Andy's off the wall Tuesday Thread.

Andy @ Allerton · March 28, 2006

It's quite interesting to see a lot of things like politics in todays world - given that in the grand scheme of things - it doesn't matter a rats a*** - except in the here and now and very short term future. But society builds up constructs and images and ideals that we seem to think are important.

For example, in 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 years - will anyone care about the commerce, politics, social setup and all the other things that our society and world has constructed? I personally suspect not.

What if you move the meter on another 1,000,000 years - almost certainly not would be the cry.

Societies and individuals views on reality and importance are obviously constructed and tempered by the now and here - but what if that now and here because smaller? Not sure if anyone else has read any of the books where (This is fiction by the way) - to see the impact of a long term society in short term, volunteers were put into what amounted to a large office block with no windows, several floors and food to be introduced at regular intervals - they had no contact and no idea of the world outside - and their progress was observed.

What was observed in the fictional world (Apparantly based on a paper constructed by a social analyst) was that as the societies grew in such a limited space, old age became much more pronounced - and people grew up and adapted more quickly and the whole thing turned into territories on different floors - with trade and commerce coming from the small items that were constructed inside (As there was very little free material from the original jewelrey and so on - the construction went smaller and smaller and smaller) - the territory by the way was forced due to 'choke points' on the stairs and the locations of the food and water dispensers - the more powerful were on the top floor and dictated the flow of commerce downwards where the weaker were towards the centre - getting stronger again towards the floor.

It was an interesting short story - and the ideas behind it were interesting - plus it put into focus our own immediate ideas of 'now' and what is important 'now'.

Ostrich Man · March 28, 2006

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