Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful • Hacker News Board

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#151

Post by lnxg33k1 » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

jaclaz wrote: post #69

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…

To be picky, the timescale/locations of #23 is way off: Socrates (Athens= 470–399 BC Plato (Athens) 423-348 BC Aristotles (Athens) 384–322 BC Archimedes (of Syracuse) some 2-3 centuries later 287-212 BC Euclid (of Alexandria) was active in Alexandria around 300-270 BC Hyppocrates (of Kos) 470-360 BC Pytagoras (of Samos) 570–495 BC Thucydides (Athens) 460-400 BC Herodotus (of Halicarnassus) 484-425 BC Aesop (?) 620-56…

And Aristippus the inventor of capitalism? :D Or Antisthenes the one I use to see how the mental issues were valued in the past? :D

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#152

Post by watwut » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #109

jaclaz wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be picky, the timescale/locations of #23 is way off: Socrates (Athens= 470–399 BC Plato (Athens) 423-348 BC Aristotles (Athens) 384–322 BC Archimedes (of Syracuse) some 2-3 centuries later 287-212 BC Euclid (of Alexandria) was active in Alexandria around 300-270 BC Hyppocrates (of Kos) 470-360 BC Pytagoras (of Samos) 570–495 BC Thucydides (Athens) 460-400 BC Herodotus (of Halicarnassus) 484-425 BC Aesop (?) 620-56…

> 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…

What about saying that such conditions exists right now in contemporary world. We have great amount of thinkers and scientists and technologists and populists and cult leaders.

All of them producing and moving world forward. It is crowded competition, actually.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#153

Post by ask_b123 » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:03 PM UTC

pfdietz wrote: post #17

pfdietz wrote: post #9

"it’s surely better than the light of consciousness vanishing entirely when the sun eats the Earth in 7.5 billion years, no?" The Earth will lose its oxygen in about 1 billion years and undergo runaway warming in about 1.4 billion years. By the time the Earth is eaten by the Sun (if it is; mass loss by the Sun might prevent this), the Earth will have been sterilized for longer than it has currently existed.

Also, thankful that (despite the timescale for O(1) changes to O2 in the atmosphere being ~10 million years) not once since the Precambrian did O2 levels fall low enough to wipe out vertebrate life. Although I'm not sure it's really correct to be thankful for effects of observer selection bias.

I think it is perfectly correct. It is a great thing to be an observer and I'm thankful I can be subject to the effects of observer selection bias. :)

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#154

Post by esarbe » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:04 PM UTC

Hot shower in the morning.

Think about it; how many of your ancestors did have the option of having a hot shower every morning. Think about the labor involved!

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#155

Post by rags2riches » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:05 PM UTC

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #146

HWR_14 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Brewing typically involves boiling. That can kill a germ or two, or so I've read. That's true for brewing tea as well.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#156

Post by TimTheTinker » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:13 PM UTC

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.

Interesting, thanks!

Looks like he actually said something similar about wine though:

We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy! (from a 1779 letter from France to his friend André Morellet)

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#157

Post by riedel » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

HWR_14 wrote: post #139

victorcharlie wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, yeasts are unicellular fungus. I believe that fungus are the most important life-form in this planet by far . Pretty cool, huh? :)

Fungi, like plants and animals, are eukaryotes. However, eukaryotes and bacteria occupy the same rung in the taxonomic divisions (they are domains), so it's the more appropriate correction. The third domain is prokaryotes.

My wikipedia fact checking tells me that the third domain is archaea which together with the bacteria are prokaryotes. Or did I read sth wrong?

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#158

Post by 323 » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

ravi-delia wrote: post #142

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.

In 100 years it will probably be possible to genetically engineer humans with more or extended range pigments, which are sensitive to IR / UV.

Or maybe we'll just have bionic hyper-spectral eyes which plug directly into the optical nerve.

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#159

Post by cmehdy » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

makach wrote: post #143

Well that article made wonders with my preexisting depression

If you are receptive to lists of gratitude, it is worth noting that one of the many tools of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is to try to keep a journal of everyday gratitudes[0] (something like "write 3 a day in a journal" works, but other things like open prompts about "what are you grateful for this week?" can also work). Plenty of other examples out there[1] can help too.

Not everybody will enjoy doing that or benefit from it, but CBT overall is proving itself to be very valuable for people suffering from clinical depression, and if that tool from the toolbox doesn't resonate with someone it's always possible to look at other tools[2] too.

[0] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_...

[1] https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-journal-pdf/

[2] https://www.therapistaid.com/index.php/tools/cbt/none

Re: Underrated Reasons to Be Thankful

#160

Post by 323 » Thu, Nov 25, 2021, 8:19 PM UTC

mrtnmcc wrote: post #70

"Oh, and also that the universe exists at all" That's the one to keep coming back to. Could've been nothin.

Some, like Stephen Wolfram, say that the universe must exists, that non-existance is not possible.

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2021/04/why-does-the-uni...