Subj : Re: Computer Kits
To   : boraxman
From : Jeff
Date : Tue Jan 25 2022 18:54:30

On 26 Jan 2022, boraxman said the following...
 bo>  Je> We're also not designed to fly, or to travel 70mph. We're not designe
 bo>  Je> to do a lot of the things we do.
 bo>  Je> 
 bo> I think this is different.  You are talking about physical capabilities,
 bo> I am talking about behavioural norms.  It is one thing to be able to
 bo> physically do something you couldn't before, but it is totally another
 bo> to be subject to social mechanics which evolution hasn't equipped us for.

The social mechanics of today are very, very different than they were back
when we roamed the plains of Africa, even without considering phone apps.
Telephones, televisions, telegraphs, book, newspapers, magazines... all make
the world a little bit smaller than it was before.

 bo> By the way, when we fly, we take very, very, very careful measures to
 bo> make sure that the artificial means which enable us to fly never force
 bo> us to rely on our own innate ability to fly.  Flight and travel work
 bo> because we never have to deal with the conflict between what it
 bo> provides, and what we can do.

That's not 100% true. Our ability to fly and travel depend on the ability of
at least some of us to process the increased rate of information generated by,
and on the ability of at least some of us to react in the shortened timespan
granted by, velocities which our brains were not "designed" to handle.

 bo> Social Media doesn't do this.  It subjects us to a panopticon, to
 bo> exacerbates certain behaviours, stimulus, breaks our expections, but
 bo> there is no "safety net".

Books and newspapers do the same thing, and have been for centuries.

 bo>  Je> On the other hand, whether we were designed for it or not, humans'
 bo>  Je> specialty is adaptation. We're not inherently the greatest predators,
 bo>  Je> nor the fleetest or most well-defended prey. We excel at doing things
 bo>  Je> were not designed to do.
 bo> Adaptation has limits.  Humans didn't adapt to Communism, to North
 bo> Korea.  We haven't adapted to freely available and abundant opiods, to
 bo> wealth inequality, etc.

It does have limits. In some ways we've reached our limits; in others we
haven't. To someone who grew up with the internet and phone apps, those
things just exist, seemingly have always existed, and seemingly will exist
forever. They have adapted. Some of us who predate that technology may not
have. Adaptation as a species is not the same as adaptation as an individual.

 bo> This is off topic, but my point is there are pathological social trends
 bo> in which the only real solution is regulation or removal.  We deal with
 bo> them all the time.

There are, but I don't think that phone app use is one of them except as it
pertains to driving (or flying).

The world that the youth of today are growing up in is different from our
youth, just as our youth was different from that of our parents. When I was a
kid, it was heavy metal music and video games that were going to be the
downfall of society as we knew it. I knew how to use a computer (and a
VCR!) long before my parents did, and now I ask my daughter to configure new
devices for me.

It's the Circle of Life, man.

Jeff.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
 * Origin: Cold War Computing BBS (21:1/180)

.