Re: POLITICS - Human change

[Guest guest]

>> It's interesting to think that humans lived more or less the same way

>> for like, a million years. THAT was some equilibrium. One wonders what

>> threw it off.

>

>How do you figure? I don't see how you can possibly look at human history

>and see anything but a constant state of flux.

??? We must be talking about different things. If you mean, did people move,

did the weather change ... sure, there were changes. But folks used basically

the same rock tools and ate pretty much the same types of foods for

eons -- then something like 50,000 years ago finally hit on fire. Most

anthropologists agree there was very limited and very SLOW change before

that. After the Neolithic, changes started happening faster and faster.

But the change has been anything but " constant " -- the rate was exceedingly

slow for say, a million years, then it gets faster and faster and faster.

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/13/04 6:11:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,

heidis@... writes:

> ??? We must be talking about different things. If you mean, did people

> move,

> did the weather change ... sure, there were changes. But folks used

> basically

> the same rock tools and ate pretty much the same types of foods for

> eons -- then something like 50,000 years ago finally hit on fire. Most

> anthropologists agree there was very limited and very SLOW change before

> that. After the Neolithic, changes started happening faster and faster.

> But the change has been anything but " constant " -- the rate was exceedingly

> slow for say, a million years, then it gets faster and faster and faster.

Ok, although it depends what you consider " human. " & amp;nbsp; Homo Sapiens has

only been around for 125,000 years I believe, in which case 50,000 years is

almost half of her span. & amp;nbsp; Also, while 50,000 years is tiny compared to

the

time span of the universe, it's very large in terms of what it takes to make

large changes in society. & amp;nbsp;

Chris

[Guest guest]

--- I read tonight on drdino.com Q & A carbon dating is only

accurate for 40,000 years.How are you dating these things? Carbon

dating or circular reasoning of geologists and anthropologists? Dennis

In , ChrisMasterjohn@a... wrote:

> In a message dated 2/13/04 6:11:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,

> heidis@t... writes:

>

> > ??? We must be talking about different things. If you mean, did

people

> > move,

> > did the weather change ... sure, there were changes. But folks

used

> > basically

> > the same rock tools and ate pretty much the same types of foods

for

> > eons -- then something like 50,000 years ago finally hit on fire.

Most

> > anthropologists agree there was very limited and very SLOW change

before

> > that. After the Neolithic, changes started happening faster and

faster.

> > But the change has been anything but " constant " -- the rate was

exceedingly

> > slow for say, a million years, then it gets faster and faster and

faster.

>

> Ok, although it depends what you consider " human. " & amp;nbsp; Homo

Sapiens has

> only been around for 125,000 years I believe, in which case 50,000

years is

> almost half of her span. & amp;nbsp; Also, while 50,000 years is tiny

compared to the

> time span of the universe, it's very large in terms of what it

takes to make

> large changes in society. & amp;nbsp;

>

> Chris

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

dkemnitz2000 wrote:

> --- I read tonight on drdino.com Q & A carbon dating is only

> accurate for 40,000 years.How are you dating these things? Carbon

> dating or circular reasoning of geologists and anthropologists? Dennis

That is correct. Carbon-14 has a half-life of only 5730 years, so after

40,000 years, less than 1% of the Carbon-14 originally present remains.

There are other methods of radiometric dating which use the same

principle but other, more stable elements. The most common one uses

Potassium-40, which has a half-life of over a billion years.