Saturday, December 4, 2010

Civilization - Ups and Downs

Have you heard about the antikythera mechanism? This was a sophisticated calculating device built around 150 BC. It was discovered in a ship wreck. Researchers say that nothing as sophisticated was developed until the fifteenth century...

Unfortunately, despite the brilliance of its inventors, this knowledge was lost for over a thousand years...technology - the engine of evolution - does not always move forward.

Imagine if this had led to the development of advanced time pieces and computers...1000 years ago...

In order to fulfill our destiny, we must evolve (as described in this blog). However, we must make the conscious choice to do this, and to move forward. Most people are content to stand still; sometimes we backslide. But we must commit to moving forward.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indeed!

Philosophy is the key, unfortunately human kind has shown a remarkable affinity for mysticism throughout history, as civilization itself only rose from the mud around 2500 BC and modern humans have existed for more than 40.000 years. The brief flash of a rational system started by the Greeks was set back for centuries by different kinds of mysticism, but most notably religion during the dark ages. We're still plagued by this, the modern mystics are the secular ones of the collectivist creeds like socialism and its many different flavors. Western philosophy is in the toilet, we need to restore rational thought as a philosophical ideal, but unfortunately most people still tend to be mystics, be it of spirit or muscle to use Ayn Rands terms.

Had the culture of rational thought prevailed uninterrupted from the greeks to our time we would be living in a society today that won't be seen for another thousand years or more. The universe would be ours.

- Frustrated Optimist

Source of Information said...

Thanks, Frustrated Optimist... unfortunately, it is a long road ahead; the first job is getting people to change orientation; the rest is relatively easy.

I had hoped that the shock of the mess in America would get people to start thinking differently, but this was wishful thinking. Being naive, I didn't anticipate that all major power blocks would fight desperately to maintain the status quo, rather than move forward into a new age. The only voice I hear discussing the future is Thomas Friedman, who seems to be largely ignored by power elites.

As I say in my blog, the pursuit of power and wealth is understandable but ultimately futile, as it opposes the will of the universe. Rich and powerful elites can hold back progress or can simply do nothing to further it, but the result has been the same throughout history - a stagnent, frozen society that does not advance towards immortality and ultimate knowledge.

Maybe, Optimist, we simply aren't ready, and it will take some enormous catastrophe to make people see the truth, if we are right.

Anonymous said...

Philosophical shifts take time. The upheavals that await will surely make a lot of people seek out other and new solutions than have been given them for so long by our socialist elites. America is faltering, and so is the rest of the western world. I believe fascism and national socialism will rise again in Europe, but America may take a different route back to its early roots, as seen by the massive rally to support the constitution by the teaparty. Unfortunately people have been taught to think collectively by our failed public education system, and that individualism is evil, even though it forms one of the pillars of the declaration of independence, namely the right to pursuit ones OWN happiness, not the happiness of society that only our elites can tell us what is. And so it is up to the rational individualists to try and win the battle, there will be an escalation in the coming years in the battle of ideas, and hopefully there will be a restoration of rational individualism. If this happens there will be a new renaissance, a rebirth of the enlightenment, and a new culture in which none of the nonsense that plagues America today will stand a chance. Gone will be the taking of resources away from the individual to fund ridiculous social programs and stupid
political monuments, and funding of corrupt foreign regimes. However, it will take a generation or two, what we're witnessing today is just the beginning, but I remain an optimist :)

- Frustrated Optimist

Source of Information said...

But it would be nice to have a society dedicated to progress, a society that is based on the principle that advancing human evolution is the ultimate good, rather than merely a source of profit.

Anonymous said...

You can't have a society based on such a principle, the defining feature must be individual freedom. In such a society each person is free to pursuit any goal they wish, and the best and brightest of men will rise to the top and take us to the stars. Only in such a society can one hope to achieve the kind of culture you and I are hoping for. If men do not want to achieve longevity and space travel it won't happen no matter how dedicated the state is to the task. The ingenuity and energy of free men is the only real force in human progress.

- Frustrated Optimist

Anonymous said...

This is a very interesting blog and I will continue to follow it with interest. I am digesting what I have read and will surely post a few comments along the way.
One thing I do notice nowadays is that the "truth" or the facts are so often denounced or set aside. Political correctness and cultural relativism have taken the wind from the sails of reasoned debate.
I totally agree with you both that following the Greeks would have ensured we evolved into better human beings. Mysticism and religion have side-tracked us and brought out an ugliness in us that only unquestioned and unreasoned thinking can produce.
David Holmes
http://australianzionist.blogspot.com/

 
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