Just watch it.



Why is my gut feeling that this means we're doomed? I think it's supposed to make me feel all warm and fuzzy..?

I can't say that anything in that video was particularly surprising to me. I don't even think it's that alarming either.

I wonder what the supposedly scary statistics of progress would've been in 1011? I'm not saying there isn't some troubling numbers and problems in our world, or that nothing has changed, I just think it's more food for thought than alarming.

I think the world was a lot more complicated in 1011 than I think you think it was. The present is just the inevitable result of discovering a few tricks. It's not like some arduous climb out of prehistory to get where we are now; more like a dam breaking.

Depends on who you mean by "we." The Indians and Chinese seem to be doing pretty well. Their kids are the future of America, after all. Sadly, your kids aren't. Maybe that's why you feel doomed.

I think the video supposed to make you sit back and think "whoa" until you realize that basically all of the information being created is the same gossipy garbage that people have been firehosing at each other for the past 50,000 years. So really the video is just nerd porn about people investing in things we think are nerdy but are actually tools as foundational for modern life as shovels or hatchets were in antiquity.

The Internet: a most impressive means through which humans convey gossip, influence each other to buy useless junk, and look at boobies.

Oh, and like 1% of the time they use it to discuss ideas that have been discussed at length before in literature more eloquently.

That's oddly comforting to believe, actually—that none of this will amount to anything grand—but I don't think that's quite fair.

Progress means we are doomed?
Let's all go back to living in caves then.

You seem to think progress is something easy to define. Tell me how you are so sure that this is progress.

You also seem to think a majority of humanity 'lived in caves,' which seems ridiculous to me, and you have no proof anyway. I also fail to see the negative correlation between cave-living and 'progress.' Caves are more energy efficient than the best structures.

Hell, I'm no Luddite. But I can see that too much personally-irrelevant information causes distress, (for example). I don't really need to know about disasters in foreign countries I can't do jack squat about.

No, it's the other way around. But you were close.
Progress is infant mortality dropping, average lifespan increasing, humans contributing more to society, learning to communicate and think critically, things that were the sole right of the higher classes in days past.

Not to say they aren't still, it's just "the upper class" is a few billion people. There's still untold numbers starving in africa and asia. Will you tell a woman that her child dying of malaria is the proper way for the world to be, that disinfectants and antibacterials and pesticides are somehow immoral because a glowing man in the sky didn't directly hand them to us?

-Also, the video description is full of lulz New World Order crap. Y'know, all told I think this New World Order sounds pretty nifty. I'd like to be able to travel to Europe without a passport or worry about war, wouldn't you?

Okay.. infants rarely die and humans routinely live to be 120. Now what?


What does this mean? It's nebulous, and I fail to see how I am stunting 'progress' if I decide to be reclusive.



Heh, two things people in the "first" world or "elite" circles think they have a monopoly on. They are sorely mistaken, of course.



Who exactly are you talking to? Because if it's me, everything you've said here is assumed based on stances to which I am contrary.



Considering the same banks have funded both sides of most conflicts, I really doubt a 'new world order' would stop war.

There is no "now what", that alone is a sign of progress.


Hey man, if you don't want to be part of the world, you don't have to be. We'll just progress on without you.


i no rite


The line about caves being energy efficient lead me to believe you were hideously misinformed about how awesome it is to live in a hunter-gatherer society. My bad.


Well yeah, but that's an actual military industrial complex at work, not the shadowy Omega-Government that the guy who uploaded this video talks about in his video description. I know people like this, I used to hang out with them all the time.

Also, events occurring in other nations do affect you, even if you can't really affect them back. You might be out buying groceries one day and stop at the gas station, only to stare in shock at the price of unleaded. Why is it so high? Because of terrible things happening in countries far away. Hell, my bank account got directly ****ed up because of the Japanese earthquake. The whole world's a pond and if you don't know where the rocks are falling, then the ripples will catch you off guard.

-Wow, I should save that, that made me sound all deep and cool.

All this talk about "progress" is completely arbitrary, no? Everything you said about progress is based upon the assumption that humans are good. We are good or us maybe, but I really have a hard time thinking about us any differently than a few spots of bacteria in a petri dish. I'm not a human hater however, because I don't claim to be a proponent of all that is good. It's just evolution of society.

I've seen the video before & am only chiming in to say that the Fatboy Slim track brought back some good memories.

Agreed. On the topic of this and minds being blown, I would really recommend:
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

There's a two-part documentary that was released based on it as well which was an excellent watch.

Progress simply means moving forward. Moving in a GOOD direction or not is completely subjective.

To quote one of my favorite characters of all time:

'Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.'

Seconded.

Never read the book but I've been following the research behind it.

But immigrants and their anchor babies take our jooooobbssss

I honestly cannot tell if you are just completely joking or if you actually think this is the segment of the 'immigrant' population you think people are bothered about...

Never underestimate the stupidity of people who can't get work even though they're "qualified."

http://www.hireamericansfirst.org/members/h1b_harm_report.aspx

How many RSS feeds stream into your brain to let you keep up with so much disparate ****?

This is an interesting presentation of stuff that shouldn't be news to anyone...

all RSS feeds

Awesome, thanks for posting (about the OP).

What exactly are these jobs it refers to that weren't around in 2004?

Mind = blown

Haven't you heard Jon'C is actually a computer he has access to all rss feeds at all times.

That video would have been a lot better if it hadn't used the same tired old Fatboy Slim song that we've all heard a million times already...

If the purpose of government is to make things better for Americans, then outsourcing should be illegal or heavily taxed. I'm not talking about illegal immigrants. Outsourcing takes money out of the American economy and puts it into a foreign one. Illegal immigrants spend most of their money here. Unfortunately, the American worker can't compete with outsourced labor because of minimum wage laws, and the high amount of regulation in this country that drives up the cost of living. The government's attempts to make everything great here has actually caused this problem.

But, at the end of the day, the purpose of the government isn't to make things better for us; it's to make things better for politicians.