[paxys]

Internet "influencers" really have us convinced that humans were barbaric apes until a century or two ago and then suddenly invented the modern world. What about all the achievements before then? Could we not have used math and science a few thousand years ago? Nope, it was all aliens of course.

[quantified]

It's only internet influencers if you grew up in the last few years and get most of your world information from them. I'm sure that's more than a roomful of people. Anthropologists have been doing it for well over a hundred years.

[drdaeman]

> were barbaric apes

(Looks at the news) Sadly, still pretty much are.

There’s a huge contrast between how much human intelligence had achieved scientifically and culturally, and how humanity (at large, on a global scale) behaves itself.