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Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

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Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#101

Post by denton-scratch »

rektide wrote: post #61
achr2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I am misinterpreting the tone, but this is an incongruous belief. Nothing about a chaotic system precludes a *trend* in that system. I think it is quite objectively clear that while extremely chaotic, the trend of recent human impact on the earth is an equally extreme destruction of natural habitats.

AWOBMOLG was more about mythologization of tech as oracular & all powerful, leading us to think that we can handle anything. Techno-utopianism. A lot of the series is about the belief that we could, with technologies predictive powers & neoliberal market ethos... And how it doesn't pan out. We have "New Economies" greatly bloom in the world. And about how instead we got the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We thought we…

> Curtis rarely comes out and makes broad conclusions

Indeed; his films (and their titles!) are oblique and suggestive. They are about politics, but it's very hard to discern his own political posture clearly. I wonder what kind of a man he would be to meet.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#102

Post by nradov »

achr2 wrote: post #53
tsunamifury wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adam Curtis’ “All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace” theorized that that emerging chaotic state mixed with our recent technological emergence has lead us to believe we can “contain the chaos” of this highly sophisticated system. He quite amazingly illustrates over 3 hours that we falsely believe that earth is an unchanging systematic snow globe rather than a chaotic system. And the more we try to control it, t…

Maybe I am misinterpreting the tone, but this is an incongruous belief. Nothing about a chaotic system precludes a *trend* in that system. I think it is quite objectively clear that while extremely chaotic, the trend of recent human impact on the earth is an equally extreme destruction of natural habitats.

Humans have destroyed natural habitats, but at the same time some species have come to thrive in the unnatural habitats we have created. Think of pigeons, rats, cockroaches, coyotes, racoons, etc. Life expands to fill every niche where enough energy is available for survival.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#103

Post by ru552 »

drewfis wrote: post #98

What if Fungi were the key to our technological advancement? If we could make fungal computers we could become a bio-technical race like Species 8472 in Star Trek Voyager Season 3 Episode 26.

I watched a documentary that proposed eating mushrooms, and the ensuing hallucinations that happened, as the cause of our Neanderthal ancestors developing free thought and the underpinning of creativity that lead to tool development.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#104

Post by bheadmaster »

carapace wrote: post #75
bheadmaster wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand why you said it. It just seems that the general atmosphere of the internet is that of self-censorship and fear. It just doesn't sit well with me. The intolerance of different views is driving the hostile and divisive atmosphere in the social media. Let's say there's a person who's really anti-climate change. How is that person supposed to change their mind, if they get attacked every time they voice thei…

I'm not saying it's right or useful, but I think a lot of people (especially young people) are just really sick of climate change denial-ism. I know I am. I'm nearly half a century old and the handwriting has been on the wall my whole life. I don't want to quash discussion (interesting and informative discussion is the main reason I use HN) but, yeah, it's not a bad thing to differentiate yourself from the climate de…

Being really sick of a certain group of people just because they hold different beliefs than you is exactly what causes the division.

Why are you sick of them? That's a fairly strong emotion. Do you hold resentment because they are the ones who are going to bring the apocalypse to the world? Is it annoyance from hearing too many incorrect opinions? Or something else entirely?

Honest question - why are you, personally, sick of them? I'd really like to know.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#106

Post by denton-scratch »

larkost wrote: post #90
inpdx wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No other species has had this great of an impact on that many species. If we were wise and thoughtful, collectively we could both advance ourselves and allow the diversity to continue. So it's a shame we aren't.

Arguably cyanobacteria beat us to the punch a bit less than 2.5 billion years ago in the Great Oxidation Event, when they killed off much/most of the other life by producing a lot of oxygen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

The lifeforms they killed off were not very diverse, and not very interesting - mostly bacteria.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#107

Post by Loughla »

bheadmaster wrote: post #99
Loughla wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legitimately, do you believe that people posting on internet forums is an effective means of getting someone to change their minds? My take is that by the time the poster goes through the effort to post, they have adopted [insert view here] into their personal belief system; they're not seeking answers. Don't most studies show that fact based arguments only cause people with faulty beliefs to dig in further?

> Legitimately, do you believe that people posting on internet forums is an effective means of getting someone to change their minds? Some percentage of them? Yes. Unfortunately, there's no way to know when that happens, so it's very easy to assume it doesn't. > My take is that by the time the poster goes through the effort to post, they have adopted [insert view here] into their personal belief system; they're not s…

>If what you're saying is true, what's the logic behind censoring people?

Because at some point, arguing the same topic over and over and over is exhausting. The impact of greenhouse gases and climate change, for example, has been established as 'a thing' for my entire adult life. And yet people still want to argue about it even existing.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#108

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

tsunamifury wrote: post #2

I think it’s wild and deeply inspiring to imagine how the surface of the earth had radically different forms over billions of years. Huge landscapes of unrotted dead plants. Then massive landscapes of fungus and decomposing bacteria breaking that down into dirt. And on and on. I think it is wise to understand that earth has been through many eras and is not as homeostatic as our narrowly imagined “natural” state we s…

> And I am not trying to build an anti climate change argument

Oh definitely, Sagan forbid someone cast doubt on the Consensus and the Science!

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#109

Post by bheadmaster »

Loughla wrote: post #107
bheadmaster wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Legitimately, do you believe that people posting on internet forums is an effective means of getting someone to change their minds? Some percentage of them? Yes. Unfortunately, there's no way to know when that happens, so it's very easy to assume it doesn't. > My take is that by the time the poster goes through the effort to post, they have adopted [insert view here] into their personal belief system; they're not s…

>If what you're saying is true, what's the logic behind censoring people? Because at some point, arguing the same topic over and over and over is exhausting. The impact of greenhouse gases and climate change, for example, has been established as 'a thing' for my entire adult life. And yet people still want to argue about it even existing.

> arguing the same topic over and over and over is exhausting

Is that, by itself, a good enough reason to censor people?

Nobody is forcing anybody to argue.

Re: Long before trees overtook the land, Earth was covered by prototaxites (2013)

#110

Post by xdavidliu »

keenmaster wrote: post #57
_0ffh wrote: post #36

So, Vvardenfell from Morrowind?

Yes I thought of Sadrith Mora. Top tier surreal video game landscape

The area around Pelagiad and Dren Plantation had way more giant mushrooms than any of the Telvanni settlements
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