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jack_sprat2's avatar

Yeah, it failed for me at "human". Damn little history without humans. Then again, I'm also averse to any definition of 'history' that predates written language. Granted, there's some overlap between prehistory and history, owing to the (distorted and increasingly attenuated) existence of oral history traditions, but, at a remove of several millennia, I would prefer to categorize these separately as 'mythology'.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

The three most disruptive transitions in history were the introduction of humans, farming, and industry.

More disruptive than the introduction of life, photosynthesis, eukaryotes, multicellular organisms, vertebrates, plants, land animals, ...?

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Robin Hanson's avatar

It means the next 100 years.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

If another transition lies ahead, a good guess for its source is artificial intelligence in the form of whole brain emulations, or “ems,” sometime in the next century.

Does the "next century" mean the present or the following century?

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I thought you were going to be on Econtalk again :(

Maybe next time

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