the experience of love, loss, fear, ambition, in/security, friendship, community, excitement and so on seems to have been pretty much the same for humans living now as it was for humans living as far back as we have written records, and almost certainly well before that.
Kaj_Sotala has already discussed most of these, but I wanted to focus on friendship. Ancient friendships seem to have had as a major component mutual defense against violence. As violence decreases, that aspect of friendship decreases- I’ve never had a friend come to my aid in combat, because I’ve never been attacked, and never come to someone else’s aid, because I’ve never had the opportunity.
As well, modern friendships seem to be categorically different from most ancient friendships. Instant messaging with someone who is a close match to your personality and interests who lives across the globe feels rather different than physically interacting with the person who lives next door to you, who isn’t particularly close to your personality or interests. Modern childhood friendships are much more likely to be age-segregated than they were in the past, and so on.
My adrenaline system seems to work as well and in the same way as someone from a thousand years ago- but I’ve had far less cause to activate mine, and so while I’m mostly okay with calling the hardware ‘pretty much the same’ I have a hard time calling the experience ‘pretty much the same.’
Kaj_Sotala has already discussed most of these, but I wanted to focus on friendship. Ancient friendships seem to have had as a major component mutual defense against violence. As violence decreases, that aspect of friendship decreases- I’ve never had a friend come to my aid in combat, because I’ve never been attacked, and never come to someone else’s aid, because I’ve never had the opportunity.
As well, modern friendships seem to be categorically different from most ancient friendships. Instant messaging with someone who is a close match to your personality and interests who lives across the globe feels rather different than physically interacting with the person who lives next door to you, who isn’t particularly close to your personality or interests. Modern childhood friendships are much more likely to be age-segregated than they were in the past, and so on.
My adrenaline system seems to work as well and in the same way as someone from a thousand years ago- but I’ve had far less cause to activate mine, and so while I’m mostly okay with calling the hardware ‘pretty much the same’ I have a hard time calling the experience ‘pretty much the same.’