Hacker News Reader

Comment by alxhill | Hacker News Reader

It always amazes me to see how much people don't realise that we are unlike any other society that has existed on this planet before us. Globally connected and scientifically advanced in the most important ways makes the past a terrible prediction of the future. Exciting times.

View on HN

And yet arrogant enough to think that we're so much smarter and more advanced than those that came before or all other life forms we share this planet with.

BTW, not saying I disagree with you - just a counterpoint that can be made.

We might not be much smarter than those that came before us, but the shoulders we are standing on are much larger.

I think the key is to have the humility to realize that we haven't had another Euclid or Archimedes in modern times. Possibly Decartes or Tesla compare, but it's arguable. We've come so far and have such promise, and yet we have so much to lose. I would argue that far from being being doomed to repeating history because we forget, we have the possibility of being the first to wipe out our own race, either through inaction or brazenness.

I think we live in an age of such people. It was easy to stand out as a brilliant polymath when we didn't know ANYTHING. I think we have more geniuses than ever today, but there are so many of them that it no longer feels special. We are advancing our knowledge and technology with dizzying speeds, but we are so accustomed to it that we sit around and go, "Meh, there are no geniuses anymore".

Might want to rethink your heroes. Save Archimedes.

responding to sibling:

Another Euclid? Euclid is famous for compiling other people's research into an accessible textbook.

It's true I've seen complaints that universities don't consider compilation and explication of math important enough to count towards tenure anymore, but we're not exactly short on the personality type or the actual project.

Every society is unlike any other society. Most of them consider their particular way of life to be superior to their neighbors or predecessors. In some cases they have a very good case for thinking so, too: they are a vast empire, scientifically advanced, culturally sophisticated, prosperous to a level unheard of before - for example, the Islamic world in the middle ages, or the Roman empire.

Not to mention, free in many ways, protected in many ways, and with a whole lot more leisure than our ancestors ever got. Though these things seem to be dwindling ...

Those things always seem to be dwindling.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com