Technological Garden of Eden

cloudyday2

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again? It seems to me that humans would be happier and healthier eating and living and working in paleolithic ways.

Assuming this is true then I wonder what modern technology humans might be able to retain when we someday return to a paleolithic paradise? For example, would it be possible for robots to masquerade as angels and "miraculously" heal people when they need medical care?
 
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SelfSim

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again? It seems to me that humans would be happier and healthier eating and living and working in paleolithic ways.
Did you overlook the fact that in the paleolithic era, human populations were very sparse and communities were way less densely populated? How does one exclude that as being a reason for (hypothesised) more happiness?
Life spans were also much shorter (for evidenced reasons).
How one would sustain healthier eating and working conditions (and community defence) are problems our technology contemplations must solve.
 
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Jok

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again? It seems to me that humans would be happier and healthier eating and living and working in paleolithic ways.

Assuming this is true then I wonder what modern technology humans might be able to retain when we someday return to a paleolithic paradise? For example, would it be possible for robots to masquerade as angels and "miraculously" heal people when they need medical care?
You’re jumping ahead too far. We still have to go through the Orwellian nightmare with robots first.

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SelfSim

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again? It seems to me that humans would be happier and healthier eating and living and working in paleolithic ways.
I think one might have to introduce programs which actively encourage embracing the process of objective thinking in order to faciliate the efficient development of any useful technologies ... (which of course, is likely to introduce resistance in the pursuit of the specified 'Garden of Eden-like' happiness).

The counterintuitiveness resulting from the objective thinking process is likely to be met with maximal resistance .. which would, of course, call for a discipline of opposing free will notions.
A whole industry of such discipliners may arise! ('Could I have that job please, sir'?) :)
 
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James A

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again? It seems to me that humans would be happier and healthier eating and living and working in paleolithic ways.

Assuming this is true then I wonder what modern technology humans might be able to retain when we someday return to a paleolithic paradise? For example, would it be possible for robots to masquerade as angels and "miraculously" heal people when they need medical care?

In my personal opinion, the Garden is a spiritual place same as or similar to Abraham's Bosom or the Paradise promised to the good thief.

The four rivers pre figure the four Gospels
 
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AV1611VET

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again?
If you want to see hunter-gatherers in action, stand outside of Walmart on Black Friday.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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I wonder if someday we could recreate the Garden of Eden by turning-over stewardship of the world to machines so that humans can live as hunter-gatherers again? It seems to me that humans would be happier and healthier eating and living and working in paleolithic ways.

Assuming this is true then I wonder what modern technology humans might be able to retain when we someday return to a paleolithic paradise? For example, would it be possible for robots to masquerade as angels and "miraculously" heal people when they need medical care?
It's easy to imagine returning to some past golden age, with the nasty bits edited out, but I doubt most modern humans would want to live like that. It might be nice for a holiday, but...
 
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cloudyday2

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It's easy to imagine returning to some past golden age, with the nasty bits edited out, but I doubt most modern humans would want to live like that. It might be nice for a holiday, but...
Lately it occurred to me that humans evolved WITHIN an environment, and now we have mostly removed ourselves from that environment. Humans and the plants and animals and behaviors evolved concurrently in a symbiotic relationship. Humans are harming both ourselves and the entire ecosystem by abandoning our hunter-gatherer role.

Take psychoactive plants as an example. Many of these plants act-on specific receptors in the human brain. It is as though the human brain evolved to better experience the plant along with the plant evolving to better stimulate the human brain.

How many other plants and animals are like that? We are only recently beginning to understand the role of gut flora in human health - both physical AND psychological. I read an article recently about romance positing that it is actually the bacteria in our guts that spark the romantic attraction. During a kiss the bacteria in our saliva can decide if they are a good match and then stimulate their host humans to fall madly in love. ... How romantic LOL

So humans belong in the environments where they evolved. It is better for the humans and better for the plants and animals and bacteria.

Of course "better" probably plays no role in evolution unless there is an intelligence of some kind involved in nature.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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Lately it occurred to me that humans evolved WITHIN an environment, and now we have mostly removed ourselves from that environment. Humans and the plants and animals and behaviors evolved concurrently in a symbiotic relationship. Humans are harming both ourselves and the entire ecosystem by abandoning our hunter-gatherer role.
Settled agricultural communities have been around long enough to see some evolutionary changes to the digestive system, e.g. lactose tolerance, and considerable changes to our gut microbiomes, so many of us have some degree of adaptation to our relatively recent diets (not the most recent, obviously!).

Take psychoactive plants as an example. Many of these plants act-on specific receptors in the human brain. It is as though the human brain evolved to better experience the plant along with the plant evolving to better stimulate the human brain.
It's a tempting thought - e.g. we have cannabinoid receptors in our brains that match marijuana cannabinoids; but on the other hand, the neurotransmitters and receptors that are involved in psychoactive effects are common throughout the animal kingdom (it's been suggested that we originally learned about some psychoactive plants through the effects they had on animals), so it might be coincidence, but it's plausible that they were a selective advantage for the plants - many of them are powerful enough that a relatively small amount would effectively deter, prevent, or distract from further consumption.

So humans belong in the environments where they evolved. It is better for the humans and better for the plants and animals and bacteria.
Humans evolved in a variety of environments with a corresponding variety of diets, and there's no guarantee that the diets we best adapted to - possibly on the African savannah where it's thought we spent longest - were necessarily the ideal diet, or that contemporary humans could do as well on them. Having said that, health seems to have crashed in the early days of settled agriculture, probably through poor diet...

Of course "better" probably plays no role in evolution unless there is an intelligence of some kind involved in nature.
We are an intelligence that judges what is better or worse in evolution - typically in terms of survival and flourishing.
 
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