Contributors to human advancement.

[The Dharma Bum]

I am putting forth the proposal that the greatest single contributing factor to human development is the emergence of social patterns that allow a great deal of leisure time.

This being the case it seems like it would stand to reason that if a large proportion of the population did not engage in industrial production, yet their economic and social needs were adequately fulfilled, the result would be the greatest amount of development of human capital in the shortest time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure
http://www.whywork.org/about/faq/antiwork.html

The so-called protestant work ethic should be abandoned, and all private property nationalized and the proceeds thereof put toward the goal of actualizing the full human potential by creating a social pattern wherein each individual can realize their full human potential.

Is that not a commendable goal? Would not a society of "geniuses" be superior to a society where few individuals are able to readily actualize?

[The Dharma Bum]

[John Galt]

how do you meet everyone's economic needs if no one works

leisure time is great, and getting paid to do shit you want to do is even better. google has developers put 20% of their work week to people doing their own side projects. and it works, look at google. but they still are putting 80% towards work. what about that?

[Stratego]

human development vs. leisure time is not a linear function, it's parabolic. You need to make sure you have enough leisure time for your brain to process all the information you're bombarded with in order to stimulate you to make improvements. But you also need to have enough information bombarding you so that your leisure time is not wasted. Otherwise you'll be a hillbilly with too much leisure time and not enough information.

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

[Medius]

The assumption here, however, is that enough people use leisure time towards productive purpose. Also, that a person's leisure time is in anyway related to what they do professionally. While there is certainly a balance just from a mental health perspective, the result of finding that balance will likely be happier and healthier people, but not the advancement of humanity. That is not to say it isn't a noble and important goal, just probably not the biggest contributing factor to human advancement.

Many of our advancements have been through just the opposite, driving extremely hard towards results in the face of peril. World War I, II, and the Cold War all gave us advancement at the point of a sword.

Even now, much of our advancement has to do with curing disease, staving off death and aging, and generally facing down non-war perils.

The information boom is probably the single most leisure-enhanced advancement we are seeing and it honestly isn't 80% progress, but more around 10% progress and 90% non-productive pursuits.

[The Dharma Bum]

The social pattern that emerged from WWII is monstrous for the greater part of humanity. It's not an advancement itself, it represents regression into neo-fuedalism. Although many advancements were key components to the development of this pattern its existence is not the cause of those advancements.

That many people are healthy and happy in the face of the terrible neglect of human need that is the main feature of our pattern speaks volumes about the resilience of the human organism. I think you would be surprised to find out who the happiest people on earth are.

It's not the most advanced nations. Which indicates that despite our technical advantages we have failed to create a utilitarian society. To do that, we are going to have to consider everything being put forth here, which is exactly why it is being put forth. These are the issues that must be addressed.

Like Pax Romana, Pax Americana is a tyranny. Peaceful to an extent, if you ignore officially sanctioned violence.

[The Grandmaster]

[John Galt]

it's never gonna happen and i don't think it would work if tried. however, as mentioned, google pays people to dick around 20% of their time and pursue whatever they want to pursue. i think this is wonderful and more places should do that. so then i get paid to work on a video game or whatever, and i can ask colleagues for help because it's kinda work related. it improves skill sets, is fun, and could even be valuable. many of googles big ideas have come from their employees f**k with shit