do you think humans would have been extinct or only live in certain areas? when humanity was first evolving, did humans only live in areas where climate was perfect for them year round? places like california, hawaii, places that dont get too cold and too hot? when you think about it almost all other animals can only survive in certain climates, if humans werent as smart and didnt know how to make clothes to survive in cold weather and how to keep cool in boiling weather, do you think we would have died out all them years ago if we tried to scatter across to other parts of tthe globe, like canada or uk? because if our intelligence wasnt high enough surely we wouldnt know how to survive with the climate changes. i suppose we could adapt to the weather, but maybe not to the extent of our bodies going from enduring 100F weather to 30F weather i dunno, just a weird thought, there maybe a really obvious answer to this but idk
A bit of a confusing question. Anyways our animal instinct kept us alive. Many were nomads then, so they never stayed in one place to survive. Also the continents were once a large landmass called Pangea or so scientist believe based on evidence.
We're quick adopters. Our opposable thumbs and reasoning allows us to live in climaxes we shouldn't physically be able to live. We evolved over 6 million years from primate to homo sapien. We primarily evolved towards food source. That is the driving force in evolution. Food. You need it to live long enough to reproduce. We scattered about slowly towards food sources and that drive spread us all over the globe, along with our reasoning and climate dominance. We even began building boats to travel to food. Even before civilizations.
I really doubt people were ever less intelligent, they just knew less things. our ability to relate information to other information has likely been the same forever though. look at people who thousands of year ago were gathering all the information and building the concepts we now know. Figuring out the foundations of math with pieces of string and (now) hilarious looking adding machines. Think of the people who gathered all the information of which plants and foods are safe and how they can be used as medicine. The people who thousands of years ago figured out how to do fucking CRANIAL SURGERY with ROCKS (obsidian). Think of all the information we could have lost over time.... So no, i dont think man will ever get more intelligent, at least until we become post human and increase our mental capacity with technology. We will always continue to learn more about the world around us though.
I truly believe that civilizations were just as smart, if not smarter than we are today. Not in the sense of technology(which everyone bases intelligence off of) , but general intelligence "street smart" if you will. These civilizations figured out things WE can't figure out TODAY. And they were all coming to sort of the same ballpark of results, but they were in completely different parts of the world. I attribute this to the power of thinking. I think our realities today are formed on the outside without much thinking on the inside. I believe it was the exact opposite back then. You didn't have TV or Radio or anything. All you had was your community and spent a lot of time alone. You had to come up with practical solutions to things instead of just googling something. We have to really put ourselves in their mindset in order to really appreciate and see the truth. The problem today is we're thinking about ancient civilizations and the things they did with a modern mindset with technology. All they had was the earth and pulled off things we could barely do today. When you have to fix problems out of necessity it becomes easy. When you have time to think you start to rationalize and think about things. These people weren't stupid by any means. They could be smarter than most of us today. They did great things without technology with just the things put here on the earth which brings me to my next topic. Psychedelics. These civilizations did not have legality. If they were lucky enough to be near them or find them (remember, ancient people didn't have legality. They saw psychoactive plants as something else entirely. They couldn't think of them as bad because the only reason we think of them as bad today is because of our so called 'leaders' nitpicking and TRYING to find something wrong with them but in reality there is nothing to find.) they had no idea how to use them recreationally. Just spiritually. Through the power of profound thinking whilst under the influence of these safe plants, they were able to come up with a perspective and ultimately a solution that wasn't present until they 'broadened' their mind. Why only some civilizations did great things? Easy. We will use process of elimination. Psychoactive plants are found naturally growing in some parts of the world. This civilization would have to be near these plants for one. Two, they would have to figure out what they were for. could be no different from other spices, herbs, fruits, and vegetables they have found, so why would these be different. We know them as different today because they have been slandered through the media. and Three, they would have had to do them often in order to achieve the results they wanted. (shamans) I'm imagining one person, a shaman, learning how to navigate the headspace and reveal his teachings. It wasn't for everybody back then just exactly the same today, so logically shamans exist because they are one's who were born for tripping and truly understand the headspace of these plants and were able to put them to work. They are the ones who understood what the plants were for and knew there was something more than just 'pretty patterns'. The feelings are what matter not hallucinations. Civilizations lucky enough to be near psychedelics AND figure out how to use them went on to do great things. Pretty easy to TLDR but let me know what you think
Think of the advantages of just having the Internet. It's a mecca for intelligence if you follow the right stories and people.
[quote name="Bluntzilla420" post="19465250" timestamp="1391545751"]Think of the advantages of just having the Internet. It's a mecca for intelligence if you follow the right stories and people.[/quote]Ah, hard to determine what's right and wrong though. Massive resurgence of conspiracy theories like anti vaccination movements puts us back in time with the influence the Internet carries. Double edged sword.
But we can lie in bed and find out our own truth patterns rather than sifting through 70-year-old books at a library, many of whose studies have probably been debunked since publication.
[quote name="Bluntzilla420" post="19465311" timestamp="1391546248"]But we can lie in bed and find out our own truth patterns rather than sifting through 70-year-old books at a library, many of whose studies have probably been debunked since publication.[/quote]Absolutely, no I definitely agree. Issue is that people are lazy or don't know how to utilize this knowledge. Having every abstract available you could need on pubmed, yet people continue to blindly support misinformation. Youtube is a great propagator of this. Hopefully people will be more aware on how to access this information. It's all out there.
people carry electronic devices 95% of the time and have the sum of mankind's knowledge at their disposal. its amazing. its a shame most only use it for facebook or the like.
i know! its my favorite thing about modern life. although i predict eventually it will dumb down our ability to retain information, but our ability to find info will increase so it balances.
If you look at Cro-Magnon, they were more robust and had greater brain capacities. I think they were actually smarter because they led a lifestyle more conducive to developing health, healthy traits and intelligence. The problem is that we make life too complicated nowadays. There is an equilibrium of simplicity that is the ultimate design and template for our harmonious existence, yet we fall prey to little distractions that mislead us and remove us from that perfect state. In reference to Islamic mythology, we can call it Shaitan. Subconscious desires of the animal mind which forces us to pursue things that aren't entirely "good". We have sexual desires, desires for food, desires for power. We have anger, greed, ego, lust and attachment. We forget the transitory nature of life and in doing so we suffer. A virtuous life cultivates a virtuous mind. A mind that finds pleasure in virtuous activities. In living a life of truth, we bring clarity into our existence. The murkiness of ignorance is slowly washed away. In making compassion a principle of living, we grow happy seeing others happy, and happiness abounds. In cultivating the virtue of contentment, we avoid the endless pitfalls of suffering and do not mourn our fate. Instead we welcome hardships as a great guru and bow at the feet of tribulation. In cultivating humility, we extinguish the consuming fire of pride and establish the basis for these virtues of truthful living, compassion and the last virtue of Love. Compassion compels one into action, in seeing the sufferings of others we accept our own and find fulfillment in extinguishing the suffering of others. Yet love is the great lamp who's flame brings us joy, and if ever we grow cold, or it grow to dark we find it resting but a hands breadth away. Through cultivating these virtues, all suffering is extinguished and enlightenment is found.
good question, i was gonna ask the same thing. i was thinking maybe like the pyramids or something but ofc we can figure how they MAY have done it....just not verify.
Indeed. It is fucking awesome. Unfortunately people like the GC community who cares about knowledge are few and far between. I have learned so so much through the internet and am not putting it down, but it sucks that society could give a shit less about the internet for knowledge. It's used mostly for social media and mainstream bullshit news. I'm just saying the common sense level has very much gone down with the increase of technology.
Metal clamps in some ancient civilizations for one. They used metal clamps in their largest structures. The moulds still exist today and can be seen. This would mean they would need portable smelters and a portable smelter would mean smelting metal at temperatures 'not capable' (as said by scientists) by these civilizations. Accurate knowledge of the cosmos by many many civilizations. They were able to construct some structures to align exactly with certain objects in the sky on certain days etc. Not to mention the precision in which these structures were built and some with only one day every 10 years matching up. How do you get that accurate and build around this one day? Pyramids. There's a lot more to them than 'big ass triangles.' The dates are now even older than originally thought and civilizations with 'seemingly' nothing more than sticks and stones built these structures that we COULD not do today without the help of big machines or innovative thinking. There are many to be found just search it up. My argument could go either of two ways. Extra Terrestrials or Innovative thinking or both.
You did just answer your question though lol. We can merely speculate on the feats of these civilizations.
I mean, the pyramids are pretty impressive for the time period, but look at all the crazy shit we have now, there's nothing from ancient times that we can't figure out how to do today. Ancient man figured out where stars were over maybe hundreds of years, modern man lands on the moon and sends a fuckin robot to Mars in a little over a hundred years after learning to even fly at all. You tell me which one is the miracle?