We Homo sapiens once had many cousins. They are all "Homo" and all humans.

The earliest humans began to evolve in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and their ancestors were an earlier ape genus "Australopithecus". About 2 million years ago, some of these ancient humans left their homeland and embarked on a journey, covering vast areas of North Africa, Europe and Asia, and humans began to evolve in different directions.

From about 2 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago, there were actually many different races of people in the world at the same time. Just like today, there are still many kinds of foxes, bears or pigs on the earth, but hundreds of thousands of years ago, there were at least 6 different kinds of people on the earth.

These can all be said to be our brothers and sisters. It is speculated that the reconstructed appearance (from left to right): Homo rudolfensis (East Africa, about 2 million years ago); Homo erectus (East Asia, about 2 million to 50,000 years ago). ); Neanderthals (Europe and West Asia, about 400,000 to 30,000 years ago). They are all "human".

Although there are many differences between human races, there are several common human characteristics. The most important point is that the human brain is significantly larger than that of other animals.

Human beings are deeply obsessed with high intelligence, so they believe that the higher the intelligence, the better. However, among the entire animal kingdom, why is it that only the genus Homo has evolved such a huge thinking organ? The answer is that a huge brain is also a huge burden. Intellectual development brings benefits, but it also pays a price.

Another unique feature of humans is that we walk upright on two legs. Free your hands.

This is one of the main reasons why humans have outstanding social skills (and social problems that are also unique to humans). It is difficult for a mother who is alone to get enough food for herself and her children if she has to drag her children with her. Therefore, if you want to raise children, you need the continued assistance of other family members and neighbors. To feed a child requires the joint efforts of the entire tribe.

We think that having relatively large brains, being able to use tools, having extraordinary learning abilities, and having complex social structures are all great advantages for humans. However, in fact, humans have already had these advantages, but for 2 million years, humans have always been just a weak and marginal creature.

One of the most common uses of early stone tools was to break open bones so that humans could eat the marrow inside. One of the earliest human feats was removing marrow from bones. What's so special about bone marrow? Suppose we are watching a group of lions feasting on a giraffe. We can only wait patiently until they are full. But don't worry, even if the lion finishes eating, there will be hyenas and jackals waiting nearby, and they are not easy to mess with; so they will eat the remaining meat and wipe it clean. Finally it was our group of primitive people's turn. We approached the giraffe's carcass, looked left and right, and finally had to find a way to dig out the only edible tissue.

It was not until 400,000 years ago that several human species began to regularly hunt large prey, and it was not until the rise of Homo sapiens 100,000 years ago that humans jumped to the top of the food chain.

Using fire is a big step on the way to the top of the food chain.

The biggest benefit that comes with fire is starting to be able to cook. Some foods cannot be digested and absorbed by humans in their natural form, such as wheat, rice, and potatoes, but because of cooking technology, they have become our staple foods.

Cooking allows humans to eat a wider variety of foods, reduces the time required to eat, shrinks teeth, and reduces the length of the intestines. Some scholars believe that the invention of cooking technology is directly related to the shortening of the human intestine and the beginning of brain development. Either a longer gut or a larger brain requires a lot of energy, so it's difficult to have both. And now that cooking has enabled people to shorten their intestines and reduce energy consumption, it can be said that cooking inadvertently allowed Neanderthals and Homo sapiens to embark on the road to making their brains bigger.

Using fire, humans control a tool that is both obedient and infinitely powerful.

About 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens expanded from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, and soon swept across the entire Eurasian continent.

When Homo sapiens came to the Arabian Peninsula, most of Eurasia was already inhabited by other races. So what happened to these other races?

Even a large number of people who don't know each other can work together as long as they believe in a story.

Whether it’s a modern nation, a medieval church, an ancient city, or an ancient tribe, the basis of any large-scale human cooperation lies in some kind of fiction that exists only in the collective imagination.

Except in the common imagination of mankind, there is no God, no country, no money, no human rights, no law, and no justice in this universe.

As long as the fiction of Peugeot exists in everyone's minds, Peugeot cars will always exist.

Creating imaginary realities through words allows large groups of people who don't know each other to collaborate effectively, and that's not all.

Since the cognitive revolution, Homo sapiens has been able to rapidly adapt its behavior to changing needs. This is tantamount to opening up a fast path to adopt "cultural evolution" instead of staying on the road of "genetic evolution" that is always stuck in traffic jams. After embarking on this fast track, Homo sapiens' ability to cooperate soared, and it soon left all other human and animal species far behind.

Homo sapiens invented many imaginary realities and thus developed many behavioral patterns, which are the main ingredients of what we call "culture". Once culture emerges, it can no longer stop changing and developing. These unstoppable changes become what we call "history."

Therefore, the cognitive revolution is the starting point for history to separate from biology and exist independently. Until then, all human behavior could only be described as biological.

The real difference between humans and chimpanzees is the fiction that acts like the glue that holds millions of individuals, families, and groups together. This glue makes us the masters of all things.

Domestic dogs existed about 15,000 years ago, and the time when they actually joined human life may have been pushed back thousands of years.

In addition to hunting and fighting, dogs can also serve as an alarm system to warn of wild beasts or human intruders. As time passes from generation to generation, humans and dogs have evolved together to be able to communicate well with each other. The dog that best meets human needs and is most considerate of human emotions will receive more care and food, and will therefore be more likely to survive. At the same time, dogs also learn how to please humans and satisfy their needs. After 15,000 years of getting along with each other, the understanding and emotions between humans and dogs far exceed the relationship between humans and other animals.

Is this the first pet in history? A 12,000-year-old tomb was excavated in northern Israel [housed at the Kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch Museum], which contained the skeleton of a woman aged about 50 years old, and the skeleton of a puppy next to it (upper right corner) . The dog was buried close to the woman's head, and her left hand was resting on the dog's body, which seemed to have some kind of emotional connection. Of course, there are other ways to explain this. Perhaps it can be said that this dog is a gift to the gatekeeper to the future world.

There is evidence that the brain capacity of Homo sapiens has actually gradually decreased since the era of collection! To survive in that era, everyone had to have advanced mental abilities. And when the agricultural and industrial era developed, humans began to be able to survive by relying on the skills of others, and even low-energy people began to have room to survive. For example, as long as you are willing to carry water or work as a production line worker, you can survive and pass on your mediocre genes.

In modern affluent societies, the average working hours per week is 40 to 45 hours, and in developing countries it is 60 or even 80 hours; but if you are a hunter-gatherer, even if you live in the most barren areas (such as the Kalahari Desert), the average working hours You only need to work 35 to 45 hours a week. They probably only need to hunt once every three days and gather for 3 to 6 hours a day. Normally, this would be enough to feed the entire tribe.

These pre-agricultural foragers had a healthy and varied diet, relatively short working hours, and few infectious diseases. Many experts define this society as the "original affluent society."

Most scholars agree that ancient foragers generally believed in animism (from the Latin "anima," meaning "soul" or "spirit"). Pantheism believes that almost any place, any animal, any plant, or any natural phenomenon has its own consciousness and emotions, and can communicate directly with humans.

Was the ancient gathering society in peace or war? Are they the relics of Israel and Portugal who seem to be living in peace, or are they the living hells of Sudan and Germany? The answer is neither. We have seen that forager societies may have many different religious and social structures, and we can predict that they will also have different propensities for violence. There may be periods of peace and tranquility in some areas, but unrest in other areas.

It is difficult to reconstruct the ancient gathering life, and it is even more difficult to reconstruct specific events. This curtain of silence has covered tens of thousands of years of history.

But the truth is, they did a lot of really important things. In particular, they have shaped our current world to an extent that many people do not realize. The most important and destructive force in the entire animal kingdom from ancient times to the present is this group of Homo sapiens who wander around and tell stories.

Some scholars have tried to exonerate humans by blaming climate change for these extinctions (which is often blamed), but it is hard to believe that Homo sapiens is entirely innocent. There are three major pieces of evidence showing that climate is hardly an excuse for the extinction of Australia's megafauna, and humans are to blame.

The extinction of Australia's megafauna may just be the first clear sign that Homo sapiens remains on Earth.

The first wave of colonization by Homo sapiens was the largest and fastest ecological catastrophe in the entire animal kingdom. Many animals became extinct as a result.

The first wave of extinctions was due to the expansion of foragers, The second wave of extinction was due to the expansion of farmers; Today’s third wave of extinctions: extinctions caused by industrial activity.

For all the large animals in the world, the only survivors of this human flood may be humans themselves, and other poultry and livestock that boarded Noah's Ark but only served as delicacies for humans.

As food production increased, so did the population, and people had to work harder to obtain more food.

It is often the case in the history of luxury goods that original luxuries often end up becoming necessities and bring new obligations.

Mankind's pursuit of an easier life unleashed a huge force that changed the face of the world, but the result was not what anyone expected, nor was it even what anyone wanted to see.

Discover large ruins built by hunters. There are such stunning ruined structures all over the world, the most famous being Stonehenge in the UK.

Therefore, the reason why foragers switched from collecting wild wheat to growing their own wheat may not be to increase their daily food supply, but to support the construction and operation of some kind of temple.

Faust makes a bargain with the devil, and man makes a bargain with corn. But this is not the only deal humans make. The other deal is related to the fate of animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens.

Although domesticated chickens and cows may well be the most successful representatives in terms of evolution, they actually lead the worst lives in the history of living things. The domestication of animals is based on a series of barbaric acts, and the cruelty only increases as time goes on.

Possibly the most important lesson we can learn from the Agricultural Revolution is that the evolutionary success of a species does not necessarily translate into individual happiness.

After the Agricultural Revolution, the importance of "the future" was at an all-time high. Farmers not only have to think about the future all the time, but they can almost be said to be serving the future. The reason why collectors did not care about the future was because they collected and ate now. Whether it was preserving food or accumulating property, it was not an easy task at that time.

Therefore, as early as the beginning of the agricultural era, "the future" has always been the main player in the small theater in the human heart.

It was the collected excess food that supported politics, war, art, and philosophy, and built palaces, fortresses, monuments, and temples.

Surplus grain fed a small elite: kings, officials, warriors, priests, artists, and thinkers, and history is the story of these people. History only tells us what a very small number of people are doing, while the life of the vast majority of other people is just to carry water and cultivate the fields.

Fictional stories are more powerful than anyone’s imagination.

Two of the most famous fictional stories in history: the first is the "Code of Hammurabi" circa 1776 BC, which can be said to be a cooperation manual for hundreds of thousands of ancient Babylonians; the second is the 1776 AD The United States' Declaration of Independence can be said to be the cooperation manual for hundreds of millions of modern Americans.

It is the order constructed by these imaginations that creates a stable and prosperous society.

The order of nature is stable and unchanging. Even if humans no longer believe that there is gravity in the world, gravity will not disappear overnight. But on the contrary, the order constructed by imagination is always at risk of collapse, because these orders are all based on fictional stories. As long as people no longer believe it, everything will change.

If people want an imagined order to last, most people (especially most elites) must truly believe in it.

How to make people believe in these orders?

There are three major reasons why humans do not discover that the various orders that organize their lives are actually imagination:

First, the brain has limited capacity.

Second, humans are bound to die, and their brains die with them.

Third, and most importantly, the human brain has evolved to store and process only certain types of information. Evolutionary pressures have made the human brain adept at storing vast amounts of information about plants, animals, terrain, and society.

After the Agricultural Revolution, however, society began to become extraordinarily complex, and a whole new type of information became crucial: numbers. Foragers have never had to deal with large numbers before. For example, foragers do not need to remember how many fruits are on each tree in the forest; therefore, the human brain is not used to storing and processing numbers.

It was the Sumerians who invented the number processing system, the "written word". Text is a way of storing information using physical symbols. The Sumerian writing system combined both types of symbols, inscribed on clay tablets.

The earliest information found left to us by human ancestors is "29,086 units of barley and 37 months of cushing". The most likely interpretation of this sentence is: "During 37 months, a total of 29,086 units of barley were received. Signed by Cushing."

Between 3000 BC and 2500 BC, the Sumerian writing system gradually added more and more symbols to become a fully expressive text. Today they are called cuneiform.

The most important impact that writing has had on human history: it has gradually changed the way humans think and view the world. The past free connections and holistic thinking have transformed into segmented thinking and bureaucracy.

Before the 9th century, another partially ideographic script was invented, which made the storage and processing of digital data more efficient and became an important milestone. This text is composed of 10 symbols, representing numbers from 0 to 9. It is easy to get confused because although these symbols are now called "Arabic numerals", they were actually invented by Indians.

Although it is said that behind all societies is an order constructed by imagination, all orders are different. What are the reasons for these differences? Traditional Indian society uses the caste system to divide classes, the Turks use religion, and the United States uses race, but why is this so? Most of these class systems started out as accidents in history, but after some groups gained vested interests, they continued to improve them from generation to generation, and they became what they are now.

It is true that blacks have lower average academic qualifications, higher rates of various diseases, and much higher crime rates than whites (but these studies ignore that these "facts" are due to discrimination against blacks).

Vicious cycle: An accidental historical event becomes a rigid social system routine.

Inequality between men and women also arises in the development of the class system.

In fact, what many people think of as “natural” and “unnatural” is not a biological concept, but a Christian theological concept.

Biologically, humans are divided into male and female. The so-called male has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, and the so-called female has two X chromosomes.

In most human societies, the name sociology is loaded with too much meaning. To say that a Homo sapiens is "man enough", he should have certain roles (such as engaging in politics) and rights (such as the right to vote). and obligations (such as military service). Likewise, whether a Homo sapiens is "feminine enough" involves roles (such as raising children), rights (protection from violence), and obligations (obeying her husband). Because it is not biology but fiction that defines the roles, rights, and responsibilities of men and women, what each society considers "man enough" and "woman enough" means very different things.

Patriarchy is an all too common phenomenon. Men have more advantages in society.

One of the most common theories is that men are stronger than women and rely on the strength of their muscles to force women into submission.

Male dominance does not depend on strength, but on aggressive personality.

Biological explanations of patriarchy do not focus on violence or brute force, but believe that over millions of years of evolution, men and women have developed different strategies for survival and reproduction.

For men, they have to compete with each other to get the chance to impregnate a woman, so the genes of the most ambitious, active, and winning men are passed down.

For a woman, finding a man willing to let her get pregnant is no problem at all. But if it comes to letting the child grow up and even give birth to grandchildren, in addition to having to carry the child for ten months, it will even take many more years of hard work to bring the child up. During this time, she had fewer opportunities to obtain food on her own and needed help from many people. Therefore, the female genes passed on to future generations are those women who are the most obedient and willing to accept care from others.

There are three ways in which intelligent design may replace natural selection: bioengineering, biomimetic engineering, and inorganic life engineering.

The so-called bioengineering refers to deliberate human intervention at the biological level (such as gene implantation), with the purpose of changing the appearance, abilities, needs or desires of organisms in order to realize certain preset cultural concepts.

Directly modify genes

Geneticists not only want to modify existing organisms, but also want to reintroduce extinct animals. In the medium-term development of genetic engineering (perhaps within a few decades), genetic engineering and various other biological engineering may be able to bring about far-reaching changes, not only changing human physiology, immune systems and life span, but even changing human Intellectual and emotional abilities.

Biomimetic engineering combines organic and inorganic tissues to create "cyborgs", such as equipping humans with biochemical hands.

The third way to change the laws of life is to create completely inorganic life. The most obvious examples are computer programs and computer viruses that can evolve independently.

A "Blue Brain Project" was established in 2005, hoping to use computers to completely reconstruct a human brain and use electronic circuits to simulate the neural network in the brain.

Physicists believe that the Big Bang was a singularity. Before the singularity, all the laws of nature we know did not exist, not even time. Therefore, it is meaningless and incomprehensible to us to say what the universe was like "before" the Big Bang. And we may be approaching the next singularity point, where all the meaning of our current world (whether you and me, men and women, love and hate) will no longer matter. And anything after that point is beyond what we can imagine now.

In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, about a scientist who creates an artificial creature that loses control and causes chaos.

The story of Frankenstein seems to be telling us that if we dare to try to overstep the role of God and try to manipulate life, we will be severely punished. However, there is a deeper meaning to this story.

The story of Frankenstein directly challenges Homo sapiens and tells us that the end of Homo sapiens is not far away.

The only thing we can do now is influence the direction they take. Since we may soon be able to reshape our desires, perhaps the real question to ask is not “what do we really want to be” but “what do we really want to want?”

The generally accepted definition of happiness is “subjectively feeling happy”. According to this view, happiness is an inner feeling that may arise from immediate pleasure in the moment or from long-term lifestyle satisfaction.

According to the survey inference, wealth is positively related to subjective well-being. To put it bluntly, money brings happiness. In the same way, we can also study whether people in democracies are actually happier than people in dictatorships, or whether married people are happier than single, divorced or widowed people.

There is currently an intriguing conclusion: money does bring happiness, but there is a certain limit. After the limit is exceeded, the effect is not so obvious.

Another interesting finding is that illness can reduce a person's happiness in the short term, but it does not cause long-term unhappiness unless the condition worsens or the symptoms are accompanied by persistent, debilitating pain.

At present, it seems that family and community are more important than money and health in influencing happiness.

One of the most important findings about happiness is that happiness does not depend on any objective conditions such as wealth, health or even community, but on the consistency between objective conditions and subjective expectations.

If happiness is determined by expectations, then there is a good chance that two of the pillars of our society—mass media and the advertising industry—are unknowingly making the world increasingly unhappy. Because it raises people's expectations.

Is it possible that third world countries become dissatisfied not only because of poverty, disease, corruption and political oppression, but also because they see the standard of living in first world countries?

Even immortality can lead to dissatisfaction. Throughout history, the poor and oppressed have found comfort in the fact that death is the only thing that is completely fair. No matter how rich or powerful one is, one cannot escape death. The mere thought of dying while the rich could live forever would make the poor furious and uncontrollable.

The only reason we can be happy is because of the sensory sensations of pleasure that emit in our bodies. It's because various hormones begin to flow through the blood, and small electric currents begin to flash in the brain.

When it comes to this biological theory, the essence is best captured by the famous New Age slogan: "Happiness comes from within." Money, social status, plastic surgery, luxury homes, and powerful positions are not Will bring you happiness. If you want to have long-term happiness, you can only rely on serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.

Happiness is not just about having more pleasant moments than painful moments. On the contrary, happiness depends on the entirety of someone's life; happiness can only be obtained if the entirety of life is meaningful and valuable.

As Nietzsche said, as long as you have a reason to live, you can endure almost anything. If life is meaningful, you can enjoy it even in difficult times; if life is meaningless, you can live like a year even in good times.

Is happiness really just a kind of self-deception?

From Laozi to Socrates, philosophers have constantly warned people: "Know thyself!" But the implication is that most people do not know their true self, and therefore are likely to ignore true happiness.

The one that attaches most importance to the issue of happiness is Buddhism. Buddhism believes that happiness is neither a subjective feeling of pleasure nor a subjective feeling that life is meaningful, but rather lies in letting go of the pursuit of subjective feelings.

Most people attach too much importance to their own feelings, thinking that pleasure is happiness and unpleasant feelings are suffering. As a result, humans crave pleasure and avoid unpleasant feelings. However, this is a huge misunderstanding. The truth is, human subjective feelings have no substance or meaning. The subjective feeling is just a kind of electric wave, changing every moment, just like the waves. Whether you feel pleasure or discomfort, whether you feel life has meaning or not, it is just a momentary fluctuation.

The real root of suffering lies in the "pursuit" of subjective feelings. No matter what it is, it will make people fall into continuous tension, confusion and dissatisfaction.

If people want to escape suffering and gain happiness, they must understand that all their subjective feelings are just momentary fluctuations, and stop pursuing certain feelings. In this way, although you feel pain, you no longer feel miserable; although you feel pleasure, it no longer disturbs your peace of mind. As a result, the mind becomes clear and at ease. The peace of mind this produces is so powerful that it is unimaginable to those who spend their entire lives frantically pursuing a happy mood.

It's like someone who's been standing on the beach for decades, always trying to catch the "good waves" that will stay forever, while simultaneously trying to avoid some of the "bad waves" that will last forever Stay away. Day after day, this man stood on the beach in vain, almost going crazy from exhaustion. Finally, I ran out of energy and slumped down on the beach, letting the waves come and go freely. Suddenly I realized how peaceful it was!

The Industrial Revolution brought about dozens of major changes in human society, and the adoption of the industrialized concept of time is just one of them. Other notable projects include urbanization, the disappearance of the peasant class, the rise of the industrial proletariat, empowerment of the general public, democratization, youth culture, and the disintegration of patriarchal society.

The greatest social revolution in human history: the collapse of family and local communities, replaced by the state and the market.

Although Homo sapiens has become less and less at the mercy of nature, it has become increasingly dominated by modern industry and government. One example is the replacement of the time rhythm of the past traditional agricultural society with the consistent and precise concept of time in industrial society.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most people lived their daily lives within three traditional frameworks: the nuclear family, the extended family, and the close-knit local community.

The powerful state and market forces liberated individuals. The individual is no longer dependent on family or community.

Just like the nuclear family, the community will not disappear from the modern world as long as its emotional function is not completely replaced. Most of the material functions of communities in the past have been taken over by the market and the state, but there is still work to be done on emotions such as tribal camaraderie and solidarity.

The two major imaginary communities that have emerged in modern times are the “nation” and the “consumer public.”

The so-called nation is the imagined community of the country. The so-called consumer public is the imaginary community of the market.

In the late modern period, while violence and fear reached unprecedented heights, peace and tranquility also reached an all-time high. When Dickens wrote about the French Revolution, he said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." This statement applies not only to the French Revolution, but probably to the entire period opened by the French Revolution.

This flexible new social order seems to be able to initiate drastic structural changes while avoiding collapse that could lead to violent conflicts.

Most people don't see how peaceful this era really is. After all, none of us have really seen what it was like 1,000 years ago, so it's easy to forget that the world in the past was actually more cruel. Moreover, because war became a rare occurrence, it also attracted more attention. Many people are watching the raging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but few are particularly thinking about the peace and quiet in Brazil and India.

It is easier for us to appreciate individual suffering than the suffering of humanity as a whole.

Since 1945, most empires have chosen peaceful abdication, and the process of empire disintegration and collapse has become relatively quick, peaceful, and orderly. For example, Britain retreated from its colonies and the Soviet Union collapsed.

In the past, if there were relatively peaceful periods (such as Europe from 1871 to 1914), they would always be followed by earth-shaking wars. But this time it's different. The reason is that true peace should not mean "there is no war now" but "there cannot be a war."

Now barring some apocalyptic level event, it is almost impossible for a traditional total war to break out again.

For thousands of years before this, humans were faced with the most important invention in the history of energy production every day, but they always turned a blind eye. Every time a housewife or servant wanted to boil water for tea, or put a pot full of potatoes on the stove, this invention was glaringly obvious to them.

The moment the water boils, the lid of the kettle or pot will start jumping up and down. At this time, the thermal energy is converted into kinetic energy, but in the past, we only found it a bit annoying to jump around like this. It is even more troublesome to forget about it and let the water boil dry. No one noticed the true potential of this thing. That was until the steam engine was invented, and then the internal combustion engine, which produced electricity.

The core of the industrial revolution is actually the revolution of energy conversion. We have seen time and time again that the energy available to us is infinite. To be more precise, the only limit is our ignorance.

Chickens on a conveyor belt in a commercial chicken farm. If they are roosters or defective hens, they will be thrown on the conveyor belt, sent to the gas chamber to suffocate them, and then crushed into pieces with an automatic grinder, or they will be thrown directly into the garbage dump and let them squeeze against each other. Crushed to death. Hundreds of millions of chicks die in chicken farms every year.

The most important thing about the Industrial Revolution is that it was the second agricultural revolution.

Mechanization is not just about machines. Plants and animals are also mechanized.

Around the time human-centered religions elevated Homo sapiens to the status of gods, farm animals of all kinds were no longer viewed as living beings capable of feeling pain, but were treated like machines.

It was precisely because agriculture freed up billions of people to be absorbed into factories and offices that new products began to pour out like an avalanche. For the first time in human history, production exceeded demand. Because of this, a brand new question arises: Who will buy these products?

If a modern capitalist economy wants to survive, it has to keep increasing its output, much like a shark that will suffocate if it doesn't keep swimming. However, production alone is not enough. After it is produced, someone has to buy it, otherwise the industry or investors will have to close down.

A new ethic emerged: consumerism. The supreme guiding principle of rich people is - "Invest!" and the supreme guiding principle of the rest of us is - "Buy!"

Historically there have been scientific revolutions and the concept of progress. The so-called "progress" is to admit our ignorance and think that if we invest in research, everything can get better.

The idea was quickly applied to economics. Anyone who believes in "progress" will believe that various geographical discoveries, technological inventions and organizational developments can increase the total amount of human production, trade and wealth.

In 1776, Scottish economist Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, which is arguably the most important economics work in history. Adam Smith proposed the following innovative argument: If a landowner, weaver, or shoemaker earns more profit than the basic needs of supporting his family, he will hire more assistants to further increase his profit. The higher the profit, the more assistants can be hired. The overall wealth of society will increase.

Capitalism not only influenced the rise of modern science, but also influenced the emergence of European imperialism.

The wonderful cycle of imperial capitalism: credit finances new discoveries, which lead to colonies, which lead to profits, which build trust, which translates into more credit.

As Marx and other social critics joked, Western governments are almost like trade unions for capitalists.

Because of the smoking ban, Britain officially declared war on China in 1840 in the name of "free trade." Many wars have been waged for the benefit of investors.

The close embrace of capital and politics has a profound impact on credit markets.

Die-hard capitalists are likely to say that capital certainly affects politics, but politics should never interfere with capital's affairs. They believe that if the government intervenes in the market, the market will inevitably be influenced by political interests and make unwise investment decisions.

However, without political protection, capital will lose trust, credit will shrink, and the economy will decline.

Free market capitalism has its flaws. It cannot guarantee that profits will be earned fairly or distributed equitably.

To pursue interests unscrupulously and lose moral integrity.

Europe seemed to be in a remote corner of the world, and the climate was so cold that it would make your fingers stiff. How on earth did they jump out and conquer the world? Some people often think that the biggest contributors are European scientists.

The combination of modern science and capitalism dominates the world

European imperialism was completely different from all previous empires. Imperialists in the past believed that they already understood the entire world and "conquered the world" simply to exploit and spread their own views of the world.

The reason why European imperialism goes to distant shores is not only for new territory, but also for new knowledge.

The modern mentality of "exploration and conquest" can be seen clearly from the evolution of world maps.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans began to see large gaps in their world maps.

The blank space on the map was a psychological and intellectual breakthrough, a clear indication that Europeans were willing to admit that they knew nothing about a large part of the world.

What really makes the Europeans win is their unparalleled and insatiable ambition to explore and conquer.

When the European people conquered other civilizations, they had advanced technology and equipment, just like invaders from outer space, and other civilizations had no power to fight back.

The driving force behind modern science and modern empires is a dissatisfaction, a feeling that there must be something important in the distance, waiting for them to explore and master.

In the process of conquest, discover new knowledge. For example, new species are discovered, and ancient writings are discovered.

Modern science differs from previous knowledge systems in three major ways:

Modern science has no dogma that needs to be strictly adhered to, but the research methods have a common core: collecting various empirical observations (that can be felt with the senses) and organizing them with mathematical tools.

In 1620, Francis Bacon published the scientific manifesto "The New Instrument", proposing that "knowledge is power."

The combination of science and technology with war and industry has produced terrifying power.

Today's wars are the product of science. Many scientific research and technological developments are initiated, funded and guided by the military.

Many faiths believe that some savior will one day appear and solve all wars, famines and even death. But if it is said that human beings can solve all problems by discovering new knowledge and inventing new tools, it will be considered not only ridiculous, but also arrogant.

Modern culture admits that it still knows nothing about many important things, and discovers that scientific research can give us new power. Humanity begins to think and feel that it is indeed possible to make real progress. As science begins to solve one problem after another that was previously considered unsolvable, many people also begin to believe that mankind can solve all problems as long as new knowledge is obtained and applied.

Of all humanity's seemingly unsolvable problems, one is the most vexing, interesting, and important: death.

Gilgamesh realized that from the time God created mankind, death has been mankind's inevitable destiny and must learn to accept it.

Modern medicine has extended human lifespan, and it is not impossible to extend life indefinitely.

Scientific research is often funded because some believe it will help achieve some political, economic, or religious purpose.

Every point in history is like a crossroads. Although there is only a one-way road from the past to the present, there are countless forks in the future.

It is almost inevitable to look at past history from the present. Then, standing at the crossroads of history at that time, the path forward of history is unpredictable. We cannot stand now and accurately predict the course of history.

Although we cannot explain the choices made by history, one thing is certain: the choices made by history are never for the benefit of mankind. As history evolves, there is no evidence that human well-being will inevitably improve.

History has too many possibilities, and many of them did not come true in the end.

To pantheists, humans are just one of many creatures on Earth. But to polytheists, the entire world seemed to reflect the relationship between gods and humans.

To approach the supreme power of the universe means letting go of all desires, accepting the fact that blessings and misfortunes coexist, and facing failure, poverty, disease and death calmly.

As time went by, some polytheists began to become more and more devoted to a certain god they believed in, and gradually moved away from the basic concept of polytheism. They began to believe that only that god was the only god, and that he was the only god. The highest authority in the universe.

Today, most people outside East Asia belong to monotheistic religions regardless of their beliefs, and the global political order is also established on the basis of monotheism.

In addition to monotheism, polytheism has also contributed to some dualistic religions.

Dualism believes that the entire universe is a battlefield between the two forces of good and evil, and everything in the world is a manifestation of the struggle between the two parties.

All the religions we have discussed so far have one important feature in common: they all believe in gods or other supernatural objects.

These beliefs also believe that there is some kind of superhuman order that controls the world, but the order they worship is the law of nature, not some divine will.

Theistic religion focuses on the worship of God; as for humanistic religion, the focus is on the worship of humans, or to put it more clearly, the worship of Homo sapiens.

An empire is a political order with two important characteristics. First, the empire must rule over many different peoples, each with distinct cultural identities and independent territories. But how many ethnic groups count? Two or three ethnic groups are not enough, but twenty or thirty is a lot. To reach the threshold of an empire, the number of ethnic groups it rules must be somewhere in between.

Second, the characteristic of an empire is that its territory can be flexibly adjusted and its territory can be expanded almost infinitely. An empire can incorporate more other countries and territories without changing its basic structure and identity.

Modern criticism of empire generally falls into two categories:

Every time an imperial dynasty collapsed, this mainstream political theory that pursued unification made the competing forces uneasy with their own affairs and focused on pursuing unification. And facts have proven that unification will always be possible in the end, it is just a matter of time.

In the process of the amalgamation of many small cultures into a few large ones, the influence of empire was most significant. Empires actively spread common cultures and strengthened their legitimacy.

To look at the empire from a historical perspective, we need to look at it dialectically. On the one hand, it maintained power through suppression and war, and on the other hand, it brought about cultural exchanges, collisions and unification.

Since around 200 BC, most people have lived in empires. It seems that in the future, it is very likely that all human beings will live under a single empire, and this will be a truly global empire. Global unification is probably not far away from us.

There are limitations to bartering

With the concept of money, it became easier and cheaper to convert, store and transport wealth, and later complex business networks and a flourishing market economy developed. Without money, markets and business networks would be limited in size, vitality, and complexity.

Money is not a physical reality but a psychological imagination.

"Trust" is the most basic ingredient of all forms of money.

Money is the most universal and effective trust system ever created.

Only money can bridge almost all cultural divides and does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age or sexual orientation. Thanks to the money system, people can work together even if they don't know each other and don't know each other's character.

The money system has two major principles:

If we look back at the development of world civilization from a historical perspective, we will find that small and simple cultures gradually merge into larger and more complex civilizations.

From an ideological point of view, the concept of "one world" was slowly developed in 1000 BC, and this is definitely not as important as this. In the past thousands of years, history has indeed been moving in the direction of global integration and unification, but for most people, it is still difficult to imagine the concept of the world as one and the world as one.