ideas for alternative measures of advancements.
Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 11:17 pm
There is the Kardashev scale, that measures technological progress by the amounts of energy harnessed.
We have seeming deliniations of advances by industrial revolutions.
But I feel like perhaps both of these are chasing the wrong indicators. There are likely several others ways of classifying the progress of civilisation, and I'd be curious to see ideas for alternative measures.
I've a half formed notion myself and I'm struggling right now to figure the rest of it out.
Largely it's based on two sorts of models. One being the theory that human anscestors that began cooking their food enabled more nutrition to be extracted from food and thus the bodies systems to devote less work toward digestion and more toward brain growth, likely selected for by tool use in preparation of foods to consume. The other being the idea that as civilisations we had a trend of socially organizing things in such a way that formerly things that we all did in small scale began to be partitioned out to a select few to do for the community so that we could spare others from that work towards other goals that allowed us to advance.
What this tends to look like is the idea that instead of wandering clans traveling like a pack without a given den, would all go out and hunt and gather food for themselves. To nomadic camps that would send out hunting parties while others did the work of setting and mataining the camps. To settled villages in the early stages of agriculture, where everybody was growing food for their families. Animal husbandry. City building with farming.
Eventually we start to look at things where fewer and fewer people are needed to produce the same degree of productivity, freeing others to explore, learn and innovate. Now we are in a time where almost nobody produces all of their own food, nor grows and works the textiles for their clothing and bedding, nor built their own house from lumber they harvested. we've culturally outsourced these processes to others in our community who can be so productive as individuals that those single people can supply the needs of thousands of others.
So in my mind, extrapolating that forward is likely to be a better predictive model of progress for our civilization.
I feel like the milestones would be something along the lines of settlement, agriculture, trading, crafting, writing, cities, aquaducts, waste managment, mechanics, ... manufacturing, electronics, computers (in this sense focussing specifically on computing), networking, ...
it's not quite right and it's got a great deal of holes. But I feel like it gives us more insight into things we rely on existing, and current is part of the labor of everyday existing, that we may well be on our way to making the responsability of a few specialists and free everyonelse from to push advances in other feilds or uncover new things and expand our grasp of the universe and it's mysteries.
now this isn't some true/right model, because I can think of an equally appropriate approach that examines progress by seeing how formerly things that were restricted to specialists are now 'democratized'. and maybe these two things can be paired to get a more whole view of the path of civilisations.
I don't know, maybe it's just a mad ramble. I'm curious to see what others think.
We have seeming deliniations of advances by industrial revolutions.
But I feel like perhaps both of these are chasing the wrong indicators. There are likely several others ways of classifying the progress of civilisation, and I'd be curious to see ideas for alternative measures.
I've a half formed notion myself and I'm struggling right now to figure the rest of it out.
Largely it's based on two sorts of models. One being the theory that human anscestors that began cooking their food enabled more nutrition to be extracted from food and thus the bodies systems to devote less work toward digestion and more toward brain growth, likely selected for by tool use in preparation of foods to consume. The other being the idea that as civilisations we had a trend of socially organizing things in such a way that formerly things that we all did in small scale began to be partitioned out to a select few to do for the community so that we could spare others from that work towards other goals that allowed us to advance.
What this tends to look like is the idea that instead of wandering clans traveling like a pack without a given den, would all go out and hunt and gather food for themselves. To nomadic camps that would send out hunting parties while others did the work of setting and mataining the camps. To settled villages in the early stages of agriculture, where everybody was growing food for their families. Animal husbandry. City building with farming.
Eventually we start to look at things where fewer and fewer people are needed to produce the same degree of productivity, freeing others to explore, learn and innovate. Now we are in a time where almost nobody produces all of their own food, nor grows and works the textiles for their clothing and bedding, nor built their own house from lumber they harvested. we've culturally outsourced these processes to others in our community who can be so productive as individuals that those single people can supply the needs of thousands of others.
So in my mind, extrapolating that forward is likely to be a better predictive model of progress for our civilization.
I feel like the milestones would be something along the lines of settlement, agriculture, trading, crafting, writing, cities, aquaducts, waste managment, mechanics, ... manufacturing, electronics, computers (in this sense focussing specifically on computing), networking, ...
it's not quite right and it's got a great deal of holes. But I feel like it gives us more insight into things we rely on existing, and current is part of the labor of everyday existing, that we may well be on our way to making the responsability of a few specialists and free everyonelse from to push advances in other feilds or uncover new things and expand our grasp of the universe and it's mysteries.
now this isn't some true/right model, because I can think of an equally appropriate approach that examines progress by seeing how formerly things that were restricted to specialists are now 'democratized'. and maybe these two things can be paired to get a more whole view of the path of civilisations.
I don't know, maybe it's just a mad ramble. I'm curious to see what others think.