In my recollection of high school history classes, human civilization is largely built on agriculture. Once humans had crops, the incentive to live in communities rose significantly. Sure, you can assert that “humans are social beings” (whatever that specifically means), but humans need food to carry out basic biological functions, which is decidedly less abstract. … Read more
I would like to retitle this “Lucy” (in quotes). Even the other day when I remembered “Lucy,” I envisioned a caveman being found in the ice. No. That is not what happened with “Lucy.” “Lucy” was an Australopithecus Afarensis found in 1974, in Ethiopia. I just learned that “Lucy” was named after the song “Lucy … Read more
When I was in school, one day in class, we learned about “Lucy,” some bones and bone fragments from an Australopithecus, discovered in 1974, that comprised and were thought — at the time — to be from the oldest Homo remains. I recently read that tools were discovered a bit over a decade ago that … Read more
As I mentioned previously, Earth is estimated to be ~4.5 billion years old (technically 4.54 +/- .05 billion, but I figure what’s .04 billion between friends?). I then doubted the veracity of the information because carbon dating is only accurate for around 50,000 years. Well, I am pleased to say I have learned more. Previously, … Read more
As I think about this project of organizing “the” history of the world, I see that I face obstacles ahead. Namely, a particular challenge is that contemporary life has many more layers of details, making it much more difficult to fit it into a narrative. Before Gutenberg unleashed the god-forsaken printing press on us, civilization … Read more
Aka radiocarbon dating aka carbon-14 dating is a method is a method for determining the age of old stuff, up to about 50- or 60,000 years old. I was under the impression it was useful for determining the age of far older things, so I will have to investigate further. This method was developed in … Read more
Admittedly, I enjoy learning about recent history: visual arts and music and that sort of thing. Learning about how we _think_ the planet was billions of years before humans even existed is kinda boring to me. However, I fully believe the saying that goes something like, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed … Read more
According to Wikipedia, our planet — the first “w” in www — is 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years old, which frankly seems like a pretty big margin of error, if you ask me. But hey, they weren’t exactly keeping records back then! The 4.54 billion year estimate comes from many sources, which are cited in … Read more
Where are we, and how did we get here. Presumably, these questions underlie all major dogmatic religions, and it seems like nobody really knows. Extreme wealth and terror have been perpetrated because of various unfounded beliefs, and the notion that nobody really knows what we’re doing here on earth — or where earth even is … Read more