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