I've always been torn between historical desire and futurism. Loving both Tolkien and cyberpunk. Maybe it's loving the past, preparing for the future? I never could go full ren faire or full futurist, so I gues here I am stuck in the present.
I had no idea Prometheus was eventually released from the rock. Hearing this has actually improved my mood. Don’t tell me Hercules helped Sisyphus with his boulder too?
“Tradition is a solution set to problems society has forgotten.” I don’t remember where I picked this up, but it is a useful lens to view culture through. It is not the only lens, because we (humans) are over-imitators.
We often practice superfluity attached to tradition as if it were substantive. Will flying the flag, or ten flags, produce a unified nation from a disjointed one? No. Citizens of a healthy nation might choose to fly a flag as an expression of their unity. Blind adherence to form weighs us down with a load of non-lethal but nevertheless potentially harmful baggage.
There is much we do not understand about ourselves, and much that is known but not widely taught. It seems to me the best source of empowerment to the localized communities you’re speaking of is a considered effort to separate the wheat from the chaff of tradition.
But not everyone is bent toward that sort of understanding, so dogma is useful.
A couple things come to mind. First, written language/agriculture/patriarchal social structures all evolved concurrently, and it is difficult to know in detail what previous human cultures were like prior to then as one has so little in the archaeological realm to extrapolate from. So we don't really know what we lost. Secondly, you aren't addressing problems with extractive-based technologies or the fact that cities cannot survive without being provisioned by outlying areas and by using them as disposal sites, so that can't be optional. While I seriously doubt humans will voluntarily abandon these technologies, I also seriously doubt they will become more egalitarian. On the contrary. They are likely to become more expensive, and the costs externalized, and run by poor people for the benefit of the rich. I also think more people will die because slaves are so cheap now.
So, not much of a utopian here. Also not impressed by "maybe things would improve if there were more humans." This is a capitalist argument that also supports war and completely ignores how much of life on this planet civilized humans have already destroyed. To argue it's all capitalism's fault simply isn't true, but also, again, population increase, war, and capitalism are all intertwined.
"If humanity doesn’t wipe itself out, this could be something future generations ponder as they entertain the idea of leaving the colony on Mars for a more traditional life in the mega-cities of old earth."
This is always such an interesting train of thought to take. It reminds me of some meme I saw about how, in 10,000 years, humanity's new "paleo" diet will include microplastics as the new "superfood."
I've always been torn between historical desire and futurism. Loving both Tolkien and cyberpunk. Maybe it's loving the past, preparing for the future? I never could go full ren faire or full futurist, so I gues here I am stuck in the present.
I had no idea Prometheus was eventually released from the rock. Hearing this has actually improved my mood. Don’t tell me Hercules helped Sisyphus with his boulder too?
Not to my knowledge. Unfortunately Sisyphus is still pushing that boulder
“Tradition is a solution set to problems society has forgotten.” I don’t remember where I picked this up, but it is a useful lens to view culture through. It is not the only lens, because we (humans) are over-imitators.
We often practice superfluity attached to tradition as if it were substantive. Will flying the flag, or ten flags, produce a unified nation from a disjointed one? No. Citizens of a healthy nation might choose to fly a flag as an expression of their unity. Blind adherence to form weighs us down with a load of non-lethal but nevertheless potentially harmful baggage.
There is much we do not understand about ourselves, and much that is known but not widely taught. It seems to me the best source of empowerment to the localized communities you’re speaking of is a considered effort to separate the wheat from the chaff of tradition.
But not everyone is bent toward that sort of understanding, so dogma is useful.
We are messy critters.
A couple things come to mind. First, written language/agriculture/patriarchal social structures all evolved concurrently, and it is difficult to know in detail what previous human cultures were like prior to then as one has so little in the archaeological realm to extrapolate from. So we don't really know what we lost. Secondly, you aren't addressing problems with extractive-based technologies or the fact that cities cannot survive without being provisioned by outlying areas and by using them as disposal sites, so that can't be optional. While I seriously doubt humans will voluntarily abandon these technologies, I also seriously doubt they will become more egalitarian. On the contrary. They are likely to become more expensive, and the costs externalized, and run by poor people for the benefit of the rich. I also think more people will die because slaves are so cheap now.
So, not much of a utopian here. Also not impressed by "maybe things would improve if there were more humans." This is a capitalist argument that also supports war and completely ignores how much of life on this planet civilized humans have already destroyed. To argue it's all capitalism's fault simply isn't true, but also, again, population increase, war, and capitalism are all intertwined.
"If humanity doesn’t wipe itself out, this could be something future generations ponder as they entertain the idea of leaving the colony on Mars for a more traditional life in the mega-cities of old earth."
This is always such an interesting train of thought to take. It reminds me of some meme I saw about how, in 10,000 years, humanity's new "paleo" diet will include microplastics as the new "superfood."