The classical Greeks had a myth called the Golden Age. In the Golden Age men and women were equal, there was no slavery, there was no agriculture, and people lived a long time. It was followed by the Silver Age, then the Bronze Age, then the Iron Age, each successive age being worse than the previous age.
Of course classical Greece was in what we call the Iron Age; men and women were not equal, there was slavery and agriculture, and it was a work or die kind of existence. It was preceded by the Bronze Age, and human brains were larger, on average, in the Bronze Age. Now we know that humans were building cities before the Bronze Age and before agriculture (Gobekli Tepe, etc.). So it is reasonable to talk about a Silver Age.
And before the Silver Age we have a human culture that lasted 25,000 years. So the Golden Age might be the Ice Age.
The Ice Age ended suddenly when the glaciers slid into the oceans and raised sea levels a total of 400 feet. For the survivors populations were isolated, and life became nasty, brutish and short. It was at this time that Asian people in the Americas diverged to become Native Americans.
This catastrophe set off the long decline that ended with the Iron Age, which is the modern era. A new catastrophe may destroy our current civilization. In order to measure how serious this threat is, count the number of satellites watching the sun. Every couple of centuries, the sun hits the Earth with a solar storm that takes out all electrical devices on the Earth. The last such event is 1859.
The big dinosaurs were wiped out when an asteroid strike ushered in 10 years of winter. What would 10 years of no electricity do to us?
Less than 300 years ago there was no electrical technology. What technology we had had persisted for centuries. Why didn't we develop electrical tech before now? Perhaps we did, only to discover that it all broke down at once. And the last time, we ignored the message.
I was thinking about that as I wrote the essay. It's all well and good to make sweeping generalizations about human history, but how much of our history do we actually have access to? If we zoom out and zoom in on the stock market chart of human civilization, does it always look the same? Like a fractal?
I really enjoy the work of Graham Hancock on this topic, as I am sure you do too!
Actions speak louder than words, and fossils speak louder than texts, especially when the texts are syllabaries and we don't know the language (like Linear A). What we can read is less like history and more like propaganda. So we look for clues like rectangular buildings (urbanization), pottery kilns, forges, dyed lint, oatmeal residue. We realize that hunter/gatherers have to know everything about everything, and thus are the greatest interdisciplinary scientists. They also know how to get the greatest return for the least investment.
In contrast, the pyramids built in the Egyptian Old Kingdom now appear to have been temples used daily, perhaps to support the retainers who were taking care of the entombed pharaoh until they themselves died and were buried alongside. Such extravagance depended upon the surpluses provided by the Nile. Ancient Egypt was an agricultural civilization, and it was preceded by hunting/gathering civilizations. Climate change drove the transition; wheat and barley were domesticated as the climate warmed.
The classical Greeks had a myth called the Golden Age. In the Golden Age men and women were equal, there was no slavery, there was no agriculture, and people lived a long time. It was followed by the Silver Age, then the Bronze Age, then the Iron Age, each successive age being worse than the previous age.
Of course classical Greece was in what we call the Iron Age; men and women were not equal, there was slavery and agriculture, and it was a work or die kind of existence. It was preceded by the Bronze Age, and human brains were larger, on average, in the Bronze Age. Now we know that humans were building cities before the Bronze Age and before agriculture (Gobekli Tepe, etc.). So it is reasonable to talk about a Silver Age.
And before the Silver Age we have a human culture that lasted 25,000 years. So the Golden Age might be the Ice Age.
The Ice Age ended suddenly when the glaciers slid into the oceans and raised sea levels a total of 400 feet. For the survivors populations were isolated, and life became nasty, brutish and short. It was at this time that Asian people in the Americas diverged to become Native Americans.
This catastrophe set off the long decline that ended with the Iron Age, which is the modern era. A new catastrophe may destroy our current civilization. In order to measure how serious this threat is, count the number of satellites watching the sun. Every couple of centuries, the sun hits the Earth with a solar storm that takes out all electrical devices on the Earth. The last such event is 1859.
The big dinosaurs were wiped out when an asteroid strike ushered in 10 years of winter. What would 10 years of no electricity do to us?
Less than 300 years ago there was no electrical technology. What technology we had had persisted for centuries. Why didn't we develop electrical tech before now? Perhaps we did, only to discover that it all broke down at once. And the last time, we ignored the message.
I was thinking about that as I wrote the essay. It's all well and good to make sweeping generalizations about human history, but how much of our history do we actually have access to? If we zoom out and zoom in on the stock market chart of human civilization, does it always look the same? Like a fractal?
I really enjoy the work of Graham Hancock on this topic, as I am sure you do too!
Actions speak louder than words, and fossils speak louder than texts, especially when the texts are syllabaries and we don't know the language (like Linear A). What we can read is less like history and more like propaganda. So we look for clues like rectangular buildings (urbanization), pottery kilns, forges, dyed lint, oatmeal residue. We realize that hunter/gatherers have to know everything about everything, and thus are the greatest interdisciplinary scientists. They also know how to get the greatest return for the least investment.
In contrast, the pyramids built in the Egyptian Old Kingdom now appear to have been temples used daily, perhaps to support the retainers who were taking care of the entombed pharaoh until they themselves died and were buried alongside. Such extravagance depended upon the surpluses provided by the Nile. Ancient Egypt was an agricultural civilization, and it was preceded by hunting/gathering civilizations. Climate change drove the transition; wheat and barley were domesticated as the climate warmed.