Comments on: Sleeping in a boat

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:06:39 +0000

Genius dog

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:01:31 +0000

I mean look at this rodent! Way more advanced now. Cave rodent

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:58:44 +0000

When mice had like horns and huge fangs and ate red meat and now they are cute and furry. That’s advancement!

A lot of dogs are more advanced now too.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:47:26 +0000

I don’t really think we’re advancing as a race. Are dogs advancing? Are mice advancing? Are trees advancing?

I suppose it depends on what is considered an “advancement”. Look at it from far enough away and all values of “more advanced” or “less advanced” end up looking kind of meaningless.

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:34:02 +0000

The Algonquin had a great culture but under the influence of the French (John Law Co.) Mississippi economic bubble (inflating the price of Beaver pelts)all the Algonquin (and other tribes)spread to their neighboring tribes was devastation.

The Plains States saw them come and mostly go when the Beavers were depleated. They left virtuallyu nothing but place names. The Illini and others are lost to history because of French fashion and poor political alliances.

We only know about the Algonquin civilization because of the peaceful influence they had on the early settlers, not their military conquests, which were equally impressive.

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:09:15 +0000

I’m not a romantic and the Native Americans didn’t need the Europeans to establish trade routes. The Europeans were just a new batch of customers for them when they showed up. During the Beaver Wars the Native Americans showed they could commit genocide against other Native Americans and destroy the environment just for the money just like every other race of people.

I mean a true cycle. Once you’ve hit a zenith you have nowhere else to go but down. At some point lost to history Cherokee history hit a zenith. We just don’t know when it was. If we knew the details we would have convincing theories about how they ended up on the Trail of Tears.

By: Ted

Ted — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:45:26 +0000

The way I came at it originally, is from Buckminster Fuller, talking about Conquistador types establishing Global trade routes and communications networks. These were people just wanting gold, but later these things can be used for good.

Its like bees just wanting nectar, end up pollinizing all the plants.

By: Ted

Ted — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:37:55 +0000

Well, its a romantic idea to go back in time and root for the Indians. If you are just being romantic and artistic, then its probably better to not argue about it.

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:05:47 +0000

Everything might be cyclical. We advance to the point where we decline and start over again. We lose ground and commit genocide/have genocide committed against us then climb back up again.

By: Ted

Ted — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:37:44 +0000

Everything is connected. So if anything is advancing then everything is advancing.

By: 1 2 3

1 2 3 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:17:14 +0000

I guess I don’t really buy into that view of history, that such and such *needed to happen* in order for blankety-blank to happen - especially when the subject at hand is genocide. It strikes me as rather superstitious. Things, I think, just are what they are - especially when it comes to the behavior of groups, people and the use of technology. I don’t really think we’re advancing as a race. Are dogs advancing? Are mice advancing? Are trees advancing?

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:33:50 +0000

I have given a lot of thought to the Indians fighting back, why the Conquistadors won.

Daniel Pinchbeck talked about this in 2012. He thinks it has to do with individual consciousness. The Conquistadors had individual ego consciousness.

It sounds sick and imperialist, but I don’t mean it that way, but I think it was meant to be for the spiritual development of mankind. Its like a yin Yang type thing. It looks like good and evil up close but if you look at the whole picture its all one.

I think the pendulum is swinging the other way now, but I think back then it needed to swing away from tribal group consciousness. The price to pay for Western civilization has been alienation. Alienation from each other and alienation from the land and all the other plants and animals. But it was a price that needed to be paid for the futher development of human consciousness.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:44:25 +0000

No, I’d been avoiding it up til now cause I didn’t want yet another online presence to keep track of, but I’ve recently been re-thinking that.

I was actually hoping to have a chance to look into that (and Ruby on Rails) some time this weekend, but I’ve been having a really hard time getting any focused free time lately. It’s been a bit frustrating. Need to learn some bi-location techniques…

By: 1 2 3

1 2 3 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Ian, are you on Twitter?

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:22:50 +0000

Hallelujah, I love the “light explanation”. The slight pointers here and there make the pictures way more interpretable. more signal, less noise.