Unfortunately, all those extra people who survived to create even more people lead to the population growth, which has lead to increased demand for automobiles -> more strip mining -> polluted land and water tables; fuel -> polluting -> polluted air; pesticides -> polluted water ways; deforestation to create more crop land -> which leads to global warming -> dust bowls -> starvation. So a some people are saved at the expense of some future people, or even civilization. :)
Of course this is all speculation, perhaps someone who is a direct descendant of a famine victim who was saved will figure out how to save civilization. :o)
This was a really interesting vid however there is something that I feel just has to be pointed out. Whilst the meme you presented is true the results are not always as positive as this vid proposes. Turning this idea on it's head is the whole Nietzsche and Hitler connection. If Fredrick kept his gob shut Adolf may not of slaughtered millions of innocents? Are you going do a longer vid on this subject and if you do are you going to mention the other side of it??
Even in that scenario, however, all those (in)actions still mattered, albeit in a destructive manner. In the interest of making his point more salient and powerful in a 6 minute time-frame, I suspect that's why Mr. Ape would go with an overwhelmingly positive example.
(PS - It's quite unfair to pin Nazism to Nietzsche, as it is apocryphal that he was anti-Semitic. His sister, however, who had the rights to his work after he died, was)
I get that Rabidape was only making a short vid here, hence my last question in my comment
As for Nietzsche, the implication was not that he was an anti-Semitic, more that his philosophies were undeniably a guiding factor for Hitler's Mien Kampf. Honestly, my knowledge on this particular subject is pretty basic, I was just using it to illustrate my point that cause and effect isn't always positive. In theory there should be many more examples of this.
There are unpredictable consequences to even the simplest of actions. That's not going to get me to think about everything I do. Some things I'm just going to do. That girl was just being friendly. She was not trying to feed starving people in Mexico with super corn. That just seems unlikely.
While I agree that everything you do matters, not all of it is important. But, you did an excellent job of illustrating your point in this video. Great job. *****
Rabidape I'm a subscriber and enjoy your videos but I'm not convinced by this anecdote/argument.
I agree that everything you do makes a difference and influences the world but that doesn't mean it matters or carries significance. That doesn't follow.
You concluded that the actions of the people mentioned in the video mattered because ultimately it influenced the entire world. But if actions only matter once all the people in the world are affected, then ultimately aren't individual peoples actions what matter? So people's actions either matter or they don't, but you can't logically say individuals' actions matter once they have gone on to affect enough people unless you make the requirement that people being
affected is what determines whether actions matter or not.
If you make that requirement therefore to make ones actions mean something you should attempt to affect people. But affect them in what way? Good or bad? And how do you decide that? Good and evil is a subjective matter. So the question now is, once you have affected people, in what way (good or bad) have you affected them?
So yes, I agree you can affect people (influence their destiny), but this says nothing about whether to attribute good or bad to our actions by doing so. So yes the people mentioned in the video did affect each successive persons life, but that doesn't mean that action was good - you are saying it's good because the final outcome was good. So this anecdote says nothing more to me than: actions will affect the world.
I wasn't suggesting otherwise, nor am I saying that everything we do, or don't do, does not matter. I am trying to say that this is no proof of such - to me it'd be like considering the bible proof of God.
George Washington Carver was in- George Washington Carver (1940) with- John J. Marvin- was in- Flight for Freedom (1943) with- Sam Harris (II)- was in- Here Comes the Groom (1951) with- Patty McCormack- was in- Frost/Nixon (2008) with- Kevin Bacon
You also gotta love the Oracle of Kevin Bacon site too. While I was there I linked myself with a bacon number of 2 and 3, but I'm not sure it counts since I didn't see myself in either of the two movies I was an extra in. Missed shots and cutting room floor I think I ended at.
It is kind of like that horseshoe nail thing, where the horseshoe nail's loss loses a kingdom, except in reverse.
Now just throwing a spanner into the argument, what if the excess of food that has been produced has exacerbated the current problems of obeisity and overpopulation?
Reminds me of the STNG version of the prime directive where Cpt. Picard makes a statement about interfering in a species development could have catastrophic results, either to the species or those around them, if they become a plague or a scourge. The answer is, *NOT* doing anything can have the exact same results. So, once you satisfy the Platinum Rule (Do Unto Others as They would Have You Do Unto Them), do what your concience dictates.
Just because your actions are predictable at some level does not mean they are not your actions...that you are not responsible for those actions...that you did not make a choice based on your experience, knowledge and understanding.
I can't tell if you mean he would disagree with me or with the statement.
I'm guessing the latter in light of this quote from him:
"I believe that the existence of the classical "path" can be pregnantly formulated as follows: The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it."
--Heisenberg, in uncertainty principle paper, 1927
And Einstein would disagree, "God does not play dice with the Universe" remember?
Invoking the uncertainty principal to imply that my actions are some how random is as bad as when a new-ager explains that chi works because of "quantum physics."
"nature is, at the quantum level, NOT deterministic."
I've heard that. Its a difficult concept to wrap the brain around. :)
That at sub-atomic levels, things do not react in predictable ways.
I tend to lean though, toward the belief that if the "physical", (for lack of a better word), laws that control things at that level could be known, they would be predictable.
"I tend to lean though, toward the belief that if the "physical", (for lack of a better word), laws that control things at that level could be known, they would be predictable."
I've heard Richard Muller at Berkeley refer to that as a "hidden variable theory", and that experiments have shown them to be not true.
I hope you can forgive me for not being able to explain the experiment(s) in a 5000-character comment.
We all make choices based on things that are out of our control. Alcoholics make a choice when they say they are powerless to do what alcoholics find the power to do everyday.
People who make the excuse that "its out of my hands because I'm not in control of events around me" are idiots.
Blind idiots or lazy idiots, I'm not sure. Maybe both. But they are idiots just the same.
Everything you do or don't do makes a change in your environment.
You're great RabidApe for a while now I've been saying that we really do live under a tightly woven system of Cause and Effect. Your example here is perfect in showing how this is true. I've even been saying how our options for our choices are driven by this Cause/Effect system. We do have choice but our "free will" is really an illusion. Did Etta really have a choice to help her friend? Not really, she was compelled to do it by who she was as a person. Great Video.
I'd go smaller than that. For example if I decided to wipe my keyboard that would take my time, affecting my day, which would affect my life which would affect everything else.
Does anyone else have a problem with playing this video? It doesn't load, it just sits there. In the meantime Ioaded and played another video without any problem.
Now it plays 22 minutes later after having sent a 'suggestion' to youtube about it. Why can't youtube provide proper feedback channels for technical problems? They are such wimps.
And you are an ignorant fool who stands less than knee high to a real man like Carver. You are a bitter little loser trying to spit on a giant. It doesn't work little man, except as a joke on you and your pathetic ilk.
Carver was a genius who gave a lot to this country, you are a miserable whinning waste of protein who will never do anything worth doing for anyone.
Your entire life will have the meaning and usefulness of a fart. Not an insult, just the obvious truth. Sad but true.
Ah yes, of course. Poor George Washington Carver, only one of the preeminent intellectuals of his time, who contributed immeasurably to the empowerment of poor southern farmers and in no small way to the elimination of anti-black stereotypes. He simply pales in comparison to some schmuck who's life is dedicated to spewing anonymous moronic insults on the internet.
Yeah, if not for George Washington Carver then there never would have been that "peanut butter, an atheists nightmare" video by Chuck Missler.Oh wait that was hilarious, my bad.
That's wonderful - I have a book about making 'ripples' which reiterates the fact that the things we do have consequences. The video illustrates that even the small things we do can mean a great deal, and shows that there is so much meaning in our lives!
RESPECT brother man.
bahoss 1 year ago
He is saying what Andy Andrews said, almost verbatim. These are not his words. Look up ANDY ANDREWS on google.
djking2d 2 years ago
What a cute rabid ape.
Unfortunately, all those extra people who survived to create even more people lead to the population growth, which has lead to increased demand for automobiles -> more strip mining -> polluted land and water tables; fuel -> polluting -> polluted air; pesticides -> polluted water ways; deforestation to create more crop land -> which leads to global warming -> dust bowls -> starvation. So a some people are saved at the expense of some future people, or even civilization. :)
DodecaDude 2 years ago
Of course this is all speculation, perhaps someone who is a direct descendant of a famine victim who was saved will figure out how to save civilization. :o)
DodecaDude 2 years ago
This is a really great video. Nuff said.
Largo64 2 years ago
thanks, Larry!
RabidApe 2 years ago
This was a really interesting vid however there is something that I feel just has to be pointed out. Whilst the meme you presented is true the results are not always as positive as this vid proposes. Turning this idea on it's head is the whole Nietzsche and Hitler connection. If Fredrick kept his gob shut Adolf may not of slaughtered millions of innocents? Are you going do a longer vid on this subject and if you do are you going to mention the other side of it??
dragon83uk 2 years ago
Even in that scenario, however, all those (in)actions still mattered, albeit in a destructive manner. In the interest of making his point more salient and powerful in a 6 minute time-frame, I suspect that's why Mr. Ape would go with an overwhelmingly positive example.
(PS - It's quite unfair to pin Nazism to Nietzsche, as it is apocryphal that he was anti-Semitic. His sister, however, who had the rights to his work after he died, was)
TheAbsurdHero 2 years ago
I get that Rabidape was only making a short vid here, hence my last question in my comment
As for Nietzsche, the implication was not that he was an anti-Semitic, more that his philosophies were undeniably a guiding factor for Hitler's Mien Kampf. Honestly, my knowledge on this particular subject is pretty basic, I was just using it to illustrate my point that cause and effect isn't always positive. In theory there should be many more examples of this.
dragon83uk 2 years ago
Positive action begets positive action. A missed opportunity is a potential unrealized.
TheNewRenaissance 2 years ago
Yawn...
bralen24 2 years ago
Yeah, and we've all got less than six degrees of separation between us and Kevin Bacon, too.
Arfalarf 2 years ago
what awesomeness. you are the man. I really learned from this video :)
gokuhawks14 2 years ago
There are unpredictable consequences to even the simplest of actions. That's not going to get me to think about everything I do. Some things I'm just going to do. That girl was just being friendly. She was not trying to feed starving people in Mexico with super corn. That just seems unlikely.
patternmachine 2 years ago
the butterfly effect :)
alucard9692005 2 years ago
While I agree that everything you do matters, not all of it is important. But, you did an excellent job of illustrating your point in this video. Great job. *****
thisisarecordingcom 2 years ago
I love this, thank you for this Rabid <3 It brings teaers to my eyes to hear people like this breaking barriers and bringing the best out of people.
TurboDally 2 years ago
Rabidape I'm a subscriber and enjoy your videos but I'm not convinced by this anecdote/argument.
I agree that everything you do makes a difference and influences the world but that doesn't mean it matters or carries significance. That doesn't follow.
bigbossmatt 2 years ago
You concluded that the actions of the people mentioned in the video mattered because ultimately it influenced the entire world. But if actions only matter once all the people in the world are affected, then ultimately aren't individual peoples actions what matter? So people's actions either matter or they don't, but you can't logically say individuals' actions matter once they have gone on to affect enough people unless you make the requirement that people being
bigbossmatt 2 years ago
affected is what determines whether actions matter or not.
If you make that requirement therefore to make ones actions mean something you should attempt to affect people. But affect them in what way? Good or bad? And how do you decide that? Good and evil is a subjective matter. So the question now is, once you have affected people, in what way (good or bad) have you affected them?
bigbossmatt 2 years ago
So yes, I agree you can affect people (influence their destiny), but this says nothing about whether to attribute good or bad to our actions by doing so. So yes the people mentioned in the video did affect each successive persons life, but that doesn't mean that action was good - you are saying it's good because the final outcome was good. So this anecdote says nothing more to me than: actions will affect the world.
bigbossmatt 2 years ago
All the best, RabidApe. this ain't an attack of course, just a though of mine
... just wanted to be philosophical for a moment.
bigbossmatt 2 years ago
Good stuff RA. Thanks for sharing it.
sft62 2 years ago
Sure, what she did mattered, but to say that everything - and we're talking literally EVERYTHING, right? - matters is another thing altogether.
RJW37Films 2 years ago
what in this universe is exempt from causality?
RabidApe 2 years ago
or even outside it.
Proletariat12 2 years ago
I wasn't suggesting otherwise, nor am I saying that everything we do, or don't do, does not matter. I am trying to say that this is no proof of such - to me it'd be like considering the bible proof of God.
RJW37Films 2 years ago
The point is that you don't know what could happen from your actions... So everything has the potential to be important, therefore it matters.
Proletariat12 2 years ago
I half expected you to make this all lead to kevin bacon at the end... oh well a boy can dream. nice video however.
ShikaNinja 2 years ago
LOL! Here you go:
George Washington Carver was in- George Washington Carver (1940) with- John J. Marvin- was in- Flight for Freedom (1943) with- Sam Harris (II)- was in- Here Comes the Groom (1951) with- Patty McCormack- was in- Frost/Nixon (2008) with- Kevin Bacon
Bacon number of 4
Deanballoonatic 2 years ago
God i love you!
ShikaNinja 2 years ago
You also gotta love the Oracle of Kevin Bacon site too. While I was there I linked myself with a bacon number of 2 and 3, but I'm not sure it counts since I didn't see myself in either of the two movies I was an extra in. Missed shots and cutting room floor I think I ended at.
Deanballoonatic 2 years ago
I just rechecked on a different way, (celebrities I made a balloon creation for- R. Lee Ermey) and my Bacon number is 2.
Made a green Army Man from Toy story for R. Lee Ermey - was in - Murder in the First (1995)- with Keven Bacon.
Deanballoonatic 2 years ago
Kind of weird having a creepy little black and white head in the corner of celestial bodies telling me a story. O_O
uninvolved 2 years ago
mmmm delicious corn.
It is kind of like that horseshoe nail thing, where the horseshoe nail's loss loses a kingdom, except in reverse.
Now just throwing a spanner into the argument, what if the excess of food that has been produced has exacerbated the current problems of obeisity and overpopulation?
dangerouslytalented 2 years ago
damn that is cool
EnterNameHere55 2 years ago
What life and actions have in relevance to others' is inunderstandablely insignificant.
I may be a special little snowflake, but I'm always perplexed with the conundrum "If a tree falls in a forest will it make a sound?".
That inquiry raises a question in my mind...
If a human/race/planet/galaxy/universe exists and ultimately ends, did it ever exist at all?
no1sjester 2 years ago
I heard this story in my history class way back. So very true.
DTMTroy 2 years ago
I don't think eating his meals in the kitchen or cafeteria makes a difference to the chain of events, but, all the other links make sense...
BigGreedyBastard 2 years ago
Eating in the cafeteria made the other students more comfortable being around him.
The next event in the sequence might never have happened if not for that.
corthew 2 years ago
Glad you didnt used those crappy effects
shubidubar 2 years ago
great video!
MNICY 2 years ago
Reminds me of the STNG version of the prime directive where Cpt. Picard makes a statement about interfering in a species development could have catastrophic results, either to the species or those around them, if they become a plague or a scourge. The answer is, *NOT* doing anything can have the exact same results. So, once you satisfy the Platinum Rule (Do Unto Others as They would Have You Do Unto Them), do what your concience dictates.
RyuDarragh 2 years ago
butterfly effect?
melbn 2 years ago
I'd have to agree...
ShortbusMooner 2 years ago
RabidApe...Thanks for this one. The information I was already roughly familiar with but your conclusion was beautiful.
Thanks
corthew 2 years ago
Sure but remember what happens when you take the idea of determinism a little further, free will does not exist.
gonyea12 2 years ago
Just because your actions are predictable at some level does not mean they are not your actions...that you are not responsible for those actions...that you did not make a choice based on your experience, knowledge and understanding.
corthew 2 years ago
Wonderful, but the "choices" I make are determined by things beyond my control. And my actions were determined before the Earth even came to be.
Free will does not exist.
gonyea12 2 years ago
"And my actions were determined before the Earth even came to be."
Heisenberg would disagree.
;P
RabidApe 2 years ago
RabidApe,
I can't tell if you mean he would disagree with me or with the statement.
I'm guessing the latter in light of this quote from him:
"I believe that the existence of the classical "path" can be pregnantly formulated as follows: The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it."
--Heisenberg, in uncertainty principle paper, 1927
corthew 2 years ago
And Einstein would disagree, "God does not play dice with the Universe" remember?
Invoking the uncertainty principal to imply that my actions are some how random is as bad as when a new-ager explains that chi works because of "quantum physics."
gonyea12 2 years ago
To the best of my understanding, the "deeper truth" behind the uncertainty principle is that nature is, at the quantum level, NOT deterministic.
Einstein was wrong. ;P
RabidApe 2 years ago
"nature is, at the quantum level, NOT deterministic."
I've heard that. Its a difficult concept to wrap the brain around. :)
That at sub-atomic levels, things do not react in predictable ways.
I tend to lean though, toward the belief that if the "physical", (for lack of a better word), laws that control things at that level could be known, they would be predictable.
corthew 2 years ago
"I tend to lean though, toward the belief that if the "physical", (for lack of a better word), laws that control things at that level could be known, they would be predictable."
I've heard Richard Muller at Berkeley refer to that as a "hidden variable theory", and that experiments have shown them to be not true.
I hope you can forgive me for not being able to explain the experiment(s) in a 5000-character comment.
(sounds like a potential blog entry or video...)
RabidApe 2 years ago
500
lol, but 5,000 might not be enough, either
RabidApe 2 years ago
You caught it before I tagged you on it. :)
Do the video. I would love to know how they do experiments at the quantum level that prove randomness. :)
corthew 2 years ago
Who said anything about uncertainty.
I said just because your actions are predetermined does not excuse you for them.
They are still your actions and your choices.
I don't know what you will choose.
You may not either.
But to say..."I'm am unable to choose because of a predetermined universe, therefore, I cannot eat this apple", is ludicrous.
You can choose to either eat it or not.
Deflecting blame for your failure to do things is your choice, but I disagree with your reasoning. :)
corthew 2 years ago
They are still your choices.
We all make choices based on things that are out of our control. Alcoholics make a choice when they say they are powerless to do what alcoholics find the power to do everyday.
People who make the excuse that "its out of my hands because I'm not in control of events around me" are idiots.
Blind idiots or lazy idiots, I'm not sure. Maybe both. But they are idiots just the same.
Everything you do or don't do makes a change in your environment.
Whether you see it or not.
corthew 2 years ago
Karma! Or what I call karma. You described it beautifly.
RadarKat73080 2 years ago
That is a wonderful story.
jebus6kryst 2 years ago
every thing you do, or don't do, matters...
i love that. i also think that the way you do things matters too.
thanks for posting this, ape!
heatherlynblue 2 years ago
that was a great story!
MeIoco 2 years ago
indeed!
please share it!
RabidApe 2 years ago
Oh thank you so much for sharing this story, it brings me great hope and made me smile!
Again, thank you and keep the videos coming.
wiskawind 2 years ago
This is a beautiful story and a great morality tale and there is no god or gods necessary for it either.
johncrwarner 2 years ago
After listening to this story I can't stop smiling.
Etta Budd helped carver, Carver helped Wallace, Wallace helped Borlaug, Borlaug helped the world.
theendofconfusion 2 years ago
Norman Borlaug is a true hero.
keithrockerboblewis 2 years ago
Five stars and favourited.
And like Brade in the above comment, I got teary-eyed.
Kattarina98 2 years ago
Geez Ape! Do not do that color filter or whatever the hell it is when I'm recovering from a hangover! Scares the shit outta me! lol
RadarKat73080 2 years ago
You're great RabidApe for a while now I've been saying that we really do live under a tightly woven system of Cause and Effect. Your example here is perfect in showing how this is true. I've even been saying how our options for our choices are driven by this Cause/Effect system. We do have choice but our "free will" is really an illusion. Did Etta really have a choice to help her friend? Not really, she was compelled to do it by who she was as a person. Great Video.
SoullessAtheist 2 years ago
Excellent.
5/5
maurieer 2 years ago
Great story.
DeletedDelusion 2 years ago
I'm blown away by this.
Thank you!
singsomuch 2 years ago
you're welcome!
RabidApe 2 years ago
I'd go smaller than that. For example if I decided to wipe my keyboard that would take my time, affecting my day, which would affect my life which would affect everything else.
Nashy119 2 years ago
I got all teary eyed
Brade 2 years ago
Does anyone else have a problem with playing this video? It doesn't load, it just sits there. In the meantime Ioaded and played another video without any problem.
farvision 2 years ago
Now it plays 22 minutes later after having sent a 'suggestion' to youtube about it. Why can't youtube provide proper feedback channels for technical problems? They are such wimps.
farvision 2 years ago
i think you're talking about the butterfly effect?
theteacher010 2 years ago
Interesting story mate, thx for sharing =)
eraser101YT 2 years ago
That was just the video I needed to see. Thanks RabidApe.
PacYang 2 years ago
you're very welcome!
RabidApe 2 years ago
That's freaking cool.
lisamariefan 2 years ago
norman borlog sucks.
AEVautomatic 2 years ago
NO U
RabidApe 2 years ago
george washington carver totally sucks.
AEVautomatic 2 years ago
lol?
CarbonSuit 2 years ago
And you are an ignorant fool who stands less than knee high to a real man like Carver. You are a bitter little loser trying to spit on a giant. It doesn't work little man, except as a joke on you and your pathetic ilk.
Carver was a genius who gave a lot to this country, you are a miserable whinning waste of protein who will never do anything worth doing for anyone.
Your entire life will have the meaning and usefulness of a fart. Not an insult, just the obvious truth. Sad but true.
macnutz 2 years ago
Very well said
stonehartfloydfan 2 years ago
ya and what is carver made out of now dirt? Im not impressed. I am far superior to carver.
AEVautomatic 2 years ago
george washington carver was completely worthless.
AEVautomatic 2 years ago
Ah yes, of course. Poor George Washington Carver, only one of the preeminent intellectuals of his time, who contributed immeasurably to the empowerment of poor southern farmers and in no small way to the elimination of anti-black stereotypes. He simply pales in comparison to some schmuck who's life is dedicated to spewing anonymous moronic insults on the internet.
.....ugh.
LynxChan 2 years ago
Yeah, if not for George Washington Carver then there never would have been that "peanut butter, an atheists nightmare" video by Chuck Missler.Oh wait that was hilarious, my bad.
zendragon333 2 years ago
That's wonderful - I have a book about making 'ripples' which reiterates the fact that the things we do have consequences. The video illustrates that even the small things we do can mean a great deal, and shows that there is so much meaning in our lives!
AuntieDiluvian 2 years ago
Interesting video.
dannukesem 2 years ago
love this shit.
jmsimpson11 2 years ago