I. Gathering

The Rise of Homo Sapiens

• In biology, “human” extends beyond just us. It refers to the genus Homo. We, Homo sapiens, are simply the last ones standing. Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and others were humans too.
• The earliest humans emerged in East Africa around 2.5 million years ago. They migrated to Eurasia, evolving into distinct human species.
• Homo erectus in East Asia had the longest run, surviving from 2 million to 50,000 years ago. We, Homo sapiens, only appeared around 150,000 years ago.
• On the island of Flores, a human species once existed that weighed no more than 40 kilograms. Humans arrived when sea levels were low. Later, the water rose, isolating them. Resources were scarce, so smaller bodies became advantageous, and the trait persisted.
• Neanderthals actually possessed larger brains than we do.
• Our brains constitute 2-3% of our body weight but consume 25% of our energy at rest. Other apes use only about 8%.
• Humans used tools early on, but for a long time, we weren’t at the top of the food chain. Early stone tools were often used to crack open bones for marrow. Humans often waited for predators to finish before scavenging the leftovers.
• Humans only reached the top with the rise of Homo sapiens.
• Around 300,000 years ago, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens were already skillfully using fire for light, heat, and as a weapon. They even learned to burn forests to collect animal carcasses and roast nuts and roots. Fire permanently transformed forests into grasslands, which were more suitable for humans.
• Cooking with fire eased the burden on the human digestive system, allowing more energy for the brain. Neanderthals and Homo sapiens evolved larger brain sizes.
• Homo sapiens left Africa 70,000 years ago, migrating worldwide and encountering other human species in Eurasia. Homo sapiens gradually replaced them. Whether this replacement was peaceful or violent remains unknown, but they weren’t entirely incompatible. Fossil DNA analysis reveals that modern human DNA contains a small amount of genes from other human species (less than 10%), suggesting some interbreeding.

The Cognitive Revolution

• Between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago, Homo sapiens' evolutionary trajectory changed dramatically, initiating the Cognitive Revolution.
• Before the Cognitive Revolution, biological factors dominated evolution and determined lifestyles. Afterward, cultural factors took precedence.
• Academics generally believe a genetic mutation altered Homo sapiens' thinking, leading to a new language. This language was key to the massive shift.
• During this period, Homo sapiens invented boats, bows and arrows, and sewing needles, formed social hierarchies, and developed trade, religion, and art.
• Homo sapiens sites from 30,000 years ago contain objects clearly not local, indicating inter-tribal trade. Neanderthal sites show no such evidence. Only Homo sapiens could understand and engage in trade.
• However, trade at that time involved symbolic items representing status, not food, resources, or tools. Each tribe remained self-sufficient, unlike trade today.
• What’s truly unique about Homo sapiens' language is their ability to describe imaginary, non-existent things.
• This ability allowed groups to share common imaginations, enabling cooperation between strangers. This made humans the first species capable of expanding their group size without limit. Larger, more complex groups fostered more advanced social concepts.
• Lying and imagining differ. Lying isn’t unique to humans; green monkeys also falsely signal danger to scare away rivals and monopolize food.
• Imagination freed humans from the constraints of genetic evolution. Lifestyles could change continuously, even without environmental or genetic changes.
• Homo sapiens tribes in the Cognitive Revolution stage developed diverse cultures. Tribes numbered around a few hundred people.
• Homo sapiens at this stage were gatherers, nomadic, and moved frequently. They possessed few tools and weren’t heavily reliant on them.
• Gatherers also settled in resource-rich areas, ceasing their migrations. Fishing villages, appearing around 45,000 years ago, were the earliest form of settled communities.
• Dogs were the first domesticated animal, and the only one before the Agricultural Revolution, with domestic dogs existing 15,000 years ago. Dogs actively sought cooperation with humans.
• Gatherers held animistic beliefs, meaning everything, including inanimate objects, possessed a spirit. All spirits were equal, and humans could communicate with them in specific ways.
• Homo sapiens reached Australia 45,000 years ago. This was significant as the first time Homo sapiens ventured outside the Afro-Asian ecosystem.
• The arrival of Homo sapiens triggered a mass extinction of native Australian species. Besides hunting, Homo sapiens altered the landscape through fire. Fire-resistant eucalyptus trees unexpectedly gained a survival advantage, spreading widely, and koalas benefited.
• Homo sapiens' learning ability facilitated rapid adaptation to different environments. Each migration brought changes in lifestyle, tools, and diet. When sea levels were low, Homo sapiens migrated along Siberia to Alaska, then swept across North and South America. Other human species, even cold-resistant Neanderthals, couldn’t penetrate Siberia’s -50°C temperatures.

II. Agriculture

The Agricultural Revolution

• Homo sapiens initiated the Agricultural Revolution 12,000 years ago.
• 90% of the species providing calories for modern humans were domesticated between 9500 and 3500 BC, becoming livestock and crops.
• The shift from gathering to producing societies can’t be explained by increased knowledge. Producers' lives were harder, with less varied diets. Malnutrition and agricultural labor led to physical ailments. Homo sapiens' bodies weren’t adapted for farm work. Gatherers were healthier.
• Agriculture was also less resilient to risks. Natural disasters affecting a few crops or livestock were devastating. Gathering societies, with diverse food sources, could largely offset losses.
• It’s more accurate to say that species like wheat, rice, and corn exploited humans, forming a symbiotic relationship and spreading globally with human assistance.
• Today, wheat covers about 2.25 million square kilometers worldwide, nearly 10 times the size of the UK.
• In gathering societies, abundant resources led to earlier births and higher survival rates; scarcity led to later births and lower survival rates. Nature regulated population; tribe size wasn’t determined by Homo sapiens' will.
• The Agricultural Revolution wasn’t a voluntary choice, but it crucially broke nature’s population control. Homo sapiens simply needed more land. This change, while not necessarily benefiting individuals, accelerated Homo sapiens' expansion, and agricultural societies became dominant due to their population advantage.
• The transition from gathering to producing was subtle, without a clear boundary. Gatherer tribes might migrate to areas with wheat, harvest it, and then gather and hunt elsewhere. Transporting wheat and burning forests expanded wheat’s range. Each time they returned, they spent more time harvesting. Eventually, they realized they no longer needed to migrate and settled down. Their livelihoods gradually revolved around wheat, transforming the settlement into a producer society.
• Another possibility, supported by evidence, is that agricultural societies began as a deliberate choice by a few tribes. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey was built by a gatherer tribe around 9500 BC. Stonehenge in England was built by a prosperous farming tribe around 2500 BC. Stonehenge was a monumental feat, indicating that the Göbekli tribe completed a project far exceeding their productive capacity.
• Stonehenge had no practical function. Göbekli Tepe’s creators must have possessed a highly developed belief system. Perhaps this belief system made their demand for grain far exceed survival needs, forcing the tribe to choose farming.
• One variety of the first domesticated wheat originated just 30 kilometers from Göbekli Tepe. This is likely no coincidence; they were likely the first Homo sapiens tribe to cultivate wheat.
• The emergence of nomadic societies was similar. These tribes primarily domesticated animals, not plants. Domestication took two forms: selectively hunting, protecting, and controlling wild animal populations, forming a symbiotic relationship through increased contact; or capturing a few wild animals and raising them, gradually increasing their numbers until they became a distinct livestock population.
• The evolution of crops and livestock was undoubtedly successful in terms of DNA continuation. However, this differs from natural symbiosis, where both species retain evolutionary choices and can counterbalance each other. The natural evolution of domesticated species ceased, evolving artificially only in directions beneficial to humans. This evolution was detrimental to the species themselves.

Stepping onto the Illusory Path

• The Agricultural Revolution led to widespread human settlement, using buildings, fences, and other structures to draw a line between themselves and nature. This also drew a line in human consciousness. Humans began to isolate themselves, heading irreversibly toward detachment from nature and the physical world.
• Human capabilities grew, and with more to control, came more worries. Time became increasingly scarce, and there was a growing need to eliminate nature’s uncertainties, reinforcing settled life. All of civilization unfolded from this.
• Farmers planned for the future to cope with nature’s complexities and ensure survival. But they couldn’t foresee that the surplus from overproduction would create an elite class and develop states, armies, and churches. The oppressed farmers' wish for a comfortable life remained unfulfilled, and their role in history was often overlooked.
• Moreover, resource abundance couldn’t prevent conflict. Peaceful coexistence and cooperation required agreement on imagined rules of order. The Code of Hammurabi and the American Declaration of Independence served the same function. Laws, human rights, money, and marriage are all based on shared imagination and don’t physically exist.
• People don’t perceive anything wrong with living in an imagined order for several key reasons:
  1. They are deeply integrated with life and connected to our social environment.
  2. Imagination shapes our desires and guides us.
  3. The imagined order exists in the connections between people. As long as most believe, individual dissent has no effect.

Freeing Memory

• Imagination enabled large-scale human cooperation, initiating exponential development. But another limitation needed overcoming: memory. As populations grew and societies became more complex, some imagined orders became too complex for a single human brain, easily lost or distorted across generations.
• Human brains aren’t good at remembering numbers, a concept absent in nature. Complex societies require remembering large numbers, hindering the further development of imagined orders.
• Only around 3500-3000 BC did the Sumerians begin using writing to record information, processing some information outside the brain and overcoming the memory bottleneck.
• The earliest written information discovered is an accounting record detailing the quantity of barley.
• Writing at that time couldn’t fully express meaning or convey all information. It was limited to specific fields, like accounting, similar to today’s musical notation.
• Quipu was such a writing system. The Inca civilization used it for data recording, although they also had writing capable of fully expressing meaning. After the Spanish conquest, they continued using quipu for a while. Because only the Incas could read and write it, data authenticity couldn’t be controlled, so it was eventually replaced with Latin and numbers.
• Between 3000 and 500 BC, ancient civilizations worldwide created writing systems capable of fully expressing meaning. But only Sumer, ancient Egypt, ancient China, and the Inca developed brilliant civilizations. This was because only they discovered efficient methods for organizing and retrieving written information and assigned specialized personnel to copy and manage these materials.
• Detailed data management methods differ greatly from how the human brain operates, requiring strong logical, rational, and abstract abilities. Individuals in this profession underwent rigorous training to adapt to this new way of thinking. Thus, rationality took root in human society.
• Rational thinking developed rapidly. The invention of Arabic numerals further accelerated data storage and expression efficiency. It also became a cross-cultural common language, although it can only express meaning partially.

Hierarchical Society

• Although imagined reality and writing enabled large-scale human collaboration, ensuring its stability inevitably required sacrificing equality, resulting in hierarchical societies.
• The degree varies, and hierarchies are divided differently: gender, age, wealth, lineage, belief, etc. Except for the male-female distinction, one thing remains constant: all other hierarchies lack a physical basis. Each hierarchical system justifies its basis with some “naturally existing” law.
• Hierarchy simplifies interactions between strangers. When encountering strangers of the same, higher, or lower hierarchy, one knows how to behave without needing extensive knowledge. Setting aside moral judgments, hierarchical societies improved social operational efficiency.
• India’s caste system, divided into four types by the Aryan invasion, has evolved into approximately 3000 “jatis” (births) today. Any new occupation or group must be classified into a hierarchy; otherwise, society won’t recognize it. Although the Indian government promotes equality, the caste concept remains deeply ingrained.
• American slave society chose blacks as slaves, not South Asians or others, for three reasons:
  1. Convenient transatlantic transportation.
  2. The pre-existing, mature African slave trade.
  3. African immunity to tropical diseases like malaria, a crucial factor for colonial plantation owners.
• The hierarchical phenomenon produced by gender is unique. It’s the only division method common to all hierarchical societies, and almost all favor men.
• The causes of gender bias are often subtle, making it difficult to determine whether the initial, fundamental reason is physiological differences or cultural preferences. Objectively, it should be understood this way: nature’s possibilities are endless; it only allows, it can, but it is not necessary; cultural concepts have clear boundaries: this must be chosen, that is also possible, but unnatural and should be prevented. Of course, “natural” here doesn’t represent natural evolution but habitual cognition in theological and moral concepts.
• Civilizations worldwide eventually trended toward patriarchal societies, suggesting a common cause. However, neither physical strength, aggression, nor survival strategies of the two genders can rigorously explain this outcome, and many counterexamples exist. There’s no definitive conclusion yet.

III. Unification

The General Direction of History

• Culture is influenced by environmental changes when shaping society and history. Even in complete isolation, culture isn’t static; internal dynamics drive change.
• The concept of culture is so broad that it inevitably contains contradictions. People’s attempts to unify these contradictions lead to cultural change.
• History has a definite general direction. Over long timescales, it consistently tends toward unification. Isolated civilizations eventually exchange cultures. While they retain unique characteristics, these differences are insignificant compared to the overall unification.
• In 10,000 BC, thousands of civilizations existed on Earth. By 2000 BC, they had merged into a few hundred to two or three thousand. Around 1450 AD, the Age of Exploration began, and the Afro-Asian civilization, comprising 90% of the world’s population, rapidly engulfed other isolated civilizations. It successively incorporated the Aztecs of Mesoamerica, the Oceanic world of the Southwest Pacific, the Inca of South America, and Australia.
• Tasmanian civilization exemplifies this. It’s an island south of Australia. People migrated there when sea levels were low, and then rising waters isolated them. For millennia, it became an isolated civilization, completely unaware of other civilizations.
• Tasmania was the last independent civilization to be absorbed. Since then, all of humanity has adopted a common geopolitical system, economic system, legal system, and scientific system.
• These seem natural today, but the world’s cultural exchange didn’t have only this one possible outcome. The world didn’t form several distinct civilizations and then diverge further. From this perspective, globalization is remarkable.
• A typical manifestation of cultural exchange is the spread of food. Most so-called traditional foods worldwide use ingredients not native to the area, some even originating from the other side of the world.
• Humans are the only species concerned with collective interests. Yet, before globalization, each civilization had clear geographical and psychological boundaries. Only those within were considered “their own people,” and they disregarded the interests of others.
• Commerce, imperial conquest, and religious spread broke down these boundaries, initiating the equal treatment of all humans.

Commercial Unification

• Improved transportation infrastructure allowed populations to concentrate and form towns. Professionals in specific fields had a large enough market to support themselves and completely detach from agricultural life.
• Simultaneously, small villages discovered survival possibilities beyond self-sufficiency. They began utilizing local natural resources, leveraging comparative advantages to specialize in producing a few goods, and exchanging them for all other necessities instead of producing everything themselves.
• Lifestyle changes led to a significant increase in trade demand and volume. The limitations of bartering became apparent: difficulty in conversion without standards and ensuring mutual demand for each other’s goods.
• Money isn’t the sole solution. Centralized supply and unified distribution, such as planned economies, are alternatives. The Inca Empire once used a system with these characteristics, and it was quite successful.
• However, money remains the most widely used solution. Around 4,000 years ago, Africa, South Asia, East Asia, and Oceania all used shells as currency.
• Until the early 20th century, British Uganda accepted shells as tax payment.
• Places lacking money spontaneously developed currencies. For instance, cigarettes often serve as currency in prisons and concentration camps.
• Interestingly, in the medieval Christian world, besides issuing coins with Christian elements, coins with Islamic elements were also minted for Muslim use. Conversely, the Muslim world minted coins with Christian elements. No one considered this a violation of religious doctrine.
• This is the magic of money. It’s universally accepted, carrying no political, cultural, or value preferences. Even with cultural elements printed on it, it remains absolutely neutral.
• Ideal money should be stable, non-perishable, easy to store, and easy to transport.
• Money relies on mutual trust. The earliest money lacked widespread trust, so it needed intrinsic value. Sumerian barley money, the earliest monetary system, appeared around 3000 BC, contemporaneous with writing. Barley money used a fixed amount of barley grains as a standard of measurement.
• A fixed amount is crucial, so early currency development always accompanied the development of weights and measures. The most common unit of currency used by the Sumerians was the sila, approximately equal to one liter today. Standard-capacity bowls were produced for accurate measurement during transactions.
• Around 2500 BC, money began to shed the limitations of practical value. People recognized the importance of convenience and shifted to using items with no practical value but easy storage and transport as money. This was the silver shekel system of Mesopotamia.
• The silver shekel wasn’t a standard-shaped coin, but silver of a specific weight. Only the weight mattered, regardless of form.
• Then, in 640 BC, money began to be further standardized. The kingdom of Lydia in western Turkey minted the first coins in history, indicating the issuer and material composition.
• This simplified transactions. People no longer needed to weigh gold and silver ingots; they could simply count the coins. They also didn’t need to worry as much about identifying counterfeits.
• More importantly, money became linked to political power. This was the earliest fiat currency. Because the tax system relied heavily on money, the connection between politics and money strengthened, becoming increasingly inseparable.
• The Roman denarius is a prime example. Due to ancient Rome’s strength, even areas outside its political influence, like distant India, accepted its currency. This demonstrates that political influence determines currency influence.
• From another perspective, currency influence always precedes political influence. With money paving the way, human unification accelerated significantly. Through inter-civilizational exchange, the world gradually adopted a monetary system based on gold and silver.
• Why did the monetary system unify? This is determined by supply and demand. Thinking of money as a commodity makes it clear. If people in one place aren’t interested in gold and silver, merchants will purchase large quantities of local gold and silver and transfer them to other markets. This arbitrage behavior levels gold and silver prices globally, standardizing the currency’s value.
• Because money can be exchanged for anything and is universally trusted, it naturally tends to marketize everything. However, what makes humans human is the belief that many things cannot be measured by money. The tug-of-war between these two forces maintains societal balance.

Cultural Unification

• Empires have two key characteristics: a combination of multiple independent ethnic groups and a variable territory. Other factors like size, polity, and reliance on military conquest are irrelevant.
• These two characteristics allowed empires to connect increasingly diverse cultures under a single polity, significantly reducing civilizational diversity and promoting human unification.
• Modern critics view empires as inefficient in governance, exploitative, oppressive, and brutal. However, history shows that for the past 2500 years, the empire has been the most stable and widely accepted political form.
• A major innovation of the imperial system was conceptually breaking down cultural boundaries. Rulers often aspired to conquer the world and regarded subjugated peoples as part of their civilization. The ruling ethnic group held privileges, but to a certain extent, they still considered the subjugated peoples. Civilization thus tore down the ideological walls of exclusion.
• The imperial system isn’t unique. Civilizations worldwide independently developed it, an inevitable stage of cultural evolution. Once a unified empire forms, even if it declines and splits, the various ethnic groups won’t be content with self-governance; reunification is only a matter of time.
• Independence and freedom are modern concepts. For a long time, strong imperial dynasties were praised. Unification represented stability and prosperity, the ideal society in people’s minds.
• Cultural dissemination within an empire is much easier than cross-cultural dissemination. Coupled with rulers often deliberately promoting a specific culture, although primarily for their own convenience, the speed of cultural exchange accelerated greatly.
• Although the ruling ethnic group has the greatest influence, cultural exchange isn’t a one-way output of their culture. They themselves constantly absorb the cultures of other ethnic groups.
• Cultural integration is arduous. For conquered peoples, their civilization is destroyed, and they’re excluded from the mainstream culture; yet, they cannot immediately assimilate the ruling group’s culture. Thus, they remain marginalized within the empire for a long time, lacking true recognition. Residents of the political center looking down on regional accents is a typical manifestation.
• To gain equal status, ruled peoples actively embrace the mainstream culture, gradually infiltrating the ruling class and jointly promoting cultural evolution. The ruling ethnic group itself loses its uniqueness, eventually merging completely, making it impossible to distinguish between them.
• Once such a civilization forms, it’s beyond the ruling ethnic group’s control. Even if the empire perishes, the culture lives on. Various ethnic groups continue the civilization, create new empires, and absorb more cultures.
• This trend continues today, blurring boundaries between modern countries. When addressing global issues like economics, the environment, and law, governments must cooperate more closely. Multinational corporations, multilateral cooperation organizations, and regional economic entities are prime examples, and countries are merging in a non-political form.

Religious Unification

• Social order is built on human imagination. People know it’s self-created and thus changeable, making it fragile. Religion is a unique order. People believe it’s created by a power beyond humans, an unchangeable truth. Therefore, the religious order is very stable and plays a crucial role in human unification.
• Religions capable of this have two characteristics: treating all humans equally and proselytizing. Such religions only gradually appeared around 1000 BC. Most religions in history were regional and exclusive.
• In the ancient era of animism, the deities people believed in originated from the local natural environment, such as sacred trees, stones, and birds. Natural environments differ globally. Even if this belief spreads, it’s ineffective elsewhere.
• Although humans at this time consumed other species, they still believed all beings were equal, could communicate spiritually, and shared a habitat.
• Entering the agricultural era, humans' control over other species increased significantly, and they were no longer treated as equals conceptually but as possessions. However, humans lacked complete control. Crops could fail, and livestock could sicken. A major theory posits that deities were the channel for humans to address this. Worship deities and let them provide care.
• With societal development and population concentration, problems became more complex, and people attributed greater abilities to gods. Gods with limited, specific abilities gradually lost their status.
• Animism evolved into polytheism in the later stage. Like the religions of ancient Greece and Egypt, there were gods responsible for fertility, climate, and war, with a detailed division of labor to meet all aspects of civilization. Deities were no longer equal to humans but became superior beings.
• Polytheism could address larger problems, but animism remained effective among commoners, who still faced everyday issues.
• The power of gods grew, and the status of humans in religious concepts also rose. In animism, humans are just one of many creatures. In polytheism, humans have significant decision-making power over the world. Blessings and disasters are determined by human prayers, sacrifices, and daily activities.
• It’s not only monotheistic gods that are supreme. Polytheism also has this role. It represents the ultimate law of the world, embodied as a deity above the gods or a fate even gods cannot escape. But this cold ultimate law has no reason to care about human activities. People worship it without benefit, still worshipping gods with specific functions.
• Polytheism is more tolerant and gentle than monotheism. People believe in many different gods simultaneously and readily accept the existence of gods in other religions. Two different polytheistic religions almost never conflict and can coexist peacefully. The religion of the ancient Romans absorbed deities from Asia and Egypt.
• Christianity’s situation in ancient Rome differed greatly. Because it didn’t recognize the guardian deities of ancient Rome or the emperor’s divinity, it was considered political rebellion and suppressed. However, this suppression pales in comparison to the persecution among Christians in later generations and the persecution of other religions and atheism by Christianity.
• In early monotheism, God wasn’t an omniscient, omnipotent, perfect being. It still possessed selfishness and preferences, like in polytheism. For example, Judaism believes God protects only the Jewish people and their territory, lacking any meaning or motivation for proselytizing.
• The mainstream monotheistic religions today believe in a single, all-powerful God. They deem the gods with only partial abilities in polytheism unbelievable and incapable of representing the world’s truth. Therefore, they naturally reject other religions and are extremely aggressive. Polytheism’s gentleness led to its defeat in the competition.
• But just as animism persisted within polytheism, polytheism transformed and continued within monotheism. Most people still have various secular needs, and the lesser gods retain a market. Even with widespread acceptance of monotheism, various regions and occupations still worship their own unique gods or saints. Many of these originate from previous religions, easily transformed and integrated into the new monotheistic system.
• Besides monotheism, some dualistic religions emerged and prevailed for millennia. These religions believe in two opposing gods, such as good and evil. Neither side can completely suppress the other, and they jointly determine the world’s operation. The religion of the Persian Empire belonged to this type.
• Dualistic religion addresses the problem monotheism struggles to explain: the origin of evil. But it raises new questions: What law governs the two opposing forces?
• Although dualistic religion was defeated by monotheism, its ideas persisted. Various monotheistic religions often feature figures like Satan, who are not controlled by God and oppose Him. How can a purely monotheistic religion allow such a figure to exist within its doctrine?
• Dualistic religion also distinguishes between matter and spirit, body and soul, believing matter and body are evil, while spirit and soul are good. This idea has been retained in monotheism because it helps explain the origin of evil.
• None of these dualistic views actually appeared in the Old Testament.
• What we consider monotheism today is a fusion of characteristics from animism, polytheism, dualism, and other religions. Like cultural fusion, it’s contradictory yet unified. Religion has a term for this: syncretism.
• Religion isn’t solely about gods and supernatural forces. Many religions worship a natural law. Even if gods exist in these religions, they must still follow the natural law. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism fall into this category.
• Buddhism is a prime example. Although Shakyamuni himself was deified by later generations, Buddhism worships the natural law he realized, not his supreme divine power.
• Of course, the vast majority of believers cannot attain this state. People still need solutions to various secular problems. Buddhism has developed numerous gods, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas worldwide, incorporating polytheistic characteristics.
• The concept of religion extends further, abstracting into belief, and the scope covered broadens. Concepts like nationalism and capitalism aren’t fundamentally different from religion.
• Religious beliefs worship gods, while humanistic beliefs worship the human species, believing humans are fundamentally different from other species, determine the meaning of everything in the universe, and all principles of action should be based on human interests.
• Humanistic beliefs are divided into three types. Liberal humanism advocates freedom and human rights, believing the individual is sacred and everyone’s inner freedom should be protected; social humanism advocates equality, believing inequality means certain external factors have surpassed the essence of human beings, which is unacceptable; evolutionary humanism advocates progress, believing human individuals are neither sacred nor equal, can evolve or degenerate, and should be subject to survival of the fittest.
• The ideological sources of the first two stem from the same monotheistic concept, believing humans possess a free and immortal soul, which in atheistic terms is an unchanging inner essence. All our concepts of freedom, democracy, and political and judicial systems today are built on this. As for evolutionary humanism, it has been unable to recover after the defeat of the Nazis, and subsequent scientific developments have also disproven it.
• However, life science research is gradually eroding the ideological foundations of the first two. Increasing evidence suggests that the soul and free will don’t exist. The foundation of modern politics and justice is shaken, but people choose to ignore it.

Nothing is Inevitable

• Using our understanding as later generations to interpret history, we can often find numerous explanations and supporting evidence for how humans reached the present. But we cannot verify other historical possibilities. If history had taken a different path, we could still find ample evidence to support it.
• History is a second-order chaotic system. A first-order chaotic system means that prediction doesn’t affect the outcome, like weather. In a second-order chaotic system, prediction does change the outcome.
• History cannot rule out possibilities; it can only prove them.
• History doesn’t develop for human benefit. Even if we believe we have sufficient ability to make the world develop in a direction beneficial to us, the long-term results may not be as we desire.
• Memetics posits that cultural patterns are like genes. Although lacking autonomy, they have their own interests. They use humans as carriers for spread and replication. As long as it aids its spread throughout society, it’s beneficial to it. The interests of humans as carriers are irrelevant.
• In social science, game theory offers a similar view. Although certain behavior patterns harm the interests of all parties, everyone ultimately chooses them, and they possess a means of survival. The arms race between countries is a good example.

IV. Science

A Cognitive Awakening

Admitting Ignorance

• Between 1500 and the 21st century, the global population grew 14-fold, production 240-fold, and energy consumption 115-fold.
• The 1969 moon landing marked the first time life on Earth left the atmosphere—a monumental evolutionary milestone.
• Before the Scientific Revolution, societies mobilized resources merely to maintain the status quo. Social progress wasn’t yet a goal.
• Modern science differs from earlier knowledge systems in three key ways:
  1. A willingness to admit ignorance. Old knowledge could be disproven; absolute authority no longer exists.
  2. An emphasis on evidence and mathematics. Patterns are discovered through observation and calculation.
  3. Using findings to transform society. Science isn’t just about knowledge; it develops technologies and products, driving social change.
• Ancient knowledge systems relied on a god or sage who knew everything. For big questions, you’d ask the wise. Trivial matters weren’t worth the gods' or sages' time, and no one probed deeper. Since important questions had answers, verification or further inquiry seemed unnecessary.
• In modern science, no single person or theory claims complete knowledge. But if nothing is absolutely correct, how does society function? Two unscientific methods provide the answer:
  1. Claiming a viewpoint is absolute truth.
  2. Bypassing science with humanistic claims.
• Although no scientific conclusion is 100% certain, people treat the scientific method as an absolute truth—almost a religious belief.
• Ancient knowledge systems often used stories; modern science rests on mathematics.
• Newton’s three laws of motion showed that simple math could describe and predict complex natural phenomena. Many disciplines followed. Though biology, economics, and psychology aren’t entirely mathematical, math spawned a new branch: statistics.
• In 1744, two Scottish clergymen planned a life insurance fund, raising money from ministers for investment and family protection. They needed to calculate the fund’s size and estimate claim ratios and amounts. Theology offered no help; only statistics could.
• Using probability calculations—a new statistical development—they accurately estimated the fund’s size from historical data, differing from the actual value by just one pound. This became the foundation of actuarial science and a key concept in demography.
• Statistics, in turn, spurred the development of various social and natural sciences.
• Since the Middle Ages, education’s core has shifted from logic, grammar, and rhetoric to mathematical language.

The Power of Science and Technology

• Non-scientists are more concerned with practical applications. Scientific achievements empower humans; people firmly believe knowledge is power.
• Science and technology were unrelated before 1500. Only from the 17th century onward did they become closely linked, even conflated. Today, it’s generally accepted that scientific knowledge drives social change, and research without practical value is often seen as pointless.
• In the past, new technologies often arose from trial and error, accidental discoveries rather than systematic research.
• War has spurred many scientific achievements. In WWI, breakthroughs led to weapons like tanks, breaking the trench warfare stalemate. In WWII, the atomic bomb revealed science’s power to the world.
• Military technology only became significant recently. Before the 19th century, military changes were primarily organizational. Technology didn’t play a decisive role. Few focused on creating or expanding technological advantages.
• The ancient Roman army was highly efficient, disciplined, and well-supplied. Even if time-traveling to fight Constantine 500 years later, they could hold their own. 500 years ago from now was the Ming Dynasty.
• China invented gunpowder accidentally during alchemical experiments. Due to a disregard for technology, it was mainly used for firecrackers. Even with the Mongol army at the gates, no Song Dynasty emperor considered developing firearms. Cannons became decisive in war about 600 years after gunpowder’s invention.

Believing in Social Progress

• Before the Scientific Revolution, most civilizations didn’t believe in progress. They thought things were deteriorating because they weren’t following ancient guidance.
• Most religions predicted a savior who would solve all problems. Myths like the Tower of Babel, Icarus, and the Golem warned that exceeding limits would bring disaster.
• Science changed perspectives. Unsolved problems simply lacked a method.
• Lightning, in most cultures, was seen as God’s wrath. Franklin’s lightning rod, defusing divine anger, significantly impacted old beliefs.
• Poverty was often viewed as inevitable. Today, we generally believe that biological poverty can be eliminated.

Challenging Death

• Civilizations have always considered death inevitable, with many religions viewing it as life’s meaning.
• In the Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh, the king’s close friend died. He stayed by the body until maggots appeared. Gilgamesh then vowed to conquer death. He journeyed to the world’s end, defeated enemies, and reached the underworld. After much hardship, he failed, realizing death was unconquerable and must be accepted.
• Today, this problem is broken down into many specific technical challenges.
• Today’s medical standards were unimaginable to earlier generations. In 1199, Richard the Lionheart died two weeks after a shoulder wound because the infection spread. Today, it would be a minor flesh wound.
• Even in the 19th century, soldiers with minor injuries needed amputation to prevent gangrene. After Waterloo, piles of limbs appeared beside the field hospital. Carpenters and butchers often performed these amputations.
• Before the 20th century, 1/4 to 1/3 of children in agricultural societies died before adulthood.
• In 17th-century England, 15% of newborns died before age one, and 1/3 of children died before fifteen. Today, the figures are 5‰ and 7‰, respectively.
• King Edward I of England and his queen were healthy. None of their sons lived to inherit the throne until the 16th child, Edward II. Four sons and six daughters died young.

Society’s Support for Science

• Substantial financial support from politics and business drives scientific development. However, this support is often utilitarian.
• Different civilizations in different eras show clear biases in research funding. Scientists often don’t determine the course of scientific development.
• Science itself can’t judge which research areas are most important. Politics, economics, and religion can.
• Understanding a scientific achievement requires studying not only the scientists involved but also the social context—the ideological, political, and economic forces of the time.

Interaction with Politics

Science and Empire

• During the geocentric vs. heliocentric debate, people hoped to use the transit of Venus for verification. Observing it from different locations on Earth yields varying durations, allowing accurate calculation of the Sun-Earth distance using trigonometry.
• The two transits of Venus at that time were in 1761 and 1769. The 1769 transit was particularly significant.
• Most observation points were on continents: Siberia, North America, Madagascar, South Africa. The British Royal Society wanted a South Pacific point, so they funded an expedition led by Captain Cook to Tahiti, equipped with advanced instruments.
• Besides observing Venus, the expedition brought back a wealth of astronomical, geographical, meteorological, botanical, zoological, and anthropological data to England in 1771.
• At that time, scurvy often killed half the crew on voyages, and the cause was unknown. In 1747, a doctor proved that citrus fruits could cure scurvy. Sailors usually ate only biscuits and dried beef, lacking vitamin C.
• Captain Cook carried sauerkraut and ordered sailors to eat fresh fruits and vegetables at every landfall. Consequently, not a single sailor died of scurvy—a naval first. Within a decade, this method was widely adopted by navies.
• This voyage wasn’t just scientific. Cook was a naval officer; the Navy sponsored the ship and soldiers. They claimed land for Britain wherever they went, laying the groundwork for British occupation of Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania.
• Modern civilization brought disaster to Australian Aborigines, reducing their population by 90%. Most Tasmanian Aborigines were exterminated. The few survivors were sent to concentration camps. The Tasmanians refused to assimilate, stopped reproducing, and became extinct. The remains of the last few were studied and exhibited for a long time. A century later, their body parts were returned and buried.
• To those involved, science and empire were inseparable.

The Rise of Europe

• Europe only became a major historical player in the late 15th century. Even by 1775, Asia accounted for 80% of the global economy, with India and China comprising 2/3 of global production.
• The 18th and 19th-century wars shifted the global power center to Europe. In 1950, Western Europe and the United States accounted for over half of global production, while China had only 5%.
• European civilization established a new global order. Today’s global clothing, ideas, aesthetics, and political and economic systems largely stem from European exports.
• Europe’s technological lead only emerged around 1850. However, European maritime dominance began much earlier. European countries strove to catch up with advanced technology, while other civilizations remained indifferent.
• The key difference was mindset; other civilizations lacked Western values, judicial systems, and social structures. These ideas took centuries to develop in the West. Other civilizations couldn’t adopt them overnight.
• Almost all major 19th and 20th-century scientific breakthroughs came from Europe. European civilization craved exploration, believing that new discoveries could make them world masters.
• European empires differed fundamentally from others. Other civilizations conquered to spread values and gather resources. European empires also conquered for knowledge.
• Long before Cook, Portuguese and Spanish navigators in the 15th and 16th centuries held this view, discovering and conquering along the way.
• Later, exploration and conquest became intertwined. By the 18th and 19th centuries, almost every military expedition included scientists. Napoleon brought 165 scholars to Egypt in 1798. This group even established Egyptology.
• In 1831, the British Royal Navy sent a ship to survey South America’s coast for future naval advantage. The captain, an amateur scientist, wanted a geologist to study formations along the way. 22-year-old Darwin joined. While the captain drew military maps, Darwin conceived his theory of evolution.
• Shortly before Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, Apollo 11 astronauts trained in the western US desert. Legend says they met local Native Americans, and an old man asked their purpose. They explained they were part of a moon expedition. The old man asked them to deliver a message to the moon spirits. He spoke in his native language, which the astronauts memorized without knowing its meaning. Back at base, a translator revealed the message: “No matter what these people tell you, don’t believe them. They’re just here to steal your land.”

The Evolution of Maps

• Before understanding global geography, all civilizations had maps. Unknown areas were omitted or filled with imaginary monsters and wonders. They only cared about their controlled world.
• In the 15th and 16th centuries, blank spaces appeared on European world maps, indicating an acceptance of the unknown.
• Columbus’s map in 1492 didn’t include America or the Pacific, nor did it have blanks. He aimed to reach East Asia, mistaking North America for India.
• Europeans at the time wouldn’t have considered the map wrong. The Bible only mentioned Africa, Asia, and Europe; could a world exist that the Bible didn’t know? Columbus died believing he hadn’t erred.
• Italian sailor Amerigo Vespucci first suggested America was a new continent. In 1507, cartographer Martin Waldseemüller published a new world map based on Amerigo’s theory. Mistakenly believing Amerigo was the discoverer, he named it America.
• North and South America, 1/4 of the world’s land, are named after an obscure Italian. He did one thing right: daring to say, “We don’t know.”
• The New World’s discovery fueled European curiosity and conquest. It also proved ancient knowledge’s limitations. Blank spaces appeared on world maps, constantly being filled and refined through exploration.
• The map blanks drove Europeans to explore the New World, filling them in. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europe’s trade network connected the world, and it began integrating human civilization.
• We take European conquest for granted, but it’s unique. No other civilization would conquer a distant, non-threatening one. Ancient empires were, essentially, local affairs.
• Although Zheng He’s voyages were earlier and larger, they never attempted conquest or cultural export to connect civilizations. The technical and geographical knowledge gained had little impact.

Unfamiliar Invaders

• When the Spanish destroyed the Aztec and Inca empires, these two American empires were unaware of each other.
• Even within the Aztec Empire, information was limited. The Spanish occupied Caribbean islands in 20 years, enslaving the natives. Harsh conditions or disease nearly wiped them out, forcing the Spanish to import African slaves. When the Spanish landed in Mexico, the mainland Aztecs were oblivious to Caribbean events.
• The Aztecs believed they knew the whole world; the Spanish arrival was as shocking as aliens.
• The Aztec Empire’s hygiene far surpassed that of the Spanish; the Spanish had an unbearable odor. Locals sent people with incense to accompany them. The Spanish mistook this for honor.
• Spanish ships, horses, guns, swords, and armor further shocked the Aztecs. Some thought they were gods, others demons, spirits, or sorcerers. The Aztecs were confused but didn’t immediately plan to eliminate them. They couldn’t fathom how powerful these 500-odd men could be, so they weren’t overly concerned.
• The Spanish were equally ignorant of the Aztecs. However, they had experience conquering other civilizations and were prepared for the unknown.
• The Spanish expedition, posing as envoys, reached the Aztec capital and met Montezuma II. They suddenly attacked, killing the guards, and the emperor became a prisoner.
• Aztec civilization was highly centralized; the Spanish held the emperor hostage for months, training translators and gathering intelligence.
• The Aztec elite eventually rebelled, electing a new emperor and temporarily expelling the Spanish. The Spanish, using gathered intelligence, exploited internal divisions and won over many subjects. Finally, with this force, they retook the capital.
• More Spaniards arrived. When the Aztecs who helped capture the capital realized the truth, it was too late. They were forced to accept the greedier Spanish rule.
• In this short century, the Native American population fell by 90%, mainly due to European diseases.
• When the Europeans invaded the Inca Empire, there were fewer than 200 of them. Replicating the Aztec conquest methods, they toppled the Inca Empire.
• It wasn’t just these two American civilizations that suffered from narrow-mindedness. The Ottoman Empire, Persia, the Mughal Empire, and China heard of major European discoveries but didn’t care. No empire planned to leave Asia to compete with Europe for America and the oceans.
• The first non-European civilization to send troops to America was Japan, during WWII. A Japanese expeditionary force occupied two Alaskan islands, capturing 10 American soldiers and a dog.
• America didn’t appear on Chinese maps until 1602, drawn by European missionaries.
• For 300 years, Europeans dominated America, Australia, the Pacific, and the Atlantic, accumulating wealth and resources, and finally defeating the major Asian empires.
• By the 20th century, non-European civilizations gained global consciousness, and European hegemony crumbled. Even with overwhelming advantages, European civilization could be defeated when attacking a small country. The Vietnam War is a prime example. Small countries learned to guide global opinion and ally with the enemy’s enemy.

Scientific Exploration During Conquest

• Conquest and scientific research share a motivation: exploring and controlling the unknown. Their methods are also similar.
• When Muslims conquered India, they didn’t research India’s culture, history, or nature. After the British conquered India, research lasted 60 years. Even Mount Everest’s precise height was measured then.
• British research in India not only gathered information for ruling but also investigated rare spiders, lost languages, and forgotten ruins.
• In the Indus Valley civilization, a large city once existed, called the Valley of Death in Hindi. It flourished in 3000 BC and was destroyed in 1900 BC. The later Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire, Delhi Sultanate, and Mughal Empire ignored the story. A British archaeological team discovered and excavated it in 1922. It was India’s earliest great civilization.
• Cuneiform was used in the Middle East for about 3,000 years. Around the 11th century, no one could read it. The natives didn’t try to decipher it. In 1618, the Spanish ambassador to Persia discovered cuneiform at ancient ruins. He inquired, but no one understood. News of the unknown script spread to Europe, arousing scholars' curiosity, who began recording and deciphering efforts.
• In the 1830s, British officer Henry Rawlinson was sent to Persia to train the army. He saw an inscription on a cliff, carved by Persian King Darius I in 500 BC. It used three cuneiform scripts: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian, all unreadable. Rawlinson copied them and sent them to Europe. He deciphered part of Old Persian in his spare time, as it was relatively close to modern Persian. The door to cuneiform was opened.
• William Jones went to India in 1783 as a judge of the Supreme Court of Bengal. Fascinated by India, he established the Asiatic Society to study Asian culture, history, and society, focusing on India. After two years studying Sanskrit, he noted its similarity to Greek and Latin. These languages were also consistent with Gothic, Celtic, Old Persian, German, French, and English. He first discovered the Indo-European language family.
• Jones’s research was significant because it developed a systematic method for comparing languages—comparative linguistics. Other scholars could use this method to study language development worldwide.
• European empires discovered linguistics' benefits. Understanding local languages and cultures helped consolidate rule. For British officials in India, Indian languages, religions, and cultures were compulsory. These conquerors' understanding of colonial culture often surpassed that of the locals.
• Science could also rationalize the empire. They believed learning was inherently good, representing positivity and progress. Aggression found a justification: helping backward civilizations progress.
• Of course, this wasn’t the reality. In 1764, the British conquered Bengal and levied excessive taxes. A great famine broke out, lasting four years. 1/3 of the region’s population died.
• European empires brought advanced technology and better living conditions, but also exploitation and turmoil. The two were simultaneous and interdependent.
• Many scientific achievements were used politically. Some linguistics and anthropology scholars gathered evidence to prove European superiority, justifying their rule. They found linguistic clues and proposed that Indian, Persian, Greek, and Roman civilizations were all Aryan creations. Anthropologists further proposed that Aryans were a biological race with an innate trait of diligence and progress. This evolved into racism.
• Today, no one openly proposes racism. However, racial discrimination has become implicit cultural discrimination. Culturalism often attributes a nation’s achievements solely to its unique culture.
• Refuting racism biologically is easy; there’s ample evidence. Refuting culturalism historically is harder.

Interaction with the Economy

The Vicious Cycle of a Stagnant Economy

• For most of history, even if the overall economy grew, per capita output remained flat.
• In 1500, average annual output per person was about $550. Today, it’s $8,800.
• This doesn’t mean cash increased that much. Money can be deposited, lent out, circulated, re-deposited, and re-lent. The bank’s actual cash remains the same, but each loan provides funds. Loans promote business development. As long as there’s no bank run, the bank is safe.
• Commercial banks profit by leveraging a small deposit interest cost to obtain larger loan interest income.
• This resembles a Ponzi scheme, but it’s also a masterpiece of collective imagination. Even if depositors know the loan-to-deposit ratio principle, they trust the bank and don’t fear a run. The more people trust, the less likely a run.
• The bank’s trust chain: Depositors trust the bank, believing they can cash out anytime. Banks trust borrowers to repay with interest. Trust in the future is banking’s foundation.
• Before modern civilization, money could only buy existing things. Entrepreneurship invests in the future; without financial support, the economy struggles. Humanity was trapped in this dilemma for millennia, and economic levels stagnated.
• Modern civilization uses credit as a form of money to develop production, advancing the future.
• Past civilizations didn’t fail to recognize credit’s role or find ways to use it. The key difference is that people then didn’t believe the future would be better; they wanted to maintain the status quo. Ancient civilizations believed wealth was finite, would only deplete, and wouldn’t grow.
• Therefore, they viewed the economy as a zero-sum game. If someone gets rich, someone else suffers; there’s no win-win. Many cultures believed making money was sinful, unfair to others.
• Under the old concept, because credit had no value, there was no entrepreneurial environment, leading to long-term stagnation. People never thought the economy could grow, and the rich were unwilling to lend. This created a vicious cycle.

Breaking the Cycle

• The Scientific Revolution introduced the concept of progress; invest in research, and everything can improve. This was quickly applied to the economy; people believed geographical discoveries, technological inventions, and organizational development could increase total wealth. Opening new areas wouldn’t erode old ones.
• Progress fosters trust in the future; this trust creates credit. Credit brings real economic growth, further reinforcing trust. The economy enters a positive cycle.
• Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776) was based on this. Smith proposed that each person’s self-interest is the foundation of all wealth. As long as everyone maximizes profit, they create more wealth for society.
• This overturned the zero-sum game concept; self-interest can be altruistic. It broke the long-standing opposition between wealth and morality.
• This theory has a premise: profits must be reinvested to expand operations to benefit society. Thus, a new capitalist standard emerged: the rich should use income for social production.
• People in the past didn’t think this way, believing production activities wouldn’t yield much profit. Medieval nobles advocated generosity and lavish consumption, spending all income on social, political, charitable, and religious activities.
• Compared to past nobles, today’s capitalists' consumption is a surprisingly small proportion of their income.
• Not only the rich but also ordinary people are keen on investing and care about wealth appreciation. Government management also embraces this concept and aims for development.
• Economic concepts began influencing education and values. Economic development has become an unquestionable truth, as influential as religion.
• Conversely, economic concepts determine scientific development’s direction. Research contributing more to economic growth receives more support.
• Science breakthroughs are the fundamental force behind economic prosperity. Simultaneously, banks and governments print money, hoping to fund more breakthroughs and create new industries to maintain growth momentum.

Economics and the Rise of European Civilization

• European capitalism’s rise is closely linked to Asian economic development. Until the late 18th century, Asia was the global economic power. However, Asian regimes disregarded credit. Their conquests' economic sources were often taxes and plunder.
• European regimes had a business mindset, often ruled by bankers and merchants. Credit was the main economic source of European conquest; conquest became a public investment, with proceeds distributed to the public. The whole populace participated, greatly improving efficiency.
• Asian expansion often impoverished the people and destabilized the regime. Asian expansion would collapse at a certain point. European rulers provided credit for merchant expeditions. The huge benefits made rulers trust them more and provide more credit. European expansion snowballed.
• Not all investments yield generous returns. The British wasted money trying to find an Arctic route to Asia. The results were futile, and some expeditions never returned.
• To increase investors and share risks, investment shifted from wealthy individuals to joint-stock companies.
• Western Europe developed a complex financial system, raising large sums quickly. This was far more efficient than the ruling regime’s administrative power.
• The Netherlands' rise, replacing Spain and Portugal as maritime hegemon, stemmed from credit’s power. The Dutch weren’t interested in land warfare; they hired mercenaries to fight Spain, while they vigorously developed navigation.
• The Dutch utilized the emerging financial system, repaid loans on time and in full, and maintained credit credibility. The Dutch judiciary was independent and protected individual rights, especially private property. Meanwhile, Spain and other European countries were destroying their credit systems. Kings often defaulted on loans, making fundraising increasingly difficult. Investors realized dealing with merchants was easier and more cost-effective.
• Share trading spawned the world’s first stock exchange in the Netherlands.
• The Dutch East India Company was a famous joint-stock company with a high return. It traded in Asia and funded military operations against rivals and pirates. It eventually conquered Indonesia.
• In Indonesia, the East India Company initially engaged in normal trade. To protect its interests, it attacked local governments that raised tariffs and fought competitors. The merchant fleet’s military strength grew, equipped with cannons, mercenaries, and fortresses. The mercenary market was mature; a commercial company establishing an empire wasn’t surprising.
• Simultaneously, the Dutch West India Company made strides in America. To control the Hudson River, a key channel, it established a colony on a small island at the river’s mouth, named New Amsterdam. The British eventually seized it, renaming it New York—today’s New York City.
• The West India Company built a wall in New York to defend against the British and Native Americans. Today, it’s Wall Street.
• After the Netherlands declined, Britain and France competed for its position. Initially, France had advantages. However, Britain ultimately won the financial system’s trust and became the winner.
• In 1717, the French Mississippi Company developed a colony in the lower Mississippi River and established New Orleans. The owner, John Law, had close ties to the French court. He was the central bank’s governor and the French Comptroller General (equivalent to Finance Minister). He painted a rosy picture of the Mississippi Company. The lower Mississippi was mostly swamps, but he described it as full of gold and silver, with unlimited opportunities. The company’s stock soared, rising to 20 times its issue price.
• Then, things took a sharp turn. As a few sober individuals began selling, the balance tipped, and the stock plummeted. To stabilize the price, John Law, as central bank governor, bought company stocks, exhausting the bank’s funds. Then, as Comptroller General, he ordered money printing to continue buying. Ultimately, the French central bank and treasury were left with worthless stocks, and the civilian economy suffered a catastrophe. This is the famous Mississippi Bubble.
• After this bubble, the French royal family never recovered. The French lost confidence in their financial system, causing credit interest rates to rise. The royal family borrowed more foreign debt at higher rates. In the 1780s, King Louis XVI found half the annual budget went to interest payments. He was forced to convene the Estates-General, which hadn’t met for a century and a half, triggering the French Revolution.
• France was overwhelmed, but Britain thrived, expanding wildly with capital’s power. The British East India Company’s achievements surpassed even those of the Dutch East India Company.

Politics Serving Capital

• The First Opium War between China and Britain exemplifies this. The British East India Company profited immensely from selling opium to China. The Chinese government’s ban on opium threatened these profits. Merchants, closely connected to Parliament (many MPs and ministers held company shares), pressured the government, leading Britain to declare war.
• By the late 19th century, China had roughly 40 million opium addicts, about 10% of the population.
• Egypt’s situation was similar. In the 19th century, British and French investors loaned vast sums to Egyptian rulers for projects like the Suez Canal, and some less successful ventures. Egypt, deeply in debt, saw creditors increasingly meddling in its internal affairs. Egyptian nationalists rebelled, voiding all foreign debts. A year later, Queen Victoria went to war.
• Beyond profiting from wars, war itself became a tradable commodity.
• In 1821, Greeks revolted against the Ottoman Empire. British financiers saw an opportunity, proposing bonds on the London Stock Exchange to fund the Greek military. These “Greek rebellion bonds” fluctuated with the war’s progress. As Turkey gained ground and the rebels neared defeat, Britain, protecting creditor interests, organized a force, defeated the Ottoman fleet, and secured Greek independence. Greece was burdened with massive, unpayable debt, struggling under its weight for decades.
• Politics and capital jointly determine a market’s credit rating. Abundant natural resources don’t guarantee high investment value. Political factors, like stable institutions and a sound economic system, are also crucial.

The Cult of the Free Market

• Everyone acknowledges economics influences politics, but many resist political influence on economics. They advocate for government non-interference in economic affairs, opposing military intervention and criticizing welfare policies.
• However, a completely free market is a myth. Trust, the economy’s most vital resource, requires political guarantees.

The Dark Side of Capital

• The free market appears desirable under the assumption that capitalists reinvest profits to increase production. However, other avenues exist, such as employee mistreatment.
• In a truly free market, companies can collude and exploit workers, potentially leading to restricted personal freedom or even slavery.
• Slavery was nearly extinct in Europe by the late Middle Ages. Ironically, the slave trade boomed during capitalism’s rise, driven by unrestrained market forces.
• European conquest of America led to sugarcane plantations. Sugar, a medieval European luxury, saw British annual consumption rise from almost zero in the 17th century to roughly 8 kilograms by the early 19th century.
• Sugar demand was high, but sugarcane cultivation was arduous. Market-driven labor costs would be prohibitive. Plantation owners sought slaves.
• Slave trading companies, listed on European markets, raised public funds. They formed fleets, hired sailors and soldiers, and traded for slaves in Africa. The slave trade was a joint venture between European investors and sugar consumers.
• Capital’s greatest flaw is its prioritization of growth above all else. Without ethical constraints, it can lead to catastrophe.
• In 1876, the King of Belgium founded a humanitarian organization, ostensibly to explore Central Africa, fight the slave trade, and improve local living conditions. In 1885, European powers allocated 2.3 million square kilometers of Congo Basin land to this organization—75 times Belgium’s size.
• This “humanitarian” organization quickly morphed into a commercial enterprise. All its activities became profit-driven, establishing mines and plantations, and exploiting the local population. Conservative estimates suggest 6 million Congolese deaths between 1885 and 1908.

The Great Industrial Development

Ways of Harnessing Energy

• Superficially, energy and resources appear finite. However, scientific research consistently solves resource depletion, either through more efficient use or the discovery of new energy sources and resources.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, humans relied almost entirely on their own bodies or animals, consuming solar energy stored in plants and converting it to muscle power.
• Human history, therefore, was governed by two major cycles: plant growth and solar changes.
• Gunpowder’s invention in 9th-century China was a minor breakthrough, converting thermal energy into kinetic energy. However, its transformation into a controlled energy source was slow.
• The steam engine finally allowed humans to control the conversion of thermal energy into kinetic energy. Early coal mine steam engines were inefficient, but abundant coal made this less of a concern.
• Improved steam engines moved beyond coal mines into textile mills, revolutionizing the industry. This sparked a shift in thinking: if coal could power textile machines, it could power others. Machines rapidly took over various industries.
• Since then, people have been captivated by using machines to control energy, making any type of energy anywhere available.
• Physicists discovered atomic energy, and people immediately sought its application. It took 600 years from gunpowder to cannons; from mass-energy equivalence to the atomic bomb, only 40.
• The internal combustion engine was another pivotal invention, making petroleum a key energy source. Humans had long known about petroleum, but only for waterproofing and lubrication. Until about a century ago, these were considered its sole uses. Waging war for oil would have seemed ludicrous then.
• Two centuries ago, electricity was largely a mysterious academic experiment and magic trick. A series of inventions have made modern life utterly dependent on it.

The Energy Boom

• The Industrial Revolution was, at its core, an energy conversion revolution. We’ve repeatedly shown that energy is virtually limitless. We consistently find new energy sources, and the total energy available to humans keeps growing.
• The energy modern human activities consume annually equals just 90 minutes of Earth’s solar energy intake. Global plants store about six times that amount from the sun each year.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, plant-based energy was almost the sole source, imposing a clear upper limit.
• Harnessing and converting energy also addressed raw material shortages. Humans could use abundant, cheap energy to transport materials from afar, extract previously inaccessible resources, and invent new ones.
• Chemists discovered aluminum in the 1820s. Its extraction was once so difficult that it was more expensive than gold.
• During World War I, Germany, under blockade, faced a shortage of nitrates for explosives. Ammonia could substitute, but at a high cost. Chemists then invented a technology to produce ammonia virtually from air. Without it, Germany likely wouldn’t have lasted until 1918.

The Second Agricultural Revolution

• The Industrial Revolution’s most significant aspect was initiating the Second Agricultural Revolution.
• Advanced farm tools, fertilizers, and pesticides dramatically increased crop and livestock yields.
• Mechanization extended beyond production tools to the production process of life itself. Modern chicken farms, for instance, prioritize meat and egg production efficiency, disregarding the creatures' needs.
• This parallels the Atlantic slave trade. European civilization didn’t hate Africans, and modern people don’t hate livestock. It’s sheer indifference.
• The farm environment can meet animals' physiological needs, eliminating the need for complex natural social behaviors. However, their psychological needs are innate, ingrained through evolution. Depriving them of social interaction causes psychological distress.
• In the 1950s, American psychologist Harry Harlow experimented with baby monkeys. He placed them in cages with two surrogate mothers: one wire with a milk bottle, the other cloth, resembling a mother monkey but offering no practical aid. Most babies chose the cloth monkey, only approaching the wire one for milk.
• Historically, most farm produce fed farmers and animals, with a small surplus circulating. Farmers comprised over 90% of the population.
• Today, 2% of American farmers feed the entire US population and still export substantial amounts of food.
• Without freeing so many people from agriculture, the Industrial Revolution would have lacked a foundation. For the first time in history, production outstripped demand.

The Rise of Consumerism

• To handle the oversupply from the Industrial Revolution, consumerism reshaped social ethics. Frugality was no longer a virtue; self-indulgence was encouraged.
• Products are constantly updated, creating many previously nonexistent needs, many of which are social and psychological, not material.
• Religious holidays have become shopping events. Even Memorial Day in the United States is a major sales day.
• Consumerism is most apparent in the food market. Hunger is no longer the issue; obesity is. The fitness and weight loss industry, spawned by obesity, generates significant consumer demand.
• However, consumerism clashes with capitalist ethics, as profits aren’t reinvested. This isn’t truly a problem, as even in the past, aristocrats defied capitalist principles, spending lavishly. The situation is merely reversed today, with the masses indulging while the wealthy focus on wealth appreciation.

The Never-Ending Revolution

Breaking Free from Nature

• The Industrial Revolution significantly reduced human reliance on nature, leading to widespread transformation of the natural environment into an artificial one.
• Humans' total weight now surpasses that of all large wild animals. Poultry and livestock outweigh humans by more than double.
• While new technologies have overcome various resource shortages, the ecological crisis is an undeniable and irreversible reality.

Precise Time

• While less dependent on nature, humans are increasingly reliant on modern industry and government.
• A key manifestation of this is time. Humans have largely shifted from agricultural society’s loose time rhythm to industrial society’s precise one.
• This precise time concept originated in factories and gradually permeated schools, hospitals, government, and all aspects of life. Accurate public transportation is also integral to industrial society’s time concept.
• In 1784, Britain saw the first coach service with a published timetable, though it only included departure times.
• In 1830, Britain’s first commercial railway opened. Ten years later, a train timetable was finally published. Trains' speed made regional time differences noticeable, causing inconvenience. This led to time unification across regions, based on Greenwich Mean Time.
• As more institutions unified time, this behavior eventually became government legislation. This marked the first time a country adopted a national unified timetable, requiring adherence to artificially defined time, rather than local natural time.
• Broadcast media became the primary enforcer and disseminator of timetables. Time signals were among the earliest radio broadcasts, allowing time adjustments. Even today, radio programs begin with the time, preceding any other content.
• During World War II, British radio broadcasts to Nazi-occupied areas started with Big Ben’s chimes. German physicists even deduced London’s weather from the chimes, a valuable intelligence piece. The British, discovering this, replaced live chimes with a recording.
• For the timetable system to function, clocks became ubiquitous. Modern life is inseparable from precise time.

The Collapse of Family and Community

• Industrial society’s most significant change is the decline of family and local community, replaced by a new order established by the state and the market.
• Humans have always lived in small, close-knit communities, unchanged by the Cognitive and Agricultural Revolutions. Even during historical empires, the family remained society’s basic structural unit.
• Before the Industrial Revolution, most people’s lives revolved around three frameworks: the nuclear family, the extended family, and the local community. The family also handled welfare, health, education, construction, guilds, pensions, insurance, media, banking, and even policing.
• For major issues beyond the family, the local community often intervened. Places had recognized conduct principles, and communities often maintained order based on these principles of equality and mutual aid.
• Kingdoms and empires handled larger-scale functions like wars, road and city building. The king levied taxes and recruited soldiers or workers. However, he rarely interfered in family and community affairs.
• Traditional societies lacked the resources to support numerous officials, police, social workers, teachers, and doctors. Therefore, most regimes didn’t develop extensive welfare, medical, and education systems.
• Even if the government wished to intervene in a citizen’s life, it lacked practical means, relying on indirect intervention through intermediate organizations. For example, the Ming Dynasty’s Lijia system grouped 10 households into a Jia and 110 into a Li. The central government issued decrees through Li chiefs and Jia heads.
• However, family and community life wasn’t idyllic. Historically, family and community oppression on members was no less than that of the modern state market. Individuals couldn’t break free; losing family and community protection meant near-certain hardship.
• Over the past two centuries, market power has been unleashed, and the state, aided by communication and transportation, extended its control to every individual. The order established by family and community became an obstacle to the new order.
• Social development gradually replaced community order with state order. Besides external infiltration, the modern state used thought to promote community disintegration from within, praising free will and encouraging youth to break from traditional constraints.
• Modern social order has transferred responsibilities previously held by the family to professional institutions.
• The state now views everyone as an independent individual. Obligations and responsibilities don’t implicate others, even relatives. This became the basis for women’s and children’s independence, often considered property under community order.
• The price of modern order is societal extremism. Family and community power weakens, individuals become more independent, and resistance to state and market power becomes more difficult.
• Society has replaced the nuclear family and community’s material functions, but they retain emotional significance. The state and market penetrate individuals emotionally by shaping imagined communities. The two most important modern imagined communities are the nation and the consumer public.
• The nation strives to conceal its imaginary nature, seeking historical clues to prove its reality.
• The consumer public concept blurs national boundaries.

An Era of Peace

• Rapid modern changes have become the norm, and social order is constantly shifting, unimaginable to the ancients. Modern people are accustomed to this pace.
• Drastic changes bring turmoil, but also unprecedented peace.
• In medieval Europe, annual homicides per 100,000 people were about 20-40. In modern society, it’s only 9 globally, and just 1 in Europe.
• Since World War II’s end, most European empires have withdrawn peacefully, leaving behind relatively stable societies, not chaos.
• The Soviet Union’s 1989 collapse was also remarkably peaceful and swift.
• Since World War II, there have been no instances of invasion and annexation. Modern countries show little interest in international wars.
• Most modern wars are border conflicts, civil wars, or coups.
• Historically, even in peacetime, countries actively prepared for war. Modern society’s peace is genuine. No two countries constantly fear unprovoked full-scale war. There’s no incentive.
• Nuclear weapons are a key reason for modern peace. This deterrent, capable of destroying all humanity, makes world conquest by force impossible.
• Another reason is war’s increasing cost. Ancient wars were for plunder and profit; modern wars are unprofitable.
• Past wealth was primarily land, immovable and occupiable. War had meaning. Today’s wealth is mobile, and there are numerous ways to compete for it. War doesn’t achieve this.
• Conversely, peace is profitable. Historically, trade wasn’t as developed. Peace, at best, saved war costs, offering no clear economic benefits. In modern society, economic exchange between peaceful countries brings mutual prosperity.
• Interconnected economies make war less likely. No country can be entirely self-sufficient. The world has become a vast empire.

More Happiness

Are Humans Happier?

• History rarely examines whether people in a given period were happy, nor does it compare happiness levels across periods.
• Happiness is subjective, making measurement difficult. The most scientific approach currently involves isolating factors and statistically studying large groups' happiness scores.
• Research shows money brings happiness, but with diminishing returns. Illness reduces happiness short-term, but even chronic diseases have limited long-term emotional impact.
• Family and community impact happiness more significantly than the former two. While modern material conditions have improved, the decline of family relationships may offset this. It’s uncertain whether modern people are happier.
• Happiness isn’t solely determined by objective conditions. Achieving expectations, regardless of scale, also significantly influences happiness.
• Modern living standards lead us to view primitive life through a modern lens, concluding it was unhappy. However, the ancients lacked expectations for modern material conditions.
• If happiness is judged by expectations, mass media and advertising may be increasing unhappiness by encouraging comparison with society’s top conditions.

The Biological Basis of Happiness

• Biochemically, the human body limits happiness-producing substances, maintaining them at a stable level. Happiness offers no clear reproductive advantage and isn’t strengthened evolutionarily.
• Happiness-producing substances are merely evolutionary tools, influencing behavior, prompting action or avoidance.
• Evolution creates varying happiness levels. Some individuals naturally maintain higher levels, while others don’t.
• Numerous studies link factors like marriage to happiness. However, correlation doesn’t imply causation; it might be a result.
• From a biological perspective, historical processes have minimal impact on happiness, as human civilization’s short history hasn’t altered the human body.

The Meaning of Existence

• Is the meaning of all human civilization ultimately in life sciences? Will solving all problems be as simple as finding ways to make the body produce more happiness, like in Huxley’s Brave New World?
• This view equates pure biological pleasure with happiness.
• Raising children involves countless headaches, yet most parents find their children a source of happiness.
• Happiness isn’t merely the sum of isolated happy moments. Meaning plays a crucial overall role.
• Biologically, human life is meaningless. However, the meaning we ascribe to it can bring genuine happiness.

The Happiness of Knowing Yourself

• Whether from a biological or meaning-based perspective, happiness is a subjective feeling, a product of liberal thought. Everyone uses their own feelings as the standard; there’s no objective measure.
• Most religions and philosophies differ from liberalism, believing people shouldn’t act solely on their temperament.
• Buddhism is deeply concerned with this, systematically studying happiness’s nature and causes. It posits that happiness isn’t subjective feeling or finding life’s meaning, but relinquishing the pursuit of subjective feelings.
• Overall, the study of happiness remains inconclusive.

The Man-Made Apocalypse

Beyond Nature

• Through breeding, humans have surpassed natural evolution’s constraints, shaping species evolution through artificial design.
• However, breeding isn’t drastically different from natural selection’s symbiotic relationships.
• Genetic technology allows adding traits entirely absent in an organism.
• In 2000, Brazilian bioartist Eduardo Kac, with a scientific team, created a fluorescent rabbit by implanting fluorescent jellyfish DNA into a rabbit embryo, creating a life form unprecedented in nature.
• Intelligent design currently has three methods to replace natural selection: bioengineering, bionic engineering, and inorganic life engineering.

Bioengineering

• Bioengineering isn’t new; humans have practiced it for millennia, including castration.
• Castrated cattle are less aggressive and easier to train for farm work.
• Modern bioengineering operates at cellular and nuclear levels. Gender can be directly altered through surgery and hormone injections.
• Bovine cartilage cells have been implanted on mice, and by controlling tissue growth, they’ve been grown into human ear shapes.
• Bioengineering’s power raises numerous ethical concerns. Its practical application remains largely limited to transforming microorganisms, plants, insects, and other politically non-sensitive species.
• We can transform E. coli to produce biofuels or insulin outside the body. We can also insert Arctic fish genes into potatoes to enhance cold resistance.
• Some mammals have undergone genetic modification. Cows have been modified to produce milk containing an enzyme that combats pathogens. The pig industry uses genetic modification to insert a worm gene, converting unhealthy pork fatty acids into healthier ones.
• Vole breeding is typically crossbreeding, but one species exhibits stable monogamy. Genetic modification can identify and utilize this monogamy gene to alter other species' social structures.
• Bioengineering can not only transform existing organisms but also revive extinct ones. Mammoth gene sequencing has been completed from remains. Replacing modern elephant egg cell DNA with mammoth DNA could cultivate mammoths.
• Completing the Neanderthal genome project could allow Neanderthal recreation.
• We might even directly transform humans, cultivating individuals with superior biological traits.
• Current obstacles are primarily ethical and political, not technical. However, numerous gray areas exist, and ethical and political barriers can’t entirely halt bioengineering research at certain levels.

Bionic Engineering

• Bionic engineering alters life’s characteristics by combining inorganic tissues with organic life.
• Modern humans are, to some extent, cyborgs. The mechanical tools and electronic products we use extend our senses and abilities. Narrowing the definition to require inorganic components to be part of the body, that era is also approaching.
• The US is researching bionic insects, implanting chips in flies or cockroaches, allowing remote control of their movements and perception of their sensory information.
• The US Navy has proposed a bionic shark project, using implanted tags to control shark behavior and leveraging their sensitive magnetic field detection for submarine and mine detection.
• The latest hearing aids, or bionic ears, feature an external microphone converting sound to electrical signals transmitted directly to the auditory nerve.
• Germany is developing artificial retinas to restore partial vision to the blind. Microchips implanted in the eye convert light into electrical energy, stimulating undamaged retinal nerve cells to produce visual information. This technology has enabled patients to perceive space, recognize letters, and faces.
• In 2001, an American electrician who lost both arms received advanced bionic arms controlled directly by the brain, similar to natural arm control. While limited, they enable simple life actions.
• Bionic arms lack human arm sensitivity and touch, but these issues will likely be resolved. Bionic arms offer unique advantages, like strength and remote control.
• Duke University scientists implanted electrodes in rhesus monkeys' brains, transmitting signals to external devices controlling bionic hands. One monkey learned to control the bionic arm consciously, simultaneously with its own arm, even when the bionic arm was in another city.
• Locked-in syndrome patients lose almost all motor ability. Some have received brain electrode implants. Deciphering brain signals could enable not only action commands but also language interpretation, providing a communication pathway. This could even become a modern mind-reading technique.
• Brain-computer interfaces are the most revolutionary current research. Immersively reading others' memories through such interfaces could blur the lines of personal memory. Self-awareness would be subverted, and such humans would become a new species.

Inorganic Life Engineering

• Creating entirely inorganic life is exemplified by independently evolving computer programs and viruses.
• While computer viruses' classification as life is debatable, what about a computer-simulated person mimicking all human neural activity? The Blue Brain Project is researching this. Although the human brain may function differently from a computer, the project’s potential impact, if successful, would be profound.

Impact on Culture

• While most of these artificial life forms aren’t yet reality, they’ve already significantly impacted culture and created numerous problems. Laws require reconsideration, privacy needs redefinition, equality must be addressed, and extended lifespans impact retirement age, among other issues.
• Regarding genes alone, are they private? Can they be discriminated against? Can newly created species' gene sequences be patented? Beyond these, the potential creation of superhumans poses the greatest challenge.
• These developments could lead to the most severe inequality in human history, challenging our current values and causing immense changes.
• Humans generally resist being superseded by an unfamiliar species. However, modern science demonstrates the capability to create a new human far superior to us. Their emergence would likely lead to their dominance.