As to the "this younger generation isn't as good as we were" meme - I think it's safe to say it's always been around and has both truth and falsehood in it. One difficulty in comparing ancient inventiveness to modern inventiveness is the shoulder-standing thing. If our ancestors hadn't invented, language, writing, math, etc. we'd have a difficult time doing all the things that are supposedly smarter than the things our ancestors did.

A quote that addresses this quite well:

"Children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book, and it is clear that the end of the world is fast approaching".

Though this sounds like quite a modern lament, if oddly worded, it was found on a 4,000 year old clay tablet from ancient Sumeria.

In other words, the "good old days" were always a generation or two ago, regardless of when that generation really was, or how good it really was. Me, I'd much rather be alive today than back then in ancient Sumeria!

--
Ytrew

In reply to Re: OT Pyramid Builders and Shoulder Standing by Anonymous Monk
in thread Average Age of the Perl Monk - Poll? by diakonos

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