We are running increasingly sophisticated software (culture) on the same old hardware (meat and evolved behaviors).

Some conversations occur by text message.  This is with Constantine:

Constantine:

Whoaaa

Scientists Can Now 3D Print Tissues Directly Inside the Body—No Surgery Needed https://t.co/Lwig9Se85c

— Charles Bayless (@CharlesBayless) May 28, 2025

Charles Bayless:

GLP-1 miracle drugs, in situ tissue printing, AI enabled robosurgery - what a time to be alive. 

Constantine:

It’s weirdly extreme. So much of the good is getting better so fast, but the dark side getting darker at a similar rate

Charles Bayless:

Maybe. On virtually every socioeconomic metric, almost everyone around the world is enormously better off than 100, 50, even 20 years ago. It is also definitely true that people are also anxious about the future. To me, the interesting question is this. People have always feared and anticipated an apocalyptic future. Shows up in every era going back 5000 years. (The young ones aren’t living right and the future is dark.) Is our current fear different or greater from the baseline futurity fear? If so, why? I genuinely don’t know but can see a number of plausible scenarios. 

Charles Bayless:

BTW - I love coming across old records that are identical behaviors of people today.  A few years ago I was reading correspondence home from students in 13th century universities.  Time and again - “I am working so hard.  I need more money.”

Constantine:

I was always struck by that in Madness of Crowds, it always feels so recent because people change so little

Charles Bayless:

Another great example.  Published 184 years ago and still completely relevant.   And a great counterargument to one scenario I consider somewhat plausible.

We have close to universal global literacy compared to perhaps 20-30% a hundred years ago.  Maybe through increased literacy and increased connectivity, people are indeed more fearful today than they were back then.  More of them hear the message of doom more completely than ever could have happened before.  That strikes me as plausible.  But Madness of Crowds is 1841.  Global literacy at best 10-15% back then.  Yet exactly the same behaviors and consequences on display.  And of course his examples stretch even further back.  The Tulip mania  was something like 1600-1650.

It takes is back to the frame:  We are running increasingly sophisticated software (culture) on the same old hardware (meat and evolved behaviors).  Our technology is evolving light years faster than our culture and our culture evolves light years faster than our body/evolved behaviors.  Maybe that stretching is causing increased anxiety (and maybe because it might represent a real increase in risk.)  Or maybe it’s just the same old hardware always worried about the hungry leopard in the dark, of starving to death, and of the stranger on the horizon.