[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('s0cks', 'M')y point in civilization has been to the detriment of man, animals, and the planet. I don't see us going back as it were. It's too late.

[firestarter]

For every "good" thing you trot out about civilization there's a thousand awful things one could counter with. On the other hand if you rank the Zombification of humans as the highest good the you've reached your utopia. I don't necessarily agree with Zerzan but I'll take his views over that of the Pollyannas of "progress".

[Revi]

Hot and cold running water. Electricity. I've lived without them, and I like them a lot.

[yeahbut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('worrier', 'T')ampons

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he Chathams and the atolls[those places being most limited in resources]had the simplest, most egalitarian societies.

[Lighthouse]

1 thing?

Gutenberg

[worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o what was the point of your question?

[Narz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lighthouse', '1') thing?

Gutenberg

[Stratovarius]

Good food that's widely available.

I live on campus so I literally walk across the street from my dorm, let them swipe a piece of plastic and wait in line for a few minutes and bam, I'm eating something that would have been impossible to obtain practically "back then".

Sucks when you wake up in the morning and go, "Damn, gotta hunt woolly mammoths for breakfast. "

[Tyler_JC]

[jedinvest]

I could think of ordering something over the internet from Amazon or Ebay and having it at one's doorstep in a couple or three days. I think that would be hard to beat; it is almost like the Star Trek matter transporter. And to think that this can arise out of the ability of a credit card tied to the equity in one's house to create wealth practically out of thin air, is truly stupendous! No one will ever believe this in the future.

On the other hand, I was just reading about the demise of migratory bird species. I think I would take the migrating/singing birds over this hyped-up consumer society though.

(How do I put that empty box here??)

[Schneider]

Books

They permitted two things i like a lot : my good old no4 lee enfield i like to shoot so much and hot showers..

But hot showers could be put pretty high on my list (if you put aside that a single day at the range under a sunny day beat anything on the planet).

Dear god, NEVER understimate the benefits of a hot shower!

[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jedinvest', ' ')On the other hand...

[TonyPrep]

Knowledge and critical thinking that gives us, at least in principle, the ability to dispense with superstitious nonsense.

[bodigami]

enhanced survival because we're physically weak and only had our higher intelligence. Admit it, human conciousness is in another class than all the animals we have studied... even if that conciousness is constantly being moved to /dev/null, sinked in a black hole, burned up, inneficiently voided, destroyed, turned off, ...