the human race seems to have gotten a lot done in its short time on earth. the great wall in china, the pyramids, all these roads and such. we're pretty industrious. and we're also a little incredulous that we are the ones who did all of the building. when we see some of these structures - with giant stones carved to lock into each other with perfect symmetry - our first reaction is usually, "must be aliens." what does that say about our current work ethic? "people dragged stones that weighed several tons, then hoisted them on top of each other, then carved them to fit in place? no chance. aliens." we just can't imagine that people ever had so much time ...as a group, to just work all over the place. every generation tends to look down on the one after it for not being as tough as them. the incas built machu pichu - on top of a mountain - in like 50 years. just hoisting rocks and carving them. dragging stones like a bunch of savages ...all without iron or any sort of metal tools. there conceivably could have been a guy alive at one time who said, "oh, you guys are building with metal tools? sissies. back in may day, it was stone on stone, brother. like men!" is it necessary to be that tough? isn't the goal, when things suck that much, to make them better and easier? we've succeeded. perhaps watching TV and building paper-thin strip malls is gross. it won't stand the test of time. but at least it's easy. it affords us more time to do the things we like to do - like watch documentaries about people who had brutally tough lives. the incas never got have have a hobby like that, unless they enjoyed back-breaking labor all the time. perhaps in the future, people will have ionized carbon-hydrogen luminescent cover-domes that shield them at the click of a button. and they'll watch documentaries about us and our terrible strip malls, and they'll say "how on earth did they ever build such things?"