agriculture and the global brain (was: The mistake of agriculture)

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Fri May 23 2003 - 10:28:14 MDT

  • Next message: Ramez Naam: "RE: The mistake of agriculture (was: evolution and diet)"

    We've talked a lot about Jared Diamond here, but I think a great
    perspective on this comes from Robert Wright. In _Non-Zero_ he
    suggests that the most important effect of agriculture was to increase
    the information density of human populations. With greater population
    density and more people freed up from subsistence hunter gathering,
    agricultural societies gave way to a degree of idea-creation and
    idea-sharing not before possible.

    I like this analogy. In some ways, agriculture was (at first) a net
    negative for the /individuals/ in agricultural societies, but a
    positive for the societies as meta-individuals.

    I'd also note that even for individuals ancient societies had some
    significant advantages. Life expectancy in HG societies is believed
    to have been around 18 years. In ancient Rome it had gone up to
    around 30 years. While nutrition might have been poorer, agricultural
    societies were capable of providing a higher and more consistent
    caloric intake than HG societies. Agricultural societies were also
    better at protecting their members against predators and, of course,
    against other humans.

    cheers,
    mez



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