When thinking about human history, it's tempting to see some developments as inevitable. Some certainly were, but the sheer amount of time before some of them took place seem to make them remarkable. The human species, narrowly defined as Homo sapiens, is about 200,000 years old. Some argue that it's older, around 300,000 years, others … Continue reading Breakthroughs in imagination
Tag: Humanity
The problems with ensuring humanity’s survival with space colonies
Stephen Hawking, as he has done before, expresses a common sentiment, that we need to colonize space in order to survive. Humans should go and live in space within the next 1,000 years, or it will die out, Stephen Hawking has warned. "We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity," Mr … Continue reading The problems with ensuring humanity’s survival with space colonies
Are you alone? (In the universe)
This a cool video on what we are and where we came from. We are, each of us, a temporary intersection of matter and energy that is part of the overall whole of the universe, patterns of elementary particles that have, at least for a while, achieved self awareness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKMQzkIiB0Y via Are You Alone? In The … Continue reading Are you alone? (In the universe)
The ages of communication
I think I've mentioned before that I only recently came the realization that the scientific revolution was more a matter of increased communication than necessarily a breakthrough in method. Along the lines of this realization, I have a few thoughts about communication and its effects on human history. Humans are social animals. Communication between and among … Continue reading The ages of communication
The psychology of your future self
Somewhat related to Zach Weiner's cartoon on our continuing death, this TED talk looks at how transitory the self actually is. We seem to have no problem recognizing our transitory our self from ten years ago was, but not how much our current self is. This has big implications for how we make, or should … Continue reading The psychology of your future self