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Cylinsier Master
Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:30 am Post subject: |
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freethinker wrote: | And Cy, your pride in accumulated community knowledge, and your opinion that it is superior to ancient beliefs, rings hollow to my ears...
If I took you back five thousand years, and dropped you alone in the Alps, would you survive...? I doubt it, not without the accumulated community knowledge of that time period...So, it is not a difference of degree, but a difference in kind...They were just as smart as we |
But they did not have their predecessors' accomplishments to build on. This isn't really debatable, its as plain as the nose on your face. did they have cars? Central air? GPS? Cell phones? No, and if they saw one, they would have called it magic or witchcraft. To answer your question, dropping me in the Alps five thousands years ago would have been a death sentence with or without community knowledge at the time. They simply were not advanced enough, were not "smart" enough to survive individually in such harsh conditions. Now, we have prepackaged water and energy bars, communication devices, GPS, maps, and survival training to teach you when its time to pitch the tent and why. The collective intelligence was blatantly a difference of degree, and the difference is staggering. _________________ The end is nigh! OR forums die APRIL 1. Don't lose contact! Join the forums at bogsource.com now! |
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freethinker Professional
Joined: 27 Sep 2009 Posts: 1352 Location: hardback chair
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:32 am Post subject: |
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To claim that you are smarter than your ancestors because you have more information than they did, is a false sense of pride...Yank that Ice Man out of time, give him four years of schooling, and he would be programming computers....And possibly take your job...Their minds were just as adept as ours, but adapted to different necessities _________________ where-ever you get it - there you have it. - Anon. |
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ellipses Mod
Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 9218 Location: WashPa!
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:42 am Post subject: |
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He's not saying that he is smarter than earlier generations, but that he has more information.
Your ice-man analogy proves that. Bring someone from the past into the present and they will have more information available to them and will develop more than they could have if they stayed in the past. _________________ The end is nigh! OR forums die APRIL 1. Don't lose contact! Join the forums at bogsource.com now! |
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Cylinsier Master
Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:45 am Post subject: |
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freethinker wrote: | To claim that you are smarter than your ancestors because you have more information than they did, is a false sense of pride...Yank that Ice Man out of time, give him four years of schooling, and he would be programming computers....And possibly take your job...Their minds were just as adept as ours, but adapted to different necessities |
What E said. I'm not saying I'm smarter than my ancestors, I'm saying my generation is more advanced than theirs. _________________ The end is nigh! OR forums die APRIL 1. Don't lose contact! Join the forums at bogsource.com now! |
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freethinker Professional
Joined: 27 Sep 2009 Posts: 1352 Location: hardback chair
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:05 am Post subject: |
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Then please define "advanced"....
Could you make soap, fire, clothing...Set a snare, gut a rabbit, build a shelter, defend against enemies...? You've already admitted you can't.
And that's because these are all incredibly complicated technologies that take years of guidance and training; And they are equally difficult in comparison to the subjects you learn in school today...
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You do not have more information, you have different information;
And you ain't no better than the last guy who wore your moccasins _________________ where-ever you get it - there you have it. - Anon. |
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Cylinsier Master
Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:24 am Post subject: |
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freethinker wrote: | Then please define "advanced"....
Could you make soap, fire, clothing...Set a snare, gut a rabbit, build a shelter, defend against enemies...? You've already admitted you can't.
And that's because these are all incredibly complicated technologies that take years of guidance and training; And they are equally difficult in comparison to the subjects you learn in school today...
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You do not have more information, you have different information;
And you ain't no better than the last guy who wore your moccasins |
Actually, I could do any of those things with a google search, a couple hours of reading, and a week's practice. But the point is I don't have to. We are so much more advanced that we have industries and machines to do those things for us. We have exactly the same information our predecessors had and so much more that most of their information has been rendered obsolete, studied only for its value as a building block of current technologies. Understanding how to build a machine that makes a thousand bars of soap a minute would take you four years of college at least. Understanding how to make my own bar of soap would take one high school chemistry class.
We have much much more information than those before us. I cannot understand how you can argue this. We know everything our fathers knew but we also know the things we've learned since. That is more. We do not start from scratch every generation, we stand on the shoulders of those before us. I don't often assert that my opinion is more than my opinion on here, but in this case you are just flat out wrong.
I don't wear moccasins. We've advanced past that. _________________ The end is nigh! OR forums die APRIL 1. Don't lose contact! Join the forums at bogsource.com now! |
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