Life expectancy was only 35 because of infant mortality. Once you grew up, people tended to live almost as long as we do today.
And medical care is not by any means new. Cesarean section is named after Cesar, and it was a well established medical practice before he was born.
He sleeps on a mattress.
Well golly, call the patent office, tell them to shut down and go home, we can't possibly improve on this.
Honestly, where are all of you present defender coming from? Is the future too awesome for you? Sour grapes over the fact that you too get sick, age and can die?
> Life expectancy was only 35 because of infant mortality. Once you grew up, people tended to live almost as long as we do today.
Ok, so why we calculate it this way? Shouldn't we look at median instead of an average? Or average on data between lower and upper quartile? I thought that quartiles exist exactly for those kind of situations...
I'm not sure the author meant stone age literally. I think it might have been a more long-winded way of saying, "Where's my flying car?" Flying car being a metaphor, of course.
it does, but i probably should have provided more detail.
as a genre, sci-fi loves to explore immortality. i have a crappy memory for titles, so i can't give you specific books or stories to look for, but most of the big names have taken a look at the problem: Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, etc. None of them have viewed it in a positive light. we shouldn't take their word on it as final, of course, but like all sci-fi, they provide excellent food for thought.
tl;dr: we can't reliably distribute the limited resources we have now, while lifespans are also still limited. there's nothing to suggest that this problem will be solved by increasing lifespans, let alone increasing them indefinitely.
a fair point, but he also has it somewhat negatively in Childhood's End.
edit: having just looked it up, i'm actually not sure i've read the City and the Stars: i may be remembering a different story entirely. regardless, Childhood's End was rather bleak in that regard.
Our lives are better, but I doubt we are happier. Sometimes, I observe people that are much worse (economically) than me, and I see how they laugh. I am in general a happy person, but I don't think I can laugh with the same intensity as they do.
I can't find the reference, somebody posted a study where they show that after one year of either winning the lottery or becoming paralytic, people have the same level of happiness. I think is comforting to know that now matter what, we adapt, and we go on with our lives.
I think I'm glad we're still in the stone ages. I would break that list up into two distinct categories, the first of which I would define as positive (beautiful?) aspects of being human.
Being Human, positive
---------------------
I age.
I sleep.
I will die.
I walk places.
I educate my child.
I think for my computer.
I put effort into exercise.
I make purchase decisions.
I make investment decisions.
I meet people by happenstance.
I don’t always know when people are lying.
=====================
Problems / Annoyances, negative (fix these)
---------------------
I typed this post.
I waste resources.
I still drive my car.
I plug my computer in.
I know a foreign language.
I know people with diseases.
I contemplate my family’s safety.
I traveled to universities and work.
I carry things - keys, cash and cards.
I eat bad food because it tastes better.
I need to get my medical reports "faxed".
I know people with mental health problems.
I sit for 6 hours on a flight and write posts like this.
I breathe polluted air, drink impure water and eat contaminated food.
That may not be true. The exactions imposed by shamans are effectively taxes imposed by a priestly class.
Present customs about taxation seem to derive mostly from tributes extracted by conquering tribes. But even in those cases there may be a thin historical thread connecting them to shamans, since the royal families of conquering tribes often had a semi-divine status.
Present customs about taxation seem to derive mostly from tributes extracted by conquering tribes
Tax money builds roads and other infrastructure in common. The origins of a system don't dictate its current reasons for existence -- it may have started as shamanic tribute, but now it's to provide for social needs. (And, perhaps, to pad the coffers of privileged corporations.)
1. He drives a car.
2. He owns keys, cash, and cards.
3. He receives medical care.
4. His life expectancy is above 35 years.
5. He owns a computer.
6. His basic survival doesn't automatically involve exercise.
7. He has alternatives to walking when traveling long distances.
8. Universities exist in his time.
9. He sleeps on a mattress.
10. Medicine exists to help control many causes of death. He'll likely die of natural causes after a long life.
11. Flight is possible for humans.
12. He's able to express his thoughts in a way that can be recorded and processed by non-living machines.
13. He's able to consider nutrition in his diet.
14. He meets people outside his immediate community without necessarily considering them a threat.
15. He considers his own impact on the wellbeing of the planet.
16. When contemplating his family's safety, he is able to consider the assistance of police, firemen, and medical professionals.
17. Monetary investment exists in his time.
18. Monetary transactions exist in his time.
19. He's learning a foreign language.
20. His child's education includes reading, writing, and arithmetic.
21. He recognizes the concept of mental health.
22. He recognizes that disease has medical causes.
23. He is able to form written contracts to help counter the deceit of others.
24. Industry exists in his time.
25. He typed that post.