Natural Humanity

[tumorhead]

My head is permenantly screwed up.

Recently I listened to Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality Unlike other self-help or editoral books on the subject, this one focuses on the science first and foremost. And while it is indeed full of sex, it is even more eye-opening and informative, possibly more so, in its description of

Comments

[undyingwavesong]

Huh. I have always read otherwise when it comes to some of these things.. such as through-out human life (before the start of argiculture), long life spans simply could not exist due to starvation, disease, lack of shelter and the like. I've always read that there was plenty of violence then, too. I'll have to give that one a read, what with the strong evidence included and all. Sounds interesting.

[tumorhead]

The book does spend a lot of time dismantling the idea that paleolithic life was "short, cruel, and brutish" if you want to read more

[pac]

the only thing i think about when i read about things like this are while life would be simpler, we would know virtually nothing else beyond sex and eating (insert joke about how that's all we know today, hurhur) because there would be no need to advance any kind of knowledge, technology, curiosity or ambition.

i've never been one to believe that the advance of knowledge inherently meant negative impact on culture or country. we have just as much a chance to use knowledge for good as we do for evil, assuming of course you make that delineation in the first place and quantify the impact of an action in a binary sense.

i am all for the infanticide though, and i don't mean that in a heartless way. i believe that the majority of the world's woes stem from over population and unchecked unmitigated growth. today's societies places too much emphasis on growth, and less on sustainability. it's like an engraved notion in our brains. growth = + = good, while decrease = - = bad.

[tumorhead]

It's true, though we'd probably know things like cycles of nature and whatnot. I do believe that pursuit of knowledge is the best way to improve quality of life for everyone. I am happy to live in an era where we know so much about reality.

It's just I don't think that is enough in exchange for the shit that's gone bad because of civilization, if life before was as they propose. I feel acutely aware of things making life hard. Plus before like the last few centuries people usually barely knew any more than paleolithic people. But that's my personal opinion.

Also the boyfriend has told me that we're supposed to make machine robots to leave our mark upon the wider universe where our fleshy bodies can't make it XD

Also I am all about infanticide (or preferably oocyticide or zygotecide or embroyocide) too.

[armaina]

These are my thoughts on the matter too. Sure it would have been 'peaceful' but that's because it was a time of really little to no individual thought and no need to create. Really just... not that much different from a group of chimpanzees or well bonobos.

Also, infanticide can be on the whole avoided with you know, birth control and all :V

[armaina]

"Autism, ADD, and other mental differences? Useful and adaptable in the wild, or able to live out how they wish easily, or cared for by the group."
Aaauuuuuh
No, not really.

I don't know if you've had any experience with severely autistic children, but managing them is extremely difficult and time consuming. Not to say that they won't grow, but with a society that is very communal, not agricultural, and depends the actions of others to survive, it's those that are considered a 'drain' that would be killed off or left to die. So they'd be as good as dead.

Also, peace is impossible to obtain with the cognitive-ness that we have right now. There are too many people that would be capable of feeding off others, and working for personal gain and greed, and it would just cause the same problems all over again.

Pretty much, it's a society that only works if all members have no individuality.

[turbofanatic]

Gonna agree with this.

A primitive tribe that requires all members be productive for a portion of their lives (as ALL primitive tribes do) will have a disabled child, find out it has severe autism/downs syndrome/fragile-X at the age of 2-4 and then will kill them or let them starve.

The fantasy that ancient groups required and celebrated neurodiversity is only true for (at best) very small divergence from the norm. They will have no place for a schizophrenic in a violent episode, a non-communicative autistic, and no use whatsoever for someone with Downs.

[turbofanatic]

Oh jeez nooooooooo. Nonononono