200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring • Hacker News Board

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#111

Post by sdfjksbdf » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:19 AM UTC

TriNetra wrote: post #106

bspammer wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, there is something special about this moment in time. We're in an insane inflection point of human development. For millions of years things stayed roughly the same. It's really only in the last 10,000 years that stuff has really kicked off, and the last 300 where human development has gone absolutely crazy. There's several existential threats that might destroy civilization over the next few hundred year…

Earth has been around at least for billions of years. Our modern existence is only of about few hundred years. It'd be over estimating ourselves to think that a civilization like us never existed on Earth let alone other planets. As the technology keeps on miniaturizing, there'll be a point at which the verbose existence of technology would largely be no longer there. In that state, if the civilization is reset due t…

Plato made up Atlantis.

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#112

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:24 AM UTC

bspammer wrote: post #55

willcipriano wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I disagree, there is something special about this moment in time. Your ancestors all felt the same way. So will your children.

It doesn't really matter what my ancestors felt, it's blatently obvious that there's more going on right now, and faster than 10,000 years ago. Back then, you'd be lucky to see a single revolutionary invention in a lifetime. Now we're seeing them every decade, if not annually. I don't disagree that my descendents will be justified in feeling the same way, as long as the exponential curve keeps on going and civilizati…

[deleted]

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#113

Post by edgyquant » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:25 AM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

It’s inspiring to get hints at what life was like back then when the universe was younger.

It’s fascinating to think how they lived full lives and probably even pondered the ancients (relative to them.)

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#114

Post by cenari0 » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

bspammer wrote: post #38

adriand wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really amazing. I find this sort of thing absolutely haunting. It's a vivid reminder that there is nothing particularly special about this moment in time: it's only special to us because we're living it. But their present moment was no less vital and immediate and real to them as this moment is to us. And yet, it happened so incredibly long ago! I had the same feeling when I encountered a beautiful statue of a woman…

I disagree, there is something special about this moment in time. We're in an insane inflection point of human development. For millions of years things stayed roughly the same. It's really only in the last 10,000 years that stuff has really kicked off, and the last 300 where human development has gone absolutely crazy. There's several existential threats that might destroy civilization over the next few hundred year…

Thanks to Europeans?

I wonder — what civilisation can we attribute all this progress to?

Romans? British? Or Americans ?

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#115

Post by TedDoesntTalk » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:43 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #71

radicaldreamer wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really true? If someone from 1950s America time-travelled to the present day, is there anything at all that they conceptually couldn't fathom? Maybe if you transported someone from 1950s China to present-day China, they would be more shocked, but a present day suburban home in 2021 is not all that markedly different than a 1950s home -- and neither is the workplace, the commute, the cars. Mostly replaced pape…

> is there anything at all that they conceptually couldn't fathom? Well you set the bar artificially high with that phrasing. Is there ever anything people of the last couple thousand years would be literally unable to conceptually fathom? No. We know that from ancient texts, they would be able to grasp anything we have today (even if it might take more elaborate explanation). 1950s Americans, or any citizens around…

> People in 2007 were truly astounded by the iPhone. It almost felt like a product delivered from the future. It put all industry jaws on the floor and reset the grid for everyone in the tech industry, without exception.

This is a large exaggeration. I was there as an adult. It was another cool piece of tech, sure, but come on.

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#116

Post by TedDoesntTalk » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

bspammer wrote: post #38

adriand wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really amazing. I find this sort of thing absolutely haunting. It's a vivid reminder that there is nothing particularly special about this moment in time: it's only special to us because we're living it. But their present moment was no less vital and immediate and real to them as this moment is to us. And yet, it happened so incredibly long ago! I had the same feeling when I encountered a beautiful statue of a woman…

I disagree, there is something special about this moment in time. We're in an insane inflection point of human development. For millions of years things stayed roughly the same. It's really only in the last 10,000 years that stuff has really kicked off, and the last 300 where human development has gone absolutely crazy. There's several existential threats that might destroy civilization over the next few hundred year…

> there is something special about this moment in time.

You completely missed his point. This moment is special to you because you are living it. Not because of the latest i9 chip or flying cars.

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#117

Post by xwdv » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:59 AM UTC

Incredible that a child 200k years ago left something behind that we can still see today.

I struggle to imagine what I could do today that someone 200k years from now would find. Any ideas?

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#118

Post by xwdv » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 6:00 AM UTC

unknownOrigin wrote: post #58

mysecretaccount wrote: post #35

This is covered in the article, but: the term art is quite generous here. These may not even have been imprinted intentionally. Fascinating nonetheless.

It doesn't dispute that they were made intentionally - in fact, it says the opposite. (These are carefully made so they don't overlap and they were not produced by locomotion.) If this is "art" art... is up to everyone to interpret for themselves. But then again, today you can give yourself a paint enema, squirt it from your asshole all over a canvas and some people will call it art.

> But then again, today you can give yourself a paint enema, squirt it from your asshole all over a canvas and some people will call it art.

Jesus, what artist is this a reference to?

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#119

Post by sandworm101 » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 6:01 AM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #117

Incredible that a child 200k years ago left something behind that we can still see today. I struggle to imagine what I could do today that someone 200k years from now would find. Any ideas?

Scratch your name into Hoover Dam? A handprint in wet cement?

Re: 200k-year-old hand art found near a Tibetan hot spring

#120

Post by spookthesunset » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 6:35 AM UTC

exporectomy wrote: post #94

yesimahuman wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s likely they will all look back at this particular period of a hundred or so years as one of the most pivotal times for at least one really big reason: that’s when we set the climate on a path of destruction

Why not when we invented nuclear weapons and set civilization on the path of destruction? Or when we invented fertilizer and set the wilderness on the path of destruction or when we started applying science and set traditional stabilizing religious cultures on the path of destruction? I know why. It's because you're overwhelmed with your own contemporary culture which has indoctrinated you to believe that particular…

Don't forget the pandemic. Plenty of people thought there would be some "new normal" we'd be living through for decades. Hell, I'm pretty sure plenty of people still cling to that particular doomsday scenario despite there being readily available, free vaccines. Look at all the dudes walking around outside wearing masks all along west coast cities..