{"id":269791,"date":"2020-08-29T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T14:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=269791"},"modified":"2020-08-29T14:22:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T18:22:53","slug":"is-humanity-on-the-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/29\/is-humanity-on-the-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Humanity on the Decline?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Something interesting I got when reading Juvenal’s “Satires”<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Humanity has been on the decline, even since Homer’s time!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And thinking about today’s brave new world, and today’s modern world-society I can also say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, society is on the decline. Humanity is on the decline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

1. Lack of critical inquiry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Lamborghini<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We still get easily suckered! It is insane that in today’s 2020 (yes we live in the year two thousand and twenty) we still get suckered by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Confirmation bias<\/li>
  2. Cherry picking fallacy<\/li>
  3. Too much trust in the news<\/li>
  4. Misunderstanding of the human body, human physiology<\/a> and this charade of ‘calories’<\/a>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    2. Animal ‘rights’ as *equivalent* to “human rights”?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    For example even the hugely influential ‘Effective Altruism<\/a>‘ foundation puts ‘Animal Welfare<\/a>‘ as one of their high concepts. I think this is nonsense. Simple thought:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Any ounce of effort we spend towards animal welfare is a distraction from improving human welfare (a quadrillion times more important). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    I also don’t trust Effective Altruism<\/a> because Steven Pinker recommended it (I am on the side of Nassim Taleb<\/a> who is very anti-Steven Pinker). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Computer intelligence (AI, artificial intelligence and machine learning) over human intelligence<\/em>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"Lamborghini<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The ultimate intelligence is wisdom … but why doesn’t wisdom get taught in our schools anymore? Or why is wisdom not mentioned at all anymore? And now the average person cannot think *without* a computer or smartphone. And also due to the sneaky way that Google has infiltrated our lives, we can no longer think and reflect and meditate on a question before we quickly ‘Google it’ to get the answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also a thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Be highly suspicious of Google results … Google AdSense backed websites and blogs should not<\/em> be trusted, and are often highly dubious. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    SOCIOLOGY by KIM<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"Red<\/figure>\n\n\n
      \n
    1. Social Innovations<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. Society *Shouldn’t* Be Fair<\/a><\/li>\n
    3. Why Society Doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Want Free Thinkers and Free Livers<\/a><\/li>\n
    4. Our New Soft Society<\/a><\/li>\n
    5. HARD SOCIETY<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n

      Sociological Theory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n