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Massive growth all due to technology. Technological innovation gives rise to humanity at a rate almost uncontrollable
human population has increased fourteen-fold, production 240-fold, and energy consumption 115-fold.)
pedestrians,
Serfs
The typical premodern ruler gave money to priests, philosophers and poets in the hope that they would legitimise his rule and maintain the social order. He did not expect them to discover new medications, invent new weapons or stimulate economic growth.
Religion stagnates scientific growth
ignoramus – ‘we do not know’.
No concept, idea or theory is sacred and beyond challenge.
beautifully said
modern science aims to obtain new knowledge. It does so by gathering observations and then using mathematical tools to connect these observations into comprehensive theories.
Math is an essential tool to make scientific obeservations closer to being an objective truth
The Scientific Revolution has not been a revolution of knowledge. It has been above all a revolution of ignorance.
Accepting that we know nothing pushes us to discover more
When traditional mythologies and scriptures laid down general laws, these were presented in narrative rather than mathematical form.
Lack of objectivity
Henceforth, anyone who wished to understand and predict the movement of a cannonball or a planet simply had to make measurements of the object’s mass, direction and acceleration, and the forces acting on it.
‘knowledge is power’.
a-mortal, meaning that in the absence of fatal trauma their lives could be extended indefinitely).
scientific research can flourish only in alliance with some religion or ideology.
Credit enables us to build the present at the expense of the future.
‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God’ (Matthew 19:24).
Capital consists of money, goods and resources that are invested in production.
new religion
Capitalism is the new church of england and all US wars are essentially crusades for capitalism
The international community took this for granted and didn’t raise an eyebrow when a private company established an empire.
Amazon :)
Western governments were becoming a capitalist trade union.
Ardent capitalists tend to argue that capital should be free to influence politics, but politics should not be allowed to influence capital.
cult of the free market
They offer governments the same advice that Zen masters offer initiates: just do nothing.
Libertarians
the rise of European capitalism went hand in hand with the rise of the Atlantic slave trade.
The slave trade was not controlled by any state or government. It was a purely economic enterprise, organised and financed by the free market according to the laws of supply and demand.
Government Regulation ended the slave trade obviously with the cost of civil war
cannot ensure that profits are gained in a fair way, or distributed in a fair manner.
Free market inevitably leads to corruption
Some religions, such as Christianity and Nazism, have killed millions out of burning hatred. Capitalism has killed millions out of cold indifference coupled with greed.
The human species and the global economy may well keep growing, but many more individuals may live in hunger and want.
Stock markests and economic growth dont reflect the betterment of humanity, capitalism is inheritantly flawed
Economic growth also requires energy and raw materials, and these are finite. When and if they run out, the entire system will collapse.
3,766,800 exajoules of energy each year
The energy the sun produces in a year
Around the time that Homo sapiens was elevated to divine status by humanist religions, farm animals stopped being viewed as living creatures that could feel pain and distress, and instead came to be treated as machines.
Live stock
The tragedy of industrial agriculture is that it takes great care of the objective needs of animals, while neglecting their subjective needs.
Our once green and blue planet is becoming a concrete and plastic shopping centre.
Concrete jungle
There are about 80,000 giraffes in the world, compared to 1.5 billion cattle; only 200,000 wolves, compared to 400 million domesticated dogs; only 250,000 chimpanzees – in contrast to billions of humans.
Humankind really has taken over the world.
Survive and conquer
Today there are just shy of 7 billion Sapiens.
Millions of years of evolution have designed us to live and think as community members. Within a mere two centuries we have become alienated individuals. Nothing testifies better to the awesome power of culture.
Testiment of culture
Charles Dickens wrote of the French Revolution that ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’
Since 1945, no independent country recognised by the UN has been conquered and wiped off the map.
The threat of nuclear holocaust fosters pacifism;
Reminds me of the end of watchmen using the fear of the alien octopuss to encite peace
dictatorship of the proletariat.
Oh come on...thats not at all mArxist theory...dictatorship is an absolute poor choice of words for a society aimed at bettering the working majority
Capitalists
Dictatorships of the aristocrats
A person who just won the lottery or found new love and jumps from joy is not really reacting to the money or the lover. She is reacting to various hormones coursing through her bloodstream, and to the storm of electric signals flashing between different parts of her brain.
Happiness is just a sensation
Buying cars and writing novels do not change our biochemistry. They can startle it for a fleeting moment, but it is soon back to its set point.
Money cant buy happiness
serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin bring about and maintain a marriage.
Relationships rely on chemicals
Money, social status, plastic surgery, beautiful houses, powerful positions – none of these will bring you happiness. Lasting happiness comes only from serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.1
Again money cant buy happiness only prozac
As Nietzsche put it, if you have a why to live, you can bear almost any how.
Give life meaning even if life has no meaning
if planet Earth were to blow up tomorrow morning, the universe would probably keep going about its business as usual.
Existence is meaningless
any meaning that people ascribe to their lives is just a delusion.
Rather, the real root of suffering is this never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension, restlessness and dissatisfaction.
Life is suffering!
we might fiddle with Homo sapiens to such an extent that we would no longer be Homo sapiens.
Techno-evolution
