The plethora, Version 2

"I. Agriculture maximized utility and therefore was a good (albeit possibly unconscious) judgement. Before agriculture, we lived in hunter-gatherer societies. These groups, would move with the herds of animals, and hunt or pick fruits and vegetables to survive. These groups could not include more than a couple hundred people at a maximum since, the income of food was not large enough to support any more. Finally, these societies had an average life expectancy of no more than 30 years. These people would grow up, breed and die, like many other animals. Agriculture changed all that. With the discovery/invention of agriculture, groups could stay in one place and have a stable income of food. Populations could also support more people since they no longer needed to hunt for their food. For these same reasons, the life expectancy rose considerably with the use of agriculture. Agriculture also allowed people to specialize in other area's since not everyone was required to get food. this lead to stronger/better buildings, tools and, in general, a better lifestyle. Because agriculture allowed populations to no longer have to migrate with the herds, to have more people in any given population, and allowed specialization, which lead to advances in technology that made life longer and easier, I truly believe that Agriculture maximized Utility and therefore was a good judgment." Let's use a moral calculus to figure this out. The people in HGs had a better quality of life, so more happiness. Now the average human lives in a third world country and has a really sucky life. That means a ton of unhappiness. Utility demands that we minimize pain, AND maximize happiness. As there is more pain in the agricultural society, it negates the extra happiness, so we go with HG. You claim that life expectancy rose, quality of life rose, et cetera, but it didn't until maybe 3000 years ago, and even then it still sucked for most people. Basically the negatives outweigh the positives. "1.) they work less-this may be true, but, even so, the desk jobs that so many of us have are much more pleasant, and therefore provide more utility. Also, working less does not automatically mean more happiness. Unlike our jobs, the lives of the populations survived on the work that they did. Because of this, they're job would have been much more stressful and unpleasant then most jobs today." Today, many people hunt for fun. So, the HG job would be fun, desk job, uhh... yeah, you choose hunt a woolly mammoth or do some accounting, your choice. "2.) Healthier- Even if they were healthier, the fact that today, we live more than twice as long as them kind of negates this argument. Health, does not necessarily equal more utility, while, longer life does. Because we live longer, even if we are less healthy utility is maximized by agriculture, without which we would still only live to be 30 or 40 if we were lucky." This increase in LE did not occur until fairly recently, so the negative utility from the 9000 years up until then outweighs it. "3.) Height- being tall is nice, but again, a doubled lifespan is worth much more than a foot of stature." That's just evidence that they were healthier, so up until very recently, when we regained that height, they lived a more healthy and lengthy life. "a. Global Warming- global warming IS a cycle. The debate whether or not we are causing a spike is pointless to this round because, although the earth is very slowly warming, the increase in temperature does not significantly effect very many people, and overall due to the cycle the earth will eventually cool again." I concede that point, simply because I agree with you. "b. war- this is simply not true. If you look at the Inca, or any native tribe you will see that they DID war against each other. Even if their killing technology was not as advanced as ours, wars were, and still would be fought over food and other resources." The Inca were not HGs, they used agriculture. "c. Poverty- I don't really understand this one since, all hunter gatherer societies were essentially impoverished. These societies, due to the fact that they did not always have food, and never had a permanent shelter makes them almost no different from today's impoverished people, except in today's society, these people are often looked after and given the things required to sustain life." They almost always had everything they needed to survive, they were fairly well-off. "d. Pollution- this goes in with the global warming and healthier arguments. Basically, even though pollution in unhealthy, the fact that people who live in highly polluted area's still live longer than the HG societies means that utility is maximized by the neg." I concede simply because I don't have time to disagree. "e. Social Inequality- this is simply not true. HG societies, if you look to native populations, were often MUCH MORE socially unequal than today's societies. Women in HG societies existed solely to wait on their husbands and to make babies. Not only that, but, if, for example if a baby was born disformed, it was seen as a curse and often said child was either killed or left in the wild to be killed. Today's society is unequal, but women can have jobs, join the military ect. People who are crippled in some way have laws that require certain things in order to better their lives. In general, HG societies were actually much more socially unequal, and this actually is a reason why agriculture was a good idea." It was so unequal it was horrible, up until again, recently. The negative utility from that outweighs the now positive utility. Women were actual very valued in HG societies, as they were the breadwinners. "f. Crime- With more people in one area, comes more people who think they can get away with things that would otherwise cause problems. The reason HG societies had less crime was because they were small, and required everyone to be able to work together in order to survive. Today, we have the luxury of not having to rely on others in order to live and this increases utility, which in turn provides more support to my thesis, that agriculture was, in face a very good idea." That's my point, they were small. Individualism is helpful now, but now is a sliver of time in human history. Conclusion: Agriculture sucks I have to go to school.