| How weird is society? 10:38 - Jun 21 with 6077 views | _clive_baker_ |
Like when you take a step back and think about it. I was sat in my garden this morning having a coffee, that's probably not that odd. In nature, drinking some ground coffee beans mixed with hot water and a bit of milk, consumed from a ceramic vessel.
Then a plane flies over, RAF. A fricking metal can carrying people through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour. A plane designed for warfare as well. Mad innit, that we even have planes, and that we need to make some to help stop other people killing us. What a world when the concept of a 'defence budget' is so normal.
Inside to my office, open a laptop to count some numbers for a company who sells some stuff. Do that for 40 hours of my week so I can get some money to give to another company who sells some stuff that I want or need. Still feeling slightly annoyed that 11 chumps from my country couldn't kick a ball in a net more times than 11 chumps from another country.
The whole thing is weird innit. |  | | |  |
| How weird is society? on 14:13 - Jun 21 with 1371 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| How weird is society? on 14:01 - Jun 21 by _clive_baker_ |
The speed of that change is what staggers me. Relatively speaking 100 odd years is feck all, but to consider the seismic changes in that period is mind blowing. I guess the life expectancy of humans is probably a big factor in why that isn't always felt more impactfully. |
I don't feel like I'm that old (51) but I can remember not having computers and mobile phones... let alone laptops, ipads, smartphones (with cameras), sat nav, the internet and social media, streaming services, microwave ovens, air friers, digital tickets, working from home, electric cars that plug in by the road, an app that tells you when the bus is coming, next day delivery of anything you can imagine, smart speakers, black holes being real and not just sci-fi... [Post edited 21 Jun 2024 14:14]
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| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| How weird is society? on 14:18 - Jun 21 with 1357 views | blueasfook |
| How weird is society? on 12:46 - Jun 21 by Cafe_Newman |
Perhaps one day we'll evolve to the level of cats. They catch birds without flying, catch mice without tunnelling and eat fish without swimming - without cutlery - and still look dignified.
Scientific advancement is for species that need it. |
They've also got humans trained to look after them, whilst the stupid humans think they are the cats "owners". |  |
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| How weird is society? on 14:30 - Jun 21 with 1316 views | StokieBlue |
| How weird is society? on 13:45 - Jun 21 by The_Flashing_Smile |
I often think about how you'd describe things like TVs, lightbulbs, phones, flight, the internet and toasters to Henry VIII. |
It's not really any different to how someone in 500 years would try and explain stuff to us.
I suspect Henry would love a toaster though.
SB |  | | |
| How weird is society? on 14:35 - Jun 21 with 1303 views | tazdac |
| How weird is society? on 14:30 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
It's not really any different to how someone in 500 years would try and explain stuff to us.
I suspect Henry would love a toaster though.
SB |
The amount of times he married he’d have a few of them as wedding gifts! :o) |  | | |
| How weird is society? on 14:40 - Jun 21 with 1289 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| How weird is society? on 14:30 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
It's not really any different to how someone in 500 years would try and explain stuff to us.
I suspect Henry would love a toaster though.
SB |
Yeah, which I also find mind-boggling. What those things might be, we can't even imagine. At least with the stuff now, looking back, we know what it is. | |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| How weird is society? on 14:42 - Jun 21 with 1266 views | WeWereZombies |
| How weird is society? on 14:40 - Jun 21 by The_Flashing_Smile |
Yeah, which I also find mind-boggling. What those things might be, we can't even imagine. At least with the stuff now, looking back, we know what it is. |
It will be jet packs...and potholes being repaired. |  |
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| How weird is society? on 14:44 - Jun 21 with 1241 views | leitrimblue |
| How weird is society? on 14:42 - Jun 21 by WeWereZombies |
It will be jet packs...and potholes being repaired. |
I really want my grandkids to visit me on hoover boards and jet packs. |  | | |
| How weird is society? on 14:45 - Jun 21 with 1239 views | Swansea_Blue |
| How weird is society? on 14:13 - Jun 21 by The_Flashing_Smile |
I don't feel like I'm that old (51) but I can remember not having computers and mobile phones... let alone laptops, ipads, smartphones (with cameras), sat nav, the internet and social media, streaming services, microwave ovens, air friers, digital tickets, working from home, electric cars that plug in by the road, an app that tells you when the bus is coming, next day delivery of anything you can imagine, smart speakers, black holes being real and not just sci-fi... [Post edited 21 Jun 2024 14:14]
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And despite not having any of that stuff when you were younger, humanity had still put men on the moon before you were born.
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| How weird is society? on 15:14 - Jun 21 with 1197 views | itfcjoe |
| How weird is society? on 14:13 - Jun 21 by The_Flashing_Smile |
I don't feel like I'm that old (51) but I can remember not having computers and mobile phones... let alone laptops, ipads, smartphones (with cameras), sat nav, the internet and social media, streaming services, microwave ovens, air friers, digital tickets, working from home, electric cars that plug in by the road, an app that tells you when the bus is coming, next day delivery of anything you can imagine, smart speakers, black holes being real and not just sci-fi... [Post edited 21 Jun 2024 14:14]
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I'm under 40 and when I went to uni used to have to walk up to the main building with a USB stick to download lecture notes as the dial up was so terrible |  |
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| How weird is society? on 15:47 - Jun 21 with 1145 views | Illinoisblue |
Off on a slight LeTissier tangent, how is it we haven’t been back to the moon in over 50 years? With all the technological advances since then we should be up there every week. Wass gorn on buh? |  |
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| How weird is society? on 15:56 - Jun 21 with 1129 views | _clive_baker_ |
| How weird is society? on 15:47 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
Off on a slight LeTissier tangent, how is it we haven’t been back to the moon in over 50 years? With all the technological advances since then we should be up there every week. Wass gorn on buh? |
Yet many people have been to Area 51 since. Makes you think... | | | |
| How weird is society? on 16:01 - Jun 21 with 1115 views | Mercian |
| How weird is society? on 10:57 - Jun 21 by _clive_baker_ |
Lol. I'm starting to wonder if it was spiked, if anything I'm generally an under thinker, not sure what's got in to me today. |
Itfckenty warned against eating mushrooms from your garden. Don't put them in your coffee either. |  | | |
| How weird is society? on 16:16 - Jun 21 with 1083 views | StokieBlue |
| How weird is society? on 15:47 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
Off on a slight LeTissier tangent, how is it we haven’t been back to the moon in over 50 years? With all the technological advances since then we should be up there every week. Wass gorn on buh? |
In reality it was very expensive and there wasn't much value in going back at the time.
Now that science and technology have moved on it's much more viable to do it cheaply and regularly and there is a scramble to get various resources that exist there (such as Helium 3).
Also, the aliens that live there warned us off.
SB | | | |
| How weird is society? on 16:27 - Jun 21 with 1062 views | bluelagos |
It is weird but it is also pretty awesome/amazing.
We have moved on from living in caves and popping out to hunt from wild animals for dinner over a fire, to where we are today. In some ways it all feels chaotic - especially when you look at cities like Lagos.
But then you think about it - approx 20m live there and most get fed, not many are hunting for their grub although a few will be hungry for sure. Farmers a few hundred miles away grow something and then there's the challenge of getting that to those who need it. The grub is packaged - sometimes in small units (like tins) but often it is just transported in huge sacks, see rice, yams and any number of spices etc.
It gets moved to markets where people come with money and barter for what they need. To get that money they mostly work, some making things, some moving things, some providing a service. They get paid and buy the grub they need.
And that's the easy bit - to get to work - in a city like Lagos 3-5 million (fiik) travel into the centre every day. The vast majority have no cars, so others import unwanted vans from Europe and put them to use as taxis/buses. The people crowd onto them for the journey into the centre where the buses crowd the public roads. (Google Oshodi market if you want to see a sight!)
So you have an army of young lads on Chinese motorbikes moving people from their homes to the main routes in (There's only 3), an army of buses and then once in town, these people trek to their work.
Utter chaos yet it functions, every single day, quieter at the weekend but it still happens. Then on a Sunday people make their way to Church or the Mosque whilst a few non believers head to the beaches. And someone turns up offering you fresh fish or chicken which they'll bar-b-q for you for a small fee. Cold drinks, shade and a hut to hire - as you enjoy the sound of the atlantic waves on the beach.
Weird, fck yeah. But properly amazing too when you look under the skin at the wonder of how we get things done in the most demanding of scenarios. Needs must, kids to feed, no prizes for sitting around, we individually and collectively do amazing things every single day :-) |  |
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| How weird is society? on 16:41 - Jun 21 with 1048 views | Clapham_Junction |
On the warfare point – was discussing this with a friend yesterday – how much more advanced would society be now if we weren't so warlike/quarrelsome. |  | | |
| How weird is society? on 16:47 - Jun 21 with 1033 views | BloomBlue |
Isn't feeling annoyed about 11 men kicking a piece of leather around a pitch even weirder?
Mrs Bloom always thinks football is the weirdest of human factors. Her moan is not only do people watching it shout, scream, sing, moan they pay to it. Plus (and worse) in some situations they get into fights about it, and occasionally people get seriously hurt during those fights. As Mrs Bloom will say, its mad, why the he'll would any human get so upset over a ball being kicked around that we need the police to defend other people from violence |  | | |
| How weird is society? on 16:52 - Jun 21 with 1025 views | StokieBlue |
| How weird is society? on 16:41 - Jun 21 by Clapham_Junction |
On the warfare point – was discussing this with a friend yesterday – how much more advanced would society be now if we weren't so warlike/quarrelsome. |
That is an interesting debate because one could make a good case that a lot of technology was invented because we are so warlike.
SB | | | |
| How weird is society? on 16:57 - Jun 21 with 1019 views | bluelagos |
| How weird is society? on 16:52 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
That is an interesting debate because one could make a good case that a lot of technology was invented because we are so warlike.
SB |
Lots of the logistics stuff in Operational Research was developed in WW2 when the American army needed to move stuff from A to B as efficiently as possible.
We would have got there eventually am sure, but the war definitely speeded up our learning in that field. | |
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| How weird is society? on 17:03 - Jun 21 with 1011 views | WeWereZombies |
| How weird is society? on 16:52 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
That is an interesting debate because one could make a good case that a lot of technology was invented because we are so warlike.
SB |
This argument assumes that a technological framework for life on Earth is superior to other systems of knowledge. | |
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| How weird is society? on 17:09 - Jun 21 with 997 views | StokieBlue |
| How weird is society? on 17:03 - Jun 21 by WeWereZombies |
This argument assumes that a technological framework for life on Earth is superior to other systems of knowledge. |
Afternoon Zombers.
I am not really sure what you mean, can you expand?
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| How weird is society? on 17:20 - Jun 21 with 976 views | WeWereZombies |
| How weird is society? on 17:09 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
Afternoon Zombers.
I am not really sure what you mean, can you expand?
SB |
I could take a number of approaches, for example the precautionary principle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle ) could be applied far more stringently and would probably result in a more beneficial environment for all life but not necessarily for all human beings. More radically, if 'off grid' lifestyles became the norm then human beings would probably become more resourceful and lead more fulfilling lives, except for the ones in need of particular medication and medical equipment who would perish. The cost / benefit calculus in these arguments are perilously complex and unlikely to be agreed upon but my overriding point is about making rash assumptions when no large scale control is available to adequately assess outcomes. | |
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| How weird is society? on 17:21 - Jun 21 with 972 views | chicoazul |
Well that’s just like your opinion man. |  |
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| How weird is society? on 17:24 - Jun 21 with 967 views | WeWereZombies |
| How weird is society? on 17:21 - Jun 21 by chicoazul |
Well that’s just like your opinion man. |
That coffee held the whole garden together... | |
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| How weird is society? on 17:25 - Jun 21 with 959 views | Illinoisblue |
| How weird is society? on 16:16 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
In reality it was very expensive and there wasn't much value in going back at the time.
Now that science and technology have moved on it's much more viable to do it cheaply and regularly and there is a scramble to get various resources that exist there (such as Helium 3).
Also, the aliens that live there warned us off.
SB |
All that new moon cheese just waiting to be discovered. What are we waiting for? | |
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| How weird is society? on 17:43 - Jun 21 with 933 views | leitrimblue |
| How weird is society? on 16:52 - Jun 21 by StokieBlue |
That is an interesting debate because one could make a good case that a lot of technology was invented because we are so warlike.
SB |
Even if you look at our early technologies, stone (flint), bronze and Iron the most common artifacts discovered are
often weaponry.
There so common compared to other artifact types that they are commonly used to give dates to archaeological sites and features. | | | |
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