Cave Struggles or Easy Street
"As Heraclitus said,'It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish.' Just think, if we magically got whatever we wanted, we’d all be Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts. Imagine a world of 6 billion Brads and Julias driving their 6 billion Mercedes around from one gorgeous palatial mansion to another. The entire planet looking like Beverly Hills meets Fifth Avenue, and not a spot of filth to mar the perfection. Not only that, but the tastiest food is zero calorie, zero carb; your IQ is over 200; your NASDAQ stocks are way up. And best of all, every one of the other Brads and Julias really, really loves you and it’s just the biggest love fest ever!
"If that happened, it would be the end of human struggle. Which would also be the end of progress and new ideas. This process has led us from the cold and darkness of caves to knowing how to make fire to knowing how to illuminate an entire football stadium for night games. Every time in the last 100,000 years that things 'went bad', somebody tripped in the dark and decided to make things better. The SuperOptimist knows that when things aren’t perfect, it’s a sure sign we’ll see progress. Every problem is the start of it’s own solution!" -"Secrets of the Superoptimist" by W.R. Morton and Nathaniel Whitten
Your comments, opinions, off the wall and contrarian points of view, additional info, dark humor and entertaining posts welcome.
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Evidently you managed to put everything in, so that nobody posted for nearly two month...
On a more serious note:
Your Brad and Angenlina scenaio has a few severe drawbacks:
* nothing would happen anymore, people would die from boredom. I think that has been captured in the Zardoz movie (maybe the elder part of the audience still remembers that one?). Proof: if people would have what they wish most would surely wish not to to age....
* being Brad or Angelina is only of value if it constitutes a plus over the others. Think about what makes people attractive. One point is that the others are not. So if everybody is attractive (in theory) nobody is. Attractive is only a value if it is "more attractive as (at leat others or the average)
* You would need heavy doses of magic. Since part of the people would try to go up still and even if someone amages to squeeze out a little more, the others will wish for the same.
So you preach the old capitalist message: We need inequality and suffereing for people to come up with grand new things.
I am not so convinced at a certain level people will come up with complete unnecessary and harmful things like finacial derivates...
Lets see if the discussion is progressing from that point. XCheers!
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Originally posted by PonderableGotta give you credit, Ponderable, for your ability to discover unusual dig sites
Evidently you managed to put everything in, so that nobody posted for nearly two month...
On a more serious note:
Your Brad and Angenlina scenaio has a few severe drawbacks:
* nothing would happen anymore, people would die from boredom. I think that has been captured in the Zardoz movie (maybe the elder part of the audience still remembers that ...[text shortened]... nacial derivates...
Lets see if the discussion is progressing from that point. XCheers!
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and to unearth the strangest of artifacts at the least likely of moments. -gb
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