Sure but that doesn't mean the two ideas are incompatible.

In fact the act of making copies of our DNA might be a great example of playful work. Sex is fun and it has the capacity to spread our genes.

> the act of making copies of our DNA might be a great example of playful work

That's an interesting idea, but I don't buy it. I think playfulness requires a brain.

How would you distinguish "playful" chemistry from "serious work" chemistry?

I know what you're saying but I think we may have lost the plot here.

The original link was about finding meaning after all, right?

Yes, but the comment I was originally responding to was that “we are here on earth to fart around”.

Honestly why not both? The length of these things only can be an issue when it comes to parking lots.

> If issues are much more frequent than with human responders, the system will obviously not be deployed.

Part of the issue is that they're using metrics from a poorly supported system as comparison. If they funded the emergency service optimally then these comparisons would make sense.

I think there was a sweet spot right before major social media adoption where lines were more clearly drawn. By that I mean you could find information if you needed/wanted to but you were constantly bombarded with it in tones that spoke it with 100% confidence with the sole purpose of getting you to click on something.

The comment you're responding to refers to India as their country.

I'm assuming they've witnessed the changes first hand in that case.

Social media (or any other means of advertising, past or present) has affected these things everywhere.

Even I complain about my inability to be alone on a trail in CA, or struggling to find campsites, occasionally shaking my fist at social media for it.

But the linked images from India showing extreme overcrowding has far more to do with the population size than social media. When you have that many people, any little force generating focused interest is getting multiplied by a huge number.

There are plenty of trails in India, this one just got advertised. You shouldn't conclude the world is overpopulated by looking at footage from a football cup match.

> You shouldn't conclude the world is overpopulated by looking at footage from a football cup match.

You shouldn't deny India is overpopulated when riding a train there resembles a footclub cup match.

Is Japan over-populated? Tokyo's trains are extremely crowded. Is US over-populated? LA traffic jams are crazy.

What is the definition of over-population? Over what area are you measuring it? Those train images are likely from just one city. There are other places where the trains just run like any other place.

India is such an outlier as a country... it's a unique combination of both massive absolute population of 1.4B+ and density of over 1000/mi^2.

We can split hairs about other places, and obviously lots of places have their population/crowding issues. The planet has a lot of people.

But India is just not useful as a data point for blaming social media for these phenomena because it's such an outlier. Practically anything informing the people of India of something somewhere of interest is going to generate a thundering herd of exceptional proportion. You don't need social media's help.

But where is that 1000/mi^2 measured? Because I went to plenty of places in India where I saw no one or very few people for a long time driving or hiking. It sounds, like always, this is looking at cities and around cities. Most countries are pretty empty if you don’t want to live in a city (and fortunately, I don’t).