86Thousand400: Sapiens: The Coming of the Future, He and She, Shells and Cigarettes, The Discovery o

The Coming of the Future

The Agricultural Revolution made the future far more important than it had ever been before. Farmers must always keep the future in mind and must work in its service. The Agricultural economy was based on a seasonal cycle of production, comprising long months of cultivation followed by short peak periods of harvest. On the night following the end of a plentiful harvest the peasants might celebrate for all they were worth, but within a week or so they were again up at dawn for a long day in the field. Although there was enough food for today, next week and even next month, they had to worry about next year and the year after that. (Now people do this with £. Constant need for more..Lesson - live for the NOW)

He and She

How can we distinguish what is biologically determined from what people merely try to justify through biological myths? A good rule of thumb is 'Biology enables, culture forbids.' Biology is willing to tolerate a very wide spectrum of possibilities. It's culture that obliges people to realise some possibilities while forbidding others. Biology enables women to have children - some cultures oblige women to realise this possibility. Biology enables men to enjoy sex with another - some cultures forbid them to realise this possibility

Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition.

In truth, our concepts 'natural' and 'unnatural' are taken not from Biology, but from Christian theology. The theological meaning of 'natural' is 'in accordance with the intentions of the God who created nature'.

Shells and Cigarettes

In fact, even today coins and banknotes are a rare form of money. The sum total of money in the world is about 60 trillion dollars, yet the sum total of coins and banknotes is less than 6 trillion. More than 90% of all money - more than 50 trillion dollars appearing in our accounts - exists only on computer servers

The Discovery of Ignorance

The last 500 years have witnessed a phenomenal and unprecedented growth in human power. In the year 1500, there were about 500 million Homo sapiens in the entire world. Today there are 7 billion. The total value of goods and services produced by humankind in the year 1500 is estimated at 250 billion dollars, in today's dollars. Nowadays the value of a year of human production is close to 60 trillion dollars. In 1500, humanity consumed about 13 trillion calories of energy per day. Today, we consume 1500 trillion calories a day. (Take a second look at those figures - human population has increased fourteen fold, production 240-fold, and energy consumption 115 fold.)

Year 1500:

Population: 500 million

Goods and Services produced: 250 billion dollars/year

Energy consumption: 13 trillion calories per day

Year 2017:

Population: 7 billion

Goods and Services produced: 60 trillion dollars/year

Energy Consumption: 1500 trillion calories per day

+Notsustainable +Livewithinyourmeans +Needforless

Why Europe?

This explanation sheds new light on the period from 1500 to 1850. During this era Europe did not enjoy any obvious technological, political, military or economic advantage over the Asian powers, yet the continent built up a unique potential, whose importance suddenly became obvious around 1850. The apparent equality between Europe, China and the Muslim world in 1750 was a mirage. Imagine two builders, each busy constructing very tall towers. One builder uses wood and mud bricks, whereas the other uses steel and concrete. At first it seems that there is not much of a difference between the two methods, since both towers grow at a similar pace and reach a similar height. However, once a critical threshold is crossed, the wood and mud tower cannot stand the strain and collapses, whereas the steel and concrete tower grows storey by storey, as far as the eye can see.

What potential did Europe develop in the early modern period that enabled it to dominate the late modern world? There are two complementary answers to this question: modern science and capitalism. Europeans were used to thinking and behaving in a scientific and capitalist way even before they enjoyed any significant technological advantages. When the technological bonanza began, Europeans could harness is far better than anybody else. (George notes - Now health +getahead). So it is hardly co-incidental that science and capitalism form the most important legacy that European imperialism has bequeathed the post-European world of the twenty first century. Europe and Europeans no longer rule the world, but science and capital are growing ever stronger. The victories of capitalism are examined in the following chapter. This chapter is dedicated to the love story between European imperialism and modern science