CarwilBJ's avatarCarwilBJ's Twitter Archive—№ 19,820

                  1. Oh @voxdotcom, could you not consult with a single historian or anthropologist before publishing "an amateur macrohistory project" that projects all history backwards from 1820…? cc @KelseyTuoc
                    Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 2 Favorites Mood 0
                1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
                  A few completely weird things about this "graphing project" by @lukeprog… 1. Several of the data sets are in inherently incomparable metrics or literally project c. 1800 back to the beginning of time. Then @lukeprog gets very excited about how "nothing happened" before then.
                  Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood +1 🙂
              1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
                For example, the global poverty data is in inflation adjusted dollars, which don't scale backwards for centuries. And the cited source doesn't actually work backwards at all from that date: piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/BourguignonMorrisson2002.pdf
                Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood -1 🙁
            1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
              Likewise, "war-fighting" is inexplicably not measured in the number of people armies can make die, but in some kind of energy unit. War is, at its crudest level, about death, and that disappears here.
              Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood -6 🙁
          1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
            % living in a democracy is literally set at zero before late 18th century (1787? 1789?). Apparently all non-state societies were undemocratic. Ask the Iroquois, or hundreds of other alternative choices, about this.
            Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood 0
        1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
          2. "War-making capacity" and "energy capture" are essentially the Industrial Revolution's metrics for itself. If you decide those are the measure of human well-being: first, you have a very odd understanding of the relation between war and well-being. …
          Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood 0
      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        and second, you have followed a path that was laid out by mid-century anthropologists called "cultural ecology" who briefly believed that energy-per-capita was a measure of progress.
        Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood +2 🙂
    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      Anthropologists researching the impact of the Agricultural Revolution have found that, if human well-being including life expectancy, freedom, and leisure time is the measure, the impact of more energy per capita was negative.
      Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 3 Favorites Mood +2 🙂
  1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
    Even founding cultural ecologist Leslie White came to that view.
    On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood 0
    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      3. While it's completely appropriate to be concerned about material abundance or scarcity, money is not a good cross-cultural or cross-temporal metric for this.
      Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood +3 🙂
      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        One should be very skeptical about metrics that render the vast majority of human life in the past "extreme poverty." But if those measures don't even consider living conditions, but just start with money, they are useless.
        Permalink On twitter.com Twitter logo CarwilBJ’s avatar ❤️ 1 Favorite Mood -5 🙁