101–110 of 135 posts
Define "dominate". IMHO bacteria dominate the Earth, but of course, they don't know. They don't even need to know to dominate.
Or maybe the biochemistry of carbon really dominates.
Or just the physics of atoms.
Or quarks and the strong nuclear force.
Things get more and more absurd as you're descending that ladder.
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>dom·i·nate >verb >have a commanding influence on; exercise control over. >be the most important or conspicuous person or thing in. Bacteria have a huge effect on all life, but they don't "exercise control" as they are not self aware. Their influence is comprised solely of externalities. Humans by comparison exert far more control over the environment around them. We shape the world to our purpose. I think humanity w…
Humanity may win here, but you should be careful about how you define it. Individual humans don't control much more of our environment than animals do. Like animals in a zoo, we are often born into very constrained situations that wildly limit our actual control. We are usually caged by our economic situation. What I'm saying is, the "human" does not dominate the earth. The corporation does. We shouldn't be afraid of…
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>If a tiny spider would crawl up the leg of a lion they wouldn't give a bit of a shit. A lion would remain calm, knowing that the spider cannot do anything and it wouldn't even bother to entertain the spider for a split second. > However if the same tiny spider would crawl up the leg of a human there's a real chance that this person would start jumping up and down, perhaps trying to kill the spider or maybe even rush…
In my experience house cats certainly react to tiny spiders but often by eating them.
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Humanity may win here, but you should be careful about how you define it. Individual humans don't control much more of our environment than animals do. Like animals in a zoo, we are often born into very constrained situations that wildly limit our actual control. We are usually caged by our economic situation. What I'm saying is, the "human" does not dominate the earth. The corporation does. We shouldn't be afraid of…
Tell that to the folks who invented agriculture. We were shaping the planet long before corporations existed. It's amazing how some people can turn any discussion into some version of a discussion on /r/LateStageCapitalism.
I haven't spent much time on that subreddit, but it sounds like I would feel at home there! It is incredibly important that we have each-other's backs.. humanity may technically be thriving, but most people are just trying to make ends meet.
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Tell that to the folks who invented agriculture. We were shaping the planet long before corporations existed. It's amazing how some people can turn any discussion into some version of a discussion on /r/LateStageCapitalism.
Of course individuals shaped the planet long before corporations existed, but once people could organize and compete, individual farmers lost control.. right? These days, farmers are beholden to governments, banks, and agro companies, who use economical pressure to force specific behavior and crops. How much control do modern farmers really have over their farm? I haven't spent much time on that subreddit, but it sou…
They didn't "lose control"; we discovered that, if we specialize, we can get more done and increase our standard of living. It's not all just farming either. You can see city lights from space. We have sculpted mountainsides. If I'm forced to go back to your angle, none of those things are possible with division of labor and a healthy economy.
>These days, farmers are beholden to governments, banks, and agro companies, who use economical pressure to force specific behavior and crops. How much control do modern farmers really have over their farm?
You're going off on some socioeconomic tangent when the discussion here is simply "which organism is most dominant." I don't see how anything you're saying is relevant.
>humanity may technically be thriving, but most people are just trying to make ends meet.
As they have been for all existence. The difference is that these days it's much easier than it used to be. For everyone.
>I haven't spent much time on that subreddit, but it sounds like I would feel at home there!
Ugh, enjoy.
> Surprisingly, it’s not our shared language or even our ability to dominate other species that defines us but rather, our shared fictions. I read his book where he talks about this. It makes some sense: you can operate at varied scales if you have shared fictions. When you meet a complete stranger, you're both members of the human race, sharing a desire for a better future. Meet a fellow countryman, and there are so…
Netflix is hosting Joseph Campbell and 'The Power of Myth' with Bill Moyers which wonderfully details how this idea of shared fiction works. [0] It's amazing how deep it permeates our culture including how Disney adopted Campbell's ideas as not only a vehicle for story telling but also as a matter of social responsibility creating a unified view among all the billions of Earth's human inhabitants.[1] You and I have a…
Reading the book right now. What's concerning to me is that we are currently seeing the dissolving of myths across the board, whether it be religion, faith in public institutions, or facades that we kept before social media existed. Is the breakdown of social cohesion a consequence? Letting go of myths seems like an inherent good, but can we survive it?
We never let go of myths, we just create new ones. And yes, I would say the breakdown of social cohesion is an inevitable consequence when you have competing, incompatible myths causing different groups to see and understand the world differently.
I've wondered if mathematics is a 'shared fiction'. Obviously money and laws are shared fictions, but I wondered if other species can't grasp math concepts (beyond counting) because there is a fictional or conceptual element that their brains can't process.
Of course not, at least in any practical sense. Even plants use the mathematical properties of fractals to make effective structures. If we encountered aliens that are as alien as possible, they would agree on the ratio of the radius to the circumference of a circle on a flat plane.
Not if the aliens had the mental capacity of, say, a house cat.