Social Evolution: Heading for Catastrophe

Have you ever realized that your view of the world has largely been shaped by social evolution?

Imagine how differently you would have viewed the world if you had been born an ancient tribesman thousands of years ago and believed in Animism, which attributed living souls to nearly everything including plants and inanimate objects. Or if you had been born in Ancient Egypt and taught More

Have you ever realized that your view of the world has largely been shaped by social evolution?

Imagine how differently you would have viewed the world if for instance you had been born an ancient tribesman thousands of years ago and believed in Animism, which attributed living souls to nearly everything including plants and inanimate objects. Or if you had been born in Ancient Egypt and taught to believe your Pharaoh was a divine God?

If you had lived in Europe before the 1500’s the Church would have taught you to believe that the Earth was the centre of the universe around which the sun and everything else revolved. It took a brave man, Galileo Galilei, to introduce scientific observation and force the Church to change this mistaken belief. Today we know that we live on a minor planet orbiting a star we call the sun.

We marvel at the achievements of ancient civilizations such as the pyramids built by Ancient Egyptians and the great structures built by the Romans without access to the modern technology we have today. However we need to ask why these civilizations were not able to develop modern technology? Surely they were just as clever as we are today.

Modern technology resulted from the Industrial Revolution that started in England around 1750 and rapidly spread around the world. But why did it happen then and not at any time before in human history?

My book seeks to answer these and many other questions by examining social evolution as a continuing process whereby knowledge and philosophies from one age are carried forward to the next. In other words, the linkages in social evolution and human thinking over the ages.

There have been many great heroes and villains throughout history. I have been extremely selective and included only those I think have had a major influence on social evolution and influenced how we think about the world today. I have given reasons for my inclusions. No doubt there are thousands of others that I could have included, but I have tried to concentrate on those I think not only influenced events around them at the time, but also actually changed the way we see the world today. For example I have already mentioned one of my great heroes, Galileo Galilei, who showed that the earth is not the centre of the universe as the churches had preached for hundreds of years. To me this has had a massive influence on our thinking ever since and commenced the process of separation of science from religion and state, which was essential for the development of modern science and social evolution.

Mostly when we read about history we learn about separate people and events at various points in time. What I have tried to do is examine history as a continuous developing stream of human consciousness and knowledge, as the lessons and philosophies from one age are carried forward to the next. In other words, the linkages in social evolution and human thinking over the ages.

I am concerned about where human thinking now finds itself and where it is heading in the future.

How has human society has developed over the centuries, where we are heading in the future and what needs to be done? How has this led us to where we are today and what can be drawn from social evolution to help us in the future especially in view of overpopulation and climate change?