25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age • Hacker News Board

Re: 25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age

#21

Post by die_sekte » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:14 AM UTC

joh6nn wrote: post #19

asdfj843lkdjs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sense? Your post makes none.

it does, but i probably should have provided more detail. as a genre, sci-fi loves to explore immortality. i have a crappy memory for titles, so i can't give you specific books or stories to look for, but most of the big names have taken a look at the problem: Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, etc. None of them have viewed it in a positive light. we shouldn't take their word on it as final, of course, but like all sci-fi,…

Clarke has positive/neutral immortality in the City and the Stars.

Re: 25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age

#22

Post by joh6nn » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 3:55 AM UTC

die_sekte wrote: post #21

joh6nn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it does, but i probably should have provided more detail. as a genre, sci-fi loves to explore immortality. i have a crappy memory for titles, so i can't give you specific books or stories to look for, but most of the big names have taken a look at the problem: Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, etc. None of them have viewed it in a positive light. we shouldn't take their word on it as final, of course, but like all sci-fi,…

Clarke has positive/neutral immortality in the City and the Stars.

a fair point, but he also has it somewhat negatively in Childhood's End.

edit: having just looked it up, i'm actually not sure i've read the City and the Stars: i may be remembering a different story entirely. regardless, Childhood's End was rather bleak in that regard.

Re: 25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age

#23

Post by TeMPOraL » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 10:30 AM UTC

asdfj843lkdjs wrote: post #16

shod wrote: post #11

25 reasons I know Mark Peter Davis isn't living in the stone age: 1. He drives a car. 2. He owns keys, cash, and cards. 3. He receives medical care. 4. His life expectancy is above 35 years. 5. He owns a computer. 6. His basic survival doesn't automatically involve exercise. 7. He has alternatives to walking when traveling long distances. 8. Universities exist in his time. 9. He sleeps on a mattress. 10. Medicine exi…

Life expectancy was only 35 because of infant mortality. Once you grew up, people tended to live almost as long as we do today. And medical care is not by any means new. Cesarean section is named after Cesar, and it was a well established medical practice before he was born. He sleeps on a mattress. Well golly, call the patent office, tell them to shut down and go home, we can't possibly improve on this. Honestly, wh…

> Life expectancy was only 35 because of infant mortality. Once you grew up, people tended to live almost as long as we do today.

Ok, so why we calculate it this way? Shouldn't we look at median instead of an average? Or average on data between lower and upper quartile? I thought that quartiles exist exactly for those kind of situations...

Re: 25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age

#24

Post by foljs » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:55 PM UTC

asdfj843lkdjs wrote: post #16

shod wrote: post #11

25 reasons I know Mark Peter Davis isn't living in the stone age: 1. He drives a car. 2. He owns keys, cash, and cards. 3. He receives medical care. 4. His life expectancy is above 35 years. 5. He owns a computer. 6. His basic survival doesn't automatically involve exercise. 7. He has alternatives to walking when traveling long distances. 8. Universities exist in his time. 9. He sleeps on a mattress. 10. Medicine exi…

Life expectancy was only 35 because of infant mortality. Once you grew up, people tended to live almost as long as we do today. And medical care is not by any means new. Cesarean section is named after Cesar, and it was a well established medical practice before he was born. He sleeps on a mattress. Well golly, call the patent office, tell them to shut down and go home, we can't possibly improve on this. Honestly, wh…

> Life expectancy was only 35 because of infant mortality. Once you grew up, people tended to live almost as long as we do today.

This is wrong. Infant mortality was high, but life expectancy was low, regardless --i.e the median maximum age was low too.

Re: 25 Reasons Why I Think “Modern” Times Are The Stone Age

#25

Post by foljs » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:57 PM UTC

jterce wrote: post #14

I think I'm glad we're still in the stone ages. I would break that list up into two distinct categories, the first of which I would define as positive (beautiful?) aspects of being human. Being Human, positive --------------------- I age. I sleep. I will die. I walk places. I educate my child. I think for my computer. I put effort into exercise. I make purchase decisions. I make investment decisions. I meet people by…

What's bad about the existence of foreign languages (I guess the "problem" above is not the knowing of it)?

Should everything be homogenized?