1. Joined
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    21 May '22 17:04
    Despite the progress we have made, what has made human beings weaker as a species?
  2. SubscriberVery Rusty
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    21 May '22 17:10
    @fmf said
    Despite the progress we have made, what has made human beings weaker as a species?
    fmf you may have answered your own question. "Progress"! 🙂

    -VR
  3. Joined
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    21 May '22 17:14
    @very-rusty said
    fmf you may have answered your own question. "Progress"!
    Most aspects of progress have made us stronger, healthier, better fed, longer living, and safer in various ways. But what aspects of progress have made us weaker?
  4. SubscriberVery Rusty
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    21 May '22 17:18
    @fmf said
    Most aspects of progress have made us stronger, healthier, better fed, longer living, and safer in various ways. But what aspects of progress have made us weaker?
    Man is not as strong as he was 100 years ago, as far as heathier, better food, that would depend on what you eat. Medication helps us live longer. A time may come when you take a pill instead of food. I hope I am long gone by then. We are not as physical as we once were which makes us weaker.

    -VR
  5. SubscriberSuzianne
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    22 May '22 09:41
    @fmf said
    Most aspects of progress have made us stronger, healthier, better fed, longer living, and safer in various ways. But what aspects of progress have made us weaker?
    Most.
  6. Standard membervivify
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    22 May '22 11:53
    @very-rusty said
    Man is not as strong as he was 100 years ago
    I disagree. Athletes are constantly breaking each and every record they set and have been doing so for over a hundred years. Jesse Owens couldn't hang with today's track stars.
  7. Gothenburg
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    22 May '22 11:581 edit
    @fmf said
    Despite the progress we have made, what has made human beings weaker as a species?
    Mental stress perhaps, but I hesitate to generalize.
  8. Joined
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    22 May '22 12:03
    @vivify said
    I disagree. Athletes are constantly breaking each and every record they set and have been doing so for over a hundred years. Jesse Owens couldn't hang with today's track stars.
    Do the attributes of the fittest and most athletic - outliers and exceptional specimens almost by definition - tell us much about ordinary people?
  9. Joined
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    22 May '22 12:05
    @torunn said
    Mental stress perhaps, but I hesitate to generalize.
    Atomization, perhaps, is a phenomenon that is undermining the strength derived from more intensely communal existence in past eras. Maybe?
  10. Standard membervivify
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    22 May '22 12:33
    @fmf said
    Do the attributes of the fittest and most athletic - outliers and exceptional specimens almost by definition - tell us much about ordinary people?
    Athletes all across the board at all levels are better, not just the "exceptional specimens". A high basketball player now is incomparably better than high school player from the 50's.
  11. Joined
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    22 May '22 12:42
    @vivify said
    Athletes all across the board at all levels are better, not just the "exceptional specimens". A high basketball player now is incomparably better than high school player from the 50's.
    Yes, I know. But I asked you a question, not about how exceptional humans -making systematic efforts to improve athletic performance - and how they compare over time, but instead about whether the standards achieved by exceptional humans [in sports, for example] tells us about ordinary humans.
  12. SubscriberThe Gravedigger
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    22 May '22 12:46
    Modern living has made us weak.
    Few people in the Western world face any form of physical hardship on a daily basis.
    (Unless they choose to go to a gym or run a marathon of course)
  13. SubscriberVery Rusty
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    22 May '22 12:51
    @vivify said
    I disagree. Athletes are constantly breaking each and every record they set and have been doing so for over a hundred years. Jesse Owens couldn't hang with today's track stars.
    I wasn't talking about athletes who are getting better with each decade that passes.

    I was talking about your ordinary man who works a regular job, most are in offices now. No EXERCISE!!!

    -VR
  14. Standard membervivify
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    22 May '22 15:51
    @fmf said
    Yes, I know. But I asked you a question, not about how exceptional humans -making systematic efforts to improve athletic performance - and how they compare over time, but instead about whether the standards achieved by exceptional humans [in sports, for example] tells us about ordinary humans.
    Again, I'm not talking about "exceptional" athletes. The skill and athleticism of any average high school athlete far surpasses high schooler athletes from the 50s.

    There's no indication we're getting weaker.
  15. Joined
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    22 May '22 16:00
    @vivify said
    Again, I'm not talking about "exceptional" athletes. The skill and athleticism of any average high school athlete far surpasses high schooler athletes from the 50s.

    There's no indication we're getting weaker.
    High school athletes are not representative of the ordinary students who make up the majority of people of their age. I'd say with widespread obesity, diabetes and other lifestyle circumstances, that your average high school age kid is probably weaker than his or her counterpart 70 years ago.
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