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Jared Diamond on Agriculture: The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

Link link by NomadSoul on 23 June 2008, tagged as agriculture, huntergatherer, archaeology, anthropology, and economics

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond Jared Diamond]] argues that for almost 99.6% of human history, we lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The adoption of agriculture came in the remaining 0.4%, and brought with it war, famine, and inequality. Wa

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Just Beginning by gnifyus :: NR7

So, thinking positively, a lot of things mess up a little in the very beginning. If we are only .0.4% into our new phase of things, we have a lot of time to get things right in time. One can't call it " 11:54 p. m." as the article says, because that assumes everything ends at midnight. Maybe it's really 12:54 A.M., the first 'almost-hour' a little rocky, but plenty of time to figure it all out.

In contrast, we’re still struggling with the mess into which agriculture has tumbled us, and it’s unclear whether we can solve it.

Hunter-gatherers lived by survival of the fittest. Those that lived were healthy by default, because those that weren't just died. Do we go back to that? (A world where the guy with the biggest biceps gets the warm spot by the fire.) I don't think it was as perfect a life as the author portrays. I'm also convinced that mere survival is not the only function for human intelligence. Why have any intelligence at all for that matter? The squirrels in my backyard 'live out there' all year long, hunting and gathering.

Posted 27 June 2008, Hide, Reply