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Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

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Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#141

Post by HWR_14 »

riazrizvi wrote: post #45

Thank you, a lovely list. 7, 23, 24 were driven by the common unusual political occurrence of fair economic opportunity. These rare times where a balance of power occurs, by special circumstances, between the former autocratic rulers and everyone else. In Britain (7), domestic Royal monopolies were abolished etc creating an economic and legal environment where entrepreneurs would be rewarded. So people started invest…

(7) was driven by the invention of patent law. Expressly royal monopolies on inventing stuff.

(23) is because it's not independent random events. First, Plato literally taught Aristotle and was taught by Socrates. Second, Athens was the capital of an empire (okay, technically a league) so of course the best and brightest descended on Athens.

So, literally like Hollywood attracting actors or SV attracting startups, it's a self-perpetuating cycle.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#142

Post by ravi-delia »

bluishgreen wrote: post #126

"That other animals have more cone cells than humans, e.g. birds with four and shrimp with up to 16, and so probably see colors we can’t even conceive of which, yeah, that limitation of our minds is frustrating, but it also hints that there are huge unseen dark continents of qualia lurking out there which someday we might find a way to visit." This is based on a misunderstanding regarding the rise of qualia. It is pr…

It's still true that if we had cones outside our current color range we'd have new qualia, even if animals don't.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#144

Post by mistermann »

jaclaz wrote: post #134
mistermann wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is more accurately something like: > In the course of several centuries over a vast territory comprising almost all inhabited mediterranean countries some 10-15 people excelled in their fields and many of them happened to live in the main city (and cultural capital) of the area. Your restatement excluded what I think is the most interesting part: >> and that it might be possible to intentionally recreate such condi…

Because recreating such conditions isn't possible, basically because such conditions never existed and the idilliac setup the article seems to describe never happened. The article seemingly conveys (at least to me) the idea that "by miracle" all those famous philosophers, writers and mathematicians were in the same place at the same time (and possibly had coffee or dinner together), this simply never happened. So, if…

My interpretation of the intended meaning[1] of the author was to attempt to reproduce ~conditions conducive to producing this sort of effect.

If you reconsider the idea under this reframing, does it seem like more of a reasonable, "maybe worth a try"-class idea?

[1] where "such conditions" ~= "of the kind, character, quality, or extent"

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#145

Post by elwell »

okl wrote: post #68

> Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!”

It's all perspective.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#146

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

HWR_14 wrote: post #140
elil17 wrote: post #49

I’m thankful for yeast. It’s so, so convenient that we have a non-pathogenic bacteria which will eat pretty much any simple sugar, can be found on the surfaces of most fruits, and is essentially effortless to cultivate, which also does a bunch of useful things like leaven bread and make a bunch of delicious short chain fatty acids (both in bread and on their own, like in marmite) and make alcohol (although that one m…

Alcohol let our ancestors survive. Weakly alcoholic beer was far healthier than water because its production likely killed germs in the water.

I recently read that that’s a myth, unfortunately.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#147

Post by watwut »

uwagar wrote: post #131
notfed wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related: a TED talk by Steven Pinker about his analysis on whether the world is getting better or worse: https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_is_the_world_getting...

didnt he goto that TED talk on epstein's jet? ;)

The bigger issue is that historians and sociologists tend to complain each time he makes sweeping claims about their area of expertise.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#148

Post by luckman212 »

flatiron wrote: post #137
TimTheTinker wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Benjamin Franklin thought beer was enough proof that there is a God who loves us and wants us to be happy :-)

https://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/say-what-says-who-benjami... He never said that.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#150

Post by adrian_mrd »

elil17 wrote: post #49

I’m thankful for yeast. It’s so, so convenient that we have a non-pathogenic bacteria which will eat pretty much any simple sugar, can be found on the surfaces of most fruits, and is essentially effortless to cultivate, which also does a bunch of useful things like leaven bread and make a bunch of delicious short chain fatty acids (both in bread and on their own, like in marmite) and make alcohol (although that one m…

Thankful for marmite :)
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