{"id":13,"date":"2019-10-23T05:52:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T05:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/?p=13"},"modified":"2019-10-23T05:57:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T05:57:23","slug":"human-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/human-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Events in Human History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Originally posted 21 October 2015 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems to me that the events that were truly critical for humanity\u2019s history are not the ones we were taught about in school, or even in university. They\u2019re not wars, they\u2019re not the rise or fall of nations, and they\u2019re not actions of \u201cgreat men\u201d. They\u2019re bigger than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an example, consider wars. Which war of more than 500\nyears ago continues to have major ramifications on human development now? I\ndon\u2019t mean political development, I mean the development of the human species.\nI go through the list and can think of none. While some have shifted boarders\nor even changed nationalities, none have shifted the development of humanity\nitself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This same measure of long-lasting effect can be used to\ndetermine (and\/or predict) the importance of many other historical events as\nwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, my list of the most important events in human history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, the prerequisites to \u201cus\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The big bang<\/li><li>The formation of Earth<\/li><li>Life on Earth<\/li><li>The rise of homo sapiens<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The top ten human actions;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The development of agriculture (<a href=\"https:\/\/genographic.nationalgeographic.com\/development-of-agriculture\/\">more\ninfo<\/a>)<br>\n(had many consequences beyond food stability)<\/li><li>The creation of religion <br>\n(good or bad, it had a major effect. See the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Timeline_of_religion\">timeline of religion<\/a>.\nThere is little clear writing on the historical significance of religion on\ngeneral)<\/li><li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_writing#Inventions_of_writing\">invention(s)\nof writing<\/a><\/li><li>The birth of philosophical enquiry<\/li><li>The concept of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rule_of_law\">the rule of law<\/a> (also see <a href=\"http:\/\/worldjusticeproject.org\/what-rule-law\">here<\/a>)<br>\n(indicated in in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magna_Carta\">the Magna\nCarta<\/a>)<\/li><li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historyguide.org\/intellect\/press.html\">printing press<\/a><br>\n(information could now be shared like never before, and languages stabilised)<\/li><li>The idea of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Evidence\">evidence<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scientific_method\">scientific method<\/a>.<br>\n(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Enlightenment\">The Enlightenment<\/a>\n(more information <a href=\"http:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/industrial-revolution\">here<\/a>))<\/li><li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Industrial_Revolution\">industrial\nrevolution <\/a><br>\n(electricity, the internal combustion engine, efficient mass transport\n(railways, cars and aircraft) factory production etc.)<\/li><li>The sixth great mass extinction<br>\n(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Holocene_extinction\">The Holocene\nextinction<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anthropocene\">Anthropocene<\/a>\nextinction \u2013 We\u2019ll be feeling the effects of this one for millennia to come)<\/li><li>The\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Information_revolution\">information\nrevolution<\/a><br>\n(the age of computers)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>And, in the future;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The age of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/report\/extreme-weather-and-climate-change\/\">extreme weather<\/a><br> (as a result of climate change)<\/li><li>The rise of genetically engineered beings<\/li><li>The rise of sapient machines <br> (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Technological_singularity\">The technological singularity<\/a> &#8211; when this happens, we&#8217;ll find ourselves in utopia or hell. It&#8217;s hard to predict which).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>More on the sixth mass extinction.<br>\nNews article: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/technology\/science\/mass-extinction-why-humans-are-a-greater-danger-to-themselves-than-any-species-in-history\/story-fnjwl2dr-1227581094658\">http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/technology\/science\/mass-extinction-why-humans-are-a-greater-danger-to-themselves-than-any-species-in-history\/story-fnjwl2dr-1227581094658<\/a><br>\nResearch paper: <a href=\"http:\/\/anr.sagepub.com\/content\/early\/2015\/06\/17\/2053019615591020.abstract\">http:\/\/anr.sagepub.com\/content\/early\/2015\/06\/17\/2053019615591020.abstract<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted 21 October 2015 It seems to me that the events that were truly critical for humanity\u2019s history are not the ones we were taught about in school, or even in university. They\u2019re not wars, they\u2019re not the rise or fall of nations, and they\u2019re not actions of \u201cgreat men\u201d. They\u2019re bigger than that. &#8230; <a title=\"The Most Important Events in Human History\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/human-history\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Most Important Events in Human History\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malcher.co\/p-f\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}