The More you Know The More you Owe

[vizzle]

This is what I was trying to get across in the Intellectual thread although it didn't come out that way. All these great figures throughout history share this trait.

Yep yep yep yep there it is.

[Maxilian]

It seems like you are talking about celebrities. I don't really consider them famous. Most have done nothing to improve the world.

Remenber that celebrities affect us, in one way or another, for example: if a celebrety talks about a certain controversial topic, his/her opinion will be considered more important than yours, whatever they do go to the world ears and eyes, so in the end, we all are affected by them, cause they are the ones that change the:

-Music & TV: what we see, what we think in some social aspects...

-Fashion: the way we see beuty

So yeah, i think that the celebrities affect us a lot, for good or wrong...

---------- Post added 2013-03-28 at 10:20 AM ----------

Interesting read. I liked it.

BUT i have a little bit of another view on the subject.
I am quite sure all those scientists had good things in mind. But we ended up having created a world where our hi-tech has kinda opened more problems than solved. Along with the fact that we developed technology that may give us an easier life in the first place, but step by step destroys our world. Also we have developed technology that is capable of destroying the planet in a matter of days (yeah rude example, but think about what would happen if like 100 atom bombs explode simultaneously). Not that this has been done or is to expect the next days, but still we have managed to install buttons which allow someone who presses them to bring havoc over the world.

I dont consider this to be step forward in human evolution.

I don't agree, cause thanks to those things we stopped acting as we used to, now is harder to be involved in a war (at least a big one like the World War 2), also, right now people are learning more things that we used to, now we have way more ways to fight an illness and cure some that in the past we couldn't, is true that in some ways, the creations made by the human are harmfull for all of us, but there are way more things that help the humanity

[sandmoth12]

Interesting read. I liked it.

BUT i have a little bit of another view on the subject.
I am quite sure all those scientists had good things in mind. But we ended up having created a world where our hi-tech has kinda opened more problems than solved. Along with the fact that we developed technology that may give us an easier life in the first place, but step by step destroys our world. Also we have developed technology that is capable of destroying the planet in a matter of days (yeah rude example, but think about what would happen if like 100 atom bombs explode simultaneously). Not that this has been done or is to expect the next days, but still we have managed to install buttons which allow someone who presses them to bring havoc over the world.

I dont consider this to be step forward in human evolution.

The nature of humanity is a pain in the ass isn't it? Both good and bad exists in humans, so anything we create is ultimately doomed to be used for both good and evil.

Does that mean we should stop all technological advancement? Of course not. We can't stay on this planet forever, and the only thing that is going to help us reach other planets is our advancement of technology.

And that's why we must continue to advance technology despite it, potentially, being used for evil.

[Bolson13]

"The More you Know The More you Owe"

Quote probably came from an American university graduate without any form of assistance or scholarship . That was the first thing that popped into my mind. That "the more you know" rainbow/star with a satirical subtext and a picture of those occupy wall street people

[Catta]

"The More you Know The More you Owe"

Quote probably came from an American university graduate without any form of assistance or scholarship . That was the first thing that popped into my mind. That "the more you know" rainbow/star with a satirical subtext and a picture of those occupy wall street people

"The less you know, the more you mow"

...

I'll show myself out...

[pld]

...and here I thought it was a quote lampooning obtaining a College education. :P

Glad I wasn't the only one, haha. I thought this was going to be a topic about college tuition.

[lzsg]

How many children accept they are going to have crappy mundane lives, dying only to be forgotten by history?

Oh. Well, it's understandable with children. I was speaking mainly about adults who are convinced they're somehow more important than everyone else.

[Deleted]

I for one like your threads and find your point partly or entirely right most of the time. In this one, you could say that idiocy has its benefits.

[Deleted]

I see your point but it's not always true. Why? Because it doesn't take in mind human greed. A person who knows a lot might not share it since it would give others power similar to theirs. By not sharing the knowledge, they remain above the others for a time. So they use their knowledge to try and change the world, yes, but they don't try to use it to improve it, but rather to subjugate it under them.

Yes, there's many people who do feel the need to share their knowledge with the world, and well done to those. Another issue they should take in mind though, is to whom their share their knowledge... for example, if tomorrow I manage to find out how to open a black hole with our tools I could say I know something truly amazing but could I share it? No way! Or if I invent a ... laser that's easy to transport and can cut through anything, to whom do I share it? Well here's the deal, to whomever I share it, the country will take the design and build a laser tank or a laser in space or some other shit. This is why, whatever knowlegeable people know, they need to take care what and to whom they share or they can create more pain then their solution can fix.

[Catta]

I for one like your threads and find your point partly or entirely right most of the time. In this one, you could say that idiocy has its benefits.

You must have some conflicting opinions as so many of his threads are contradictory to his previous ones.

[Simulacrum]

I would consider any person who believes they're "meant for a higher cause" incredibly arrogant, possibly delusional. That said, I do agree with the sentiment that if you are extraordinarily gifted in something that can help other people, it would be somewhat selfish of you to keep it to yourself. I feel the same way about wealthy people who give no money to charities or humanitarian aid, even though there's no real obligation for them to do so.

A lot of great people throughout history sure felt this way. Alexander, Caesar, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, are just a few that I know about for sure who claimed to feel this way... a certain level of narcissism and delusions of grandeour seems almost necessary to be come a truly great person. Of course, great doesn't always been good, as my short list clearly implies.

Interesting read. I liked it.

BUT i have a little bit of another view on the subject.
I am quite sure all those scientists had good things in mind. But we ended up having created a world where our hi-tech has kinda opened more problems than solved. Along with the fact that we developed technology that may give us an easier life in the first place, but step by step destroys our world. Also we have developed technology that is capable of destroying the planet in a matter of days (yeah rude example, but think about what would happen if like 100 atom bombs explode simultaneously). Not that this has been done or is to expect the next days, but still we have managed to install buttons which allow someone who presses them to bring havoc over the world.

I dont consider this to be step forward in human evolution.

2053 nukes detonated between 1945 and 1998. They are very dangerous on the human scale (though historically totally insignificant relative to stuff like swords, axes, hammers, clubs, spears, arrows, handguns, rocks...), but pretty insignificant on a planetary scale - they're nothing compared to the forces of nature. People make too big of a deal out of nukes. The 2004 tsunami killed ~240000 people, and people today give less of a shit about that than they do about 9/11, which was downright harmless by comparison - it was made into a horrible event not because the event was so horrible, but because of the hysterical way in which people have responded to it. Get up in the morning to worry about unsafe roads, bad weather, or not washing your hands properly after touching bad shit (all of which, incidentally, are themselves also minor problems, thanks to our technological and cultural advances); don't get up worrying about stuff like nukes. The people in Moscow have stopped talking about using them for a while now.

To say our technological progress has "opened more problems than solved" is ludicrous. The main thing it has done is make minor problems more apparent, because we no longer need to worry about bigger ones. No dubt, if, or when, we solve the problems we have now to a satisfying degree, people will find something else, previously considered to be irrelevant, to complain about like it's the worst thing since the holocaust.

[Frostys99]

I would consider any person who believes they're "meant for a higher cause" incredibly arrogant, possibly delusional. That said, I do agree with the sentiment that if you are extraordinarily gifted in something that can help other people, it would be somewhat selfish of you to keep it to yourself. I feel the same way about wealthy people who give no money to charities or humanitarian aid, even though there's no real obligation for them to do so.

Having to devote your entire life to something and die alone seems a bit harsh, though.

Wealthy people are better off reinvesting in themselves and creating jobs through growth and their own abilities. Who would you rather give a million dollars to Bill Gates or Joe Schmoe down the block running the Save Poverty Charity?

[Deleted]

I doubt it to be honest. These are just the few famous people who tried to help the world while numerous others who helped themselves, became billionaires or even worked for evil superpowers remain unknown.

[Deleted]

Try not to focus on if people recognize that you are doing well, just focus on doing well.
You don't have to be top notch.

I always wanted to compete in Red Bull BC One, the Worldchampionship in BBoying. I want to be a well known BBoy, a very good dancer.
But what i learned over the past 5 years is, that to much ambition is not healthy for anyone.
I push myself to the limit but i don't force it. I hope to suceed sometime but i have other things to do right now, so my schedule is pretty tight.

For me, the value of someones existence can't really be measured. You decide, if your being on this earth was valuable and you decide, what was valuable.
Not many people can be the best and if you realize you can't, stop feeling guilty about it.

[Afrospinach]

For every famous scientist, there are a dozen research assistants that go unnoticed, Not everyone that makes great contributions is rewarded or recognized beyond a generic thank you speech.

Indeed, and the intelligent people that could have achieved something great for society but only go into it for themselves, well they just end up with piles of cash or some such. No one is going to remember Warren Buffet like they remember Einstein. Furthermore, if I may throw in one of my own favourite quotes - "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". These scientific contributions rarely come from nowhere. We remember Newton, but we don't remember the German scientist working on exactly the same stuff or all the things that came before that lead to this line of thinking. We look at it in isolation all too often as say "wow, this guy is a frickin radical genius, a gift to humanity". I like these great people and knowing about them but sometimes it does feel like we give them all too much credit.

I think scientists/musicians etc are also just as often egotists looking for a good stroke vs being some kind of gift to humanity.

[yurano]

Who says you can't both advance civilization and have free time to your self.

Just because you have a moral obligation to use your superior abilities doesn't mean you need to become a workaholic.

Likewise, just because you have marginal abilities isn't a valid excuse for you to be lazy.

[Adam Jensen]

Ignorance is bliss, they say.

Knowledge is power and power has responsibility.