[Daryl C]

With all the things that us humans have now (in a survival sense) compared to what we had 1000 years ago, are we becomming weaker?

People who are idiot/stupid are able to recieve healthcare instead of dieing and there for reproducing. This process cancels out the whole process of natural selection. Therefore as a whole this would mean that the human race would be getting more idiotic.

Your opinions?

[Kaezion]

yes.
to compensate for this loss of natural selection, i propose that an "idiot test" be given to all people when they come of age. those who pass it go on with life, and those who don't are put to better use as fertilizer.

[Pureblade]

Ouch Kaezion...everyone has a right to live. It might be just a joke or even your personal opinion, but isn't that a bit on the harsh side?

Anyways, I think that in ways we are weaker and stronger.

In terms of physique, yes, we are getting weaker. Just look at our ancestors...they hunted and strove to survive by killing animals much larger than themselves. They almost completely wiped out predators in certain areas, if not making them extinct all together. We had to adapt to a rapidly changing environment, and we succeeded. Today, however, we no longer have anything to strive for. We aren't fighting to survive, unless a country is in a war, and although alot of things are wrong in the world, most people live easier lives.

But there are always two sides to every coin. Though we grow weaker in terms of strength and speed, we grow stronger in our intelligence. As we evolve we are growing smarter and wiser, learning from our mistakes unlike other animals. We are able to perceive things that we would deem impossible thousands, even hundreds of years ago. Just think of how far we have come in this last decade, this last century. We have advanced beyond anyones expectations (except for Star Trek fanatics, they never cease to amaze me).

So in one way, we are weaker. In another we have grown much stronger than we ever were before.

[Kaezion]

yet, are we truly growing intellectually stronger? most people in the world nowadays just repeat the same process over and over again, whatever process it might be, knowing that it works and he/she'll get paid. centuries ago, or even millenia ago, people had to actually innovate to survive. for example, the wheel, democracy, etc. and sometimes, people worked their brains off just because they enjoyed doing it (aka Renaissance). do you see that now? no, what you see is flocks of people dashing to med school so they could get paid for doing the same things that have been done since a century ago.

[Charlie]

I would'nt say weaker i would say lazier. I mean we couldn't just go to the shops thousands of years ago to shop for food or whatever we had to chase animals and capture them to feed ourselves and family. But with all the improving technology soon we won't have to do anything.

[Traver]

Yes! Humans are weak! We shall root out the weakness in our race, and a line of pure and strong people will emerge! Death to the weak! Kindness is weakness! So if you're kind to the weak, that makes you weak as well, and thus, you can not be allowed to live. All hail Baphomet.

[Zziggywolf5]

We are getting weaker...

Our laziness causes our physical body to degrade to the point of a major heart problems. Our diets really suck too. The fast food craze has spread across the world.
We don't really push our intelligence much unless it's completely needed. People work often the same exact way for the last 5-20 years. Why do something new when it's easier to stick to the same process? It means no improvements or ideas are being made, but why should advancement matter any?
And, of course, the baby problem. A man with a crippling genetic disorder can have 5-10 children while alive, all of which can get it and cause 5-10 new doomed babies. You could be severely retarded and cause a flood of retarded kids easily. And this means everyone else will have to carry these people unless, God forbid, we let them die.
Technology helps but it can't do everything. It can help my heart, but not replace it. It can help raise farm animals, but humans still have to do something.

[Crescens]

Yeah, in a world where humanity is strong enough to blow up the planet thousands of times, it's really getting weaker.

No, we're not as good at using spears and clubs to kill large animals. But do we need to be? In a sense, we've evolved further along our path since our days as cavemen and harnessed that intelligence that distinguishes us from other animals much more thoroughly.

Humanity has guns, dynamite, and nuclear weapons. We have electricity, knowledge of the universe, synthetic elements, and about a bajillion other scientific discoveries of the past millenium. Pretty sure those make us stronger and not weaker.

[Kaezion]

you're comparing apples and oranges; yes, the fruits of our intellectual labors have made us physically capable of doing more than we ever hoped maybe a few centuries ago. but can that really be classified as strength?

if a man has a thousand fish but does not know how to catch it himself, can you call him stronger or generally better off than the man who depletes his supply of fish everyday but nevertheless knows how to catch more?

similarly, compared to what we had before, yes, we are more capable and possess more knowledge. however, the rate at which we're improving upon that which we already have isn't really phenomenal; think of the past - the wheel, democratic governments, Newton's Theory of Gravitation, and everything in between. do you see any similar breakthroughs happening today? some radical new idea changing the face of the world? all i see is a major crisis about to happen because all of our modern technologies, for all they are worth, have come to depend upon non-renewable energy sources dating back to before man even walked the earth (aka oil), and we don't know how to change that quickly enough.

what you mean to say is that we humans are much better off than we were before. but strength is determined by how we could keep making our situation better, not what our situation is right now.

[Neraphym]

I'd say we are getting a whole lot weaker, not stronger, because we have technology. Who needs big muscles to move earth then all you need to do is pull a lever? An earlier, stronger man had to spend a day or so to dig a hole into a mountain in hopes of finding iron. Today, you can practically level the mountain in a matter of hours. We have lost the strength of our ancestors, but made up for it in technology.

An as for incredible breakthroughs in technology, you're using one. I have yet to fully comprehend how a machine that detects a series of yes's and no's can do so much. I have't the slightest clue, but I use i and program on it taking forgranted that someone, somewhere was smart enough to make a yes do this and a no do that so that I may pwn some n00bs on the internet. Man has progressed in terms of understanding the universe more in the last decade than it has throughout our existance. The same will be true for the next decade. We learn at an exponential rate. The problem is, our minds are so desensitized to new, amazing technology, that we don't even realize it significance.

And, regardless of how mean this is, some people should NOT be allowed to breed.

[Crescens]

I see the point people are trying to make; I live in suburban Maryland where the deer population is skyrocketing because *no one* here has any clue how to hunt. Even if we legalized the hunting of deer in more places, it wouldn't do anything because suburban Maryland's population doesn't know how to hunt anything -- oh, except themselves in all the murders and crime. I hate this place. Anyway, yeah ... I see the point you're making. Humanity's growing more settled - which means society is more stable, really. A race that was originally all nomadic has settled to the point where we can have food simply provided to us and barely even have to move. It's not necessarily a good thing (the world's obesity problem has resulted from this) nor is it a bad thing (we don't have to worry about the Mongols invading in a world where nearly everywhere is settled). It simply "is". I don't think "weaker" is necessarily the word to describe the change in humanity, though.

[jake4d2]

pathetic humans...

i propose a $10 bounty per dead human body.


weaklings

We Marklar shall rule your pathetic Marklar called Marklar.

[Kaezion]

I'd say we are getting a whole lot weaker, not stronger, because we have technology.  Who needs big muscles to move earth then all you need to do is pull a lever?  An earlier, stronger man had to spend a day or so to dig a hole into a mountain in hopes of finding iron.  Today, you can practically level the mountain in a matter of hours.  We have lost the strength of our ancestors, but made up for it in technology. 

An as for incredible breakthroughs in technology, you're using one.  I have yet to fully comprehend how a machine that detects a series of yes's and no's can do so much.  I have't the slightest clue, but I use i and program on it taking forgranted that someone, somewhere was smart enough to make a yes do this and a no do that so that I may pwn some n00bs on the internet.  Man has progressed in terms of understanding the universe more in the last decade than it has throughout our existance.  The same will be true for the next decade.  We learn at an exponential rate.  The problem is, our minds are so desensitized to new, amazing technology, that we don't even realize it significance.

And, regardless of how mean this is, some people should NOT be allowed to breed.

yet, you might find that in the future it will get harder (financially) to keep using this marvelous technology because petroleum - the substance used to produce the plastics that frame the monitor and various other parts of the computer, and also produce the electricity used to power the computer itself and the ISPs that keep you online - is becoming more and more expensive because we have all become so profoundly dependent on it. yes, it makes life easier. in fact, that's the reason for our dependence on technology; because it makes life easier.

however, what happens when there's just not enough of it (oil) for our technological demands? those who have progressed least in terms of technology will be best off. it's not that i fail to recognize modern technology's significance, but that i see the catch that comes with it.

we've built a huge technological monument, but we've built it on ice that's been thinning for over a century now. i call that a mistake rather than a breakthrough.

i'm not trying to denounce modern technology. all i'm saying is that, for all the marvels that it can perform, it still relies heavily on a non-renewable source whose production, by all probability, will peak soon.

and, according to some experts, particularly one by the name of Matthew Simmons, peak oil isn't far from today.

This post has been edited by Kaezion: 30 September 2005 - 04:17 AM

[halfmike555]

Of course we are we have almost everything done for us these days... take away technology and we couldnt survive.

Look at the fuel crisis! when the worlds run dry of gas petrol and oil the world of humans will colapse basicly.. no heating no factorys to make food.. no transport to bring the food to the shops..

Years ago people had to do everything themselves.. and the ones that didnt or couldnt didnt last.

[Traver]

Of course we are we have almost everything done for us these days... take away technology and we couldnt survive.

Look at the fuel crisis! when the worlds run dry of gas petrol and oil the world of humans will colapse basicly.. no heating no factorys to make food.. no transport to bring the food to the shops..

Years ago people had to do everything themselves.. and the ones that didnt or couldnt didnt last.

We already have several alternatives to oil in development and several that are already functioning.