That would work if the majority of people stayed interested…forever. This has literally never happened in recorded history.
How far is eventually?
It varies, longest in History was 1,500 years (Roman Empire) but as information accelerates so to does greed. The US is looking like it may be done around the 250 year mark but a lot of that was when information and society moved much slower. Younger Techno-Nations are declining at nearly the same rate and are unlikely to make even make that much.
I bet we could push it out til at least the heat death of the universe if we tried doing something other than robbing one-another.
That’s the rub. There has always been and will always be enough people robbing each other to break a system, any system. Its only a matter of time and I seriously think the amount of time it takes has a lot do with the pace of society and speed of information.
People have been interested in civilization since the dawn of civilization, dude. Even when it collapses it regrows. We’re naturally social creatures and ideas don’t die. Even in times of decline people aspire to do better.
Medieval European peasants knew what Roman aqueducts were for. They knew that civilization had fallen, but they made a new one and eventually it regrew to the point of the previous Roman empire, and then beyond, through ups and downs, until now.
Not everyone remains interested the whole time, but it does carry forward.
Yeah. That’s how culture works from an anthropological lens. Culture makes people and people make culture and each individual moves the needle just a microscopic amount while some move it a bit more. (Gross simplification) my wife has a master’s in classical anthropo and I had some exposure to anthropological theory lol.
That would work if the majority of people stayed interested…forever. This has literally never happened in recorded history.
It varies, longest in History was 1,500 years (Roman Empire) but as information accelerates so to does greed. The US is looking like it may be done around the 250 year mark but a lot of that was when information and society moved much slower. Younger Techno-Nations are declining at nearly the same rate and are unlikely to make even make that much.
That’s the rub. There has always been and will always be enough people robbing each other to break a system, any system. Its only a matter of time and I seriously think the amount of time it takes has a lot do with the pace of society and speed of information.
People have been interested in civilization since the dawn of civilization, dude. Even when it collapses it regrows. We’re naturally social creatures and ideas don’t die. Even in times of decline people aspire to do better.
Medieval European peasants knew what Roman aqueducts were for. They knew that civilization had fallen, but they made a new one and eventually it regrew to the point of the previous Roman empire, and then beyond, through ups and downs, until now.
Not everyone remains interested the whole time, but it does carry forward.
Yeah. That’s how culture works from an anthropological lens. Culture makes people and people make culture and each individual moves the needle just a microscopic amount while some move it a bit more. (Gross simplification) my wife has a master’s in classical anthropo and I had some exposure to anthropological theory lol.