mind/spirit/soul. That is why we improve one aspect of our human activities, namely hard science, and we let another aspect of our human activities, namely the social sphere, in decay. That is why there is no great difference between us today and the people who have lived 10.000 years ago.

Ultimately, the question is as follow : what is human nature ? And we have yet to answer to that question in a scientific manner, and until then we are condemned to wander and make horrible mistakes.

I recommend the study of General Semantics

True story, OP.

What I also despise is when some say that "Humanity is great; look we made it to the moon!," as if they had anything at all to do with it.

I think we can all agree that the mental chasm separating average humans and people like Plato or Einstein is huge.

I agree with the OP, but what about the individuals among us that are NOT morons? Any culture or society is found to have everythig from A to Z within it...as individuals we're either getting better and more evolved or we're getting worse.

Hey, I'm not a moron.....at least this week I'm not.

Modern technology still cant build the pyramids.
So I dont really see intelligence or wisdom having anything to do with our history.

Here ya go

Are we getting more stupid? Researchers claim our intelligence is diminishing as we no longer need it to survive

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...
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reply to post by Power_Semi


Well with "the system" we are better off than our ancesstors. Without it, we're worse off. Our ancesstors couldn't even dream of visiting the neighboring country let alone flying to the other side of the planet just for fun. Our lives are very easy now. We have to really try and appreciate how good we got it and try and make life even better for future generations

Dumber than a blind turd looking for the light switch, r-we.

Ribbit

reply to post by Power_Semi


My partner and I have the same thought on the world in general.

The world needs an enema. Stat.

People are deeply stupid. We let computers and hand held devices do our thinking for us. I wouldn't doubt it if one day, the technology we created eventually outsmarted us all.

The average person, it takes groups and teams of people and traditions passed down to build the pyramids. The average Homer Simpson couldn't draw up plans all by himself. The collective norms of society and the collective understanding , we have a lot more tools at our disposal to play with not just " fire" or the " wheel" now we got an Xbox that can save music and pictures on the hard drive

One person can not be everything at the same time. If one person wanted to be a tv repairman and one wanted to build cars we don't have a lot of time here to master everything there is to know. What about the person who works at a cashier , hates his job and just wants to play with 21 st century toys?