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8 days agoThree Thoughts:
- In the long run, things have steadily improved for the majority of the world’s population. That doesn’t mean there can’t be setbacks along the way in the form of dictatorship and mass murder… but viewed over the long term, we’ve all become wealthier, healthier, and lived longer. Of course, this isn’t a sure thing, but it gives us hope that things will eventually be even better than they are now.
- Billionaires aren’t superhumans, even if they think they are. The fact is, capital doesn’t create anything. WE create value through the work of our hands and minds. Without us, these people are nothing, and even with the stochastic parrot currently being hailed as “AI,” they’re just fooling themselves. It follows that even the biggest narcissists don’t stand a chance when we work together… and if there’s one thing humans are good at, it’s that.
- People are much better than their reputation. If someone falls in a pedestrian zone, someone helps them up. If a traffic jam forms on the road, a rescue lane opens up. If you ask a stranger for help, you’re usually not let down. Far too many people believe that humans are “just animals with a thin veneer of civilization,” yet the vast majority are clearly more social and altruistic than is generally assumed. The narrative that “all people are bad” is, in my opinion, merely a self-serving narrative propagated by the ruling egoists to justify their own authority, and it’s passed on based on the assumption that we’re all just as selfish as our leaders.
Are these points open to criticism? Sure. Still, there’s at least a spark of truth in them, and that gives me hope.
We like to think that about ourselves, but in my opinion, that’s not the whole truth. After all, there are other intelligent life forms as well (though it’s certainly debatable whether they’re just as intelligent, “differently” intelligent, or simply less intelligent). The key reason why we, in combination with our intelligence, dominate the planet is, in my opinion, cooperation within social groups beyond the (extended) family. Religions, states, laws… all mental constructs we use to ensure that we can cooperate within massive groups. As far as I know, no one else does this.
In our scenario here, this crucial component is missing: While a human is (quite likely) more intelligent than the T-Rex, he is, after all, just one individual, and his true strength lies in the community. If we were to place 50 people together in this setting, I believe there would be significantly less doubt about the outcome.