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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Bossieman on February 04, 2004, 02:55:02 PM
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Is the world better or worse than before?
This was the topic of a philosofical lecture I heard a week ago.
Very tough disscutions and a very interesting question.
What do you all think? Is the world better than 50 years ago?
If no why, if yes why?
I belive the world is wordt today. Why? well what can I say, the segregation is bigger than ever, war all over the world, enviromentproblems, the hunt for money a.s.o
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Originally posted by Bossieman
Is the world better or worse than before?
This was the topic of a philosofical lecture I heard a week ago.
Very tough disscutions and a very interesting question.
What do you all think? Is the world better than 50 years ago?
If no why, if yes why?
I belive the world is wordt today. Why? well what can I say, the segregation is bigger than ever, war all over the world, enviromentproblems, the hunt for money a.s.o
I think if you are going to post on something like this, you need to offer up a better arguement on why you think the world is worse off, as opposed to it being better off.
Also, it helps if you don\'t spell like Kopking.
;)
With that said - we have made great strides in the world. We have sent a man to the Moon, we have rovers on Mar\'s , an international space station is soon to be a reality and we\'ve cured a lot of things that would of killed people 50-100 years ago. However, for all those things, we\'ve also made life more complicated and caused more stress on ourselves. We may not be worse off, but we are more selfish and vain and due to that, our stress level is out. If anything, we\'ve created a world where everyone is seperate from each other.
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I think it is that same, you cant really make comparisons with the past that easily i mean society has moved on in terms of capital punishment isnt the standard thing to do in most plalaces anymore and people dont get hung for being witches etc.
The world is just the world even if it isn\'t the nicest place to be most of the time with regards to wars etc but we have obviously progressed in terms of technology, knowledge etc even if the technology and knowledge is causing the wars but you cant do anything about that its just always been a vicious circle and will continue to be one until people realise that bombs etc dont really solve anything in the long run...
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I think you need to clarify whether you mean "Are we humans better off" or "Is the world better off?" Clearly the planet Earth is worse off with so many of us swarming over it, changing it, polluting it, and destroying other species.
On the other hand, we humans are doing better than ever, (FOR NOW). I predict our fortunes will change when the available natural resources begin to dwindle.
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I Think the world is neither better or worse, just in a part of the cycle.
Humans won\'t be here for ever, inface we are commonly killed by low forms of life such as bacteria, which are killing us at even faster rates.... So the world? Think the world is fine, I don\'t think anything is negative or positive in the big picture, because the only requirment is change...
In terms of society, we arn\'t anywhere.... I don\'t know if the cycle ever ends, we look back on history in disgust but fail to see that things haven\'t gotten better, the same "evils" (bad word) of the past are still here, on the same level they have always been.
Ignorance, Hate, War, Agression, Tyranny....
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I think its the same. Some things are better, some things are worse. You have to take the bad with the good and get over it. Technology brings ease of living; electricity, hot water, communications etc whilest it also brings war, greed etc etc etc. War has always been around, its no worse today then it was in the dark ages. I would say it was actually alot worse back then. I think we need segregation amongst different cultures. I think countries are becoming too accepting of other cultures that aren\'t their own and are losing their own identity, thus creating segragation because everyone wants to do it their way in the one place which causes friction.
I gather your a true melancholy.
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In todays world we are being "fed" with spectacles that soothe and blind us from realising what is truelly happening around us.
I believe the world is worse.
Overpopulation, mutations of animals and plants so billions of humans can have enough quantities of food, technological achievments mostly cause enviromental destruction, thousands of trees are being cut in Amazon, animals are becoming extinct or reduceed causing anonalies to the food chain, great meanings originally intented to serve humanity for a greater future are being twisted to serve political or national interests etc
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Better.
Look at the human life span, and how much it has increased.
But in the same time- much of that life is spent in agony.
Its a win-win-lose-lose situation.
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Bah....better live few great years and die than live many years in agony, stress, disappointemnt without achieving anything signifigant
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My opinion: We are no better than life in the Roman and Medieval times. The only difference is the technology and conditions are improved. There is still war, a common problem since the beginning of man. There is still hate and seperation which has always been a problem and society seems to have stood still. We may be a bit better but not much.
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I think some things are naturally improving all the time. Ignorance is no where near at the level it once was. Think about how much bigger ignorance was in times before TV, radio, computers, etc. Information was so much harder to access. Then if you really wanna go back to the middle ages, there isn\'t any comparison.
Social standards are improving. Levels of racism once accepted as normal are no longer accepted by society. Although people do still hold racist beliefs, their numbers are shrinking, and the trend is towards acceptance.
Medical advances not only mean that there are longer life spans, but also that fewer people die painful deaths from various illnesses. Nutrition is better than it was if you go back a couple hundred years, and working conditions and living conditions have also improved dramatically in many countries. Although there is still sweatshop labor, the trend is towards more nations getting rid of this than ones with restrictions getting rid of them.
The thing that really makes me say that the world is better though is just looking at my every day life. So many of the things I enjoy doing I couldn\'t have done a hundred years ago. This ranges from things like television and the computer, to how widespread and easily accessible music is, to even things like playing basketball, a game that wasn\'t widespread a hundred years ago. So many new amazing things just keep happening, that if you actually live life with a positive outlook, things really are better than they ever have been.
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Humans are worst. The planet is worst. But if you\'re viewing this from a materialistic view point, we are better. Humans just lost all kinds of morals over the years, we started with Puritans. People who were afraid to think, and now there is way too much thinking. People have degraded society to a low, the planet is "dying" from all our filth. There is alot of arrogance, ignorance, hypocrisy, and many other words that relate to stupidity in humans today. I say let\'s all just tear down our houses, plant a forest, get naked, and live together.
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Originally posted by shockwaves
I think some things are naturally improving all the time. Ignorance is no where near at the level it once was. Think about how much bigger ignorance was in times before TV, radio, computers, etc. Information was so much harder to access. Then if you really wanna go back to the middle ages, there isn\'t any comparison.
Social standards are improving. Levels of racism once accepted as normal are no longer accepted by society. Although people do still hold racist beliefs, their numbers are shrinking, and the trend is towards acceptance.
Medical advances not only mean that there are longer life spans, but also that fewer people die painful deaths from various illnesses. Nutrition is better than it was if you go back a couple hundred years, and working conditions and living conditions have also improved dramatically in many countries. Although there is still sweatshop labor, the trend is towards more nations getting rid of this than ones with restrictions getting rid of them.
The thing that really makes me say that the world is better though is just looking at my every day life. So many of the things I enjoy doing I couldn\'t have done a hundred years ago. This ranges from things like television and the computer, to how widespread and easily accessible music is, to even things like playing basketball, a game that wasn\'t widespread a hundred years ago. So many new amazing things just keep happening, that if you actually live life with a positive outlook, things really are better than they ever have been.
With that said, don\'t you feel ignorance is bliss? Honestly, we think of all the advancements we have and how well off we are - but we forget, we have so much more to do. Crime is still a huge problem, war is constantly waging and new viruses are coming up quite often.
Not to mention with all these things we have invented, we have made life so much more complicated.
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But once again, compare now to 100 or 200 years ago. Methods of solving crimes have drastically improved, the same level of war is no longer accepted, and we are much better equiped to deal with new viruses. Time most likely will only make this better.
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I actually would rather live in Roman times or Medieval times as opposed to now. I don\'t really want to live old and I like the war style of those times. It may have been bloodier but it was fair and ethical. Today, the US has a big advantage over most countries, its just a slaughter.
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I voted better. Healthcare and technology rules, period.
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Originally posted by Titan
I actually would rather live in Roman times or Medieval times as opposed to now. I don\'t really want to live old and I like the war style of those times. It may have been bloodier but it was fair and ethical. Today, the US has a big advantage over most countries, its just a slaughter.
Fair and ethical? Haha, no. Since when are things like slavery and feudalism fair and ethical?
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Originally posted by shockwaves
Fair and ethical? Haha, no. Since when are things like slavery and feudalism fair and ethical?
I was talking about warfare, not the class system.
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Yeah, but you have tho realize how much better things could be... itd be absurd tot hink of having monarchs in control of us today, but looking back on now, the way we live now will be just as absurd.
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Just think, in like 500 years, people will probably think that we were primitive in this age.
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worse, people are no more happy than they were back in the old days....
true we have more technology and what not, but does it make us happier? no
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i think we are generally better off today than we were years ago,..bascically due to technology & medical advances. But with these great advances there are those that choose to make some unfortunate decisions with them..(looks at crazy scientists trying to clone humans) :rolleyes:
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Worse.
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Neither...we\'ve gone to the moon, can fly around the world, dive in to the depths of the ocean, have open heart surgery, synthetic(sp?) limbs, and chat with people across the world. All that and we\'ve come no closer to understanding ourselves or why we\'re here.
We\'ll become better when people learn to drop their egos. Until then they\'ll keep filling it with religous babble, pride, and self-righteousness.
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Better.
Seriously, anyone who says worse is an idiot and wrong.
No Titan, you would not rather live in Roman times. You can forget about things like free speech, the sheer number of activities you can do to enjoy yourself, living in comfort in terms of weather(you know they didn\'t have heaters for the past 200 years...I can\'t imagine living in Canada without heat), can\'t have nearly the amount of sex you have now(...), you\'re way of thinking would be one dimensional, if your parents sucked then automatically YOU suck too,etc. If you were a Roman soldier...do you know how much ****ing walking you would do? Conquer here fight there...all in an 80 pound suit of armor. You would be such an uncomfortable puppet...
If you think it\'s so much worse today...leave. Go make a little fort in the forest and live in it. Go live in a cave without technology. Move to a third world country. See what it\'s like living in primitive times and judge for yourself.
The fact is, we will never have a perfect society or world. Like I said in another thread, humans are not perfect beings. We have our flaws, savage human instincts. We desire power and control. We are greedy, seflish, inconsiderate of everyone else around us, but we are who we are. We are meant to live in a such a sophisticated society because we are an advanced lifeform. The past, the roman times, the fudal ages the dark ages, just trial and error to keep improving on society which is a necessity. We will never have it perfect, we can only hope to achieve one goal at a time and solve problems where there are possible solutions.
Slavery...just one word and it makes you cringe. No explanation needed.
"true we have more technology and what not, but does it make us happier? no"
Yes. Lesser technology produces inferior results. We\'re an advanced being and without technology, what would aid us to satisfy our advanced needs? We strive to improve upon everything...most of those things needed improvement on like communication, shelter, printing press, food, healthcare, etc?
"Bah....better live few great years and die than live many years in agony, stress, disappointemnt without achieving anything signifigant"
What was so great about being able to do nothing? You think the people who lived to be 30 achieved anything besides working and living like an animal for someone who was born into a better life and can coast through life doing nothing?
I don\'t know why I\'m going on about this. If you ever attended a history class then you would be thankful of the world we live in today and appreciate the superior lifestyle we live in today. Someone give a reasonable explanation as to why you would rather live in the past than today. And if you do, prepare for a decently well thought rebuttal that\'s not ridilled with grammatical and spelling errors!
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I would have to say its the same.
Certain aspects of life are better than they were centuries ago and at the same time certain aspects are worse. It all balances out.