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RE: Our World is getting better all the time - with statistics to prove it
I loved Pinker's book, but I think he puts a little too much faith in the Hobbesian Leviathan. His critique of what he called "anarchist" societies has been questioned because some of the examples he used clearly had rulers. I also think human morality has evolved positively due to technological advancement and our assent up Maslow's Heirarchy of needs (hurray, no more burning cats in bags!) and not necessarily because of strong governments. Other than that, I loved his book and highly recommend it.
Great write up here. There are so many reasons we are living in the best time in human history!
I absolutely agree with you! There are some iffy bits from the book, but the overall impact is not diminished.
At the end of the day, human self-awareness and morality have evolved, and that is what has driven this constant change.
Technological advancement can be very destructive. There are of course times where technological advancement outpaces evolution of human morality. We were on the brink of catastrophe with World War II. If the war had been a couple of years later - there would have been a nuclear war.
Similarly, today, our technology has vastly outpaced our responsibility towards the environment and other living species. But we are catching back up now.
Really good points. Technology is just a tool, but it can be a very dangerous one.
I've had some interesting discussions about the potential "intrinsic" morality of a thing. I think that idea is silly, but my business partner argued for it. There are some things, from a teleological perspective, which really only have bad purposes (poison gas and torture devices come to mind) and I can see the argument for them being morally "bad" because of their purpose. But... ultimately, a thing by itself does not change reality. That requires an outside actor. Technology (at least for now) requires actors. In the future, if we develop A.I. and aren't careful about it, we might be in a world of hurt.
Well, @lukestokes, you have just dragged is into a whole new can of worms. :) Who knows what happens after the singularity? Though I bet people have thought similarly before every new major technological revolution, and there have been many of those.