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The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

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Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#31

Post by hattmall »

sdwr wrote: post #17
hn_throawlles wrote: post #3

because occulted technology is sucking the life-force out of you and selling back to you some part of it as electricity. the trick is the fractional way they do this, only taking a 'negligible' fraction of each of the millions of humans... but it adds up, and what is worse, is that it's greedy... so the fraction keeps going up and up and up, sucking more and more down faster and faster but most will surely prefer the…

As an occasionally crazy person myself, I agree. Tried living without electricity for a few weeks in 2020, everything felt much more sharp and visceral. Feels like modern tech has a numbing, coddling effect. You can explain it however you want, but I experienced the same thing as this guy, that electricity "middlemans" my life force, trading the high and lows for predictability, BNW Soma-style.

I mean duh, how is that surprising? It's entirely about convience, entertainment and comfort.

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#32

Post by namaria »

JohnFen wrote: post #27
namaria wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What portion of humanity do you think actually move that much?

The majority, or reasonably close to it, I imagine. The average American walks about 2 miles per day (about half what is considered the minimum recommended amount -- and half of what the average American child walks), and I rather suspect that most of the world walks more than the average american.

You do realize 2 is much less then 10?

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#33

Post by yamtaddle »

hattmall wrote: post #28
JohnFen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they reportedly looked down on farming and agrarian societies. I think a really solid case can be made that agriculture was the biggest mistake humans have made.

Yeah, starving sounds awesome, hate that so many people will miss out on it.

One of the more notable features of the economy of agricultural Europe before the introduction of New World crops was regular mass starvation.

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#34

Post by wyldberry »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #13
wyldberry wrote: post #7

It's been interesting to watch the health and fitness space around brain health and correlations with diet and exercise. People seem to finally be converging around some common truths that have been known for thousands of years. I All roads seem to be pointing towards finding a balance between what we are evolved for as a species and modern life.

I'm hopeful that with a lot of these realizations, we change our habitats to be more in tune with our nature. Something like walking meetings or setting time aside to move. Humans are incredibly intelligent, however intelligence doesn't mean we should forget our ancestral roots. We are meant to move; sitting in offices and eating junk food while getting information blasted into our brains from glowing rectangles is a…

Sounds better than the 40k future.

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#35

Post by shane_b »

ben_w wrote: post #8
wyldberry wrote: post #7

It's been interesting to watch the health and fitness space around brain health and correlations with diet and exercise. People seem to finally be converging around some common truths that have been known for thousands of years. I All roads seem to be pointing towards finding a balance between what we are evolved for as a species and modern life.

We didn't know anything about diet thousands of years ago beyond "this tastes nice" and "I'm hungry", we merely endured starvation, prions, and scurvy… or died because we couldn't endure it. Sometimes we just got lucky with good fishing or fertile farmland, but we were never in control. I'm not confident enough about the history of exercise to make an equivalent claim for that.

the history of exercise is just living. not that long ago, just living required constant movement. in my own childhood i had to do a ton of labor that was just living, not a job.

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#36

Post by mise_en_place »

hn_throawlles wrote: post #3

because occulted technology is sucking the life-force out of you and selling back to you some part of it as electricity. the trick is the fractional way they do this, only taking a 'negligible' fraction of each of the millions of humans... but it adds up, and what is worse, is that it's greedy... so the fraction keeps going up and up and up, sucking more and more down faster and faster but most will surely prefer the…

Advertising did the same too, as did TV and radio. Attention is a finite and scarce resource, that’s why companies have always targeted it.

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#37

Post by voisin »

sdwr wrote: post #17
hn_throawlles wrote: post #3

because occulted technology is sucking the life-force out of you and selling back to you some part of it as electricity. the trick is the fractional way they do this, only taking a 'negligible' fraction of each of the millions of humans... but it adds up, and what is worse, is that it's greedy... so the fraction keeps going up and up and up, sucking more and more down faster and faster but most will surely prefer the…

As an occasionally crazy person myself, I agree. Tried living without electricity for a few weeks in 2020, everything felt much more sharp and visceral. Feels like modern tech has a numbing, coddling effect. You can explain it however you want, but I experienced the same thing as this guy, that electricity "middlemans" my life force, trading the high and lows for predictability, BNW Soma-style.

I would be very interested to hear more about your weeks of living without electricity. I assume this wasn’t just going camping but rather you had the remaining components of modern life (running water, toilet) but by no electricity did you also not have a fridge?

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#38

Post by droopyEyelids »

namaria wrote: post #32
JohnFen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority, or reasonably close to it, I imagine. The average American walks about 2 miles per day (about half what is considered the minimum recommended amount -- and half of what the average American child walks), and I rather suspect that most of the world walks more than the average american.

You do realize 2 is much less then 10?

only 4.5% of the world's population lives in the USA

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#39

Post by namaria »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #38
namaria wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize 2 is much less then 10?

only 4.5% of the world's population lives in the USA

I don't see how that points to a global average of walking distance that would make 10 miles a trivial amount.

Re: The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain

#40

Post by thefaux »

JohnFen wrote: post #27
namaria wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What portion of humanity do you think actually move that much?

The majority, or reasonably close to it, I imagine. The average American walks about 2 miles per day (about half what is considered the minimum recommended amount -- and half of what the average American child walks), and I rather suspect that most of the world walks more than the average american.

Do you have a citation for that number? I'd be somewhat surprised if the median walking distance is actually that high. Walking two miles would take most people 30-50 minutes depending on various factors. Perhaps this reflects my bubble but I live in a relatively walking friendly city and most people I know will look for some other form of transportation if the distance is longer than a mile. 10 miles a day is a good amount of walking. It will take most people 2.5-4 hours depending on fitness and terrain. That is a lot of walking to do every single day and again I'd be surprised if this was the world norm even if Americans are a particularly sedentary outlier.

Personally, I prioritize walking and go for a long recreational walk almost every day. Still, I have only averaged about 6 miles per day over the last three years and I walk far more than anyone I know.

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