\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Critics of this theory point to the fact that perfection has not been attained : famine and war still exist. They also pinpoint periods of backpedalling, moments in history when our well being declined – like World Wars, recessions or ecological disasters.\u00a0 True, and sad, as this is, the overall data still stands : we all used to scratch and itch, but many of us now have hot and cold running water.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n The only unresolved question is whether we will become the victims of our own success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Will overpopulation lead to our demise?\u00a0 Will we suffocate in our own waste?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Progress comes with a price, this much is obvious. The debate is clearly essential : Is our present predicament, that some see as the imminent collapse of human civilisation (or even the collapse of the biosphere) an inherent result of Capitalism? Does the problem run deeper, is it part of the human psyche, are we just too greedy, too needy?\u00a0 Or is it just due to our dependence on hydrocarbons?\u00a0 Or our denial of the ecological imperatives?<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n As important as these questions are, I would first like to take a quick look at how we got here.\u00a0 Here meaning the current global situation.\u00a0 As diverse as this experience is – with some of us barely surviving on a handful of roots a day, having to walk a mile for a drop of water; and others sitting in air-conditioned offices or sipping hot chocolate whilst surfing the net – let\u2019s just agree to call it techno-capitalism.\u00a0 This is just what I\u2019m calling the dominant culture.\u00a0 And even if you\u2019ve only got 10 cents to your name, and have never actually owned a smartphone, you\u2019ve at least seen this techno-capitalist heaven on TV.\u00a0 (I\u2019ll just insert a message here from all the people stuck in some dead-end job – or worse – that might want to say : \u201cDon\u2019t bother!\u00a0 It’s a trap\u201d)<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We shall assume that there was no initial blueprint for success in this game of World domination, no pre planned endgame, no final winning scenario.\u00a0 Just a shared desire toward increased security and comfort.\u00a0 So let\u2019s just take a look at the winners in this game of world domination, and see if we can identify how they did it, their ace up the sleeve, or maybe some cunning plan?\u00a0 And the winners are : Homo sapiens!\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n The latest hypothesis (possibly influenced by our recent pandemic) is that we were better at coping with infectious diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n We had apparently made several attempts at migrating out into the rest of the world, but without much success – Europe and Asia being at the time dominated by cousins of ours, like the Neanderthals and Denisovans.\u00a0 And then, for some reason, around 65000 years ago, a single tribe of Africans ventured out again into the Middle east and blammo!\u00a0 conquered the rest of the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n One might note that it was around this time that we find the first evidence of bows and arrows – possibly a coincidence that this technology was invented just before our successful foray into the world, or precisely the upper hand we needed to make the difference?\u00a0 As for why we managed to invent such powerful tech before anyone else – as in what makes us so clever compared to other hominids (or primates)? – we\u2019ll come back to later.<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Exactly how long it took us to discover and settle all the continents is up for debate, but we are pretty certain that we were in America 50000 years later – some say maybe 30000 years later – which is pretty fast going.\u00a0 Even more astounding (and confusing) are cave paintings in Australia dated 60000 years ago (which could possibly have been produced by some different hominid). In any case, DNA studies suggest that aboriginals split off very early on from this out of africa foray. Also, early humans seem to have arrived in Australia without bow and arrow tech – only spear throwers and boomerangs.<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n The field of Pre-history is rife with guesswork, and theories are constantly changing as we find more evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n The next dominant group that we can point to might be the indo-europeans – being the ancient people that spoke the indo-european language. Not that we know much, if anything about them.\u00a0 We can merely speculate that they must have been pretty successful, based on the fact that nearly half the people on the planet still speak a modern variant of this extinct language (eg.English, Spanish, Hindi etc). \u00a0 As far as I can work out, as a complete noob, the initial tribe that spoke the language lived somewhere in southern Russia, between the Black sea and the Caspian sea, around 5000 years ago – and that for some reason, a few thousand years later (500 AD), the language had spread all the way from India to Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Once again, we don\u2019t know how this expansion happened – was there warfare involved?\u00a0 Or just the adoption of what was seen as superior tech or culture? \u00a0 In any case it is interesting to note that the expansion of the indo-european culture once again coincides with the invention of new tech : namely the domestication of horses, and the use of the wheel as an aide to transportation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Recent paleogenetic research pinpoints the domestication of horses as having first occurred by the Volga river (right smack in the ancestral indo-european stomping grounds) – and so far the oldest chariot wheel that we have unearthed was found in Slovenia (less than 3000 km away).\u00a0 The genetic evidence (on domestic horses) seems to indicate that the Indo-european culture expanded westward into Europe on chariots drawn by oxen, and into Asia on horseback.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n As an aside, we do have historical evidence of a huge Empire being built on the back of horses and bows and arrows : Genghis Khan\u2019s Mongols (1st prize winner: Biggest contiguous land empire).<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n So we could say that the winners are those that discover the best tech first – and we\u2019re definitely still working with that mindset today.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t really know how those discoveries (the bow & arrow, domestication of horses, the wheel) happened.\u00a0 Like the ability to create fire from friction, these innovations may well have been revealed through observation and happenstance – eg. whilst using bendy twigs and twine for some other purpose?<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n What does seem evident is that these inventions were rare, scarce occurrences.\u00a0 People had the same basic tools from one millennium to the next.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n Luckily for us, we invented writing, apparently in order to keep a record of all the great stuff we had, and then to brag about all the amazing things we did.\u00a0 Even more fortunate, this happened before the 16th century, a period in time known for its great leaps forward in terms of science and progress.\u00a0 The very concept of discovery, invention and progress probably didn\u2019t even exist in the minds of most people before then – existence was as it was, and you just got on with it as best you could with the tools that you had.<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n All this to say that we have a written record of the Renaissance, an amazing period when we finally learnt how to conquer the world, which has led to the rich, educated, industrialised way of life that everyone has now adopted (or assuming they have access to TV, would like to adopt).\u00a0 The hope being that we can finally describe with more certainty, what our creativity and inventivity need in order to flourish.<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n For example, let’s take a look at a (non-exhaustive) list of notable thinkers and inventors from around the 16th century :<\/p>\n \n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n<\/p>\n![\"life](\"https:\/\/whoweare.elementor.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/life-expectancy-1024x698.png\")
<\/figure>\nAnd the winners are<\/h3>\n
Call the cavalry<\/h3>\n
![\"mongol](\"https:\/\/whoweare.elementor.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/golden-horde-857x1024.jpg\")
\nInvention<\/h3>\n