Kurzgesagt – What Happened Before History? Human Origins

[HappyHead]

[hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGiQaabX3_o[/hd]
now in 60 fps

[Jamsponge]

Kurzgesagt never fail to make me feel so informed and yet so insignificant.

[ImCrimson]

Interesting stuff.

These kind of videos always has me wondering if our progress also makes us more fragile. It feels like the more reliant we are on technology and by extent each other, the easier it would be for a cataclysm severe enough to cause the downfall of society to erase us from existence.

[Loopoo]

Those ten mins flew by. Fuckin love me some Kurzgesagt. The art style in this video was really really nice (I mean it usually always is, but something felt different about this video)

[FlandersNed]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;50573866]Interesting stuff.

These kind of videos always has me wondering if our progress also makes us more fragile. It feels like the more reliant we are on technology and by extent each other, the easier it would be for a cataclysm severe enough to cause the downfall of society to erase us from existence.[/QUOTE]

I feel that we are in a far better position to survive such catastrophes than we were thousands or even hundreds of years go.

[ImCrimson]

[QUOTE=FlandersNed;50574108]I feel that we are in a far better position to survive such catastrophes than we were thousands or even hundreds of years go.[/QUOTE]

I'd agree that for most realistic catastrophe scenarios our technology and collective knowledge would greatly help us survive or completely avoid said disaster. However I'm imagining a calamity so severe that it'd kill something in the magnitude of 99% of the population, destroy all infrastructure and more or less "reset" society to the Dark ages or worse.

Because modern people are highly specialized in their knowledge as opposed to early humans, if most knowledgeable humans died and most of our records were destroyed or inaccessible I think we'd be in a lot of trouble as a species. More so than our ancestors, who possessed both the knowledge and physiology required for survival.

But I realize as I'm typing this that this is a pretty contrived scenario, and realistically any disaster capable of wiping out modern society would likely cause such changes to the environment that any species would be unlikely to survive.

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;50573866]Interesting stuff.

These kind of videos always has me wondering if our progress also makes us more fragile. It feels like the more reliant we are on technology and by extent each other, the easier it would be for a cataclysm severe enough to cause the downfall of society to erase us from existence.[/QUOTE]

I don't understand your logic, how are more we fragile by relying on technology that can save us from being wiped out than we would be without it? By relying more on our own ability to understand and manipulate nature around us than we do on nature itself we are more likely to survive for longer.

[MILKE]

Love the animation in this one. Seems better than usual.

[MrJazzy]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;50574207]I'd agree that for most realistic catastrophe scenarios our technology and collective knowledge would greatly help us survive or completely avoid said disaster. However I'm imagining a calamity so severe that it'd kill something in the magnitude of 99% of the population, destroy all infrastructure and more or less "reset" society to the Dark ages or worse.

Because modern people are highly specialized in their knowledge as opposed to early humans, if most knowledgeable humans died and most of our records were destroyed or inaccessible I think we'd be in a lot of trouble as a species. More so than our ancestors, who possessed both the knowledge and physiology required for survival.

But I realize as I'm typing this that this is a pretty contrived scenario, and realistically any disaster capable of wiping out modern society would likely cause such changes to the environment that any species would be unlikely to survive.[/QUOTE]

Realistically though we'd still have a better chance because 1% of todays population is a whole lot more than 1% of the human population even only hundreds of years ago.

[nagachief]

[QUOTE=MILKE;50574306]Love the animation in this one. Seems better than usual.[/QUOTE]

Instead of 24/30 FPS, the entire animation is 60 FPS, it adds a wow factor to it, that's for sure.

[coup]

This is the most impressive thing I think they've ever done. There is a lot more than happening in this than the rest of their videos filled with infographics, as they've put the information in a collage of fantastic animation. Its also much longer than most of their videos.

I [i]really[/i] hope to see more about history from them, because it seems like that's what really interests them judging by how much effort they put into this video.

[ImCrimson]

[QUOTE=MrJazzy;50574292]I don't understand your logic, how are more we fragile by relying on technology that can save us from being wiped out than we would be without it? By relying more on our own ability to understand and manipulate nature around us than we do on nature itself we are more likely to survive for longer.[/QUOTE]

Basically I'm hypothesizing that a modern human would be much worse equipped in terms of knowledge and physiology to deal with a situation in which the society and contemporary technology ceases to function, compared to our ancestors.

What led me to consider this is how the video briefly mentioned that ancient hunter-gatherer humans possibly had larger brains and individually possessed more knowledge and experience, as a result of not being able to record and spread said knowledge and not relying so much on the skills of other humans. Therefore, in a situation where we could NOT rely as much on specialized skills of other humans or make use of recorded knowledge to help us survive, we'd be less likely to survive than our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors.

EDIT:

But I might just be pulling a Rousseau here

[Daniel Smith]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;50573866]Interesting stuff.

These kind of videos always has me wondering if our progress also makes us more fragile. It feels like the more reliant we are on technology and by extent each other, the easier it would be for a cataclysm severe enough to cause the downfall of society to erase us from existence.[/QUOTE]

Before that we'll probably reach a point where we have mastered genetic modification to make us physically and mentally superior to anyone else in any point in time.

[coup]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;50574596]Basically I'm hypothesizing that a modern human would be much worse equipped in terms of knowledge and physiology to deal with a situation in which the society and contemporary technology ceases to function, compared to our ancestors.

What led me to consider this is how the video briefly mentioned that ancient hunter-gatherer humans possibly had larger brains and individually possessed more knowledge and experience, as a result of not being able to record and spread said knowledge and not relying so much on the skills of other humans. Therefore, in a situation where we could NOT rely as much on specialized skills of other humans or make use of recorded knowledge to help us survive, we'd be less likely to survive than our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors.

EDIT:

But I might just be pulling a Rousseau here[/QUOTE]

You're correct in that assumption - if we ever were put in that situation. However, if an apocalypse of sorts does occur, human civilization won't simply [i]disappear[/i]. Our skills will still be useful in the face of a more chaotic world that's still filled with miscellaneous technology, houses and buildings that are still there, and so on. Humanity would simply rebuild. Of course our lives would get shittier, its an apocalypse of sorts after all.

The real issue with this assumption is that something can do that without annihilating (or coming close to annihilating) the human race. We have so many contingencies in place I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what exactly would bring us a scenario like that without directly killing a massive portion of the Human race off of the face of the planet.

[Deathtrooper2]

The fact there were other species of humans always fascinates me. Would be strange if we shared earth with other sentient species besides us.

[coup]

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;50574609]Before that we'll probably reach a point where we have mastered genetic modification to make us physically and mentally superior to anyone else in any point in time.[/QUOTE]

Human modification in the future would more likely look like a combination of android-like technology with biological technology, rather than simply genetic modification. I think you're talking about designer babies, which honestly would become obsolete before it could ever go widescale due to the advancement of technology.

[editline]23rd June 2016[/editline]

[QUOTE=Deathtrooper2;50574696]The fact there were other species of humans always fascinates me. Would be strange if we shared earth with other sentient species besides us.[/QUOTE]

We'd ultimately interbreed if we don't outright out-compete or kill each other, if we could. It wouldn't last long.

[ImCrimson]

[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;50574691]You're correct in that assumption - if we ever were put in that situation. However, if an apocalypse of sorts does occur, human civilization won't simply [i]disappear[/i]. Our skills will still be useful in the face of a more chaotic world that's still filled with miscellaneous technology, houses and buildings that are still there, and so on. Humanity would simply rebuild. Of course our lives would get shittier, its an apocalypse of sorts after all.

The real issue with this assumption is that something can do that without annihilating (or coming close to annihilating) the human race. We have so many contingencies in place I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what exactly would bring us a scenario like that without directly killing a massive portion of the Human race off of the face of the planet.[/QUOTE]

I agree that if a majority of the human population were to survive the apocalypse so would most of our collective knowledge, enabling us to slowly rebuild from ground and up.

If the calamity killed off the majority of our population however (as I suggested originally), we'd suddenly lose much of the knowledge we've collectively gathered for centuries and used to build our industry and society and everything else that modern humans rely on. Thus the humans left with only their highly specialized knowledge (that befits the modern society) would be less likely to survive let alone rebuild.

But as someone pointed out above, the modern human society with highly specialized skill sets among individuals has also enabled our population to skyrocket, meaning that the total amount of preserved knowledge would be higher since a higher number of people would be likely to survive.

[MrJazzy]

Not only that but the fact that the population is so big increases the chances that atleast enough people to repopulate would survive.

[HybridTheroy]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;50573866]Interesting stuff.

These kind of videos always has me wondering if our progress also makes us more fragile. It feels like the more reliant we are on technology and by extent each other, the easier it would be for a cataclysm severe enough to cause the downfall of society to erase us from existence.[/QUOTE]

For that to happen the death toll could be no less than "every single adult", and we would also have to lose all records and gathered information. The only way that will happen is through the efforts of some other intelligence or if our planet became uninhabitable.