When was the last time you thought humanity made a step forward and why?
 

When and why?

Sunday afternoon. One particular member of humanity. It made me go giddy. No more details. Oh, and the Sunday before that. Same person, different reasons.

July 9, 1984 - we evolved into beings of light.

the moment the Obama administration reversed Bush's ban on stem cell research.

This morning, when I woke up.

Why?

Because I woke up. I almost didn't bother. One small step, etc. Humanity jitters along at the everydayness of humans.

However, for a less buggering answer, I would say the advent of social networking and the ubiquity of cell-phones is the most significant collective step forward of the civilized world towards whatever.

never

I'd say social networking and the ubiquity of cell-phones makes communication such a commodity that it is extremely devalued and taken for granted. So much so that many of us have forgotten how to really communicate with others.

Which is a step forward.

techno

I think we are more prone to try imposing our egos on random strangers on the internet, and that's alright, whatever, even though it will always feel like a mutilated form of communication without the phisycal presence of an audience in front of your thinking/doing. So, yeah, the internet- interesting and often stimulating thing, yet ultimately it doesn't exactly change people's immedite condition. Not the vast majority of them, anyway.

I agree with you. But there's been more damage than this.

splitting an atom can power yr home for eternity, or it can bomb yr neighbor until they glow.

it's all about what you do with it.

By no means an anti-internet post.

What if I want to glow?

Can anyone tell me how we're any better than ancient civilizations? Technologically we're more advanced, but as a society what more do we have to offer?

Depends on your definition of "better". More advanced certainly.

We live longer for a start.

Again, I'd mostly agree with you.

EDIT - Responding to SpectralJulian

We live longer, heating is more widespread a comodity etc. Thank you pookie.
Julian- you get the drift. I know what you're getting at though.

i walk with my feet in a forward motion every day

The sign that says ''inflated ego'' is right on your left.

Obama being elected president, i suppose. A step forward for America and as such the world as a whole

I'm not so certain of that one. The election of a black President of the United States, after the fact, seems to be a more a step forward in the abstract rather than the concrete.

For me, it calls into question a conflict between the qualified and the token, a question that was personified when Sarah Palin entered the McCain's campaign. It cannot be doubted that President Obama was elected in a combination of both his qualification regardless of his race and as a token of his race. As such, it makes it difficult to speak about the advancement of black people, which seems to get by on the uncritical conflation of both aspects, in such a way that I think racial identity needs to be re-evaluated.

no slavery, plus hygiene, communications, science, medicine, equality laws, plentiful food, democracy

Those are all fair points but I wasn't refering to Obama's colour at all. I just think the world is a safer place with Obama in the White House than it would be had McCain won.

Yeah, but apart from abolishing slavery, hygiene, communications, science, medicine, equality laws, plentiful food and democracy - what has modern civilization ever done for us, eh?

The condition of some Chinese workers, meaning a lot of humans, resembles those of a factory worker in England at the time of the industrial revolution.

Oh, right, well that was at least the prevention of a step back.

That's just China. Imagine India etc.

American politics are not a representation of humanity by themselves. Demonrail get real. Quick!

yeah, but just because the change has yet to take affect globally it doesn't mean it's not a step forward

A global change means the whole of the planet benefits or suffers from it, no?

abolishing slavery? lol?

science? yep, nuclear bombs too. new technology with which to kill things.

medicine. true, altho we can mostly only cure or attempt to manage diseases that are created by modern conditions. so its kind of a double edged sword. but yes method, knowledge, technique and technology have improved massively. we may have lost a lot too but that old knowledge is not impossible to rediscover. a massive downside is all the potential cures for cancer/other disease that we could have found but are lost forever due to our enviromental recklessness. (they reckon their must have the clues that would lead us to a cure for cancer somewhere in the brazillian rainforest but thats its probably lost now or will be soon due to all the logging.)

equality laws? maybe if your a first worlder. and you're not female, black, from originally outside of the national state you live in now or gay, in which case you'll be at best "tolerated" and kept in your place and at worst basically murdered. and even so, the equality laws have not fixed the income disparity between blacks, hispanics, latinos etc. and the white population. we can't legislate equality when the system demands it as its structural foundation.

plentiful food? only if your a first worlder. otherwise things have probably got worse for you. and the 1st world food is only good for the minority, the rest eat unhealthy shit, far worse and more toxic than most of the so called "uncivilised" peoples but yes, there is a lot of it.

democracy? i'll believe it when i see it.

you could have said technology, but after peak oil that's all over anyway haha. once peak oil is gone and providing we don't find a workable alternative (wind solar etc. rely on oil/batteries) we're going back to the primitive anyway. but yeah, without wanting to sound like i endorse the whole "technology will save us and is the reason for life" argument we have made a lot of new shit recently. but this shit isn't necessarily gonna last. wasn't the flush toilet, or was it maybe some sort of irrigation system, created somewhere then lost for centuries before it reappeared again? we will possibly loose a lot of our acheivements in the sands of time.

also civilisation has brought unprecedented enviromental destruction. but it should be said also the means with which to understand and predict things like global warming.

so its kind of a mixed bag, but i think the civilisation/non civilsation framework is kind of useless.

yeah of course, but humanity (and specifically nations) doesn't operate in unison

Yeah. What am I meant to reply to this?

Nick, you're mostly an arsehole, but I agree with you that I go through a lot of trouble to marry someone because of my sexuality. Not even the infamous black people go through this sort of shit.

Every time I get an erection I feel like things are looking up for the species. As I stare down at my glistening tubesteak I see hope, a rallying point for all those in that believe in good, a warm blazing hearth that cuts away at the surrounding darkness. But the second I cum the deepest misanthropy sets in and nothing matters.

whatever the universe commands you to

This is the second time I see tubesteak mentioned today. Oh. Oooh.

thanks, i noticed, i keep it right next to my full length mirror.

the sign that says "incapable of grasping sarcasm" went right over your head.