Is it better to be ahead of your time or behind it?

Odo

Odo

Banned
I've read these articles before and I agree in part.

I'm not sure I have much to add to them... but I have noticed some people(mostly guys) express a yearning for a 'back to nature' sort of thing. They long to be pioneers and pilgrims and adventurers... I often wonder what it would be like to put myself in a situation where I needed to be self-sufficient in order to survive.

There's nothing particularly exciting or stimulating about sitting on your a** all day in front of a computer screen before going to the supermarket to buy your food, then going home to wonder why you even bother since you know it's crushing your spirit and killing the planet. The guilt alone is enough to make me depressed... and anyone who doesn't feel guilty about it immediately strikes me as soulless, selfish or ignorant.

I think that it's probably better than being a slave in a factory circa 1893, but I often wonder if people actively chose the modern 'leisure' lifestyle or if they were forced to adopt it because the corporations have always owned the government, and they needed workers and land. It's really frustrating being unable to trust the narrative of history.
 
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Earthcircle

Well-known member
The prose style from earlier centuries is often very striking to me. My impression is that there is a much higher idea density, which most people brush off casually as "a different style of writing." Not only different, but more concentrated. An extreme illustration would be Shakespeare, but just about anything before 1900 illustrates the point I would think. I've pointed this out to people before, and they hold up Derrida as a counterexample. But I find writers like Derrida willfully obscure, not idea dense.
 
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Earthcircle

Well-known member
coyote said:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IyQ2JnCdSk4&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIyQ2JnCdSk4%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
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Note the comments below the video. People who brag about how smart they are are insisting that Jesus died in Year Zero! Ahem. That's better than saying 1300, but still not impressive. (Actually, there was no Year Zero. 1 BCE was immediately followed by 1 CE. And, anyway, Jesus was -- at least according to the classic story -- crucified in 33 CE.)
 
Odo

Odo

Banned
I've never figured out how testing someone's knowledge is somehow a test of their problem-solving abilities. I guess there's memory work involved but if someone hasn't really made it their concern to know these things, it doesn't mean they're stupid-- more like distracted or apathetic.

There are some pretty ridiculously awful answers, though... but still, that guy is a ****.
 
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Earthcircle

Well-known member
Odo said:
I've never figured out how testing someone's knowledge is somehow a test of their problem-solving abilities. I guess there's memory work involved but if someone hasn't really made it their concern to know these things, it doesn't mean they're stupid-- more like distracted or apathetic.

There are some pretty ridiculously awful answers, though... but still, that guy is a ****.
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Maybe the video was simply meant to illustrate knowledge. But it seems to me that anyone with even very basic knowledge of the modern world could quickly infer that Jesus lived roughly around the year 1 CE and that there were no firearms during his lifetime. The failure to make these simple inferences suggests poor intelligence. It's hard to disentangle knowledge from intelligence, since so much knowledge results from inference.
 
Draconess25

Draconess25

Well-known member
Odo said:
I've read these articles before and I agree in part.

I'm not sure I have much to add to them... but I have noticed some people(mostly guys) express a yearning for a 'back to nature' sort of thing. They long to be pioneers and pilgrims and adventurers... I often wonder what it would be like to put myself in a situation where I needed to be self-sufficient in order to survive.

There's nothing particularly exciting or stimulating about sitting on your a** all day in front of a computer screen before going to the supermarket to buy your food, then going home to wonder why you even bother since you know it's crushing your spirit and killing the planet. The guilt alone is enough to make me depressed... and anyone who doesn't feel guilty about it immediately strikes me as soulless, selfish or ignorant.

I think that it's probably better than being a slave in a factory circa 1893, but I often wonder if people actively chose the modern 'leisure' lifestyle or if they were forced to adopt it because the corporations have always owned the government, and they needed workers and land. It's really frustrating being unable to trust the narrative of history.
Click to expand...

I'm a chick and I'd love a simpler life. Not to say I wouldn't miss certain things, but I can get by without most of them. Only problem is I NEED my phone to stay in contact with my loved ones because I'm very paranoid that they might get sick, hurt, or killed. It's a stupid fear, but there are weirder ones. Other than that, I have excellent survival and homemaking skills. :p
 
Draconess25

Draconess25

Well-known member
Earthcircle said:
Maybe the video was simply meant to illustrate knowledge. But it seems to me that anyone with even very basic knowledge of the modern world could quickly infer that Jesus lived roughly around the year 1 CE and that there were no firearms during his lifetime. The failure to make these simple inferences suggests poor intelligence. It's hard to disentangle knowledge from intelligence, since so much knowledge results from inference.
Click to expand...

For me, I don't think intelligence is knowledge, but being able to utilize it effectively. Knowledge is theoretical while intelligence is practical, if that makes sense.
 
Kiwong

Kiwong

Well-known member
At least I am able to communicate about this illness on forums and blogs. At so many other times in history that sort of communication would not have been possible.
 
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Earthcircle

Well-known member
Draconess25 said:
For me, I don't think intelligence is knowledge, but being able to utilize it effectively. Knowledge is theoretical while intelligence is practical, if that makes sense.
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Conceptually, they are not the same thing. One is recorded information, while the other is an ability to process information. But in practice, I think they are hard to separate. For one thing, the ability to learn effectively is a kind of intelligence which is obviously closely linked to knowledge.
 
Draconess25

Draconess25

Well-known member
Earthcircle said:
Conceptually, they are not the same thing. One is recorded information, while the other is an ability to process information. But in practice, I think they are hard to separate. For one thing, the ability to learn effectively is a kind of intelligence which is obviously closely linked to knowledge.
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And let's not forget common sense. xD Someone could be like Einstein, but never buckle their seatbelt or cook their chicken.
 
Odo

Odo

Banned
Draconess25 said:
I'm a chick and I'd love a simpler life. Not to say I wouldn't miss certain things, but I can get by without most of them. Only problem is I NEED my phone to stay in contact with my loved ones because I'm very paranoid that they might get sick, hurt, or killed. It's a stupid fear, but there are weirder ones. Other than that, I have excellent survival and homemaking skills. :p
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I wish I knew girls like you.

On the other hand, I think that most people never actually go through with it. I guess I've always seen it as a sort of male fantasy thing.

But hey... the whole satellite internet thing means you can have communications capabilities pretty much anywhere on the planet, provided you have the right setup.
 
Draconess25

Draconess25

Well-known member
Odo said:
I wish I knew girls like you.

On the other hand, I think that most people never actually go through with it. I guess I've always seen it as a sort of male fantasy thing.

But hey... the whole satellite internet thing means you can have communications capabilities pretty much anywhere on the planet, provided you have the right setup.
Click to expand...

Well, if the world keeps heading in this direction, we won't have much of a choice. xD
 
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