mad_scientist

In many cultures around the world (e.g. Japanese) it is considered rude to stare at people for prolonged periods of time (e.g. longer than a second). In the western world however, many people place higher emphasis on eye contact and through showing their attention to the other person one is speaking to, while over east people are more evasive with their eye contact. My question, is when did this western culture of staring develop? Do we have any ideas and does culture change much in the course of a decade, century, millennia etc.? Will our cultural habits change to a noticeable degree in a few centuries (e.g. adoption of the japanese style of bowing to greet one another instead of shaking hands to avoid unnecessary physical contact with people of the opposite gender and accommodate a growing muslim population which deems such actions as immoral/wrong)? Also, shaking hands is very unhygienic and according to a recent study 62% of men and 40% of women admitted not washing their hands after going to the toilet (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2971931/Do-wash-hands-going-loo-62-men-40-women-admit-don-t-bother.html). Through colonial influences, many indians living in the west have increasingly felt uncomfortable in "being themselves" in public and through being subjugated by the west through cultural influences.Today an increasing number of indians are choosing not to eat food with their hands but with utensils. In response, many indians have forced themselves to eat food with utensils instead of only with their hands and maintain this culture when going back abroad to india due to fear of judgement/shame from the white man/woman while living in the west. China used to be a collective society which was not very individualistic back in the good old days but is increasingly becoming westernised through britney spears, pepsi, mcdonalds (https://hbr.org/2016/03/charting-chinas-rising-individualism-in-names-songs-and-attitudes) etc. Today, obesity is a growing amongst the chinese (https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/09/obesity-fat-problem-chinese-cities) as people realize the importance of a sedentary lifestyle for increased economic growth. As a result the chinese are becoming fatter and more individualistic. australian aborigines were once a fit group of people who hunted and foraged their food. today many aboriginal australian youths take drugs, alcohol and are addicted to gambling. Language extinction is a major issue facing the australian aboriginal community now due to the black people's neglect of their own culture/language. Which language do you think will become a more popular lingua franca in any region of the world? How has western culture changed throughout the ages and how do you think the world will change in the years to come?

Why do you think this job was particularly detestable?

Which is your least favourite OECD country and why???

What is your motivation to travel if you take frequent holidays and how much time do you take off from work? If your holiday is short, there is stress and pressure that you won't be able to see and experience everything in the country/region of the world you want to explore. How much time do you devote to the planning process of the holiday? There are many people who lack interest in travelling overseas for frequent holidays. Do you SFN members think that there is something wrong with these people? What is your opinion of people who don't travel or go on holidays or lack interest in the outside world apart from their own country?

Is it true that smarter people tend to have less babies than dumb people? If so, over time, is it inevitable that dumb people will become the majority in societies?

Hey guys, For a few years now I have been employed in a few blue-collar jobs but I am wondering, how do white collar jobs compare in comparison? Is a regular white-collar office job stressful? If you have an office job, what do you do exactly in your work on a daily basis? Would one feel less exhausted at the end of a working week if they have white-collar work in comparison to blue-collar work? My dad died when I was young and I never saw him work and same with my mother (she's only ever worked a few temporary jobs but those didn't last long) and hence my reason for my asking. Both my parents were relatively uneducated so my reasons for seeking the life experiences of those on SFN to gain new insights! What are everyone's experiences of white-collar work here? Cheers, mad_scientist

Many Indians claim it is beneficial to maintain your energy and not lose it and not let anyone steal your energy but what is the scientific data suggesting?

If you are living in a multicultural/multiethnic/multiracial western society, is it preferable to be born to parents who speak the exact same languages and both come from the same country and share the same culture or is it better that they are different? Children from such families who have parents who are very different from each other often have trouble finding who they are in society from their failure to belong anywhere. If you could select the race/background of your parents and the languages they spoke, would you want them to be as similar to each other so you are able to maintain your parents heritage better and keep family traditions going etc.?

Anyone here have any ideas? I believe the average person consumes 8700kJ each day. But what is the optimum daily kilojoule needed to be consumed to boost life expectancy, taking into consideration that intermittent fasting has been shown to extend life expectancy?

Yes.

I have heard that Mexicans put out the most number of hours for work globally (https://www.google.com.au/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/nationalities-that-work-the-longest-hours/amp/). This goes against certain stereotypes which like to point to the idea that Mexicans are unproductive and like to take siestas all day. However, if Mexicans work so hard, why aren't they a developed nation like South Korea or Japan or Singapore which many countries look up to as model economies/countries and try to emulate? Singapore and South Korea were both colonized by the Japanese but their nations have grown in only a few decades from very humble beginnings. In your opinion, what is the ideal number of hours to work in a typical work week?

I have heard that the average person has only 1-4% neanderthal DNA. If someone has 4% neanderthal DNA in their genes, can they increase their children's percentage by mating with another person of opposite gender who has 4% neanderthal DNA as well? If the son, daughter etc. have 8% neanderthal DNA can it be increased further by mating them with someone who also has a high neanderthal percentage? If not, can you please explain why the neanderthal DNA in modern humans can only get to 4% at most and not climb any higher? Why is this the limit (If it is)? Do you think the neanderthal will be able to be brought back to life in future?

I agree! Also, check this out: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xyowJZxrtbg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

If humans have no work, then what would we do with all the free time freed up as a result? Wouldn't the robots just take away repetitive manual handling work or are you talking about all kinds of work?

As I have heard that human populations that have a high mortality rate typically have a high fertility rate (e.g. those in Subsaharan Africa) to make up for the babies/children who will not make it to old age. I have heard that there is a natural mechanism that keeps the human population from making too few babies or too many. Is this simply not true and not the case? If not, then today why are fertility rates higher in regions of the world where death rates are correspondingly high? With improved standard of living and healthcare it is anticipated that global fertility rates will go down. As people live longer, they will choose and want to have fewer children naturally. We see this all over the world today (e.g. Japan, Singapore) where people want to have fewer but higher quality children than people of their parent's generation when living conditions were harsher. I'm not sure. I think most people don't purposely decide how many children they want to have. It sort of happens subconsciously due to environmental cues such as war famine, disease and other signalling factors. I don't think human populations choose to increase or decrease their fertility rates on purpose but it is rather a response to environmental factors and stress.

What is the general consensus amongst the global scientific community?

Is high School science knowledge a waste of space for the layman? If you are not in a science related profession, is there any use in having basic science knowledge from highschool?

I.e. If all humans are 99.5% similar to one another is there much point for a white european intentionally looking for someone who is ethnically african to increase the genetic diversity of any children they may have (e.g. To increase their genetic fitness)? People say that biracial children are smarter and taller on average. Is there any truth behind this? I have heard that there is more genetic variability within a nation/continent than between nations/continents. If this is true, is it still worthwhile to look for someone you think might be "less you" genetically speaking, to procreate with? If you live in a monoracial country is it worth it to go abroad to find a mate so that you will have healthier children?

If the concept of "race" does not exist than how can companies like national geographic, 23andme, ancestry dna, my family tree and others process your dna to find your ethnic heritage (e.g. 40% east asian, European Jewish, polynesian etc.)? Obviously, east asians are different genetically from Africans due to suffering from a bottleneck many, many generations ago after leaving Africa and from having neanderthal/denisovan dna and having mutations here and there from time to time as they migrated out of Africa. Africans are more genetically diverse than Europeans, asians, native Americans and australian aborigines and Pacific islanders and others who left Africa. Africans mature at a younger age while east asians mature at an older age. Asians lack fast twitch muscle fibers to compete with tall Africans and Europeans in many competitive individual and team sports leading many west african countries to dominate in sprinting, weight-lifting and others. If race really is a social construct how can nigerians look more similar to each other than people from iceland? Chinese people look more similar to each other than other than they do when you compare them to other races. Race being a social construct, would this mean that what we are seeing is really an illusion? What does it mean when we say that "race" does not exist??? I'm really confused. A lot of Africans have more dense circular curly hair. This is obviously different and I certainly don't have hair like this. Are we really all the same?

If you could, would you do it? What are some things we need to consider before doing something like this? If there is no diversity in the gene pool of the extinct animal, would scientists be able to increase the mutation rate of the cloned animal (e.f. Mammoth, neanderthal, Tasmanian tiger, dodo etc.) to increase their genetic diversity and thereby improve their genetic fitness overtime?

Why is subsaharan Africa a lot poorer than other parts of Africa (e.g. Northern and southern parts)? Is it because of historical reasons, laziness or are subsaharan Africans simply a biologically inferior race of humans? What is the general consensus among the global scientific community?

I use the word loosely. it can mean from 12-18 years old.

china a great and mighty civilisation discontinued the study of mathematics and astronomy a few hundred years back. islamic civilisation a noteworthy rival of western Europe was ransacked by the Mongolians who sieged Baghdad in 1258AD destroying many books and libraries and a similar thing happened in spain with many books and libraries destroyed. printing press was stopped by ottomans a few hundred years back which halted civilizational progress for a few hundred years there as well. western civilisation rose because all vital ingredients needed to ignite the spark of modern science took place and the light hasn't been extinguished ever since.

How did South Korea and singapore become developed countries so quickly from their more humble beginnings? Can we expect the world to change much by 2060? By which year do you think all countries of the world will become developed? Do you think there are any developing countries now which will never reach developed country status for whatever reason?