After the Big Bang, the earth went through a long period of time, and all kinds of creatures were gradually derived. About 70,000 years ago, a creature called Homo sapiens appeared, and mankind began its own history. There are three important revolutions in history: cognitive revolution, agricultural revolution and scientific revolution.
Cognitive revolution:
The earliest humans began to evolve from East Africa about 2.5 million years ago. These humans went to different environments, so they evolved in different directions and evolved various human species, including our own race. We call ourselves Homo sapiens. In the early days, human was a very weak animal, in the middle of the food chain, afraid of the threat of carnivores, and also hunted some animals weaker than human. It was not until the rise of Homo sapiens 654.38 million years ago that human beings jumped to the top of the food chain. What happened in the middle?
In this process, the use of fire has enabled mankind to master a powerful force. Humans can get a lot of food by setting fire to forests, and they can also compete with powerful carnivores with fire. Besides, people can cook food with fire. After knowing how to use fire, many developments will follow. Later, Homo sapiens spread everywhere, and every time they went to a new place, the local primitive human group would soon become extinct. Until 12000 years ago, all other humans disappeared, and Homo sapiens became the last species of mankind. Homo sapiens became the last species of mankind and conquered the world because Homo sapiens appeared a brand-new language.
About 70 thousand to 30 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens appeared a new way of thinking and communication, which is the so-called cognitive revolution. Homo sapiens began to communicate in a brand-new language and formed an infinite number of sentences with limited sound, each with a different meaning. Therefore, Homo sapiens can absorb, store and exchange an amazing amount of information and understand the world around them. In the tribe, they will use language to "gossip" about tribal members, who are honest people, who are liars and so on. If a large group of people want to cooperate and coexist, it is very important to "speak ill" and let them know clearly who is the most reliable in the tribe, so that the scale of the tribe can be expanded and Homo sapiens can develop closer and more complicated forms of cooperation. As for gossip, Homo sapiens can not only tell what exists, but also tell what he has never seen, touched or heard, so legends, myths and religions came into being. "Discussing fictional things" is the unique function of Homo sapiens language. "Fiction" makes people believe a common story, and then gathers all kinds of strangers to form a large number of flexible human cooperation. Before having the ability of "fiction", human beings can only cooperate with several other individuals who are very familiar with it. Human tribes are very small. Once the number of tribes exceeds a range, the familiar cooperation mode is no longer suitable, so the tribes have been maintained in a small range. It is this ability of "fiction" that breaks this threshold. Members believe in a common thing, and then get together, such as religion, which is a non-existent entity. Some people make up ghosts and gods, and then a group of people who believe in ghosts and gods constitute religion. Under this condition, mankind invented more complicated stories, including countries and companies, and defined many rules for our better cooperation. Slowly, these imaginary imaginations become "imaginary reality". We recognize this imagination and will follow the rules of imagination, which will affect us in the real world. Since then, the cooperation of Homo sapiens has advanced by leaps and bounds, and soon it got rid of all other humans and animals and jumped to the top of the food chain.
? Agricultural revolution:
About 1 10,000 years ago, humans began to domesticate some plants, began to plant these crops, and obtained their fruits, lived a settled life and started the agricultural revolution.
Before the agricultural revolution, human beings lived by gathering and hunting and wandered around, so why did human beings embark on the road of agricultural revolution? The secret is that humans domesticated plants, and plants domesticated humans. For crops, human beings need to invest a lot of energy to cultivate them. For example, crops need fertile soil and water. Homo sapiens needs to reclaim land, irrigate land, and sometimes weed, repel insects and prevent diseases. People spend more and more time on crops, which makes people change from wandering life of hunting and gathering to settled life.
After settlement, basic villages appeared, and slowly, human beings developed more advanced social structures, such as cities, kingdoms and countries. The social structure formed by human gathering is originally for better cooperation. However, with the development of agriculture and the expansion of villages, this social structure has become more and more complicated and gradually evolved into oppression and exploitation. People at the bottom have been working, supporting the whole village, while people at the top don't work. People imagine all kinds of stories through fiction, establish the order of imagination and strengthen the interests of the upper class. How to make people believe in this order, first, the external statements must be absolutely true and guided by the gods, and second, the same set of principles, various etiquette and fairy tales should be implemented in education.
Another important reason for the emergence of complex civilization is the emergence of writing. Before the appearance of words, human's ability to process information was limited and could only be processed in the brain. Many people can remember the operation of an imaginary rule, but many imaginary rules have already appeared, so it is necessary to use words to record these rules. It is also the appearance of words that has slowly changed the way human beings think and look at the world. In the past, free contact and holistic thinking have been transformed into divided thinking and bureaucratic system.
In fact, it is this complex social structure that has led to the development of various class systems. The scale of human society has become larger and more complex, and the fictional story of maintaining social order has become more detailed and complete. Almost from birth to death, human beings are surrounded by all kinds of fictional stories and concepts, which make human beings think in a certain way, act according to certain standards, want something and abide by certain norms, which constitutes a culture. There are various doctrines and religions that are important to the human collective, such as individualism, individualism, Christianity and Buddhism. This complex culture of human beings pushes human beings forward continuously.
? Scientific revolution:
In the long process of agricultural revolution, human beings have found that they can improve their abilities through scientific research and gain great new strength. At this point, mankind has entered the scientific revolution. Humans began to invest all kinds of funds in scientific research to change human life. Before the scientific revolution, most human cultures did not believe that human beings would make further progress. Many disasters, hunger, medical problems and other problems can not be solved, and human beings can not exceed their limits. But science has broken this limit, and the yield of hybrid rice is high. In the future, human beings can overcome cancer and live forever. The scientific revolution brought factories, which fixed human beings on the assembly line. Is this what human beings pursue? All kinds of research have brought all kinds of things. When people use these things, they are also binding people. In the future, mankind will break through its own limits and develop more terrible forces. Can we control our world then? Nowadays, environmental problems, genetically modified foods and so on are all brought about by the scientific revolution. People keep advancing on the road of science, where will the future go?
My evaluation of this book:
Many phenomena in the process of human development are either inevitable or accidental. Many of the author's ideas are interesting and worth thinking about, which can let me see the world from another angle. The wheel of history will not stop, and we humans can only move on cautiously.