Quote:
Originally Posted by dalnet22
1. Sports are an exploitation of human's competitive nature. Whereas we are built / have evolved to survive, sports are an illusion - a way to trick the body into thinking we are achieving a valuable end. Perhaps in early times sports were of some serious value. Competitors from different, warring communities would fight to the death to see who was the strongest. Today, sport is a waste of human ability because there is no sincere end.
2. Masturbation is an exploitation of the body's drive to procreate. "Horniness" is a signal to find a mate, but it is deterred by relieving one's self. This act wastes much time and money that could be spent on more productive or more social tasks.
3. Watching movies, watching tv, reading fiction - These are exploitations of the human imagination.. the quest to discover new things. Instead of going out and finding treasure (for example), one can easily sit back and watch a movie or read a book about it. It's surely not the same, but it seems a lot less risky to sit in and watch others do it. Instead of making friends, we can sit inside and get to know some day time stars on the television. We can wait for the evening news to come on to get our fix for something new. It's like a simulation of reality. You aren't living your life, you're watching or reading about someone else living theirs. And they're not always real, as seen in fiction.
4. Video games - these blend 1 and 3. Instead of solving dire problems such as figuring out where to hunt for tonight's food or how to sail off a deserted island, humans today have it easier than in the past. It's become very easy to obtain what used to be a challenge. The challenge can now be found in video games, which are merely challenges or ways to exploit the human's desire to succeed and overcome. Instead of learning out to fly a plane, you can play a flight simulator. Instead of making real friends and hiking, you can sign up for an online game and role play with others you'll likely never meet. Once again, these are simulations of reality.
I could go on with other examples. Dancing, making music, playing music, it's all ways of avoiding real challenges.
A real challenge would be curing cancer; reading a book on chemistry to better understand the world around you; or seeking out relationships with people rather than staring at a screen all day.
Opinions? I'm not saying we should necessarily stop all of these "fun" things. I'm merely suggesting that they are exploitations of human functions. Am I wrong?
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1. Sports are a means to keep your body in shape, which in and of itself is a valuable goal, it helps you with your self-image, it helps you with concentration, it staves off disease and slows down aging, there is a social aspect to it as you said, with the whole competition thing as well.
This part of sports has not changed since it's inception, also, in ancient times, they rarely fought to death, what would be the point of that, you lose people in your tribe.
2. Masturbation can be easily used to get the horniness out of one's system, so that more productive or more social tasks can be undertaking instead of spending hours with that on your mind.
3. If you want to be efficient about your living experience, you need to learn from other people's mistakes, other people's advice.
If you just try to do everything yourself, the maximum possible amount of things you can learn, is vastly limited, and will result in alot of people having exactly the same experiences as you. What's the point in that then.
4. Video games can train several things as well, your ability to solve puzzles, your reflexes & reaction time, hand-eye coordination, ...
As well, they allow you to to take your mind off what you have been doing all day, allowing a better processing when you go to sleep, instead of keeping you up in the early hours. Meaning you're better rested and more productive the day after.
There, some other ways of looking at it.
Just because you say something is a *real* challenge and something is not, does not make it so.
Learning how to program correctly is a good challenge, because it's demanding, and will earn you a skill that can make you a living.
Even so, you'll be doing almost only mental work.
Does that make it any less 'real' ?