From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@gondwanaland.com)
Date: Wed Apr 03 2002 - 04:35:27 MST
On Tue, 2002-04-02 at 17:34, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> Jared Diamond asks whether agriculture was worth it:
For me, yes. For some of my ancestors, perhaps not, though I think
Diamond overstates the case, particularly when he pins sexual and social
inequality on agriculture. Aren't these rampant throughout the animal
kingdom, including most of our closest relatives excepting bonobos? Any
hard evidence that pre-agricultural humans were more egalitarian?
We can't go back to hunter-gatherer days as a society regardless, but as
individuals we can compensate for adverse effects agriculture and later
developments may have. If you believe agriculture turned us onto
unhealthy food, you can avoid much of it. See http://www.paleodiet.com
for suggestions. (I only avoid some things rather than trying to "eat
paleo" primarily because I dislike animals.) Similarly you can avoid
overspecialization, sedentary lifestyle, etc. Effort required.
Dan Fabulich wrote:
> Agriculture is a political necessity; not just because we're now
> "locked in" after the fact, but because agricultural societies are at
> an extreme political advantage over hunter-gatherer societies. Given
> that, you find yourself asking highly impractical questions like:
> "Would it be better if agriculture DIDN'T provide a political
> advantage?"
Reminds me a bit of <http://hanson.gmu.edu/uploads.html>.
Mike Linksvayer
http://gondwanaland.com/ml/
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