Michelle Paver: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness

[MSC]

Has anyone ever read this series of books? Or even better, has anyone ever heard the amazing Sir Ian McKellen reading this on audiobook?

This series has been on my mind a lot recently. It's set in pre-hunter gatherer times. Very primal. Sometimes makes me wonder if modern technology was a mistake. 

[Markus Hanke]

52 minutes ago, MSC said:

Sometimes makes me wonder if modern technology was a mistake.

I don’t think it was. Life back in hunter-gatherer days would have been much simpler, but also brutal, painful, and generally short. 

There’s nothing wrong per se with technology and civilisation, it’s alleviated a lot of unnecessary suffering, and - broadly speaking - freed up resources that enabled us as a species to pursue things other than immediate survival and procreation, at least potentially. I for one wouldn’t want to go back to the dark times.

The problem is only that one has to have a certain degree of wisdom with it, and that’s where we seem to be lacking. We’ve become completely dependent on our own creations, and in some sense relinquished our freedom to them. That’s problematic, but also inevitable I suppose, since our basic instinctual-psychological patterns have remained the same.

[iNow]

6 hours ago, Markus Hanke said:

it’s alleviated a lot of unnecessary suffering, and - broadly speaking - freed up resources that enabled us as a species to pursue things other than immediate survival and procreation, at least potentially. I for one wouldn’t want to go back to the dark times.

Agreed, though more immediate procreation I would be welcome

[MSC]

9 hours ago, Markus Hanke said:

I don’t think it was. Life back in hunter-gatherer days would have been much simpler, but also brutal, painful, and generally short. 

There’s nothing wrong per se with technology and civilisation, it’s alleviated a lot of unnecessary suffering, and - broadly speaking - freed up resources that enabled us as a species to pursue things other than immediate survival and procreation, at least potentially. I for one wouldn’t want to go back to the dark times.

The problem is only that one has to have a certain degree of wisdom with it, and that’s where we seem to be lacking. We’ve become completely dependent on our own creations, and in some sense relinquished our freedom to them. That’s problematic, but also inevitable I suppose, since our basic instinctual-psychological patterns have remained the same.

I mean I know you're right absolutely, maybe it's some of the motivational psychology behind hunter gatherers that I really feel like we miss out on today. Not the tribalism stuff of course we still have that crap today but as a species we are so much more violent to each other than most other species on the planet are to each other. 

And I get it, military advancement has also spurred advancement of technologies that aid humanity instead of killing people. But was a military advancement always needed? 

Maybe really I'm just curious as to what out hunter gatherer ancestors would be doing after a decade of having modern technology and education.