MindMap Gallery A brief history of mankind
"A Brief History of Humanity" by Yuval Harari. Although Harari is a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he can learn from physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, ecology, politics, culture, psychology and economics. From the perspective of human beings as a species and even the entire human society, we made a comprehensive investigation and predicted the future.
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This Valentine's Day brand marketing handbook provides businesses with five practical models, covering everything from creating offline experiences to driving online engagement. Whether you're a shopping mall, restaurant, or online brand, you'll find a suitable strategy: each model includes clear objectives and industry-specific guidelines, helping brands transform traffic into real sales and lasting emotional connections during this romantic season.
This Valentine's Day map illustrates love through 30 romantic possibilities, from the vintage charm of "handwritten love letters" to the urban landscape of "rooftop sunsets," from the tactile experience of a "pottery workshop" to the leisurely moments of "wine tasting at a vineyard"—offering a unique sense of occasion for every couple. Whether it's cozy, experiential, or luxurious, love always finds the most fitting expression. May you all find the perfect atmosphere for your love story.
The ice hockey schedule for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, featuring preliminary rounds, quarterfinals, and medal matches for both men's and women's tournaments from February 5–22. All game times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST).
"A Brief History of Mankind" Yuval Harari
Preface: Lend you a pair of God’s eyes
Although Harari is a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is able to understand people as a species and even the entire human race from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, ecology, politics, culture, psychology and economics. The ins and outs of society, a comprehensive investigation and predictions for the future. Historical research like this that breaks down the barriers between so many disciplines is simply jaw-dropping. This should not be something that a historian can accomplish on his own, but Harari actually did it, and a large number of ideas in "A Brief History of Humankind" have triggered heated discussions in many scientific fields.
Our ancestors lived a life of hunting and gathering before agricultural civilization. In fact, it was a wealthy society. Our ancestors lived a more comfortable and meaningful life than we live now. And the Agricultural Revolution was a huge scam that made all human beings start living miserable lives. You must have thought that we humans tamed wheat, but you must have never thought that it was actually wheat that tamed humans. Money is the most ubiquitous and effective mutual trust system ever created. It does bring happiness to individual humans, but once it exceeds a certain limit, it becomes ineffective. Human beings are animals suspended in the web of meaning we have woven ourselves. Each of us lives both objective reality and the stories we have made up. Cultural evolution has replaced genetic evolution, which has allowed humans to embark on the path of rapid evolution. Every time there is a great increase in the overall capabilities of mankind, which seems to be a great success, in fact, there is also an increase in individual suffering. The scientific revolution is not a revolution of knowledge, but a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery at the beginning of the scientific revolution was the discovery that we humans don't know anything about the most important things. Scientists can transform not only the body, but also the mind. The bioengineering, biomimetic engineering and inorganic life engineering we are now exploring are allowing intelligent design to replace natural selection. These changes will touch the essence of human beings, and even the definition of human beings may be different from now on. Our happiness does not come from transforming the world or gaining ourselves, but from biochemistry. So we can never be satisfied. However, the inner peace advocated by Buddhism has the same goal as modern biochemistry.
Gao Yi, professor of the Department of History at Peking University, said in his preface to "A Brief History of Humanity" that Harari's answer to such an enigmatic philosophical question of life may be far from the real answer. However, his efforts are valuable. I believe that after reading his book, more people will participate in thinking about this issue. And once the legendary "true meaning of life" begins to be understood by more and more people, human beings will History may not only continue for a long time, but also take on a healthier appearance.
The Awakening of Homo Sapiens: A Flood Sweeping the World
Seventy thousand years ago, our modern human ancestors, Homo sapiens, were favored by God for some unknown reason and started a cognitive revolution. From then on, the journey of bloodbath all over the world began. All other human races were driven to extinction by Homo sapiens, and brought catastrophe to all creatures wherever they went. Before we entered agricultural civilization, our Homo sapiens ancestors had already sent half of the large animals on land to the west, competing for the top spot as the deadliest creature on earth. We, who are so jealous, now calm down and think about what made us Homo sapiens from apes on the edge of the biological world to become the overlords who rule the earth? We discovered that the cognitive revolution is the result of God giving us large-scale (insects) and flexible (mammals) collaboration with strange species. And when I took a peek at the trump card of human collaboration, I was surprised to find that it was just because we can tell stories!
Understanding Revolution: The Secret of the Hand of God
Humanity has been living in a dual reality since the cognitive revolution. On the one hand, we exist in an objective reality with mountains, rivers, lions, and elephants; on the other hand, we also live in an imaginary reality composed of the imagination of God, the country, and corporations. And as time goes by, the imaginary reality continues to grow, and it has grown to this day. If those mountains, rivers, lions, and elephants want to survive, they often have to rely on whether God, the country, and enterprises are willing to let go of these imaginary realities. They have a way out. Imagination forms a story, and the story is believed by everyone and triggers collaboration. Collaboration seems to sound like a compliment, a kind of praise. But let us not forget that collaboration also brings discrimination, slavery, killing and war. Prisons, concentration camps, and the military are the best examples. Our worst behaviors as humans are also driven by our ability to collaborate at scale.
The hand of God opened up the spirituality of our Homo sapiens and gave us imagination. The stories compiled by our imagination were caught by the common belief, which in turn triggered the large-scale flexible cooperation of Homo sapiens and evolved order and civilization. Today, while all of us humans live in the real world of mountains, lakes, fine wine and delicious food, we are also suspended in the imaginary world we humans have spun. The story of nations, alliances, laws, corporations, money, and more creates a social system that we all live in and believe in today. Cultural evolution replaced genetic evolution, allowing us to bypass the limitations of mammalian genomes and embark on a high-speed path of rapid development.
The Agricultural Revolution - the huge scam that started the human tragedy
First of all, gathering societies hunted about once every three days, and 3-6 hours each time was enough to feed the entire tribe, which was shorter than the working hours of modern humans. The Agricultural Revolution allowed human beings to settle down and stay within their own one-third of an acre, causing us to abandon the original symbiotic relationship closely linked to self-heating, making us alienated from the entire world. The busy life of working at sunrise replaced the original colorful life of foragers.
Secondly, the agricultural revolution caused the population to continuously gather in areas for farming, and the large number of people living in groups led to frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases. Moreover, our skeleton is suitable for climbing and running, not bending down for farming, and more joint pains begin to follow. These are problems that collectors have not had to face before.
Furthermore, the agricultural revolution has greatly reduced the quality of our diet. Humans are originally omnivorous animals. Before the agricultural revolution, grains formed only a small part of the human diet. Moreover, grain-based foods are not only insufficient in minerals and vitamins and difficult to digest, but are also greatly harmful to teeth and gums.
As far as people's livelihood economy is concerned, agriculture has not brought economy and security. It is a huge misunderstanding that farmers have a more secure life than foragers. In fact, the previous gatherers had dozens of different kinds of food to survive. Even if they didn't have food in stock, they didn't have to worry about starving to death in a famine year. Even if the quantity of a certain food decreases, as long as more other foods are collected and hunted, it will be fine. Until recently, however, the vast majority of diets in agricultural societies relied on a few crops, such as wheat, potatoes, or rice. Therefore, if there is a shortage of water, a locust disaster, or an outbreak of fungal infection, the death toll among farmers may reach one million in an instant.
In terms of human violence, agriculture makes humans more insecure. The characters of farmers in the early agricultural era were not necessarily gentler than those of foragers in the past, and they might even be more violent. After all, they now have more personal property and need land to farm it. If the land is robbed by nearby people, you may fall from the paradise of food and clothing to the hell of hunger, so there is almost no room for compromise on the matter of land. In the past, if a tribe of gatherers encountered a stronger opponent, the problem could be solved by simply retreating and moving. Although difficult and dangerous, at least this option exists. But if farmers encounter a strong enemy, retreating means giving up their fields, houses and stored grain. Many times this is almost equal to starving to death. Therefore, farmers often have to hold on to their fields, and both sides fight to the death.
Since the Agricultural Revolution was a big pit, why did our ancestors insist on jumping into this pit?
The transition from a gathering society to an agricultural society did not happen overnight. It was a process of slow decline that lasted for thousands of years.
The reason why we are slowly slipping into the trap of the agricultural revolution is because all changes are the result of accumulation of bits and pieces. It takes many generations to change society; and by that time, no one can remember that there was a different way in the past. You can choose your lifestyle. Another reason is because population growth is like burning a boat. Once farming is adopted, when the population of the village grows from 100 to 110 people, will the extra ten people voluntarily starve so that others can return to the good old days? There is no turning back from this road. By the time humans discovered it, they were already deep in the quagmire and unable to extricate themselves.
Why do humans make such fatal misjudgments?
In fact, human beings have repeatedly made the same mistakes throughout history, and the reason is the same: because we cannot truly understand the final results of various decisions.
What was originally a luxury item will eventually become a necessity. When you get used to it, it begins to become a matter of course and then becomes a kind of dependence. Think about it, over the past few decades we have had many inventions that were supposed to make life easier and less labor-intensive: washing machines, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, cell phones, computers, email, and more. In the past, sending letters was a very troublesome task. You had to write, write the envelope, affix stamps, and then walk to the post office. You may have to wait days, weeks, or even months to get a reply. Now, I can send an email to the other side of the world and, if the recipient is online, receive a reply in just a minute. I did save all the trouble and time, but was life really easier?
The real situation is indeed the opposite. We used email and chat software. But today, we receive dozens of emails and countless chat messages every day, and everyone wants you to respond immediately. In the era of sending letters, the content of the letter was to be carefully considered and considered twice, but now it doesn’t matter whether it’s important or not. , whether it is urgent or not, there will always be a greeting from afar, are you there? And is the time we spend responding to these emails or chat messages more or less than the time we originally spent writing letters? And are these really necessary? For another example, more than ten years ago in our lives, we always needed to take some time to wash clothes and quilts, right? Now we have washing machines or laundromats doing the work for us, which seems to save time; however, can we use the time saved for leisure or entertainment? If we suddenly no longer have a washing machine or laundry, will we still have time to wash clothes like we did ten years ago? Why is this? Where did the time that seemed to be saved by modern technology go? In fact, this is because we have accelerated the pace of life to several times or even ten times that of the past, so we have become busy and restless all day long.
This story about the pitfalls of luxury living teaches us an important lesson. Human beings' pursuit of an easier life has unleashed a huge force that has changed the face of the world, but the result is something no one could have expected, and no one would even like to see. In fact, there was no one person or organization behind the scenes that promoted the agricultural revolution. In the beginning, it was just various small things, mainly hoping to have enough food and live a safer life. But in the end, the cumulative effect was that ancient gatherers began to spend all day fetching water and farming under the scorching sun.
Therefore, every good wish is put into good changes, but the accumulation of countless good changes may not necessarily lead to a good result. Be it the agricultural revolution or modern society. Are we really making progress? Or are we using the excuse of progress to continue to get lost?
Heaven and Hell: Animals on the Human Table
In the last episode, we talked about the agricultural revolution that began 12,000 years ago. This revolution was not, as today’s scholars claim, a great leap forward for mankind. It was a story of progress driven by the continuous development of human intelligence. . The author tells us that this is not the case. The agricultural revolution did not make our human lives easier, richer and more enjoyable. On the contrary, we humans have since begun to turn away from the entire nature, giving up our original close symbiotic relationship with nature. We began to guard our one-third of an acre of land as a prison, and this story can be interpreted as that we were enslaved by wheat, weeding, watering, and fertilizing wheat every day, and serving wheat all day long. The transition from a collecting society to an agricultural society is a slow sliding process. Every seemingly small contribution can bring considerable returns, but such continuous accumulation makes it impossible for us to look back.
The Agricultural Revolution did bring some direct benefits to the first generation farmers, such as less need to worry about wild beast attacks, wind and rain, but for ordinary people, it may actually do more harm than good. Modern society is prosperous and prosperous, but it is difficult for us to understand the disadvantages. After all, all the prosperity and security now are based on the agricultural revolution, so we feel that the agricultural revolution is really a wonderful progress. However, we cannot look at this 10,000-year history solely from today’s perspective.
A more representative point of view is that when we focus from the level of the entire species to individual individuals of this species, we see a completely different scene.
Maybe during the Han Dynasty in our country, a girl starved to death because her family's crops failed. Let's think about it, will she say: "Although I starved to death, I know that more than two thousand years later, humans will be able to eat and drink endlessly and live in air-conditioned mansions, so my sacrifice will be worth it." ?”
For that malnourished Han Dynasty girl or all farmers, what did wheat give them? For an individual, wheat is nothing given. But for the Homo sapiens species as a whole, wheat’s impact has been profound.
If we want to measure the evolutionary success of a species, the criterion is the number of copies of its DNA helix in the world. This is very similar to the concept of currency. Just like today, if we want to say whether a certain company is viable, we look at its market value, not whether its employees are happy. If there are no more DNA copies of a species in the world, it means that the species has become extinct, which means the company has no money and declares bankruptcy. And if the DNA copies of a certain species continue to increase in the world, it means that the species has evolved successfully and is thriving. But why should we, as individuals, care about this evolution? If someone said that in order to "increase the number of copies of the Homo sapiens genome in the world", they wanted you to lower your standard of living, would you agree? No one will agree to this deal.
Therefore, the agricultural revolution is a trap. The real essence of the agricultural revolution is to allow more people to survive in worse living conditions.
The agricultural revolution taught us two lessons
The first lesson is that every good wish is put into good changes, but the accumulation of countless good changes may not lead to a good result.
The second lesson is the evolution of objects. Overall success cannot conceal the tragic fate of individuals.
Prison Walls: Order Constructed by Imagination
Next, let’s take an objective look at what changes the agricultural revolution brought to mankind.
First of all, since the agricultural revolution, humans have found it difficult to leave these "artificial islands". Giving up all the houses, fields, warehouses and livestock may cause heavy losses.
In addition, as time goes by and we own more and more things, moving becomes a very difficult thing.
In addition, after the agricultural revolution, the importance of the future was raised to a new historical high.
Yuval Harari subversively believes that the order constructed by imagination is actually like the high walls of a prison. How to understand this?
First of all, how can we make our people believe in these orders?
First, the external rhetoric is absolutely true in insisting on these orders. Tell your story as the inevitable result given and created by the great God or the laws of nature. If we want to say that everyone is unequal, it is not because of what Hammurabi himself said, but because of God’s will. If we want to say that all people are equal, we cannot say that it was Jefferson himself who said this, but rather that it was the grace of the Creator. If we want to say that the free market economy is the best economic system, we cannot say that it is Adam Smith who said it himself, but rather that it is because this is the unchanging law of nature.
Second, the same set of principles must be thoroughly implemented in education. From the moment we are born, we are constantly reminded of this order constructed by our imagination. Whether it is fairy tales, operas, paintings, songs, architecture, recipes, fashion or political propaganda. They all allow us to continue to accept and identify with the order.
Secondly, today’s world has made us never feel that all the order in our lives is actually imagination.
Because the order constructed by imagination has been deeply integrated with the real world and is inseparable. Secondly, it has completely shaped our desires, producing romanticism, nationalism, capitalism, humanism, etc. This makes each of us the most powerful guardian of the fictional order. In the end, even if we use some supernatural power to let our desires escape the order, it is still only me. There is simply no way to break the order itself.
Let’s take the previous example of Mercedes-Benz, which is a common imagination that exists in the minds of countless people. You believe it, I believe it, everyone believes it. And if one day, even the chairman of Mercedes-Benz does not believe in the existence of Mercedes-Benz cars, what will be the result? He will soon be sent to a mental hospital, and someone will immediately take his place. So if we want to solve Mercedes-Benz, we need to imagine something stronger, like a legal system. And if we want to solve the legal system, we have to imagine greater national power. And if we want to solve the country, we must imagine a more powerful story.
Therefore, Harari said, as humans, we can never escape the order constructed by our imagination. Every time we think we have broken down the prison wall and are heading towards freedom, in fact we have just arrived at another larger prison and slightly expanded the scope of our activities, that's all.
Integration and unity
direction of history
Cultural characteristics will continue to change even without the influence of foreign culture. Although each culture has its own beliefs, norms, and values, they are constantly fluid and changing. Moreover, when culture, an order constructed by us humans from imagination, is given to individuals, various unexpected contradictions will appear.
For example, the nobles of medieval Europe not only believed in Catholicism, but also had to abide by the spirit of chivalry.
For another example, since the French Revolution, humans around the world have gradually agreed that freedom and equality are the most basic values. But the two simply contradict each other! If you want to ensure equality, you must restrict those who are more prominent; and if you want everyone to be "free", it will inevitably affect the equality of all people.
Just as the Middle Ages could not resolve the conflict between chivalry and Catholicism, modern society cannot resolve the conflict between freedom and equality. The author believes that this cannot be said to be a shortcoming. Contradictions like this are inevitable for every human culture. They can even be said to be the engine of culture, bringing creativity and power. Just like two discordant notes can make music progress, different human ideas, concepts and values can also force us to think, criticize and re-evaluate. If everything requires consistency, it will make the mind sluggish and society will become cancerous.
Regarding the topic of contradiction, let me make a few digressions. When we look at the same thing, we often hold opposite views, so it becomes red-faced to argue with the other party. But as we come into contact with more and more viewpoints, we will gradually find that there are contradictions in the knowledge we have learned. As the contradictions continued to accumulate, I finally understood that the process of expanding my cognitive boundaries was accompanied by the process of constantly shaping myself into a contradictory body. Do we seek knowledge to obtain the truth? But some people say that the truth itself is like a watch whose back cover can never be opened. We never know what the truth contained in it is. What we call knowledge is to constantly interpret the information that the watch hands want to show us, and then analyze what its core truth is. We often think that we are getting closer to the truth, but what if the information shown to me by the hands of the watch is actually far from the truth at all?
Human culture is constantly in flux. But is this flow completely random? Or is there an overall pattern? In other words, does history have a general direction?
The answer is yes. Over thousands of years, we have seen small and simple cultures gradually merge into larger and more complex civilizations. As a result, the number of large cultures in the world has gradually decreased, but their scale and complexity are far greater than they were yesterday.
If we look at it from a micro level, every time several cultures merge into a large culture, we can also see the fragmentation and disintegration of the large culture. Just like the Mongol Empire, although it once dominated Asia and even conquered parts of Europe, it eventually fell apart. Like Christianity, although it has hundreds of millions of believers, it has also split into countless sects. The same is true for Latin. Although it once circulated in Central and Western Europe, it was eventually transformed into various local dialects and evolved into the languages of various countries.
However, it is only a temporary situation that a long period of time will lead to division, and a long period of time will inevitably unite. This is the unchanging general trend.
If you want to observe the direction of history, the key point is which height to use. From an ordinary bird's-eye view, looking at the development trend over decades or centuries, it may be difficult to judge whether historical trends are dividing or converging. So we have to zoom up to a height similar to that of a space satellite, and look at a span of not centuries, but thousands of years. This kind of height allows us to see clearly at a glance that the historical trend is that the long-term separation will inevitably lead to convergence. As for the previous examples of the Schism of Christianity or the collapse of the Mongol Empire, they are like small bumps in the road of history.
Today, almost all human beings accept the same geopolitical system. The entire earth is divided into different countries, but they are all internationally recognized. The whole world uses the same economic system, and even the most remote corners of the earth are influenced by the capitalist market economy. shaping; the whole world adopts the same legal system, at least in theory, human rights and international law are universal; the whole world also accepts the same scientific system, whether in China, the United States, Australia or Brazil, experts on atomic structure or tuberculosis The opinions on therapy will all be the same.
Therefore, our cultural development is undergoing the process of globalization.
We often say that certain cultures are relatively pure, but under the baptism of globalization, those cultures that have never been interfered by the outside world from beginning to end and only have the oldest local traditions no longer exist in our world.
The most interesting example of the fusion of global cultures and what we call pure culture is in the food of various countries. When we walk into an Italian restaurant, it seems that we must see tomatoes and pasta; in an Irish restaurant, there should be a lot of potatoes; in an Argentinian restaurant, there should be dozens of types of steak; in an Indian restaurant, everything should be peppered. These are the so-called pure local food cultures, but interestingly, the foods mentioned above do not have the same origin in these countries. Caesar in the ancient Roman Empire and Dante in Italy never rolled up spaghetti and tomatoes with a fork; potatoes were introduced to Ireland 400 years ago; you couldn't see steak in Argentina 500 years ago; as for India's Buddha never added chili pepper to food. What we can see now, represented by food culture, is actually the product of modern civilization and globalization, and it cannot be said to be pure at all.
If we look back, we will find that the most critical stage of global integration was the past few centuries. The growth of empires, the intensification of global trade, and the transmission of religious ideas have closely connected humans in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. In 1000 BC, the concept of "one global family" gradually developed, and three possible orders that could achieve the concept of "one global family" emerged.
economic monetary order
political imperial order
global religion
the taste of money
1. All things can be exchanged: Money is like alchemy, allowing you to turn land into the loyalty of your men, justice into health, and violence into knowledge.
2. Everyone believes that with money as a medium, any two people can achieve various cooperations.
It is because of these two principles that millions of strangers can cooperate in various trades and industries. However, these seemingly harmless principles have a dark side. If everything could be exchanged for money, it would allow the ruthless laws of supply and demand to replace the original intimate relationships and personal values.
Human society and family have always been maintained by honor, loyalty, morality and love. But these will not be put on the market, nor should they be measured in money. Even if the market offers sky-high prices, there are some things you just shouldn't do. For example, should parents sell people into slavery, should they betray their trust for money, and should marriage be reduced to a tool of exchange for obtaining material life? However, money continues to break these limitations.
There is a darker side to money. Although money can build trust between strangers, people trust not people, communities, or some sacred values, but only money itself and the system behind it that operates without human values. We still don’t trust strangers, we still don’t even trust our next-door neighbors, but we trust them with their money. No money, no trust. When the infiltration of money breaks down the dam built by society, religion and country, the world becomes a huge and ruthless market.
Therefore, the economic history of mankind is like dancing a subtle dance. We use money to facilitate cooperation with strangers but fear that it will undermine human values and intimate relationships. On the one hand, we also want to break the social dams that restrict the flow of money and commerce; but on the other hand, we keep building new dams in the hope of protecting society, religion, and the environment from the enslavement of market forces.
Nowadays it is often said that market forces will prevail and that the dams they build, whether kings, religions or societies, will eventually be defeated by the rush of money. However, there have always been brave warriors, fanatical religious elements, and politically concerned figures who have repeatedly defeated scheming businessmen and even reshuffled the entire economy. Therefore, when it comes to the eventual unification of mankind, it is by no means purely relying on the economic process. If you want to know how thousands of independent cultures were gradually connected to form today's global village, although the role of gold and white is indeed far-reaching, don't underestimate the power of the sword.
vision of empire
As we said in the previous program, to find the laws of the evolution of human civilization, we must look down from the height of a satellite and look at the historical span of thousands of years. The result we see is that the long-term unity must be divided only for a moment, and the long-term division must be combined is the unchanging general trend. Since 1000 BC, our human history has entered a process of globalization, and three orders have emerged that may unify mankind around the world. They are money, empire and religion respectively. In the last episode we focused on money. He has two major characteristics, one is that everything can be exchanged, and the other is that everything can be believed. Under the baptism of the money craze, the entire world has gradually turned into a huge and ruthless market, and we have begun to worry that the worship of money will drown the intimate relationships between us. Ultimately enslaving our society, religion and the environment in which we live. Today we continue to talk about the second order that can promote global integration - empire
what is empire
First, the empire must rule over many different peoples, each with different cultural identities and independent territories.
Second, the territory of the empire can be flexibly adjusted and expanded almost infinitely.
According to this concept, the empire must rule more than three peoples, and the empire can incorporate more other countries and territories without adjusting its own basic structure and national identity.
Speaking of Britain today, if it does not change its basic structure and identity, it will be difficult for it to break through the existing territory. But in the British Empire a century ago, it was possible to become part of it almost anywhere in the world. That's why the empire on which the sun never sets at that time was called an empire, but the same cannot be said for Britain today.
The empire is not a good thing among people. I want to help the empire wash the pot.
First, it is said that the empire's system is unworkable and difficult to govern. But in the past 2,500 years, empire has been the most common political form in the world, and it is also very stable. Most of the time, it's not a problem to defeat the rebels within the empire. Empires are usually overturned because of external aggression or internal strife among the ruling elite.
Secondly, relatively speaking, there are many successful cases of conquered peoples pursuing freedom and resisting imperial rule, but most of them performed very poorly. Most of the conquered people remained submissive for hundreds of years. These ethnic groups will be slowly digested by the empire, and their own unique culture will eventually disappear.
For example, we know that the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, but the hundreds of peoples they conquered over the past millions of years did not rise from the ashes of the empire, but stayed like this forever. Disappeared. These nations once had their own national identities, languages and gods they worshiped. However, when the Western Roman Empire fell, their descendants were completely different in terms of thought, language or belief. An ancient Roman.
Furthermore, when an empire collapses, it does not mean that the subjects can become independent. Instead, every time an empire disintegrates, a new empire will take its place and continue to rule.
The most obvious one is the Middle East. Today, there are many independent political entities in the Middle East at the same time, and the boundaries between them are also ambiguous. However, in the past 3,000 years of empires, this has never been the case. From the rise of the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century AD until the disintegration of the British and French empires in the mid-20th century, the dominance of the Middle East has been passed from one empire to the next like a baton. After the British and French empires finally fell, all the peoples previously conquered by the Assyrian Empire had long since disappeared.
In addition, we do not deny that the establishment and maintenance of an empire is indeed accompanied by tragic massacres, and the survivors after rule will also be brutally oppressed.
The standard configuration of empires mostly included war, slavery and genocide. The ancient Romans invaded Scotland in 83 AD and were met with resistance by the locals. As a result, the ancient Romans turned the place into ruins. Burning, killing and looting became synonymous with the empire at that time. They turned everything into a desert and claimed that this was peace.
However, when it comes to the Empire, I feel that everything about it is evil and cruel, and all related things should be abandoned, and it is too one-sided. The Empire is not completely harmful and useless.
Because after the empire conquered and plundered everywhere, it not only used it to feed the army and build fortresses, but also sponsored philosophy, art, justice and public welfare. So many of the cultural achievements that mankind has now come precisely from the exploitation of the ruled.
If it weren't for the prosperity of the ancient Roman Empire, where would Cicero and St. Augustine have the money and time to think and write? Without the Mughal dynasty's brutal expropriation of Indians, the Taj Mahal would not have been built. How could the commissions of Haydn and Mozart be paid without the Habsburg taxes on the conquered?
Even if we not only observe elite culture and high art, but turn to the world of ordinary people, we will still find traces of empire ubiquitous in modern culture. Needless to say, our unified language allows us to communicate with compatriots across the country without any barriers. This is due to the empire.
The role of empire in the process of human globalization and integration
In the process of the integration of many small cultures into large cultures, the influence of the empire played a major role. Whether it is the spread of ideas, population, goods or technology, the speed of spread within the empire is more convenient and faster than that of different regulated areas. Also, the most important thing is that the empire itself deliberately spreads various ideas, systems and norms. This is for two very simple reasons.
One is that it will make it easier to rule. If each region of the empire has its own set of laws, writing, language and currency, wouldn't it be extremely troublesome to govern? So standardization is necessary.
Another reason is that the empire actively spreads a common culture, which can strengthen its political legitimacy. We can see that whether it is paving roads or massacres, the empire will find high-sounding reasons for what it does. Some say it is to spread higher culture, and some say it is to bring more benefits to you conquered people.
For example, in the eyes of China's rulers, we can see from the news broadcast that all neighboring countries are gangs of barbarians living in dire straits. Our heavenly country should benefit all directions and broadcast Chinese culture. The so-called destiny is not to exploit and plunder the entire world, but to educate all peoples.
Similarly, the ancient Romans also said that their rule was natural, because they felt that they had brought peace and justice to the surrounding barbarians, making their lives more noble. They believed that the Germanic people were barbaric in nature and that the Gauls lived a dirty and ignorant life. It was not until the arrival of the Romans that they were tamed by law. Therefore, the Romans also believed that what they brought was not exploitation and slavery, but help.
The Mauryan Dynasty in the 3rd century BC believed that it must take responsibility to spread Buddhism to the ignorant world.
Muslims also have a sacred mission to spread the prophet's revelations, preferably in a peaceful way, but also not hesitate to fight when necessary.
The British Empire, which is known as the country on which the sun never sets, also shouted loudly that they were here to spread the two great gospels of liberalism and free trade.
The Soviets felt that they had an unshirkable responsibility and must help promote this historical necessity, moving from capitalism to the utopia of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
As for many Americans in modern times, they also believe that the United States must shoulder the responsibility of the world's police and allow third world countries to also enjoy democracy and human rights, even if this requires cruise missiles and F-16 fighter jets.
Revealing the immutable law of empire promoting integration
From the beginning a small group of people built a large empire and formed an imperial culture. As the empire expanded externally and conquered more and more ethnic groups, the cultures of many ethnic groups that entered the melting pot of the empire continued to merge into one. The culture of the empire gradually gained recognition and acceptance from its subjects. Then, the natural thing happened. The subjects began to demand equal status in the name of common imperial values, which caused the founders of the empire to lose their original dominant position. However, the imperial culture continued to flourish and flourish. This set of logic is the most basic process by which empires promote globalization and promote the integration of all mankind.
To use two examples, the first is the ancient Roman Empire. First, a small group of ancient Romans established the ancient Roman Empire, and then formed the imperial culture and ancient Roman culture. As the empire expanded, the subjects who were included in the empire gradually accepted Latin, ancient Roman law, ancient Roman political thought, etc. What happened immediately was that the Gauls and Carthaginians within the ancient Roman Empire demanded equal status with the ancient Romans based on the values of ancient Rome. In the end, the ancient Romans were no longer the supreme ethnic group, and the empire controlled Power also transferred to a multi-ethnic elite group, these Gauls and Carthaginians who continued to carry forward the ancient Roman culture they had received.
Let’s take another more general example. Europeans established European empires and formed Western culture. The subjects accepted Western culture such as English, socialism, nationalism, and human rights. Immediately afterwards, Indians, Chinese and Africans demanded equal status with Europeans based on Western values of democracy, freedom and human rights. As a result, Europeans lost their global control and formed a multi-ethnic elite group. Finally, Chinese, Indian and African people, who mostly believe in Western values and ideas, continue to carry forward the Western culture they have received.
The irreversible impact of empire on human culture
In the chapter on the vision of empires, the author also makes an interesting point, that is, it is easy for us to simply divide everyone into good guys and bad guys, and all empires will probably be classified as bad guys. After all, nearly all empires are built on blood and maintain power through oppression and war. However, most of today's culture is a legacy of the empire. If the Empire is by definition a bad thing, then what have we become?
Some doctrines and political movements advocate that all imperialist elements in human culture should be eliminated, leaving only the so-called pure and true civilization, which should not be tainted by imperialism. This idea is completely nonsense in the author's opinion, because all human cultures on the earth are at least partly the legacy of imperial civilization, and there is no so-called pure culture at all. Any surgery in the name of academic or political attempts to remove all parts contaminated with imperialism at once will result in the patient’s death.
No one really knows how to solve the thorny problem of cultural heritage. You must know that history cannot be simply divided into two categories: good guys and bad guys. Of course, unless we are willing to admit, we often follow the bad guys and keep moving forward.
Foresight of the future global empire
Now, a whole new empire has emerged, a truly global empire. Unifying the world is probably not far away from us. Because now nationalism is rapidly losing its status and globalization is sweeping in violently, more and more people believe that the real political authority should come from all human beings, not from members of a specific nationality, and the political power of human beings The direction should also be to protect human rights and safeguard the interests of all mankind.
Moreover, global problems such as melting ice caps are now eroding the legitimacy of independent nation-states themselves. After all, no sovereign country can solve the problem of global warming alone. The future global empire is also likely to be dominated by environmental protection.
Today, although the politics of various countries in the world are still basically running their own affairs, the independence of the country is rapidly disappearing. No country can exercise a truly independent economic policy and launch war at will. In response to the conspiracy of the global economic market, each country can only gradually open up and gradually face the interference of global enterprises and non-governmental organizations. It also has to face the supervision of global public opinion and the interference of international justice. Countries must also comply with global financial, environmental and legal standards. Capital, labor, and information constitute an extremely powerful trend, turning and shaping the current world. The country's own territory and opinions are gradually losing ground.
Our emerging global empire is not governed by any particular nation or ethnic group. Just like the late ancient Roman Empire, it was ruled by a multi-ethnic elite and was united by a common culture and common interests. Around the world, more and more entrepreneurs, engineers, experts, academics, lawyers and managers are being called upon to join this global empire. The question they must face is whether they should answer the call of this empire or be loyal to their country and people? Moreover, more and more people have joined the global empire.
the laws of religion
We have said before that all human social order is a product of imagination, so it must be very fragile. In history, the importance of religion is to give the fragile social order superhuman legitimacy. With religion, we can say that order is not just our own human imagination, but comes from absolute divine power. In this way, the order in the name of God cannot be shaken, thereby making the fragile order more stable. Religion has two major elements. One is the belief that the world has a supernatural order that is not based on our imagination. The other is that based on this superhuman order, a religion develops norms and values that it considers binding.
Religion has moved from the wilderness of history to modern times. In the end, monotheism has become the best kaleidoscope. It not only ensures its continuous spread, but also integrates dualism, polytheism and pantheism. All of this is contained in one sacred statement. For example, Christianity generally believes in a monotheistic God, but it also believes in dualistic devils, polytheistic saints, and pantheistic ghosts. To accommodate these contradictory thoughts at the same time and combine various rituals, there is a special name in religion called "Zongshe". Comprehensive comprehensive, ingestive photo. Perhaps, Zhejiang is the largest religion in the world.
Gautama Buddha, the central figure of Buddhism, is not a god but a human being. Buddhist scriptures say that when Sakyamuni saw the people around him deeply mired in suffering, he became intolerable. He saw that people, regardless of gender, old or young, not only often suffered from the pain of war and plague, but also were not immune to all kinds of anxiety, depression and dissatisfaction. It seemed that all these were inevitable things in life. Human beings pursue wealth and power, acquire knowledge, have children, and build palaces. But no matter how many achievements you have made, you are still not satisfied. The poor dream of becoming rich, and those with a million want ten million. And even if they are really rich and famous, they are still not satisfied, they still have endless troubles and worries, and cannot escape from birth, old age, illness and death. Until the day of death, everything disappears like a dream, and life seems like a meaningless pursuit. However, how can we escape from this reincarnation?
Gautama Buddha spent six years in meditation, pondering the nature, causes and solutions to various human sufferings. In the end, he realized that all suffering does not come from his own bad luck, social injustice, or punishment from the gods, but from everyone's own thought patterns.
He believes that when people encounter things, they usually have desires, and desires always lead to dissatisfaction. When you encounter something you don’t like, you want to avoid it; when you encounter something you like, you want to maintain and increase the happiness. But precisely because of this, people's hearts will never be full. This is especially obvious when people encounter unhappy things. However, even when we encounter joyful things, we are never truly satisfied. Instead, we are always worried that this joy will eventually end or cannot be strengthened. Some people have been looking for love for years, but when they find it, they are still not satisfied. Some begin to worry all day long that the other person may leave; some feel that they are too surrendered and should find someone better. What's more, they are worried about others leaving and feel that they are giving in.
Although God can send rain, social mechanisms can provide fairness, justice and health care, and with good luck we can become millionaires, our basic mentality will not change no matter what. Therefore, even the greatest king cannot avoid anxiety. He can only constantly avoid sorrow and pain, and always want to pursue more happiness.
Gautama Buddha found a way to break out of this vicious cycle. When something brings happiness or pain, the key is to see the essence of the thing clearly, rather than obsessing about the feelings it brings, so that you no longer have to be trapped by it. For example, although you feel sadness, you don't have to hope that the sadness will end. Therefore, although the sadness still exists, you no longer have to worry about it. This process is also a rich experience. In the same way, although you feel happy, don't hope that the happiness will continue. Therefore, although you are still happy, you don't have to lose your peace of mind.
But how can we allow our hearts to accept the essence of things and let go of all kinds of desires? Sakyamuni implemented meditation on various moral codes so that believers can focus more on actual feelings instead of falling into various desires. He asked believers not to kill, engage in sexual misconduct, or steal, because these would surely cause desires to set fire to a prairie fire and lead to the pursuit of power, enjoyment, or wealth. When these flames are completely extinguished, the original desire turns into perfection and silence. This state is called "Nirvana". Reaching this state means that you are freed from all pain and can feel the reality around you with incomparable clarity, without any unnecessary illusions. Although people may still experience pain, it no longer affects them. After all, there is no suffering without desire.
Buddhism does not deny the existence of gods and believes that gods have powerful supernatural powers. However, the gods are completely powerless against the law of "suffering from desire". If there is no desire or need, no god can cause pain. Relatively speaking, if a person has desires, no god can save him from pain.
Like other monotheistic religions, Buddhism cannot get rid of the worship of gods. Although Buddhism tells believers that they should continue to pursue the state of nirvana and not stop for fame and fortune. However, 99% of Buddhists are unable to achieve this state, and most of them still pursue worldly achievements in their daily lives. Therefore, Buddhist believers still worship various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that have developed over time. Where are these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas? They were all human beings in the beginning, and they all reached the state of nirvana and were freed from their suffering. But in order to help all sentient beings, he returned to the world. So Buddhism does not worship gods, but those who have become enlightened. Buddhists hope that they can help them achieve nirvana, and they also hope that they can help us deal with some worldly problems. Humanism emerged during the Renaissance when the object of worship changed from gods to humans. Humanism advocates putting people first and opposes the authority of God, the concept of hierarchy, and ignorance. Promote the liberation of individuality, pursue happiness in life, equality and freedom, and advocate ideals. For humanists, we humans are the most important thing in the world, determining the meaning of everything in the universe.
Everyone in our contemporary generation has been shaped by humanism, it’s just that no one deliberately reminds you. When we are sick and no longer pray to God to forgive your sins, when we choose a partner and no longer follow the orders of our elders, when we worry about environmental pollution because we are afraid of harming ourselves, when we enjoy the deliciousness of steak And when the life of the cow is temporarily ignored. We are already followers of the humanistic religion.
But now, a gulf has opened between humanism and the latest life sciences. Our modern society exists because everyone still believes that they possess a divine, indivisible inner essence that is the source of meaning in our world. However, over the past 200 years, the life sciences have completely undermined this belief. Scientists tell us that it is not personal will that determines human behavior, but the biochemical system in our bodies. We are no different from ants or orangutans.
historical chaos
If we could go back to 10,000 years ago and start it all over again. Will it definitely develop into what the world is like now? This proposition is very interesting. The author says that every point in history is a crossroads. Although there is only a one-way road from the past to the present, there are countless forks in the road to the future.
Some scholars have categorically explained that the Mediterranean region during the ancient Roman Empire had special features in terms of geography, genes, or economy, which would inevitably contribute to the rise of Christianity. However, most historians are deeply skeptical of such firm theories. This is one of the characteristics of history. The more thoroughly you understand a certain era, the harder it is to understand why this event happened instead of another? Using the results afterwards to analyze the inevitable occurrence of the event at that time is called the hindsight fallacy by the author.
In fact, the people who really knew the situation best were the people who lived at the time, and they were the ones least able to see the direction of history. It is an ironclad law of history that what seems inevitable in hindsight was never obvious at the time. This remains the case to this day. Are we out of the global economic crisis? Will China's economy continue to grow rapidly and become the world's largest country? Will the three major religions become the global trend in the future? Is the continuous development of human beings heading towards an ecological disaster or a technological paradise? The answers to all these results will be too obvious after a few decades, and a complete set of explanations behind each of them can be produced. But now we have no idea.
It’s interesting that what seems least likely to happen at the time often becomes history’s choice. It is not that those roads that are wider and smoother are necessarily historical inevitability.
For many who hope to see historical inevitability, this statement is disappointing. To say that history is not inevitable is to say that current nationalism, capitalism and human rights are all products of coincidence.
History is really such a chaotic system that is completely unpredictable. At the same time, there are multiple forces influencing and interfering with each other. As long as there is a minimal change in one force, the result will be hugely different. Not only that, history is a so-called secondary chaotic system.
Chaotic systems are divided into two levels. The first level system means that it will not change due to prediction. For example, weather and earthquakes are first-level systems. Although they are extremely complex and difficult to predict, we can build computational models and continuously input more and more factors to make weather and earthquake predictions more and more accurate.
The second-level chaotic system will be affected by predictions and change. So it can never be predicted. For example, if the current crude oil price is 90 US dollars per barrel, and we predict that it will rise to 100 US dollars tomorrow, businessmen will immediately rush to buy it in order to profit from the expected price increase. But the result is that the price of oil will rise to $100 today instead of waiting until tomorrow. So what will it be tomorrow? Nobody knows. Furthermore, politics is also a secondary chaotic system. Suppose that in 2010, a genius developed an algorithm that could predict whether a revolution would occur. So he sold the service to the Egyptian president in exchange for a large sum of money. He told the president that he predicted a massive revolution in Egypt within the next year. How did the president react after hearing this? He will immediately lower taxes, spend large sums of money to subsidize people's lives, and at the same time strengthen the police force to maintain stability. So, all this had an effect, and a year passed without a revolution. The result must be that the president arrested this so-called genius and yelled at him loudly: "Your algorithm is a lie! If it weren't for this thing of yours, I wouldn't give all my money to others. I would "Build one more palace!" The scientist would definitely argue: "But it was precisely because we predicted it that the revolution didn't happen." "You mean, you predicted it, but it didn't happen?" The president will definitely kill him. .
So why should we study history? History is not like physics or economics, where the aim is not to make accurate predictions. The reason why we study history is not to know the future, but to expand our horizons and understand that the present is neither "natural" nor inevitable. The possibilities for the future are far greater than we imagine.
Although we cannot explain the choices made by history, one thing is certain: historical choices are by no means simply for the purpose of maximizing human interests. As history evolves, there is no evidence that cultures that are beneficial to humans will successfully expand, while cultures that are ruthless to humans will disappear. There is no evidence that Christianity is a better choice than Manichaeism, or that the Arab Empire was more beneficial to humanity as a whole than the Persian Empire.
The reason is that there is no objective measure of "what is good". Of course, winners always believe that their own definition is correct. But why should we believe them? Christians believe that Christianity's defeat of Manichaeism would be beneficial to all mankind; but if we do not accept the Christian worldview, there is no reason to agree with them. Muslims also believe that the Muslim conquest of the Persian Empire was beneficial to mankind; but we can only feel that this is true if we accept the Muslim worldview. It is quite possible that human life would be better off if both Christianity and Islam disappeared completely.
Some scholars have even suggested that culture is actually like a parasite, and humans are the hosts of cultural parasites. This is how parasites reproduce and spread within the host body, from one host to another, stealing nutrients and causing the host to continue to decline. And parasites never care whether their hosts are doing well or not. According to this view, culture is not a conspiracy designed by some people to exploit others, but a psychological parasite that appears due to various coincidences and begins to exploit all infected people after its emergence.
In the social sciences, there are similar arguments in game theory. Game theory tells us that when there are multiple players, certain concepts and behavioral patterns may be harmful to "all" players, but this pattern has a way of persisting. The arms race is the most famous example. In many cases, arms races among various countries will only bring down all the countries that oppose each other, and will not really change the balance of military power.
For example, if Pakistan buys advanced fighter jets, India will immediately follow suit. India is developing nuclear bombs, and Pakistan is following suit. When Pakistan expanded its navy, India immediately followed suit. At the end of this process, the balance of power between the two parties will probably not change at all, but billions of dollars that could be used for education or health care will be wasted on weapons. However, the development trend of this arms race is difficult to resist. This is a behavioral pattern that spreads from one country to another like a virus, harming everyone. It is only beneficial to the behavioral pattern itself and meets the requirements of evolutionary reproduction.
History goes from one fork in the road to the next, and the reasons for choosing one path over another are always mysterious and unknown. History has too many possibilities, and many of them did not come true in the end. It is not difficult for us to imagine that history is very likely to pass by generation after generation without the scientific revolution ever happening. Even if there was no Christianity, no ancient Roman Empire, and no money, history would still continue to develop.
Scientific revolution: a revolution that admits one’s ignorance
The scientific revolution is actually not a revolution of knowledge, but a revolution of ignorance. The great discovery that really started the scientific revolution was the discovery that we actually knew nothing about the most important questions. When modern civilization began to admit its ignorance and discovered that scientific research could give us new power, humans began to think and feel that it was indeed possible for us to make real progress. As science begins to solve one problem after another that was once considered unsolvable, many people also begin to believe that mankind can solve all problems as long as new knowledge is acquired and applied. Poverty, disease, war, famine, old age, and death no longer seem to be the inevitable fate of mankind, but only limitations caused by ignorance.
A famous example is lightning. In traditional culture, lightning is an angry hammer, used to punish sinners. But in the 18th century, Franklin conducted a famous experiment in the history of science. He flew a kite during a thunderstorm, hoping to test whether the lightning was just an electric current. Through Franklin's experimental observations, coupled with his knowledge of electric current, he invented the lightning rod, and the angry Quake surrendered.
Poverty is another example. In many cultures, poverty is considered an inevitable part of an imperfect world. But today, it seems that poverty is just a technical problem that can be solved. It is generally believed that poverty can be eradicated by formulating relevant policies based on the latest discoveries in agriculture, economics, medicine and sociology.
Indeed, the worst forms of poverty no longer exist in many parts of the world today. Throughout history, poverty has been divided into two types: (1) Social poverty, which refers to the fact that some people have grasped opportunities but are unwilling to release them to others;
(2) Biological poverty refers to the threat to human survival due to lack of food and shelter. Perhaps social poverty will always exist and cannot be eradicated, but in many countries around the world, biological poverty has become a thing of the past.
Although we now generally agree that mainstream scientific theories represent the truth, when new evidence appears that goes against the mainstream theory, the mainstream theory also needs to be revised or completely eliminated. We now acknowledge our ignorance and have built a modern body of knowledge that is more dynamic, more elastic, and more intellectually curious than any before. This is crucial, as it greatly enhances humankind's ability to create new technologies. However, the question arises. Since we ourselves do not know everything, and the existing knowledge is not final, does it mean that the fictional story about us getting millions of people to cooperate is definitely not the truth? Wouldn't society collapse?
In fact, the reason why modern society can still survive after we admit our ignorance is that our trust in technology and scientific research methods has become a kind of belief, and in some cases has even replaced our belief in absolute truth. belief. So don’t dislike this term. What we believe in now is Scientology. Our modern Scientology does not have any strict dogma, but the research methods have a common core, which is to collect various observations and organize them using mathematical tools.
From the moment we discover our own ignorance, we begin to feel the need to seek out new knowledge. Therefore, mainstream modern research methods will assume that old knowledge is insufficient or wrong. So the focus at this time is not on studying the old knowledge system, but on new observations and experiments. Observations and experiments alone are not enough. In order to understand the universe, we must sort out the results of various observations and experiments and summarize them into a complete theory. At this time, mathematics was raised to unprecedented heights, because early knowledge systems often used "stories" to form theories, while modern science uses "mathematics."
We modern scientists are obsessed with using mathematical formulas to express all the laws of the world. Starting from Newton's three laws of mechanics, Newton told us that the writing language used in the book of nature is mathematics. Some scholars began to imitate Newton and organize biology, economics and psychology into simple formulas. However, they found that these fields were too complicated to express using mathematical formulas, and it was impossible to copy everything. In order to deal with the more complex aspects of reality, mathematics developed a new branch: statistics.
At the same time, the author tells us that mathematics is actually another subject that is very troublesome for humans. This mathematical language is difficult for the human brain to grasp, and the results often contradict common sense. Of the 7 billion people in the world today, how many actually understand quantum mechanics, cell biology, or macroeconomics? Despite this, science enjoys a lofty status because it has brought so many new abilities to mankind. While presidents and generals may not understand nuclear physics themselves, they know a lot about what nuclear bombs can do.
Knowledge is power and the real test is practicality. What allows us to make new things is knowledge. Technology and war are the most typical symbiotic relationship that promotes each other. Today's wars are the product of science, and the development of science is funded and guided by the military.
It is said that during World War I, the war situation had descended into endless trench warfare. Both sides hoped that scientists could break the deadlock and save their countries. These scientists in white coats responded to the call and launched a staggering number of new weapons from the laboratory, such as airplanes, tanks, submarines and poison gas, as well as better machine guns, cannons and bombs. By the time of World War II, the importance of science had grown even more. At the end of 1944, the German army was retreating steadily, but it resisted tenaciously and never surrendered. What gives German soldiers and civilians hope is that they still believe that German scientists can develop miraculous weapons and turn the tide. While the Germans were indeed developing rockets and jets, the U.S. Manhattan Project had already successfully developed the atomic bomb. In August 1945, Germany had surrendered, but Japan was still resisting. If the U.S. military were to invade Japan, more than a million American soldiers would die. Then this account was easy to settle, so President Truman decided to use this new type of bomb. The war ended after two atomic bombs were detonated in Japan.
From tanks to atomic bombs, what we don't expect is that this fascination with military technology actually only appeared in modern times. Before the 19th century, the main changes in the military lay in organization, not technology. When different civilizations first came into contact, the technological gap sometimes had a significant impact, but even so, few people seriously thought about deliberately creating or widening this gap. Most empires did not arise because of some magical technology.
The ancient Roman Empire is the best example. They had the most powerful army in the world at the time, but technologically speaking, ancient Rome had no advantage over Carthage or the Macedonian Empire. His strength lies in his efficient organization, iron discipline and strong reserves. Over the course of centuries, all weapons remained largely the same. If we travel the ancient Roman army back to the reign of Constantine 500 years later, their victory rate will still be very high. But imagine again, what would happen if Emperor Kangxi's army was brought to modern times to compete with our People's Liberation Army?
Whether in ancient Rome or our ancient China, most generals and philosophers did not believe that it was their responsibility to develop new weapons. The greatest invention in Chinese history involved gunpowder. The invention of gunpowder was actually an accident. The original purpose was to create an elixir of immortality. But the main use of gunpowder, a completely new compound, in China was just for firecrackers. Even if the Mongolian army was already approaching the city, no Song emperor was in a hurry to establish the medieval Manhattan Project and invent some kind of doomsday weapon to save the Song Dynasty. It was not until the 15th century, 600 years after the invention of gunpowder, that cannon became the decisive factor in wars on the Asian and African continent. From the beginning, gunpowder had the potential to capture cities and territories, but why did it take so long for it to be put to military use? The reason is that when gunpowder was first invented, neither the emperor, literati, nor businessmen thought that new military technology could save the country or make people rich.
Even in the 18th century, Napoleon, who was an artilleryman, had little interest in new weapons. It was not until the advent of the capitalist system and the Industrial Revolution that science, industry, and military technology became inextricably linked. From then on, the entire world changed rapidly.
We live in a technological age. Many people believe that with technology, they can find the answers to all their problems. As long as scientists and technology developers continue to work hard, one day we will be able to create paradise on earth. However, scientific activities are not located on some higher moral and spiritual level, but, like other cultural activities, are influenced by economic, political and religious interests.
Science costs money. If a biologist wants to study the human immune system, he or she needs laboratories, test tubes, chemicals, and electron microscopes, not to mention lab assistants, plumbers, and janitors. If economists wanted to simulate financial market conditions, they would have to buy computers, build huge databases, and develop complex data-processing programs. All this requires funding.
Why on earth are billions of dollars of funding flowing from governments and businesses into laboratories and universities? In academia, many people still naively believe that this is all for the sake of pure scientific scholarship. They believe that the government and enterprises are based on an altruistic mentality and provide them with funding to conduct any research they are interested in. But the reality about science funding is anything but that.
Scientific research is often funded because some believe it will help achieve some political, economic, or religious purpose. For example, in the 16th century, kings and bankers spent a lot of money on geographical exploration around the world, but they spent a lot of money on studying child psychology. The reason is that kings and bankers believed that new geographical knowledge would allow them to conquer new lands and establish trading empires, but they saw no benefit in child psychology.
Consider the following dilemma: Two biologists, with identical expertise, want to apply for a multimillion-dollar research grant. Scientist A wants to study a disease that infects the udders of dairy cows and reduces milk production. Scientist B wants to study whether cows will become depressed when they are forced to be separated from their offspring. Assuming that funds are limited and it is impossible to subsidize both, which scientist should get this funding?
There is no scientific answer to this question, only political, economic and religious answers. Nowadays, scientist A is clearly more likely to get funding. This is not because studying udder disease is more scientifically interesting than cow psychology, but because the political and economic clout behind the dairy industry that could benefit from such research would be far greater than that of animal rights groups who care about the latter.
In short, scientific research must join forces with certain religions or ideologies before it can flourish. Ideology can rationalize the cost of research. The price is that ideology can influence the timeline of science and determine how research results are used. Therefore, if you want to know how humans made nuclear bombs and landed on the moon, it is not enough to study the achievements of physicists, biologists and sociologists. We must also take into account the intellectual, political, and economic forces of the time and see how these shaped physics, biology, and sociology, pushing them in particular directions.
Among them, two forces deserve special attention: imperialism and capitalism. The feedback loop between science, empire and capital has undoubtedly been the main engine driving historical evolution over the past 500 years. Let’s talk about the following program.
Soaring on Wings: Imperialism and Capitalism
imperialism
Europe was originally a remote corner of the world, but why was it able to soar into the sky and conquer the world? The answer given by most people is that the biggest contributors are European scientists. Indeed, Europe has risen rapidly by relying on cooperation in the military, industrial and scientific fields. But why can this method only be played in Europe? The UK was the first to take off, and France, Germany and the United States could immediately catch up. But why was China so weak at that time? Is it really that difficult for us in China to design steam engines, make machine guns, and lay railways?
In fact, China did not lack the technology to make steam engines at that time. Even if we copied or imported and purchased them, it would not be a problem at all. However, what we lack are actually Western values, stories, judicial systems, and social and political structures. These things that took centuries to mature in the West cannot be internalized overnight. Therefore, France and the United States can quickly catch up with the United Kingdom because they all share an important set of stories and social structures, but we cannot catch up because the ideas and organizational forms of our entire society are completely different.
Remember what we said before, the first step in a scientific revolution is to admit your ignorance. Yes, the rise of European empires was rooted in this. They were completely different from all previous empires. Imperialists in the past believed that they already understood the entire world and "conquered the world" simply to spread their own views of the world. For example, the ancient Romans and Mongols fought in all directions for power and wealth, not for new knowledge. In contrast, European imperialism traveled to distant shores not only for new territories but also for new knowledge.
From Zheng He's voyages to the West, we can see that Europeans did not have any technological advantages at that time. What ultimately led to the victory of the Europeans was their unparalleled and insatiable desire to explore and their ambition to conquer.
In the next few hundred years, whether it was the Americas, Oceania, the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, they were completely dominated by Europeans. As a result, the Europeans accumulated a lot of wealth and resources, which finally gave them the ability to invade Asia, and worked together to defeat the major empires. After that, the Europeans divided the spoils among themselves. By the time the Ottomans, Persia, India, and China woke up, times would have changed and it would be too late.
At the same time, science also provided righteous endorsement for the imperialists’ colonial legitimation. For example, their biologists, anthropologists and even linguists have put forward some so-called scientific evidence to prove that Europeans are better than all other peoples and therefore have the right to rule others. But then again, some say that the conquest of the empire brought progress and improved life, while some say it brought death and injustice. But no matter what, the empire did bring huge changes to the world, and it is difficult to simply classify it as good or evil, right or wrong.
To sum up, scientists provided the empire with a variety of practical knowledge, ideological foundations, and technological tools. Without them, Europeans would not have been able to conquer the world. On the other hand, the conquerors repaid the scientists by providing all kinds of information and protection, as well as funding for various scientific researches, and allowing scientific thinking to spread to every corner of the earth. Similarly, without the support of the empire, science would not be able to flourish.
capitalism
In previous programs we have praised money and also denounced it. We talked about how money opened up new horizons for humanity, but also enslaved millions. He has pushed forward the giant wheel of industry, but it has also caused the continuous deterioration of the natural environment we live in. However, there is one key word that we cannot avoid no matter what, and that is growth. Whether the outcome is good or bad, the modern economy continues to grow like a hormonal teenager, devouring everything it sees.
The book gives us a very simple hypothetical example to help us understand capitalism. It is said that there is a financier A who opened a bank. There is also a construction contractor B who just finished a business and earned 1 million. He deposited the cash in A's bank. So now there is 1 million in cash in the bank. Then came a beautiful and capable Miss C. She wanted to open a bakery, but she had no money. She submitted a business plan to Bank A and asked for a loan of 1 million to open a bakery. A used a transfer method to loan 1 million to Ms. C. At this time, Ms. C had a figure of 1 million on her account. Immediately afterwards, Ms. C asked Contractor B to help her build her bakery, and the price was exactly 1 million. Miss C wrote a check to B, and B took it and deposited it into A's bank. So how much money does B have in his bank account at this time? 2 million. And how much cash is in the bank right now? That’s right, it’s still 1 million. Not only that, Contractor B later told Ms. C two months later that for some reasons, the construction cost of the bakery had to be increased to 2 million. Although Ms. C was very unhappy, she had no choice. I had no choice but to go to Bank A for another loan of 1 million. So A transferred another 1 million to Miss C. Ms. C transferred the money to Contractor B’s account. In this way, how much money does Mr. B have in his account? Yes, there are already 3 million. What about the cash in the bank? Still only 1 million. And this 1 million in cash has never left the bank. Under current banking law, this operation can be repeated an additional seven times. So when financier A has 1 million in cash in the bank, contractor B can have 10 million in his account. We have also said before that more than 90% of the currencies in the world are digital and have no physical banknotes. This is the reason. If all HSBC's depositors demanded immediate settlement of their accounts and withdrawal of cash today, HSBC would collapse immediately. As mentioned before when interpreting the price breakthrough in "Agitation", this phenomenon is called a run. No bank in the world can withstand a run, and the reasons are rooted in this.
Does it sound a bit like a Ponzi scheme? But our entire modern economy is actually a scam, an astonishing exercise in human imagination. What really makes capitalism work is our trust in the future. Trust is the only backing of capitalism.
Returning to the bakery example, if there is no capitalist imagination that allows money to flow in a trustful manner, then Miss C will be desperate in an instant. Because without a bakery, he can't bake bread. If she can't bake bread, she can't make money. You can’t hire a contractor if you can’t make money. If she couldn't hire a contractor, where would she find a bakery?
We humans have been trapped in this cycle of death for thousands of years, and it was not until the emergence of the concept of credit that we finally escaped from this predicament. Behind credit is a basic assumption, that is, the resources in the future will definitely far exceed the present, which means that when we use future income to invest in the present, it will bring many new and wonderful business opportunities. Tomorrow's cake will definitely be bigger than today's. Otherwise, how can we have any trust in the future? I believe that the global economic cake has unlimited potential because the scientific revolution has brought people the concept of progress. After admitting our ignorance, as long as we invest and research, everything can get better and better. This idea was thus applied to economics.
In 1776, Scottish economist Adam Smith published the most important economic work in history, "The Wealth of Nations." It says: “If a landowner, weaver or shoemaker earns more profit than the basic needs to support his family, he will hire more assistants to further increase his profit. The higher the profit, the more assistants he can hire. It can be seen that the profits of private enterprises are the basis of the overall wealth and prosperity of society. "Adam Smith told us that greed is actually a good thing. When we make ourselves better off, we not only benefit ourselves, but also benefit ourselves. Can benefit others. Our economic behavior is a win-win situation. As long as I can make my piece of cake bigger, your piece will also become bigger. Luo Pang has been rectifying the names of businessmen, saying repeatedly that making money through legal means is the most dignified way of life in today's society. His theoretical basis is Adam Smith's theory.
The basic logic of capitalism is a cyclical process from production to profit, and then from profit to production. We believe there is a huge difference between capital, which refers to the resources put into production, and wealth. And wealth is resources wasted on unproductive activities. For example, if a pirate buries a box of shiny gold coins on some island, he is not a capitalist. And if a hard-working worker uses part of his income to buy stocks, he is considered a capitalist.
Capitalism not only influenced modern science, but also influenced European imperialism. Tell me some stories.
The first is the story of Columbus and Spain. It is said that in 1484, Columbus's fleet was preparing to sail westward to find a new route to East Asia. So he first approached the King of Portugal, hoping to get funding. However, everyone knows that such an exploration is not only dangerous, but also requires the use of huge funds, and whether this investment can be repaid is still a big question. As a result, the King of Portugal rejected him. Later, Columbus was like an entrepreneur looking for angel investors everywhere with his sailing project. He went to Italy, France and the United Kingdom, and even went back to Portugal once, only to be rejected every time. Eventually he convinced Queen Isabella of newly unified Spain to invest in him. Next thing everyone knew, Queen Isabella felt like she had won the lottery with Columbus's discovery. Spain conquered the Americas, and in addition to mining gold and silver ores, they also grew tobacco and sugar cane. This moment made the dreams of Spain's kings, bankers and businessmen come true. In the next 100 years, these royal nobles and bankers donated generously to Columbus's successors. The point is that they became more confident in the potential of such an expedition. For capitalist entrepreneurs, conquest after conquest makes the economy and empire stronger. This is the first story.
The second story is the story of the rise of the Netherlands. In 1568, the Netherlands began to resist their Spanish rulers. 80 years later, the Netherlands not only successfully broke away from Spain, but also replaced Spain and Portugal, becoming the global maritime hegemon and establishing a global Dutch empire. Known as sea coachmen, they were already the richest people in Europe at the time. s country. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Netherlands reached the peak of its commercial prosperity. At that time, there were a total of 20,000 ships in the world, and the Netherlands had 15,000 ships.
The secret to the rise of the Dutch Empire was actually the use of the core idea of capitalism, credit. They had little interest in the mainland, so they paid mercenaries to fight the Spanish. And what about yourself? Just try your best to build bigger and bigger ships and start to develop on the sea. Although mercenaries were expensive, the Dutch gained the trust of Europe's emerging financial system. Just because the Dutch are credit-worthy, first of all, they repay their loans on time and in full, which reduces the lender's risk. Secondly, the Dutch judiciary is independent and protects individual private property rights. The Spaniards were exactly on the opposite side of him, abandoning credit wantonly. Naturally, rich people are only willing to play with the Dutch, and all capital flows bit by bit to the Netherlands, which is willing to abide by the rules of the game and protect private property. In the last sentence, the rise of the Netherlands is because it has played with the new capitalist financial system.
In the previous two short stories, we simply talked about how capitalism helped the country rise. In the third story, we talked about how the power of the country served the capitalists. The most typical example is the first Opium War in 1840, which we are all too familiar with. In the first half of the 19th century, the British East India Company and some businessmen made a fortune by exporting opium to China. Millions of Chinese compatriots have become drug addicts, and our country's economy and society have been greatly affected. In the late 1930s, the Qing government of my country issued a smoking ban and began to confiscate and destroy opium. Among them is the famous Lin Zexu who "smoked opium in Humen". As a result, the opium dealers were very unhappy. These opium and cigarette dealers had good relations with the British Parliament and the Prime Minister, and many MPs and ministers held stocks in the cigarette dealers' companies. They started putting pressure on governments like the UK to take action. In 1840, Britain officially declared war on China in the name of "free trade." The result is clear to everyone. China was defeated and signed the "Treaty of Nanjing". First, "Five Ports of Trade." British businessmen continued to sell opium to China, causing the number of opium addicts in China to exceed 40 million, accounting for more than 100% of the country's population at that time. One-tenth of the population. Second, Hong Kong was ceded. It was not until 1997 that Hong Kong returned to the embrace of the motherland. Third, compensation of 21 million taels of silver.
From the above three stories we can clearly see that capitalism and imperialism love each other and embrace each other closely. They feed each other and grow together. Finally, the author throws a question to us, will capitalism eventually make us ascend to heaven? Or did he fall into hell?
Yuval Harari told us another story at the end. When the Europeans conquered the Americas, they established their own estates to grow sugar cane, which was the mainstay of American production and export. In the Middle Ages, sugar was a luxury product and the price was staggeringly expensive. How could a businessman miss this opportunity? But growing sugar cane and refining cane sugar are labor-intensive tasks. Not only were the working hours long and the sun intense, malaria was rampant in the sugar cane fields. With such a nature of work and working environment, it is simply impossible to recruit workers at low prices. Therefore, the greed for profits made the garden owners turn their brains to slaves. From the 16th to the 19th century, approximately 10 million African slaves were transported to the Americas, 70% of whom worked in sugar cane plantations. The labor conditions of slaves were extremely poor, and most of them lived miserable lives and died young. And all this is just to make Europeans eat dessert. Please note that the black hand behind the slave trade is not a country or a government, but a product of the free market based on the laws of supply and demand.
This is the fly in the ointment of free market capitalism. There is no guarantee that profits will be earned fairly and distributed equitably. And on the contrary, because humans have the desire to pursue profits and economic growth, they will decide to blindly eliminate all possible obstacles. When "growth" becomes the supreme goal and is not subject to the checks and balances of other moral ethics, it can easily lead to a disaster. There are religions that kill millions of people out of hatred. Yet capitalism has also killed millions of people out of apathy and greed. The rise of the Atlantic slave trade was not caused by Europeans’ racial hatred of Africans. The people who bought stocks in slave trading companies and the managers who managed slave trading companies never cared about Africans at all. Not to mention the owners of sugar cane estates. Many of the owners live far away, and the only thing they care about is how much money they make.
We must remember that human history is never innocent. The Atlantic slave trade was by no means unique. Even though by 2013, the pie of our global economy has been made big enough, the distribution method is still extremely unfair. Even if many workers in Africa and Indonesia work hard day and night, what they get is not as good as what they got 500 years ago. ancestor. The author finally gives us such an imaginative explanation. He says that just like the agricultural revolution, the so-called modern economic growth may just be a huge scam. While humanity and the global economy appear to be continuing to grow, more people are living in poverty.
Industrial Revolution: A Forever Revolution
Solving energy conversion problems
Now let's think about it again, maybe when we look at the energy issue from the perspective of scientific progress, we will find that every time the economic growth trend slows down due to energy shortage, there will be funds invested in scientific experiments to solve this problem. And this approach works time and time again. The issue about energy is not an environmental protection topic, but a technical issue of scientific research. If we compare all the energy stored on Earth to the energy that the Sun radiates onto our Earth's surface every day, that's nothing. Therefore, what our world lacks is not energy, but the knowledge needed to harness and transform energy.
Change
Precise time
The state and market replace families and local communities
Peace
Most people today don’t see how peaceful the era we live in really is. After all, we have never witnessed what it was like 1,000 years ago, so it is easy to forget that the world in the past was actually more cruel. There are very few modern wars anymore, which makes everyone focus on the raging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while ignoring that more lands are actually peaceful. This is probably thanks to two things.
The first is the abdication of the empire. We can see in history that when various empires face rebellions, they absolutely suppress it with an iron fist. Even if they can no longer suppress it, they will all-out engage in a bloody melee. When the empire fell, there was a period of anarchy and frequent wars. However, since 1945, most empires have chosen peaceful abdication, and the process of empire disintegration and collapse has become relatively quick, peaceful, and orderly.
The second contributor to making our world peaceful is nuclear weapons. Yes, you heard it right, nuclear weapons. If there is a highest Nobel Peace Prize, it should be awarded to the scientists who developed the atomic bomb. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, the cost of war has increased significantly, making war a very uneconomical thing. When we look back at history, we will find that most of the time in history, simply plundering the enemy can give a boost to one's national strength. In the past, wealth was nothing more than fields, slaves, and gold. It was very difficult to rob these things. convenient. But today, the main forms of wealth have become human capital, technological knowledge, and complex socioeconomic structures like banks. These things cannot be snatched away by simply rushing into someone's house with a gun and asking for a robbery. Modern war is no longer so profitable, and peace has become an increasingly profitable business. A peaceful and stable environment is a necessary condition for a country's economic growth.
Another most important point is that if another war breaks out between two countries that currently possess nuclear weapons, it will be tantamount to collective suicide. Therefore, conquering the world by force has become an impossible task. Therefore, this has allowed the cause of peace in our world to enter a virtuous cycle. The threat of nuclear apocalypse promotes pacifism, and as war breaks up trade flourishes. As trade grows, peace becomes more profitable and war becomes more costly. As time goes by, this virtuous cycle creates the most important obstacle to the war.
True peace does not consist in "there is no war now" but in "there cannot be war". Although our world has never had true peace, now with the peaceful abdication of empires, the continued growth of the global economy, and the emergence of nuclear weapons, technological development will eventually bring us true peace.
The saying "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" applies not only to the French Revolution, but to the entire period that the Industrial Revolution opened up for us. The unchanging characteristic of modern society is that it is constantly changing!
Some people would say that the so-called modern era is full of blind massacres, wars and oppression, and the most representative ones are the trenches of the two world wars, the mushroom cloud of Hiroshima, and Hitler's almost crazy will. But some people say that modern times are an era of peace. For example, South America has never had trenches, Moscow and New York have never seen those mushroom clouds, and both Gandhi and Luther King have shown us the epitome of tranquility and far-reaching.
What is right and wrong? In fact, it will take time to prove it. As long as we look back at the past, we will find that our views on past history are always influenced by recent events. To satisfy both optimists and pessimists, it might be said that we are at a fork in the road between heaven and hell, and we do not yet know which direction we are heading. History has not yet told us which side to choose, and no matter which way we go, it is actually not a surprise.
Keep searching
Are we getting happier?
On the first level, happiness does not come from money and health, as most people expect. In fact, more long-term and obvious happiness comes from the interpersonal relationships we live in, such as a warm family and close relationships. Lovers, or friends who help each other, can bring us more happiness than money and health.
Our first thought should be that if we were richer or healthier, we would be happier. But over thousands of years, countless people who have pondered the nature of happiness have told us that it’s not just that. They say that surrounding environment and psychological factors have as much impact on happiness as other material conditions. For example, some people may live a prosperous life and have a lot of money, but they are deeply suffering from alienated interpersonal relationships and a meaningless life. It is also possible that some of our ancestors had poor living conditions but were relatively satisfied with life because of their close relationships with family, friends, religion and nature.
After investigating the data, we came to two intriguing conclusions.
The first conclusion is that money can indeed bring happiness, but there is a certain limit. Beyond this limit, the effect will not be obvious. Consider winning the lottery. For someone like me, who is at the bottom of the economic class, the happiness that winning the lottery brings to me can last for a long time. I can let my child eat imported milk powder and wear clothes made of imported materials. In two years, I can let her receive a better education, and I won’t have to bear a lot of debt. However, for people like you who have an annual salary of several million, even if you win a lottery of 10 million, your subjective happiness will only increase for a few weeks. You can buy a better car and move to a more luxurious villa, but you will soon feel that all this has returned to nature and will not have much impact on your long-term happiness.
The second interesting finding is that disease can reduce people's happiness in the short term, but if the disease does not get worse or continues to cause severe pain, then the disease will not cause long-term unhappiness. For example, if someone is diagnosed with a chronic disease such as diabetes, it will indeed make people depressed for a period of time, but as long as the condition does not continue to worsen, they can adjust and feel as happy as ordinary people.
So currently, family and relationships are more important than money and health when it comes to happiness. People who have good family relationships and are able to support each other in their relationships are significantly happier. Among them, marriage is a particularly important factor. Repeated studies have found that there is a very high correlation between whether a marriage is good and whether one feels happy.
Therefore, even a poor and sick person may feel happier than a lonely billionaire if he is surrounded by a loving partner, loving family and supportive relationships.
In this way, although human beings have greatly improved their material conditions in the past two centuries, due to the collapse of extended families and the disintegration of communities, the effects of the two can offset each other. If this is the case, today's people Not necessarily any happier than our ancestors in 1800. Even the "freedom" we value so much now may be the reason why we are unhappy. Because although we can choose our lovers and friends, they can also choose to leave us at any time. The freedom of modern society makes it increasingly difficult for us to truly keep our promises and never leave. As a result, the cohesion of communities and extended families declined sharply and eventually disintegrated, and the world made us feel more and more lonely.
On the second level, happiness does not come from external objective conditions, but depends on the consistency between subjective desires and objective conditions. We can only feel happy when what we get meets or even exceeds our expectations.
The second level tells us that happiness comes from expectations. Since thousands of years ago, countless poets and philosophers have said that happiness comes from contentment. Even if there are no modern psychologists to survey us, You know, isn’t this a cliché?
But precisely because our own expectations are so important, looking at the history of happiness as a whole comes to me from a more convincing angle. For modern people, although we have a variety of painkillers at our disposal, we increasingly expect more comfort and pleasure, and are less and less able to endure pain. The result is that we experience more pain than our ancestors did.
I think this idea is not difficult to understand. In fact, when we look at whether our ancestors lived a happy life, there is an inference fallacy buried deep in our psychology. This fallacy is called judging oneself from others. When we guess whether others or our ancestors are happy, we always put ourselves in their shoes and consider how we would feel in that situation. But in this case, we impose our expectations on other people's living conditions, and the results will certainly be biased.
The third level is that happiness is determined by our own biochemical system. Human beings have spent thousands of years changing the world to pursue happiness. Only now have we discovered that it is our own bodies that need to be changed.
Biologists believe that our psychological and emotional world is actually determined by biochemical mechanisms that have evolved over millions of years! All psychological states, including our subjective sense of well-being, are ultimately determined by a complex system composed of our hundreds of billions of neurons and chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. So whether we win the lottery, get a promotion or a salary increase, or find a loving life partner, these are just inducements for us to feel happy, not the real reasons for happiness. The only explanation why we jump for joy at these things is because various hormones start flowing through the blood and small electric currents start flashing in the brain.
Unfortunately, our body's biochemical system has limitations on happiness, and it will maintain happiness at a constant level. Because happiness does not conform to the law of natural selection. If a happy and lonely hermit is compared with two anxious couples all day long, the former will definitely become extinct, while the latter will pass on the gene. The role of pleasure and pain in the evolutionary process is only to encourage or hinder survival and reproduction. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to imagine that the result of human evolution is that we will not be too happy and not too painful. Happiness is very short-lived, and soon we feel pain again.
Also, the biochemical system in our body is very much like a constant temperature air conditioning system. Whether it is severe cold or scorching heat, we must find ways to maintain a constant temperature. So although we encounter certain things that cause the temperature to temporarily fluctuate, it will always be adjusted to the original set temperature. Each of us has different settings for this happy air conditioner. If 10 points is a perfect score for happiness. Some people's air conditioning will allow their emotions to fluctuate between 6 and 10 points, and stabilize at about 8 points. Someone like this, even if they live in a cold, big city, lose all their savings when the financial markets crash, and are diagnosed with a chronic disease, can still be quite optimistic. There are also some people who are born with melancholic air conditioning, and their mood fluctuates between 3 and 7 points. It stabilizes at about 5 minutes. Such people are usually quite pessimistic. Even if he wins the lottery in the morning, finds a way to defeat cancer at noon, helps achieve world peace in the afternoon, and reunites with his long-lost child in the evening, even so, the level of happiness he can feel can only reach 7 points at most. His brain would never let him get too happy.
If we accept this theory that biochemistry determines happiness, then when we look back at history it will be clearer that all historical events will not have an impact on our biochemical systems. Although some things can stimulate us to secrete happy hormones, they can never change the final concentration, so they cannot make people happier.
Get to know yourself again
The fourth level - the meaning of life
Happiness is not simply that the body feels more pleasure than pain. On the contrary, happiness depends on whether our life as a whole is meaningful and valuable. Is it a bit difficult to understand? It's like some people think that raising children means turning themselves into a miserable slave, serving a little devil day and night. And more people feel that they are full of love and are cultivating a new life. In this way, if the same thing is given different meanings, it is completely different, right? There is a saying that goes like this, if life has meaning, you can be happy even in difficult times; if life has no meaning, even in good times, you can live like a year.
As an example of how to face death, this is not an isolated extreme hypothesis. We think, if the meaning of life in the Middle Ages that you can enter heaven and obtain eternal life after death is an illusion, then modern scientists consider themselves to be human knowledge Is the meaning of life in expanding new frontiers also an illusion? Some soldiers feel that their life is meaningful because they are defending their home and country. However, we said before that the country is just a story that exists in the common imagination of all of us. There is no essential difference between the underlying concepts of the country and God. Then Is the meaning of defending one's country and one's country as much an illusion as going to heaven after death? In the same way, entrepreneurs who want to start a new company think this is the meaning of life. Similarly, some people believe in God, read the Bible, participate in jihad, and build temples. They also think this is the meaning of life. But are these one after another? Illusion? If we put it this way, the so-called happiness is probably just a synchronization between our own illusion of the meaning of life and the collective illusion. Can you understand me? This means that I can get happiness from joining the army because everyone thinks that doing so has the meaning of protecting the country. I feel happy when I start a company because people think it is meaningful to contribute to the social economy. So as long as my own thoughts and the expectations of everyone around me can be consistent, then I can convince myself that my life is meaningful, and I can get happiness from this belief.
What we conclude in level three is that if happiness consists in physical pleasure, then the only way to be happier is to manipulate our biochemical systems. The fourth level concludes that if happiness lies in giving meaning to life, then if you want to be happier, you have to deceive yourself again and again. I think everyone will not be satisfied with such a conclusion. So besides the above two possibilities, is there a third possibility to explore happiness? Is there a fifth level of happiness? Are our discussions in this issue getting deeper and harder to understand? But I think the point of view in this issue is brilliant. Let’s think about it again. The above two conclusions are still based on a common assumption, that is, both the happiness felt by the body and the meaning of life are our subjective feelings. Right? If you want to judge whether you are happy or not, the simplest criterion is to ask the person involved directly whether you are happy or not, right? This seems very logical. Don't you think this is nonsense? If you’re not asking me whether I’m happy or not, then who are you asking? However, this kind of subjective authority is the product of modern liberalism. We modern people have been brainwashed since childhood that we should be loyal to ourselves, listen to our own voices, and obey our own desires. What I think is good is good, and what I think is bad, He is just bad. But for such an authority that regards personal subjective feelings as the standard, today we have to call it true and see what happens.
If these slogans are not instilled in us since childhood, then isn’t happiness still the thing that each of us knows best? That's not necessarily the case. Most religions and ideologies throughout history believe that there are objective standards for what is good, what is evil, and what should be done. In their view, the feelings and preferences of ordinary people are unreliable and untrustworthy. From Lao Tzu to Socrates to Freud, they all tell us "Know yourself!" The implication is that most people do not know their true self, and therefore ignore true happiness. Each of us knows very well that if we can choose anything, most people would be willing to spend their time having sex instead of devoting themselves to any great national rejuvenation. This choice is definitely in compliance with your desires, but does this mean that if you want to be happy, you should have sex? If we look at those people who are addicted to drugs, we will find that they all have one thing in common, that is, everyone will say that they are happiest when they are taking drugs. Then should our authoritative psychologists make a statement? A report telling everyone to take drugs if they want to be happy? If we look at our subjective feelings in this way, will we find that it is very unreliable? In the book "The Selfish Gene" written by the British biologist Dawkins, he also expressed this point of view. He said that even if human behavior is not good for themselves, they still have to find ways to pass on their genes. If we look at it according to this level of logic, most men work hard all their lives and worry all day long, but they just cannot enjoy peaceful happiness. In fact, it is because biological DNA is controlling us. DNA is like Satan, using fleeting orgasms as bait to let us spread our genes, making all men surrender to it.
To sum up, it is precisely because our subjective feelings do not represent absolute authority that most religions and philosophies view happiness in a very different way from the subjective feelings we identify with. Buddhism should be the one that pays the most attention to the issue of happiness. In the previous program about global integration of religions, I focused on Buddhist thought. Buddhism believes that happiness is neither a subjective feeling of pleasure nor a subjective feeling that life is meaningful, but rather a matter of letting go of the pursuit of subjective feelings. The similarity between Buddhism and modern biochemistry is that happiness does not come from external conditions. The more profound insight of Buddhism is that true happiness does not lie in our subjective feelings. The more we emphasize subjective feelings, the more painful we will feel. The advice Buddhism gives us is that in addition to not pursuing external achievements, we should also stop pursuing those inner feelings that feel good. I won't go into details here. No matter how much I say, I will call "A Brief History of Humanity" a Buddhist propaganda manual.
In summary, we now use subjective happiness questionnaires, hoping to find out when we subjectively believe we feel happy, and believe that finding a specific emotional state means finding happiness. But on the contrary, many traditional philosophies and religions believe that the key to happiness lies in pursuing yourself and truly understanding yourself. Most of us think that our feelings, thoughts, likes and dislikes make up who we are, but this is indeed a big mistake. When they feel angry, they think, "I'm angry, this is my anger." So everything I do in this life is to try every means to avoid this feeling, and to pursue other feelings, whether it is joy or comfort. But they never discovered that the real source of pain is not the feeling itself, but the constant pursuit of feeling.
At this point, we can already answer the question raised in the opening chapter, that is, are we humans getting happier? First of all, our human abilities are indeed becoming more and more powerful. This is very obvious. As we mentioned earlier, we have gradually become gods from an insignificant species on the earth, controlling the fate of all other living things on the earth. Secondly, we humans are becoming more and more united. Driven by the power of empire, money and religion, humanity around the world is gradually integrating and unifying. Now, we have integrated humanity all over the world under the roof of one big family, although there are still some small fights within the family. No, but we are no longer independent groups. Finally, we discussed joy and happiness. As mentioned before, the direction of history is not developing in the direction of us humans becoming happier and happier. From a biochemical perspective, because history cannot change our biochemical system, it has nothing to do with whether we are happy or not. Now we finally understand for the first time that the mechanism that makes us happy is not society, not economics, and not politics. So after thousands of years of trying to change mountains and lakes, change nature, and change the world, we finally find that we were wrong. What needs to be changed is not the outside world, but ourselves. Only by changing our own biochemical systems can we possibly transform the abilities we have acquired over thousands of years into happiness and joy.
Open the future
The demise of Homo sapiens
Biological Engineering
bionic engineering
Inorganic Life Engineering (Artificial Intelligence)
At the end of the book, the author asks us to face a problem seriously, that is, all these changes will touch the essence of human beings, and even the definition of "human" will be different from now on. We are very likely to be the last generation of Homo sapiens in history, and we will witness the end of the history of Homo sapiens with our own eyes. Our replacement may be a superman or a cyborg. These enhanced humans are no longer the Homo sapiens of today. They will be higher dimensional beings than us. The so-called dimensional difference means that low-latitude creatures simply cannot understand what high-latitude creatures do, just like orangutans can never understand human society, but it is easy for humans to control orangutan society. This is the difference in dimensions. Enhanced human consciousness will be completely superior to our current Homo sapiens. All the issues currently being debated by politicians, philosophers and the general public are not worth mentioning when it comes to the question of strengthening humanity. After all, when we Homo sapiens disappear and the earth is ruled by enhanced humans with higher dimensions than ours, all the religions, ideologies, nations and classes of today will completely disappear with it. It means nothing to them to talk about Christianity or Islam, communism or capitalism, or even low-dimensional issues such as men and women.
The author leaves us with this sentence at the end of the book: He has the power of God, but he is irresponsible, greedy, and doesn't even know what he wants. The world is in danger, and I’m afraid it’s nothing more than this.
heart of wisdom
authority
We will inevitably see a transfer of authority from humans to new technologies.
equality
The new train of scientific and technological revolution is speeding by, which will create huge gaps between countries. Breakthroughs in death and human body modification through biotechnology will create greater inequality between people.
separation
The separation of consciousness and intelligence