Josh Cahoon wrote
> On another topic entirely, I'd like to confess sympathy with a very
> anti-extropian idea: Civilization and technology are bad and unnatural. Hehe..
> I'm no longer certain that people have "better" lives today than they did in
> prehistoric times. We are not biologically adapted to the worry-prone,
> insecure, estranged lives that are part and parcel of American society today.
> Chronic stress, anorexia, depression, obesity--these are a few maladies that
> are likely much more prevalent today than in prehistoric times. Maybe the
> anarchists are onto something.
People have *far* better lives today. People didn't live long enough
in the old days to get most of those ailments. See
http://www.beyondveg.com/nicholson-w/angel-1984/angel-1984-1a.shtml
for a good presentation. The transition from hunter to farmer was
unhealthy, however, (at least until late classical times). The
figures for modern U. S. whites are rather staggering. It's quite
a nice chart.
Lee Corbin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:02 MDT