[0x4f3759df]

Someone once made the same point about fitness, you used to have to roll down your windows manually, but now its automatic. More and more muscle functions being eliminated by automation. Add them all up and it makes a difference.

[ancarda]

That's a really interesting point. I recently bought an adjustable (height) desk and I use it on-and-off as a standing desk. I prefer to write code standing, and watch TV/play games sitting. To adjust the desk, I need to pull out a handle and turn it round and round for it to raise or lower. I need to do this a few times a day as I get tired of standing after some hours, which is a convenient stopping point to alternate tasks to take breaks from coding.

I was thinking of building a little motor that can raise and lower the desk, ideally to a voice command. Wouldn't it be neat to say "<assistant of choice>, (raise|lower) the desk"?

Honestly, I'm going to scrap that project right now. While it would be interesting to learn how to build it, you're completely right we're getting lazier every day. Maybe I should be raising and lowering the desk myself.

Thank you.

[onion2k]

More and more muscle functions being eliminated by automation.

Only trivially small ones that we'd do a few times a week. There's still lots of physical activity that we do (eg walking around, carrying things like shopping, sex, etc).

Plus, many people have replaced the small manual activities like opening car windows with going to the gym. Anyone who has a sedentary desk job but tries to live a relatively healthy lifestyle probably does far more activity than their parents would have done if they had desk jobs.

[kuschku]

> Only trivially small ones that we'd do a few times a week. There's still lots of physical activity that we do (eg walking around, carrying things like shopping, sex, etc).

Not everywhere — one of the major reasons fitness (and BMI) is correlated with walkability of a city is that in many typical US cities, you barely have to walk anymore, while in the more walkable cities driving is less possible, and you’ll walk or cycle much more, and usually use transit more (which means walking to/from the stops).

All this adds up.

[godelski]

> barely have to walk anymore

It's not so much that as that you CAN'T walk around in most cities. The last place I lived Walmart was several miles down the road which had no sidewalks and was trenches for water 3 inches from the road. No bike lanes, no nothing. It isn't that most of America is difficult to walk through, it is impossible (if you don't want to be hit by a car at least).

[phil21]

It adds up a lot. I split my time between a typical suburban car-centric city (Minneapolis), and a place just off the El in Chicago.

The weeks I am in Chicago I lose weight without really trying - simply from walking to/from the train every day and around the neighborhood running errands. Then of course lunch in the office which of course is another walk away. All those little walking trips add up to miles/day without even noticing and add up to a noticeable change in weight loss/gain.

Minneapolis it's rare to walk more than 100ft (to a car and back) to go anywhere - unless you make a concerted conscious effort to take time to walk for the sake of walking.

[0x4f3759df]

Most of the US is low-density and built for cars, so not a lot of walking happening. Also some people in the city will take a Bird or Lyft scooter automating out walking

[zeroxfe]

Now that many new cars are coming with have high-def wide-angle rear view cameras, I don't really need my neck muscles anymore. At some point we'll "evolve" to rocks... rocks with wifi.

[dx87]

That reminds me of a TED talk I saw where the speaker was saying that something he's noticed with a lot of academics and tech types is that they only care about flexing their mental muscles; their bodies are only useful for moving their brain from one place to another, so a lot of what they build is done to make it so they have to use their bodies less.

[jacobolus]

https://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson

[closeparen]

My experience in Silicon Valley is that tech workers are drastically more fit than the general public.

[icc97]

Except for the brain works better when the body is healthier.

[phakding]

I am thinking, evolve more like people in WALL-E. Blobs of flesh with no muscle definition or ability to use them.

[a3n]

"In The Year 2525," from the year 1969: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Year_2525 (youtube link in "External" section is weak, try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew01FGfOZdE)

[JoshMnem]

I picture something more like floating, life-extension vats where people spend their whole lives, getting entertainment, VR images, and drugs piped into their brains. Robots will do everything else.

Living involves the acts of experiencing the real world and doing things for yourself.

[20after4]

That's already a thing: https://hackaday.io/project/2058-wifi-rocks

[CM30]

So basically like the people in WALL•E .

[muse900]

as much as "rocks with wifi" made me giggle, it also made me sad cause its very true.

[Animats]

That's where fat acceptance has brought us.