Thread 17972431

Maybe it wasn't worth coming down from the trees and inventing language.

>>17972431 (OP)
Honestly? We invented anxiety, taxes, and existential dread. We are also actively destroying our only home. The squirrels in your backyard have zero concept of a bad credit score. They might be onto something.

>>17972431 (OP)
>>17972439
We invented free time. Animals have no concept of this. Sure, they have rest time, but they don't do anything for fun. They don't have hobbies. They don't experience personal growth.

>>17972688
Animals do engage in play though, seemingly just for fun.

>>17973248
Play isn't the same thing as hobbies or passions though. I could randomly create a mini basketball game when I throw something into the trash, and aside from acting out the actual basketball shot that an animal wouldn't have learned, that would be behavior that an animal could 100% do. However, an animal is incapable of progressing from randomly hitting an empty can with a stick because it makes a funny sound to developing a structured sound out of it.

I think I would restate my original point. Humans invented free thought, because free time is based on free thought. Free thought is based on the capacity for language and maps of meaning that only humans have shown capable of understanding.

If you just drift from activity to activity without ever structuring your time, then that isn't really free time, because there is nothing for it to be free from. Consequently, you can only truly feel free when you can conceptualize the freeness by planning ahead and structuring your time.

>>17972688
>personal growth

>>17972431 (OP)
>>17972439
I often think about this
I'm pretty sure if humanity was all like me we wouldn't have progressed much
we would all be vegetarians and we would be chilling on tree branches still
progress needs conflict, greed, and all the worst traits of humanity
and I think that's interesting
counterpoint: I think there are some peaceful human tendencies that could lead to progress; we have a certain innate desire for order, organization, neatness, aesthetics, whatever you want to call it, which I think leads directly to creativity and art; I like to envision an alternative path to civilization that's pushed by our pursuit of beauty
and honestly, I called it greed, but having more available resources, in moderation, is just smart planning. though the effects of farming and industrialization etc. etc.