We don’t have any other examples though. Maybe alien life all gets to physical dimension 5 by year 200 or something. Time being relative and all makes that somewhat feasible.
They’re the good times because you see you had no responsibilities and endless potential to be so many things, which becomes less and less true as you age. Of course, it’s miserable too not knowing what you are/what to do and feeling lost because you have no responsibilities, so it’s really just a grass is greener thing I imagine.
OK guys – Think about this – What if you got shit on your hands or anywhere else on your body. Would you make this argument? Would you think that would be OK if someone told you they just wiped it off with a paper towel and went on about their day? no.
Reading Sapiens changed my mind about this a lot because it always confused me too. It’s more about myths (of which we have a lot like the companies we work for and our countries) that allow us to cooperate, trust each other and work on larger more abstract ideas.
As for why it’s still around today – maybe it’s not as late as you think it is – We just made steam engines 10-15 generations ago