Humanities Regression
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 7:22 am
This is quite interesting and
relates to quite a few Jaynesian topics, the split from the gods and the 'fall'.
I really feel like western civilisation is losing it's way. So much of what was once known and
existed seems to be forgotten or dumbed down out of existence.
In the computing/software/technology field, it seems like half the ideas that were developed
in the 1970s have disappeared from the collective imagination.
I look at the huge achievements of Alan Turing, Alan Kay, Donald Knuth, Richard Feynman, John Von Neumann
etc, and then look at what is considered high technology today, Facebook, Twitter, endless iOS Apps etc.
It all seems like one big trap of ego filling, money making, attention grabbing manipulation.
OK, so the people I mentioned were/are all 'top-level' geniuses, but today
I meet so few people who are even aware of their existence or what they achieved.
Obviously intelligence falls into a standard distribution, so we can't expect there to be
many people that many 'levels' above the norm, but the width of the variation seems quite staggering.
Has humanity always been so far divided, between those that can understand the world and those that can't?
relates to quite a few Jaynesian topics, the split from the gods and the 'fall'.
I really feel like western civilisation is losing it's way. So much of what was once known and
existed seems to be forgotten or dumbed down out of existence.
In the computing/software/technology field, it seems like half the ideas that were developed
in the 1970s have disappeared from the collective imagination.
I look at the huge achievements of Alan Turing, Alan Kay, Donald Knuth, Richard Feynman, John Von Neumann
etc, and then look at what is considered high technology today, Facebook, Twitter, endless iOS Apps etc.
It all seems like one big trap of ego filling, money making, attention grabbing manipulation.
OK, so the people I mentioned were/are all 'top-level' geniuses, but today
I meet so few people who are even aware of their existence or what they achieved.
Obviously intelligence falls into a standard distribution, so we can't expect there to be
many people that many 'levels' above the norm, but the width of the variation seems quite staggering.
Has humanity always been so far divided, between those that can understand the world and those that can't?