Soldato
To be fair, human technological advances have been incredibly rapid and the advance is unlikely to be due to our ability to find resources. As a species, it’s understood we went through some form of cognitive revolution 70,000 - 50,000 years ago which effectively allowed us to… gossip. No longer were we bound to mere tribes of 30 - 50 individuals who knew each other well (chimpanzees have intimate knowledge of everybody in their tribe, due to spending hours with each individual getting to know them), but we were able to live in groups of hundreds and hundreds of individuals who were known to each other by what others would say about them.
The first Agriculture Revolution then enabled Sapiens to stop their hunter gatherer lifestyle and start to settle in their land and support much larger communities. This was believed to be approximately 11,000 years ago following the end of the last ice age, and when you consider places like Gobleki Tepe have been excavated and dated back to 9000BC, it’s astounding to think how far one species technology can advance in such a short space of time. But these two key events are what defined us as a species.
It wasn’t until recently (1500s) that the scientific revolution happened, which is quite difficult to reconcile. Before this point, society broadly believed we either knew everything we needed to know, or that other things weren’t worth knowing. Maps didn’t have empty areas, they just… Ended. Remember, Columbus didn’t famously discover America purposely - they literally had a belief that they could reach Asia’s trading ports quickly if they went the other way, as surely there’s be no more land in the way.
As for conflict, we are actually living in a golden age of peace compared to the last few thousand years, and very little of our wars were over resources. The French didn’t wage medieval war with England and countless over countries for resources but rather land and their distrust for their neighbours (and thus protection of their populace). It’s a modern think to believe we only war over resources, and I stress again, the amount of peace we’ve had since WW2 is pretty much unprecedented in the world.
I’ve said before in this thread, but y’all should check out the book Sapiens if you want to understand a brief history of Pre-History humans up to modern times.
e: whoops that was a long post and I didn’t mention aliens onc— dammit!
The first Agriculture Revolution then enabled Sapiens to stop their hunter gatherer lifestyle and start to settle in their land and support much larger communities. This was believed to be approximately 11,000 years ago following the end of the last ice age, and when you consider places like Gobleki Tepe have been excavated and dated back to 9000BC, it’s astounding to think how far one species technology can advance in such a short space of time. But these two key events are what defined us as a species.
It wasn’t until recently (1500s) that the scientific revolution happened, which is quite difficult to reconcile. Before this point, society broadly believed we either knew everything we needed to know, or that other things weren’t worth knowing. Maps didn’t have empty areas, they just… Ended. Remember, Columbus didn’t famously discover America purposely - they literally had a belief that they could reach Asia’s trading ports quickly if they went the other way, as surely there’s be no more land in the way.
As for conflict, we are actually living in a golden age of peace compared to the last few thousand years, and very little of our wars were over resources. The French didn’t wage medieval war with England and countless over countries for resources but rather land and their distrust for their neighbours (and thus protection of their populace). It’s a modern think to believe we only war over resources, and I stress again, the amount of peace we’ve had since WW2 is pretty much unprecedented in the world.
I’ve said before in this thread, but y’all should check out the book Sapiens if you want to understand a brief history of Pre-History humans up to modern times.
e: whoops that was a long post and I didn’t mention aliens onc— dammit!
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