-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Be happy you were born in our time
- Thread starter kpopSuperstar
- Start date
They'd be done for mean tweets today
diffusionx
Gold Member
sounds based
Aesius
Member
Egypt was definitely a better bet for quality of life in antiquity if you look at it from a birth lottery perspective simply because slaves made up a much smaller percentage of the population. The Roman Republic and Empire had a shit ton of slaves (Rome itself estimated to be around 25-30% slaves), and if you were born into that caste, your life was almost certainly worse than a medieval peasant's under feudalism.
IDKFA
I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Where did you get all these points from? A lot of them are wrong or misconceptions. Also, Medieval Europe covers a large time frame and lots of different countries and that context is needed.
However, the above one really stands out. I study medieval English and French history (14th and 15th centuries predominantly) and I wouldn't agree with the above point.
While it is true that executions, amputations, branding, whipping, pillories, and stocks were often carried out before crowds, it wasn't used as a way of "terrorising the masses". The idea was to present justice being visibly done, thus restoring moral and social order.
Common people would have been used to this spectacle of punishment anyway. It certainly didn't make them fear the ruling class. If that were the case then we wouldn't have ordinary people uprising like in England in 1381 and the German Peasants War (1524-25) to name but a few (there were loads)
Wastelander92
Member
I am, I can't imagine what life was like at work before smartphones.
Wilhelm_85
Gold Member
Now we just murder that number in the womb before they even get a chance!
HRK69
Gold Member
I remember it well. Not that I'm that old but I started working full time at a young age
When you left for the day, work actually stayed at work. No emails, no calls at 9 in the evening unless something was truly on fire. After hours felt properly disconnected and in a lot of ways a lot freer
These days you have to fight to disconnect and back then it came for free.
Last edited:
GateofD
Member
There really is no excuse now to say "oh I missed your call" Everyone knows how cellphones work, even if you miss it, there's a notice there.
Heimdall_Xtreme
Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
It has four legs.…and you rode three legged horses
The front legs are there, but one is hidden.
kpopSuperstar
Gold Member
I have a vivid recollection of that as well, that when I was a kid, things felt more free and grounded because of the lack of phones and social media. I am not sure if that is just because I was a kid, but I feel more distracted now than ever.
DeVeAn
Member
Horse play and grab ass.
Signalis
Member
HRK69
Gold Member
One way I try to escape that distracted feeling is by visiting my parents. Long walks with the dogs through farm fields (with permission), following the river so they can swim and hunt muskrat
And sometimes when the weather hits just right it feels like I'm 16 again
Wildebeest
Member
Things were very bad back then in places for centuries, but the dark ages were like a period of recovery from the Roman empire, so some people locally might perceive it as a boom time. There was slave trading and raiding for slaves after the collapse of the Empire but the Romans not only did this but did it on an a more industrial scale for plantations and mining. Literacy was only something for the elites and administrators in Rome, and that continued, but I suppose the elites were just less organized or numerous. There was war and hostile migration after the Empire fell, but also the later Romans were not doing well at stopping this. A problem for this period, and I suppose for Rome, is that the limited literacy means that there is a very skewed view of what life was like for normal people and people who wrote down what happened had a very skewed perspective. We see the medieval innovations as Europe trying to move past the hangover of the legacy of Roman rule.
Catphish
Member
I guess every age has its trade-offs. No matter your time or place in life, you pay for what you get. All-in-all, though, I'm incredibly thankful for my childhood, and the wonderful family I was born into. Even though most of them have passed away, they made the first 40 years of my life absolutely worth living. So, I wouldn't change a thing.
Except maybe AI. I don't like that shit at all.
Except maybe AI. I don't like that shit at all.
Melon Husk
Member
I lament what could be, not what we are
simpatico
Gold Member
This thread is a such a black pill. That obstensibly intelligent people can be happy to live in the most boring, soul compressing era of recorded history. Especially if you're born somewhere with access to consumer electronics and the internet. No one envies a house cat. Nothing is forged. There are no victories. The contests are fake. Without these ingredients true love is not possible, so it's not as if you're going to be getting the most of the downtime. It's basically prison.
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt
Biggest Trails Stan
At least I have my WAIFUS
Madflavor
Member
I've always counted myself blessed that I was born in the late 80s and got to experience the 90s and 2000s in my childhood and adolescence. It was probably the greatest era to be a kid in.
But as a parent that's what's sobering to me. I got to experience what I consider to be a Golden Age for America, and then over the past 15-20 years I've been watching it slowly rot further and further with no end in sight. I get scared wondering what kind of world my kid will grow up in.
But as a parent that's what's sobering to me. I got to experience what I consider to be a Golden Age for America, and then over the past 15-20 years I've been watching it slowly rot further and further with no end in sight. I get scared wondering what kind of world my kid will grow up in.
SomeNorseGuy
Gold Member
I don't know man. I feel like some sort of balance between technology/comfort and connection to nature would be better for the soul.
When I grew up I spent my summers with my grandfather in his cabin deep in the woods. We'd hike, fish, work the earth and row. He'd teach me about nature/animals, how to read maps & use a compass, gut and clean fish and basic camp skills and cooking over a flame. Best summers of my life.
Since then I went hiking by myself for several weeks every summer, just a backback, a tent and a map. Pure bliss. But sadly, as responsibilities grew and time became a premium, my time really interacting with nature became less and less. Until it reached a point where we (wife + kids) just hired a modern cabin for a weekend ...at which time I gave up trying.
I might be a hippie tree-hugger at heart or it might just be age catching up with me, but I've never felt so disconnected with myself as I've felt over the last decade+. I do belive that spending prolonged time in nature helps to ground us. Doom scrolling sure as fuck can't fill that hole.
Ah well, it is what it is. Wishing for things that can't be is a fools errand.
When I grew up I spent my summers with my grandfather in his cabin deep in the woods. We'd hike, fish, work the earth and row. He'd teach me about nature/animals, how to read maps & use a compass, gut and clean fish and basic camp skills and cooking over a flame. Best summers of my life.
Since then I went hiking by myself for several weeks every summer, just a backback, a tent and a map. Pure bliss. But sadly, as responsibilities grew and time became a premium, my time really interacting with nature became less and less. Until it reached a point where we (wife + kids) just hired a modern cabin for a weekend ...at which time I gave up trying.
I might be a hippie tree-hugger at heart or it might just be age catching up with me, but I've never felt so disconnected with myself as I've felt over the last decade+. I do belive that spending prolonged time in nature helps to ground us. Doom scrolling sure as fuck can't fill that hole.
Ah well, it is what it is. Wishing for things that can't be is a fools errand.
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt
Biggest Trails Stan
I'll give you reccomadations
Bojji
Member
Maybe not now but everything points to dystopia in the future:
- higher and higher cost of living with stagnant wages
- quick climate change (no matter if it is caused by humans, change is real)
- extreme pollution, plastic, toxins, pesticides etc.
- Ai taking our jobs (very real prospect, already happening to some people)
- wars about resources (first conflicts already happened)
- low fertility rates in developed countries (happening in developing countries as well)
- corporations having more and more control (Cyberpunk future)
- billionaires hoarding wealth like crazy
And all the things that I did forget about...
I'm talking about first world and maybe second world countries here. Third world countries often don't have much better better life conditions than medieval Europe (and that is happening right now).
Last edited:
ForAcademicPurposes
Gold Member
I walk in the city and a lot of people look on the outside as they are on the inside. Welcome to the human race.
JimmyRustler
Member
I agree that it's good to be alive today, but I think you're painting a way too grim picture of the past. Since the people back then did not know they could have it any better, at the end of the day they weren't any unhappier than anyone of us on average. You could even argue that they probably were happier than we today despite the circumstances. There is lots of good literature on this. I myself read about it from Jung and Frankl. That fact that having and getting food was your primary objective and hence loomed on everyone's mind constantly was what gave humans lives purpose by default. And the lack thereof is precisely the reason why many today struggle mentally as many/most are not able to fill the void this left behind. Some are able to fill it with something productive, many do not.
Madflavor
Member
I think people who are aguing that it's still a good time to be alive are missing the point. Yes it's better to be alive now than it was hundreds of years ago, but there is a very real and noticeably decline in our living standards, ethics and prosperity over the past decade or two. On top of that there doesn't seem to be any real and meaningful changes being put in place to course correct the vast majority of serious problems we're having. This party is coming to an end, and there's a good chance we'll witness it in our lifetime, whatever it looks like.
I'd also add that many people in our society have abandonded basic human empathy. Go back 20 years ago and most people would find sensless violence and assassinations to be a tragedy. Nowadays we got people laughing at or celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, and on the other side you've got people laughing at or saying shit like "Rip Bozo" about Renee Good. That feels dystopian to me. That we've grown to hate each other so much and that we're so used to violence now, that a lot of people can't just go "damn that sucks".
I'd also add that many people in our society have abandonded basic human empathy. Go back 20 years ago and most people would find sensless violence and assassinations to be a tragedy. Nowadays we got people laughing at or celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, and on the other side you've got people laughing at or saying shit like "Rip Bozo" about Renee Good. That feels dystopian to me. That we've grown to hate each other so much and that we're so used to violence now, that a lot of people can't just go "damn that sucks".
Durin
Member
More and more people are engaging socially online, and digital just doesn't replicate real life. You end up abstracting communication, so people don't have the same attachments to events that actually happen in their local community to people they know (or know somebody they know). People can fragment into their own bubbles being fed more of the exact views they have, so over time they have more disconnection with dissenting ones.
Throw in stupid statements like "we can't tolerate the intolerant", so if someone has a different view, you can dehumanize them, and abdicate any responsibility for decency.
Bojji
Member
Yeah.. Imagine using that
And this is happening in XXI century in many places in Russia.
winjer
Member
Yeah.. Imagine using that
And this is happening in XXI century in many places in Russia.
Just consider that a lot of Russians are still living in Khrushchevkas.
These were low cost apartments built during the 60s, on mass. They were poorly built, but for the Russian serfdom, i was a huge improvement. And they were only meant to be used for around 15 years, until the government could catch up with demand and build better housing.
But this is Russia, so what was a temporary solution, became a permanent one, due to extreme corruption and incompetence.
Bojji
Member
Those are the lucky ones - running water, plumbing, electricity, central heating, sometimes elevators etc. Most of the poor bastards out of Moscow area have far worse conditions.
In Poland most of post soviet blocks are renovated (and insulated). I personally live in one from late 60s and it's solid as fuck - not ideal of course but better in some ways than new apartments build by develops trying to cut costs on everything.
winjer
Member
Mind you, not all buildings in the USSR biult in the 60s are Khrushchevkas.
The Khrushchevkas are pre-fabricated, with slabs of concrete walls bind together.
There were concurrent projects at the time, with properly built apartments. But these too longer to build, were more expensive and often only meant for the "right people".
Bojji
Member
Yeah, mine was build using some kind of hollow bricks but there are a lot of buildings that used pre-fabricated slabs - mostly from 80s.
Images from Ukraine with building like that are fucking terrifying:
Mohonky
Member
Its like they tried to make it as scary as possible. Mind you theres still shit (souse pun) like this in some parts of AustraliaYeah.. Imagine using that
And this is happening in XXI century in many places in Russia.
Denton
Member
I wonder what life will be like 500 years from now.
I asked Grok to calculate how many native people there will be in Europe, Asia and Americas in the year 2500 if the current birthrate stays the same as it is now
Europe: approximately 30 million (compared to today's 750 million)
Americas: approximately 60 million (compared to today's 1 billion)
Asia: approximately 600 million (compared to today's 4.5 billion)
Of course, the birthrates are likely to go down even further, and I don't really see how they could go up, without some drastic use of force (such as outlawing under death penalty porn, contraceptives, abortions..).
Or maybe we will just grow children in laboratories or some shit.
I asked Grok to calculate how many native people there will be in Europe, Asia and Americas in the year 2500 if the current birthrate stays the same as it is now
Europe: approximately 30 million (compared to today's 750 million)
Americas: approximately 60 million (compared to today's 1 billion)
Asia: approximately 600 million (compared to today's 4.5 billion)
Of course, the birthrates are likely to go down even further, and I don't really see how they could go up, without some drastic use of force (such as outlawing under death penalty porn, contraceptives, abortions..).
Or maybe we will just grow children in laboratories or some shit.
Bojji
Member
Yeah, I said it in some thread while ago, human population will start collapsing at some point:
Women may face handmaid style future ~100 years from now. So far nothing that developed countries tried (to improve birthrate) worked so it may end up with force or children from laboratory like you said.
Wildebeest
Member
Ain't going to be any laboratory babies. Rich people who complain about lower birth rates don't actually help out with the main thing that is stopping people from having children which is the cost when the are barely getting by as is. Laboratory babies would be more expensive than just helping people out financially or creating a society where people didn't need to work as much to meet basic needs.
Denton
Member
This is untrue. Birthrates are lowest in the most developed, wealthiest countries. People were vastly poorer for all of human history and had lot more children. It made sense because kids worked and contributed and child mortality was much higher. There were no contraceptives and no instant access to infinity naked women in the palm of everyone's hand though.
Wildebeest
Member
Child rearing is the sort of labor that cannot show up in GDP measurements. GDP also tells you little about how affordable it is to live in that country. It might tell you that the richest people in that country can afford to have as many test tube babies as they want and hire staff to raise them, but it can't tell you about how much regular people are feeling the pinch of costs, how much extra cost related to child care they would have to take on and how much they feel they have to keep working just to live instead of staying home to raise kids. Now if you are saying that suddenly billionaires are going to start lobbying for free IVF and universal generous childcare benefits instead of things like more tax breaks for them, more government contracts for them, then GDP might be leveraged.
![L*][*N*K](/data/avatars/m/842/842515.jpg?1756724107){kind=avatar}
DragoonKain
Neighbours from Hell
Me trying to decide if life was better in previous centuries with all the hardships vs today where grown men have "AI girlfriends"
Atomicfear
Neo Member
that's funny
YCoCg
Member
Where the wealth gap is at its highest, so the common folk have to pay more on things like mortgages, rent, utilities, etc compared to those of the poorer countries.
Want to entice young people to breed? Maybe change things so a modern blue collar household doesn't have to have both parents working full time and therefore having to spend like an additional months rent on childcare just so you can afford to stay living in your home whilst bringing up said children.