Post by JACK-2 on May 27, 2015 7:29:22 GMT -5
This is an actual response from my Anthropology professor:
"I agree that given the increase in population that likely preceded domestication of plants and animals, agriculture was "perhaps" inevitable, although this remains a contested issue. A lot of things that you point to, however, cities, economic growth etc--appear to us indispensable, but that's mostly because we have grown with these things and have difficulty imagining our lives without these civilizational attributes. Humans lived for almost 99% of their collective existence without these features, so one has to be careful about projecting our own biases on to the past (admittedly a difficult thing to do!). Objectively speaking, and leaving aside a variety of social and political problems associated with agriculture, the processes unleashed by agriculture, directly or indirectly, have led to environmental disasters, genocides and other catastrophe of planetary proportions. I would even even venture so far as to say that some of our actions may even render the planet uninhabitable or at least inhospitable to most higher life forms (for instance, if some of the extreme climate change scenarios materialize). Even medical advances such as reduction in infant mortality that have been achieved are of dubious value when it comes evaluating their global impact."
I'm not sure if this is devil's advocate, but Jesus Christ this is some scary way of thinking.
"I agree that given the increase in population that likely preceded domestication of plants and animals, agriculture was "perhaps" inevitable, although this remains a contested issue. A lot of things that you point to, however, cities, economic growth etc--appear to us indispensable, but that's mostly because we have grown with these things and have difficulty imagining our lives without these civilizational attributes. Humans lived for almost 99% of their collective existence without these features, so one has to be careful about projecting our own biases on to the past (admittedly a difficult thing to do!). Objectively speaking, and leaving aside a variety of social and political problems associated with agriculture, the processes unleashed by agriculture, directly or indirectly, have led to environmental disasters, genocides and other catastrophe of planetary proportions. I would even even venture so far as to say that some of our actions may even render the planet uninhabitable or at least inhospitable to most higher life forms (for instance, if some of the extreme climate change scenarios materialize). Even medical advances such as reduction in infant mortality that have been achieved are of dubious value when it comes evaluating their global impact."
I'm not sure if this is devil's advocate, but Jesus Christ this is some scary way of thinking.
