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Golden Age of Intellect - A discussion

LordPezix

Member
I often wonder, if humans have intellectually peaked? Are we now, with our knowledge of the cosmos and the ideals of spiritual release into the cosmic ether forever ascending our existence as we speed through space as a shining rainbow-colored cloud of atom dust, peaked? Are we now released over fraught of pain and doom for the very essence of our eternity is locked within the bounds of atoms and the energy between them? Have we, as a society come to the knowledge that the very meaning of life, is to simply exist, as you always will, and shall forever to be? Are we now forgone the ensnaring desires that time has taught, the richest king a thousand years ago, made no difference, as time erases all glory, in any manner, eventually. Do we then strive for a life fulfilled of rich memory that is embedded in the very fabric of your being, the very building blocks for what one would consider a soul or a consciousness? Or are we more like who we thought came before us, the lesser intelligent cave men? With their primitive tools, barbaric sense of life, and what we would consider, completely unintelligent thought towards their existence? Are we more like them? What will a millennium of generations after us, say about us? Will they say we were cavemen? Will they look at our inability to form a single cohesive society that strives solely, for the empowerment of life of everyone? Will they see our stride for great achievements and the grand spectacles we’ve built, as petty? Are the pyramids a blazing example of how utterly pointless our greatest prides are, today, and will be in a couple of thousand of years. Why then do we keep beating that drum? Are we so blind to the lessons of history? Is this just the rules of nature, that the certain tribes inhabiting earth will destroy and conquer each other over and over again? Must there always be a “Rome”? Why are so many of us trapped in the idea that we must be better, build it bigger, than something or someone? Where did this need for superiority over your own very race arise from? When do we bond? When is complete community achieved? When will we protect human life, and disregard non-existential desires, and become one? I feel as most can feel this, see this, enjoy the ideal of a singular human race, an un-divided one, shooting through the stars on the cosmic winds of enlightenment as our blue and green berry planet spins in circles around our sun. If I can have this reasoning, then surely others have seen this as well. And if we have achieved awareness to this existence, in which we have seen the follies of our past, do we then shape the world to this reality? Is this the reality our intellect has conceived as ideal, and we are currently chasing that world? More people my age are forsaking material possessions, spending more time in nature, escaping the 40- hour work week, loving others freely. We are the most educated generation in the world, and many of us are choosing lives that directly conflict with what was considered the “American Dream”. The dream is no longer a ¾ acre plot, white picket fence, and the latest model Oldsmobile. The dream now, is experience, the world, connection, freedom. The emotional cognition, a burden of intelligence, is growing among us. The world is rejecting hate, stereotypes, the fight for equality is strong. It is not just about sex or race, but it’s about providing an equal existence of peace and happiness to all. We are plagued by the archaic ideals of the past, but I believe the horizon is close. What good is power, what use of fame, if your name won’t even last 5,000 years? We are tired of killing the planet, we are tired of killing each other, we are on the verge of finally caring for others more than we care for ourselves. We are soon to become the embodiment of our perceived divinities in which our ascension will be fulfilled, and we can revert to the very truth of freedom, as not be enslaved by such selfish, evil, ideals of existence. I believe this could be the very start of the gold age of enlightenment.


I enjoy philosophical discussion, thought I would just throw this out there.

Please try and keep any identity politics commenting to a discussion appropriate dialogue.
 

Basoes

Member
we still haven't perfected edible underwear and anal lube , both taste nasty together
 
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tldr1.gif


=p
 

Breakage

Member
I often look back at the bygone generations that grew up in the post-war pre-Internet era and think man they had it so good.
I would have loved to have been an adult before the Internet and social media invaded everyday life.
 
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DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
I think we have at least one hurdle yet to overcome: the decay of morality in a nearly-post-scarcity society. The quality of life around the world has gotten so incredibly good for billions of people in the last century. Society has not really grasped that yet. There are many parts of the world where we have so much food, so much entertainment, and so much money that we can make ourselves sick off it to the point of disease and death.

If you take a historical view of morality, rules were put in place to help us survive. Now that survival is more-or-less "solved", do those same rules apply? Do we have to follow different rules to keep things moving forward, or does it all fall apart when we abandon the old rules? I don't think we've adequately answered those concerns.

Lots of people figure we've no use for the old rules. I'm confident that we do. Far more intelligent, passionate, and organized men and women thought the exact same thing and the massacres of the 20th century in the name of Communism are their legacy. We clearly cannot cast out the old rules entirely nor can we cling to them entirely. Where is the middle ground? What should we get rid of, what should we adjust, and what should remain unchanged?

We've also not adequately answered (or implemented) philosophical arguments made over 100 years ago. To me, this is a sign that we've stagnated. I'd argue that we haven't genuinely come up with a decent philosophical premise since Wittgenstein. I'm hardly an expert on philosophy, though. I think Tolstoy's 'The Kingdom of God Is Within You' is just as relevant today as it was when it inspired the likes of Dietrich Bonnhoffer, John Ruskin, Dr. King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi (as an aside, all four of those made worthy contributions to the areas of theology and philosophy, too). We also haven't picked up the shattered pieces of Existentialism yet, which mutated into a Post-Modernism joke due to the likes of Camus, Sartre, and Derrida. Kierkegaard is required reading to get things back on track. If these ideas and fixes have been around for 100+ years and we still haven't gotten around to fully implementing them yet, how can we have "peaked" as a species?
 
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KevinKeene

Banned
Peaked? Looking at the world stage, people have learned nothing and I guess it has been long enough since ww2 for people to go into a direction that will cast ww3 eventually.

On a more intimate level: I think mankind has widely lost its ambition to drive forward meaningful technological advance. Either because we're at a stage where big breakthroughs are really difficult, or because capitalism prevents it. I consider myself lucky to be part of the generation that witnessed the development of a world without internet to a world with permanent internet everywhere. But that's been 20 years already. Now it's just about incremental smartphone upgrades and higher res tv-screens. I want to see the world take the next step.

No idea what that step could be. Grand things like faster-than-light travel? A general, affordable cancer cure?Biological immortality? Anti-Gravity engines?

Or could it be at least some more humble steps, like sending the first man to Mars? Going away from smartphones to massmarket-success of 'companions' that sit on your shoulder/are attached to your backpack strap and have powerful, individual a.i.? What about a unification of Europe as one nation? Or the removal of guns from hands of US civilians? Or just give us high-end sex robots that look like my favorite cat girl, Japan!

If 'now' is mankind's peak, I'm disappointed beyond belief. I'm ready for nextgen technology. Ffs, why do houses still have stairs? ;i
 
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I have this very controversial idea that what if the internet was only access to the intellectuals and the rest of mankind would have no access to prevent chaos because they would not how to use it properly. Like I am sure there is some science fiction works that covers this where only a small set of people would have access to it. Treating it as if it was Shangri La
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
We will get better. Health, wealth, prosperity, and technological advancement are trending upwards globally.

Can't stop the hooman train.
 

A.Romero

Member
We haven't peaked and we won't for a long time.

New science discoveries are done every day. We are still idiots when dealing with emotions so I think that evolution will take care of our inner growth and science will take care of the rest.
 

Gander

Banned
The human mind is capable of amazing things but there always seems to be a counter balance a sacrifice for these higher abilities.

For straightforward intelligence though I guess that is best answered by somebody from Mensa.
 
As long as oppression exists, in any form, human intellect will never peak, because we are preventing the next Einstein from developing, or from new technologies, discoveries, or ideas from occurring.
 
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LordPezix

Member
No idea what that step could be. Grand things like faster-than-light travel? A general, affordable cancer cure?Biological immortality? Anti-Gravity engines?
If 'now' is mankind's peak, I'm disappointed beyond belief. I'm ready for nextgen technology. Ffs, why do houses still have stairs? ;i

I often believe that our technological advancement walks hand in hand with our doom. The further we develop our "tech" selves the further we stride towards darkness it seems. We have created industries that are irrefutably destroying our very planet. We create tribes among ourselves that fuel conflict. Throw trash all over the world, suffocating the environment. We champion being the wolf, a model of self interest and uniqueness, versus the sheep, the community, for out of fear of being like everyone else.

I believe technology and the advancement of it, is synonymous with chasing the horizon. How far, how many nextgens do we have until we finally get what we need?

We will get better. Health, wealth, prosperity, and technological advancement are trending upwards globally.

Health, well I guess that is open for interpretation. Is our health really improving? Is pushing the human age envelope through the use of heavily industrialized medicines improving? Are the last 20 years of your life spent taking a dozen pills and being a prisoner to your own body improving health? Is health synonymous with age? I don't like to believe so. Health to me is a culmination of ones well being. I can see the benefits of what technology has brought to our physical health, but I often wonder if the rise in suicides is a side effect of technology, in which case, is the price worth it?

We haven't peaked and we won't for a long time. New science discoveries are done every day. We are still idiots when dealing with emotions so I think that evolution will take care of our inner growth and science will take care of the rest.

I don't think science is an appropriate indicator of intellectual enlightenment. Especially when science could be the very reason for our extinction.

I'm no expert but I believe one sign of intellectual enlightenment is a homeostatic relationship with ones environment. We are fully aware that our current level of operation is unsustainable for life in the near future. The resources we utilize aren't limitless. Whether we are talking about land, fossil fuels, wood, etc. I see the different movements around the world in effort to stem the damage being done and one day hopefully reverse it. I believe we now, without a doubt understand that we have a responsibility to coexist here on earth or face annihilation. Green energy, recycling, veganism, electric vehicles, small living, and anti-consumerism all movements that are growing in size. A class in environmental morals in business is now considered to be an important enough practice that it is being taught in college. To me this is a sign that we have started down the path, in which after millenniums, we start to give instead of take. We contribute back to earth, after years and years of taking.

I feel we as a society have matured. We are no longer going about whatever we want without care to the consequences. Am I saying we still don't have a ways to go? No. But we no longer believe we as a society can act as a teenager, basking in oneself belief of invincibility, spared the repercussions of our actions.

I think we see the sins of our livelihood, and are actively engaging in practices to steer the ship in the other direction.



Are today's actions, the first steps in a renewed belief that our first priority is to the earth, and that we have ended the age of human selfishness?

Or are we still desperately clinging to the facade that our technology will ensure everlasting paradise, instead of the one, already placed at our feet?

Intellectuals use paragraph breaks.

Also, I make no claims to being an Intellectual by any means. I hardly know anything at all.
 
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Spheyr

Banned
I have this very controversial idea that what if the internet was only access to the intellectuals and the rest of mankind would have no access to prevent chaos because they would not how to use it properly. Like I am sure there is some science fiction works that covers this where only a small set of people would have access to it. Treating it as if it was Shangri La
How would you use all your newfound spare time without the internet?
 
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