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This take on the Neolithic Revolution is kinda incidental to

' latest post but I see it a lot (Yuval Harari loves to harp on it) and I have a huge issue with it. It reframes an improvement as a downgrade by a very sneaky use of the word "average".

Jakeup

@yashkaf

Dec 24, 2021

Let's say that some patch of land used to support 50 hunter gatherers. After the invention of agriculture, the same land now supports 60 priests/nobles/artisans whose living standards are better plus another 500 farmers who lives are slightly worse but still worth living.

Jakeup

@yashkaf

Dec 24, 2021

This is a clear improvement to total happiness AND the number of happy people, but you can technically describe it as "average living standards on a downward trajectory" if there are enough farmers and their lives are worse than HGs (which isn't obvious).

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Lyman Stone 石來民

@lymanstoneky

Dec 23, 2021

What we can see of the hunter-gatherer societies and the transition to agriculture is incredibly large amounts of violent death. Yes, agriculturalists have issues too; but it's plainly the case that human societies before agriculture were mind-blowingly violent.

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Jakeup

@yashkaf

Dec 24, 2021

We're used to talking about "average living standards" in the context of stable population size. In the context of booming population growth it's a hidden appeal to a particular sort of average utilitarianism which almost nobody will endorse as a moral system in other contexts.