Safest, least violent time period ever

We are living in the safest time period ever.

Studies showing high percentage of humans were killed by each other. Similar to other top predator populations.

On day 1 of my high school history class, our teacher got up and said: “You are 15 or 16 years old. 200 years ago people your age were married, planted crops, had children, and built a cabin by winter. You can do your homework. The bar set for you historically is embarrassingly low. You are not dealing with regional famine or plague. You do not have to save your family from marauders or go into battle to destroy your enemies. You have to sit down and learn from someone who cares about you in a safe, air-conditioned room. You have no excuses.”

Why do people still think violence is at all time high? Almost certainly has to do with creep. If most behaviors are less aggressive than they once were, then some behaviors will seem more aggressive than they once did, which may lead observers to mistakenly conclude that the prevalence of aggression has not declined.” Prevalence-induced concept change in human judgment

Neil Tyson discussing the stats of decreasing violence. Neil talking about survival rates and longevity.

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Life expectancy and it’s impact on creating the safest time period

Also the life expectancy once you reached adulthood is not that different as in the past. The biggest reasons why average life expectancy has increased is the decreases in deaths of babies and children and more recently the decrease in war. I have seen stats that as many as 3/4ths of babies did not reach adulthood. You can see that once one reaches 65 the number of years has not changed much in modern history.

Amount of money spent on just food

Amount of time, energy, and money spent on the basics like food has decreased a lot. — Our ancestors would have spent almost all their time on food gathering. Today you could quantify time spent on gathering food by a percentage of your income that people have tried more or less for their time. It is still decreasing despite people complaining about the cost of food, the cost has never been lower.

Causes of death

Most of these people no longer die from and that is another major cause of us now living in the safest time period ever. This is interesting data from England about the causes of death. It’s fascinating to see the changes.

Childhood mortality

Our ancestors grew up in an environment where most children did not make it to adulthood. That is what we are evolved to see and bear. While obviously positive for our children it likely has an overall negative impact on the gene pool, a general weakening of the gene pool. It also likely has some impact on our ability to handle trauma and without that trauma our transferring that to other things.

This link has several charts showing childhood mortality rates.

Average hours worked

The number of hours we are working is decreasing as well.

How good we have it

Nearly every generation in recorded history has had it easier than the one before them. That is thanks to your technological advances. As mentioned no human had a hot shower on a regular basis even a hundred years ago. In more recent years, we have seen diseases eradicated, childhood mortality decrease, life expectancy increase, working hours decrease, leisure time and money increase.

Safest time period ever

Safest, least violent time period ever