Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recall a letter to Science from the mid 70s, rebutting The Limits to Growth . I have tried to find it more-or-less lately, with no luck. As I recall, its author argued that the Earth could support well over 10^8 people in Trantor style. He assumed unlimited energy from fusion, and substantial food synthesis. Only humans, pets, crops, livestock, and requisite insects and microorganisms would survive. The planetary s…
10^8 is a hundred million people, so yeah, it's safe to say the Earth can support well over that many humans.
Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
71–80 of 128 posts
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recall a letter to Science from the mid 70s, rebutting The Limits to Growth . I have tried to find it more-or-less lately, with no luck. As I recall, its author argued that the Earth could support well over 10^8 people in Trantor style. He assumed unlimited energy from fusion, and substantial food synthesis. Only humans, pets, crops, livestock, and requisite insects and microorganisms would survive. The planetary s…
Because it is cheaper and easier to build stuff down here. Space habitats require thinking in terms of systems, dealing with inputs and outputs. Humans haven't mastered systems thinking yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which in turn reminds me of Richard Feynman describing the Mayan Calendar in his famous lectures on quantum mechanics, as an example of how the Mayans understood how the planets moved by looking, that they even figured out a number of patterns and predictions, but that they still did not know why the planets moved as they did, his point being that current understanding of quantum mechanics is very similar to this[0].…
And the reason that there are only a few surviving books is that the Spanish conquerors plucked those out to send back to Europe as curios before they burned down all the libraries.
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#74This highly corroborates Charles C Mann's book 1491: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the... From wikipedia: The book presents recent research findings in different fields that suggest human populations in the Western Hemisphere—that is, the indigenous peoples of the Americas—were more numerous, had arrived earlier, were more sophisticated culturally, and controlled and shaped the natural land…
This is not my field of expertise, but why wouldn't we just run LIDAR scans of as much of the earth's surface as possible? Is it prohibitively expensive at this point? Is the computation [relatively] expensive? Is there a sound reason we don't race to do more? I get the feeling this kind of data could inspire generations of new archaeologists and historians. There are also some pseudo-archeological and pseudo-histori…
"Just scan the fuck out of it and look for wierd stuff" is the dream but at the moment (as the other comments point out) we can't just scan everything but ALSO we don't know what's wierd.
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which in turn reminds me of Richard Feynman describing the Mayan Calendar in his famous lectures on quantum mechanics, as an example of how the Mayans understood how the planets moved by looking, that they even figured out a number of patterns and predictions, but that they still did not know why the planets moved as they did, his point being that current understanding of quantum mechanics is very similar to this[0].…
This is why liberals are sometimes using the term genocide more broadly in a way conservatives don’t like. They reference things like “black genocide” and conservatives get mad because the actual slayings are too few to be considered “genocide”. Yet in terms of lost culture, putting a high enough percentage of individuals in prison, and confining enough of the others to ghettos, while driving them out of historical c…
A targeted effort by people with power to liquidate white peoples' group identity ("abolish whiteness") and to marginalize and obscure their traditional cultural touchstones ("don't teach books by dead white men" and related efforts to avoid teaching Shakespeare, the Bible, old white philosophers, etc), efforts to bring in many immigrants to make whites minorities in areas where they were previously a majority (and gleeful anticipation of this outcome), etc.
This definition does seem to mean something. E.g. I'd say Uighurs and Tibetans are undergoing genocide by China, even though China isn't running death camps. China has the intent of erasing these groups as groups and is systematically working towards that goal.
And it has been used this way extensively. People talk about "genocide" of trans people in America. Or the "genocide" of Native Americans, who, although they were almost wiped out by disease, and were then abused in horrid ways, were never the target of a campaign of physical total murder. Reservations are terrible, but they're not Treblinka.
On the other hand, the definition seems incoherent. Is it possible for blacks and whites to both be undergoing genocide right now? I suppose so; maybe it's a war with each tribe trying to dissolve the other.
I suppose you could look at intent as the difference as well: Are people trying to abolish blacks as a group? Is this the goal, or a side-effect? Are people trying to abolish whites as a group?
Does it require a chance of success? Is the intent to liquidate white culture enough to call it genocidal, or does it actually need to be actualized with a strong chance of success? How much chance?
Or does it only require an effect? Is the effect of liquidating black culture enough to call it genocidal, even if it's just an incidental side-effect, or does it need to be an intent? When we bring modern music and food to an isolated tribe, thus displacing their traditional music and cuisine, is that genocide? Because we just destroyed their culture forever.
Things get fuzzier because the academics in power at the moment - all leftists - want to be able to use this word to describe actions against people they like, but not against those they dislike. Hence the bobbing and weaving between definitions: When it's against whites, genocide means gas chambers only. When it's against blacks, it means a lot of young criminals spending time in prison.
I think it would be better to narrow the usage of this word. If people are trying to liquidate another culture, let's figure out another word for that (and please not "cultural genocide").
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why liberals are sometimes using the term genocide more broadly in a way conservatives don’t like. They reference things like “black genocide” and conservatives get mad because the actual slayings are too few to be considered “genocide”. Yet in terms of lost culture, putting a high enough percentage of individuals in prison, and confining enough of the others to ghettos, while driving them out of historical c…
> Of course the culture is born again in a different form, as Native American culture endures today Well, a culture is born again; culture just tends to happen if you put people together, it's in our blood. The question is whether it flourishes . I am from Europe so cannot say this for certain, but I get the impression that all over both American continents, Native Americans are still very much an ethnic minority who…
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#77This highly corroborates Charles C Mann's book 1491: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the... From wikipedia: The book presents recent research findings in different fields that suggest human populations in the Western Hemisphere—that is, the indigenous peoples of the Americas—were more numerous, had arrived earlier, were more sophisticated culturally, and controlled and shaped the natural land…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which in turn reminds me of Richard Feynman describing the Mayan Calendar in his famous lectures on quantum mechanics, as an example of how the Mayans understood how the planets moved by looking, that they even figured out a number of patterns and predictions, but that they still did not know why the planets moved as they did, his point being that current understanding of quantum mechanics is very similar to this[0].…
And the reason that there are only a few surviving books is that the Spanish conquerors plucked those out to send back to Europe as curios before they burned down all the libraries.
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the reason that there are only a few surviving books is that the Spanish conquerors plucked those out to send back to Europe as curios before they burned down all the libraries.
Anything survives in a museum?
Re: Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle
#80I'm reading "Lost City of the Monkey God" by Douglas Preston right now. It's been a highly entertaining first-hand account of (what I think was) the first use of LIDAR for archaeology in the jungles of Central America, and the ground exploration that followed. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in this story. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01G1K1RTA
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