It seems that the shorter a people's lifespan, the longer the things they create last.Ancient cultures produced buildings, goods, and even gods who have lasted for centuries.
Is this a trait of "primitive" cultures?
Or did they understand the importance of sustainability?
Vegas is beautiful - but will it last?Can it last?
Or is Vegas an example of our longer lives but meaningless culture?
Is Vegas an example of us at the apex of our evolution?
One only needs to look at buildings and products from only a century earlier to see this trend.
Cars, structures and products were built to last.
Now we fill our long and uninspired lives with things that look really good but that last only for a short while.
Everyday there is a new trend to follow, everyday there is a new upgrade to purchase, everyday there is a "new and improved" gadget that we seem to think we must have.
It seems that the longer our life expectancy the more things are planned to become obsolete.
13 comments:
The previous groups didn't understand money or didn't have capitalism. This game is set up for you to keep buying so if they built it to last then they would have the dilemma of the Strident Gum Commercials!
Our self worth is selfishly tied into what idols we build unto ourselves. While the previous cultures used these buildings, art and knowledge to show what their entire group was about.
I agree with freeman, that consumerist culture is not about building anything lasting because everything can be replaced-even people. Also technology brings about always looking to the future horizons and what the next big thing is without nurturing the elements that brought forth that technology.
The American love affair with longevity, beauty and youth--makes doing the work necessary to create and maintain a certain cultural longevity less of an attractive passport, especially since individual rights and the will of the self takes precedence over a group ethos.
The pyramids, et al were built over generations--several life times, because of those ruling leaders hubris but also continuity of culture. In addition, having a huge slavery force makes it that much easier to control and carve out what said rulers wanted to leave behind. Back then, unless you were some kind of supreme commander, most people were slaves or very poor and thus invisible and utterly disposable either as canon fodder, sex slaves, builders for the next monument—or baby makers. The only difference with today is that advanced countries are worrying about overpopulation and feel that they will have to compete with the poverty stricken for the resources that they have depleted to feed their own brand of modern hubris.
In addition, having a huge slavery force makes it that much easier to control and carve out what said rulers wanted to leave behind. Back then, unless you were some kind of supreme commander, most people were slaves or very poor and thus invisible and utterly disposable either as canon fodder, sex slaves, builders for the next monument—or baby makers.
exactly how-da-phuk you know that even a single word of this is true?
it took generations to build gothic cathedrals too, and NOBODY knows anything about the nature of the designers or the builders of those remarkable structures either.
to answer your question John, our time is up as soon as we produce machines capable of sequencing and directly engineering DNA and epigenetic structures.
What else is left for us to do at that juncture? We will have served our purpose...,
exactly how-da-phuk you know that even a single word of this is true?
******************************
Your vitriol aside-- The ancient world left some pretty decent records through their art, along with information unearthed by reputable archeologists et al, were able to paint a realistic portrait of that way of life so my presumption is not "how-da-phuk" out of left field.
The medieval cathedrals are a different story and were not the thrust of my comment. There is a still speculation as to who built them since they took centuries due to disease, wars, and lack of money, but those who carried out the main labor were serfs/slaves.
You are free to delete my comment if it doesn’t fall within your terms of use.
I should add that meticulous records were not kept during the dark ages in Europe preciesly becuase of war and disease that decimated millions--compared to the ancient world.
Your vitriol aside-- The ancient world left some pretty decent records through their art, along with information unearthed by reputable archeologists et al, were able to paint a realistic portrait of that way of life so my presumption is not "how-da-phuk" out of left field.
lol...,
your cecil b. demille programmed ruminatons aside, let's have a single solitary example "record" detailing how one of the pyramids at giza was built, by whom it was built, for what purpose it was built, and exactly when it was built?
{crickets....,}
I should add that meticulous records were not kept during the dark ages in Europe preciesly becuase of war and disease that decimated millions--compared to the ancient world.
which goetic cathedral was constructed during the "dark" ages?
that not-so-minor consideration aside, why no byzantine or moorish records of goetic construction projects?
when you get tired of googling and flailing "anonymous" please be so kind as to simply and directly admit the limitations of what you know.
1. wrt pyramids, you have no evidence of ancient "hubris" outside of an imaginary yul brynner depiction of the same.
2. wrt pyramids, you have no evidence of ancient slavery.
3. wrt pyramids, you have no evidence whatsoever of crushing poverty and dehumanization.
I have no objection to your characterization of modern, anglospheric, western societies, we each have access to reliable historical records and historical accounts of the activities of the same, however, these modern cultural constructs are as alien to the khemetic and the goetic as if these had been borne of an entirely different species.
those are the simple facts of the matter, and no amount of highly imaginative argumentation to the contrary is going to make up for the lack of supporting evidence for the claims you've made about the pyramid builders.
sorry....,
I'm not here to engage inflammatory debate or respond to your diatribe to prove that you are smarter than me. I didn't merely Google, but that's beside the point since I can't prove otherwise. I responded in a respectful manner to the original post and I attempted to respond despite the profanity, which proved a mistake, but somehow I am being attacked for that.
So you win.
Therefore I request that the blog administrator delete my comments from this post.
I will not repsond again.
@ Anon - Okay, I'll delete them (But how?).
rotflmbao...,
how a non-existent nullity commenting anonymously as "anonymous" can be attacked - defies comprehension.
there's no "you" to attack.
however, your ignorant and misleading commentary about imaginary tyrannical, enslaving pyramid builders did warrant refutation.
@ SeeNew - So it's our time to feed the moon when the Matrix comes true?
Are machines even needed,
or could we develop an organic device to do the same thing?
WE are organic device in question.
WE are machines with the possibility of becoming something more.
Because we've by-and-large failed to achieve the possibility of that something more, we've made ourselves obsolete because our mechanical existence has become organically unsustainable.
After we succeed in virtualizing our most advanced functions, i.e., implementing these capabilities in actual machines, we will shortly thereafter author our own extinction utilizing just some of the many artifacts we have contrived and stockpiled for this purpose. (at which point the moon will feast like never before)
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