I clarify:
Let’s say scientists can’t come up with solutions to global problems, AI gets out of control and turns almost everyone into paperclips during wars, and in the 2040s or 2050s, the surviving people (about a few tens of millions around the world or even less) gradually return to the level of intelligence of their distant ancestors?
Let’s say scientists can’t come up with solutions to global problems
We already have the solution, the French made it in the 1800. We just lack the will to use them again.
Which one?
In the 18th century, so the 1700s.
I would be in the roughly 8 billion dead for sure.
Yeah if 10’s million survive that’s only 0.1%. Almost all of us are dead in this scenario.
Blacksmithing
OP said neolithic! You going to forge some rocks?
Fair point. I guess I will try to invent blacksmithing.
(not that I think a return to the neolithic is a likely scenario - some knowledge will stick around, regardless of how far we fall in population, resources, and technology)
I take unbridge with the line
Level of intelligence of their distant ancestors
All evidence so far points to humans being at the same intelligence levels as they are now since basically when we first became Anatomically Modern Humans.
We were not less intelligent, we just had less information and less data.
You can be a Supergenius the likes of which only seen in comic books, but if you don’t have the right data and information, you’re no different to anyone else.
As you have well noticed, I did not take into account that human evolution did not advance much intellectually and computationally, it was rather a matter of the variety of information that sharpened the human mind, to put it simply. Unfortunately, it is difficult to take all this into account.
We didn’t advance in intelligence, at all, as that’s “the capacity for, with information and tools, find a way to put them to use”. And the human mind is as sharp as it’s always been.
We had less information, and because of that no knowledge of how to make better tools, but if you gave someone from 5000 years ago the information and tools, they would be intelligent enough to figure out how to use them without instruction.
A fun example of that, there’s been time and again where prototypes of things we now think of as modern were made about 2000 years before. But they didn’t have the prerequisite tools and information to make it anything more than that.
Like "Hero’s Engine ", a thousand of years old toy that’s a fully working Steam Engine. But cause they weren’t good enough at metallurgy yet, they knew it could work bigger but didn’t have any methods to make it bigger
There are also issues of societal specialization leading to the ability of individuals to specialize in gaining knowledge, instead of 100% of the population working 99% of the time on survival.
But my brain and Og the Caveman are basically the same.
Yeah exactly!
A fun example of that, there’s been time and again where prototypes of things we now think of as modern were made thousands of years before. But they didn’t have the prerequisite tools and information to make it anything more than a prototype.
Like “Hero’s Engine”, a thousand of years old toy that’s a fully working Bronze Steam Engine, but it’s basically like 10cm in size. But cause they weren’t good enough at metallurgy yet, they knew it could work bigger but didn’t have any methods to make it bigger (copper and bronze can’t handle the strain that anything bigger than that would make, and that’s all they knew how to use at the time)
Reinvent myself. Take no shit. Get a girl and be happy. Also, die at the age of 32.
Well given the extinction of more than a half million essential crop species and the previously universal knowledge of farming that occurred in the last century. Expect to die alongside billions of others.
The world can support less than 1% of its current population if everyone reverted to a neolithic lifestyle. And countless species would be hunted to extinction during the collapse.
So in short, the answer to what I would do? Like nearly everyone else, just die. The folks from Sentinel Island will inherit the Earth.
I don’t see us regressing before 1820. Will just be back to your horses, carriages, and living off the land.
That still requires metal and there’s no surface deposits to support it
There’s plenty in landfills to be “mined”
Afaik that can only be recycled with pretty energy intensive arc furnaces or regular fossil fuel combustion. No accessible fossil fuel limits you to fallout style scrap-tech, which is probably not sustainable for a long term 17-18th century civilization.
Damn, you expressed my words for me.
As we can see from what is happening in the world today my answer is nothing. We will do nothing and just accept our fate.
All the people saying, “I’d just die,” remember that neolithic peoples (hell, all people up to the present day) rely on social bonds. You don’t have to possess every survival skill, just enough skills to be an asset to a community of mutual-support.
I already educate children, and regardless of society’s form I’d probably continue to do so because it’s vitally important. Also as someone well-practiced in a variety of handicrafts, I suspect I’d find my niche quite comfortably. Making useful things from limited resources, teaching others how to make such things, and teaching children the knowledge I’ve accumulated throughout my life, I think there’s bound to be a place in a stone age community for someone like me.
work with others every day
Is dying still an option?
My survival skills aren’t great so I will surely be dead. Hope it’s a quick one
Well I wouldn’t have much choice in the matter. I would most definitely die.
Die.
UGG RELY ON DIVERSIFIED MUTUAL FUNDS FOR LIQUIDITY. BIG ROCK FOR SOFA.
I think that your question might be flawed on the front of intelligence. Assuming that the AI doesn’t specifically target the brightest people in the world, I don’t think that the overall intelligence of the world would go down. Besides, I don’t believe that it would be very easy to hit humanity as a whole to cause us to regress completely down there. For one, it’s likely incredibly difficult to have all the accumulated knowledge of over 10 millennia to get erased. It’s likely that the knowledge of metallurgy, chemistry, and medicine will still be floating around, be it written down, stored on a device, or a specialist having memorized it. Sure, some knowledge would absolutely get lost. But specifically the Neolithic era is where we see the beginnings of society. Agriculture was a major achievement for humanity, as it enabled us to specialize, and establish permanent settlements. There’s also another factor to consider: the ruins of our previous height will still be there. People would absolutely go and scavenge the ruins for things that we as a whole would have lost. Yes, people would absolutely die, but I don’t believe that humanity as a whole would be screwed.
I think you’re right, I think I’m too focused on the worst-case scenarios.
