From: Damien Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 13:54:45 MDT
On Thu, Apr 10, 2003 at 09:43:49PM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
> It's interesting to note, however, and contrary to my optimism
> and contrary to what I think is the very long term trend, life
> appears to have gotten harder for people following the agricultural
> revolution---or at least for some people.
*very* long term trend, perhaps. I've seen studies saying that heights at
least didn't climb back up to pre-agricultural heights until the 20th century.
Between tall Cro-Magnons and tall agribusiness-fed Americans are a lot of
short people with bad teeth. And not just the lower classes, necessarily.
The Art Institute of Chicago has a very stable exhibit in Gunsaulus Hall, full
of medieval armor and weapons. What's interesting is that the suits of full
plate armor they have on display are about 5'2". (Not exact number. But
*short*. You look over the helmet, then realize the armor is on a raised
platform to begin with.)
And I've seen criticism of the common statement "well, at least they were
better off than on the farm" regarding the conditions of 19th century factory
workers. It's not clear that the front line of workers, working 12+ hours a
day in dark factories and living in crowded and filthy tenements were better
off than they would have been on a farm. Their grandchildren, yes, much
better off...
> One is reminded of Robin Hanson's "What if Uploads Come First?",
> a bleak (and to me slightly unbelievable) picture of how once
> again high tech might result in a *lowering* of income.
Smart educated people command high incomes because they're rare and expensive
to produce. If they become mass producible, a commodity even, why shouldn't
the price they command drop? Just like music files on the internet. Bits
want to be free...
-xx- Damien X-)
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