Laziness is the engine of progress ?

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Greetings to all!
Not long ago there was such a dispute with a friend, where he used that "Laziness is the engine of progress" and for him it is obvious and even people would not have started to develop without laziness, to which I objected.

How can something like this move the process if all its negative consequences on humanity can be much more than just a TV remote control, a washing machine or a personal computer, and even a calculator, which may have been invented because they are too lazy to count the numbers themselves. But couldn't all this have appeared without laziness for reasons of Dreams, Creativity, a desire to explore the unknown and create a hundred times more questions than answers.
Is it possible to perceive a washing machine or similar only from the point of view . that people were too lazy to wash dishes with their hands, aren't there those factors in people that would make such a thing be created without the help of laziness. For example, saving time or spending your energy on more important things.

I understand that in the conditions of our world, with the help of Laziness, there were many great ideas, but it, in turn, kills in many people the desire to learn, create, and so on.

My friend's statement sounds like this: "You can't prove anything to me while people are lazy and the argument is useless" but aren't there people who are ready to give all their time to ideas or dreams or no matter what kind of work, isn't this a victory over laziness and not an example, and if there are such, then 1 thousand maybe not lazy dreamers or creative personalities will bring more benefit to society or will move progress than 100 thousand conditionally lazy people who have not overcome this factor, meaning the percentage of those people who will get to the truth or a useful discovery.

For me, this is perceived as a detail in the system, which is perhaps useful as a plug with its own benefit and cannot be written off for its merits, but in general, it only harms the progress system.

The topic has been haunting for several days. I would just like to hear the opinions of others.

If you recommend books on a similar topic, I would be grateful.

I have published similar things on many resources in France and Russia and everyone is sure that this is a benefit , but I do not understand

I apologize for the possibly poor translation

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@junior771,

It's (probably) a bit of laziness and creativity.

Consider that people would have to have imaginations in order to best figure out how to create something new.

But the primary motivator? Your pal is likely to be right. It probably, for the most part, is laziness.

But it's not laziness in terms of moral failings or the like. Rather, it's about conserving energy.

Consider our cave dwelling and even back to our tree dwelling ancestors. For sake of argument, let's say they must have 500 or more calories per day in order to survive, and 1000 or more to thrive.

Meat tends to be more calorically dense (generally due to its fat content) than grains. But meat, for Neanderthals and back to Australopithecines, is "expensive" to get calorically. This is because animals don't like being killed (who knew?). So, prey animals run. And predator animals have sharp teeth and claws and will fight back.

Bringing down 20,000 calories in game had better "cost" less than 1000 calories apiece if there are 20 hunters in a hunting party. This doesn't even get into potentially bringing any meat back to the rest of the tribe. But if the hunting party is made up of only 10 persons, then there's more caloric wiggle room. Or the 10 hunters expend less than 1000 calories apiece and there's enough to take stuff back to the tribe.

How do you expend fewer calories in bringing down the game? Here are a few ideas:

Pitfall traps - just let the game chase you and fall in, assuming you can get it to run the way you want it to and do so before the hunters expend too many calories.
Spears - they extend your reach, and they do so with something on the end that's sharper than fingernails. Cultivating better skill in making spears and spearheads isn't laziness. It's the opposite of laziness. But it eventually serves the same end, to expend fewer calories.
Throwing rocks - the range isn't as far as spears but you don't have to know how to craft a spear. If you find a good, sharp rock, then you can even get away with not knowing how to create stone tools. This may very well have been how some forms of hunting started in the first place.
Lastly, the greatest method in terms of serving the laziness vibe is scavenging. You don't have to be able to bring down game. You just have to be able to drive off the rightful owner(s) of the game.

There's a fifth method, actually. It's bringing down a lot more smaller game, and getting to 20,000 calories that way. But the downside of that method is it takes time. And it may end up expending more calories when all is said and done.

Your lazy Neanderthal or Australopithecine dreams of grabbing those calories with less effort. Your creative prehistoric ancestor figures out how to do that.

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@jespah,

Let's say in 1000 years there will be a society in which all the worries about us will go to robots and so on.

we won't have to do any work to survive, earn money and perhaps an ideal society or something like that.

In such conditions , won 't the question of progress arise solely in overcoming laziness ?

This may mean that laziness will stop us at some point in development and descendants will not say in 1000 conditional years that "well, now laziness is not the engine of progress" it is somehow paradoxical and not perceived if you put in the same conditions what really moves progress "Dreams, the desire to know the unknown is not the engine of the process" it will remain relevant for a person in any conditions.

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@junior771,

No doubt that changing circumstances will alter how our species progresses.

A society of plenty has rather different priorities than a society of want. It's Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We get past basic survival issues, then we start to think bigger..

And I saw you were looking for books and I apologize.... didn't answer you! You may want to look for books on anthropology, maybe even on ancient civilizations? Margaret Mead?

Not sure and I haven't had enough coffee yet!

This is a fascinating topic.

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