A Brief History of Humankind

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About 2 million years ago our humanancestors were insignificant animals living in a corner of Africa. Their impact on the world was no greater thanthat of gorillas, zebras, or chickens. Today humans are spread all over theworld, and they are the most important animal around. The very future of lifeon Earth depends on the ideas and behavior of our species.

This course will explain how we humans have conquered planet Earth, and howwe have changed our environment, our societies, and our own bodies and minds.The aim of the course is to give students a brief but complete overview ofhistory, from the Stone Age to the age of capitalismand genetic engineering. The course invites usto question the basic narratives of our world. Its conclusions are enlighteningand at times provocative. For example:

·        Werule the world because we are the only animal that can believe in things thatexist purely in our own imagination, such as gods, states, money and humanrights. 

·        Humans are ecological serial killers – even with stone-age tools, our ancestors wipedout half the planet's large terrestrial mammals well before the advent ofagriculture.

·        TheAgricultural Revolution was history’s biggest fraud – wheat domesticatedSapiens rather than the other wayaround.

·        Moneyis the most universal and pluralistic system of mutual trust ever devised.Money is the only thing everyone trusts.

·        Empireis the most successful political system humans have invented, and our presentera of anti-imperial sentiment is probably a short-lived aberration.

·        Capitalismis a religion rather than just an economic theory – and it is the mostsuccessful religion to date.

·        Thetreatment of animals in modern agriculture may turn out to be the worst crimein     history.

·        Weare far more powerful than our ancestors, but we aren’t much happier.

·         Humans will soon disappear. With the help of novel technologies, within a fewcenturies or even decades, Humans will upgrade themselves into completelydifferent beings, enjoying godlike qualities and abilities. History began whenhumans invented gods – and will end when humans become gods. 

Part I: The Cognitive Revolution

Lecture 1: The Human Family

One hundred thousand years ago, atleast six different species of humans inhabited planet Earth. Our species, Homosapiens, was just one among them. Who were the others? Where did they comefrom? And what happened to them? Why is there today only one species of humans—Homosapiens?

Lecture 2: The CognitiveRevolution

The Cognitive Revolution, about70,000 years ago, enabled Homo sapiens to conquer the world and driveall other human species to extinction. During this revolution, Homo sapiensdeveloped a new and remarkable kind of language. How was this languagedifferent from the languages of earlier human species and of other animals? Whatwere the advantages that Homo sapiens gained from this unique language?

Lecture 3: Daily Life in theStone Age

What was life like for people wholived 30,000 years ago? What did they do when they woke up in the morning? Howdid they organize their societies? Did they have monogamous relationships andnuclear families? Did they have religions, revolutions, and wars?

Lecture 4: The Human Flood

Following the Cognitive Revolution,Homo sapiens spread all over the planet. While doing this, it drovenumerous other species to extinction. In Australia, up to 95% of all largeanimal species vanished. In America,84 of 107 large mammal species disappeared. Altogether, about half of the largeterrestrial mammals that populated Earth became extinct. How could a fewmillion individuals who possessed no more than Stone Age technology have causedsuch devastation?

Part II: The Agricultural Revolution

Lecture 5: History’s BiggestFraud

About 12,000 years ago, people inthe Middle East, China, and Central America began domesticating plants and animals.In the process, Homo sapiens,too, was domesticated, abandoning a life of hunting and gatheringfor the pleasures and discomforts of agriculture. For most people, thediscomforts outweighed the pleasures. The Agricultural Revolution made the lifeof the average person harder. Why, then, did it occur?

Lecture 6: Building Pyramids

For millions of years, humans livedin intimate bands of no more than a few dozen individuals. Our biologicalinstincts are adapted to this way of life. Humans are consequently ill-equippedto cooperate with large numbers of strangers. Yet shortly after the AgriculturalRevolution erupted, humans established cities, kingdoms, and huge empires. Howdid they do it? How can millions of strangers agree on shared laws, norms andvalues?

Lecture 7: There is No Justicein History

A critical factor in the formationof complex societies was the division of the population into a hierarchy ofgroups. Agricultural and industrial societies have been built on hierarchies ofclass, race, ethnicity, and gender. Why was it impossible to create a just andequal society? What is the deep root of prejudice and injustice? In particular,why did almost all known societies treat men as superior to women?

Part III: The Unification of Humankind

Lecture 8: The Direction of History

After the Agricultural Revolution,humans created many different cultures and societies. The relations betweenthese different societies were very complex, and involved wars and conflicts aswell as trade, immigration and imitation. But as time went by, the connectionsbetween the societies became stronger and stronger, so that humankind wasgradually united into a single global society. Three main forces shaped thisprocess of unification. The first was money and trade. Money is the mostuniversal system of mutual trust ever devised by humans. How come even peoplewho believe in different gods and obey rival kings, are nevertheless willing touse the same money?

Lecture 9: Imperial Visions

The second force that shaped theprocess of human unification is imperialism. The idea of empire is seen todayin a very negative light, but empires have played such a central role in humanhistory that it’s hard to regard them as totally evil. What exactly is anempire? How have empires succeeded in uniting under their control differentecological regions, ethnic groups, and religious communities? How can webalance the positive contribution of empires with their record of violence andoppression? And what is the future of the imperial ideal? Is the world destinedto be ruled by a new global empire?

Lecture 10: The Law of Religion

The third force that shaped theprocess of human unification is religion. The role of religion in history isextremely controversial. Some see religion as the root of all evil, while forothers it is the primary source of happiness, empathy, and progress. Can wearrive at a balanced judgment? What were the main landmarks in the religioushistory of the world? In what ways did different cultures understand theuniverse, distinguish good from evil, and explain the ubiquitous presence ofsuffering?

Part IV. The Scientific Revolution

Lecture 11: The Discovery ofIgnorance

During the last 500 years theprocess of human unification was completed. At the same time, there has been anexplosive growth in the power of humankind, due above all to the discoveries ofmodern science. Humankind has become increasingly convinced that the only thingthat limits its power is its own ignorance, and that the discovery of newknowledge can enable it to do almost anything. How is the modern scientifictradition different from all previous traditions of knowledge? What accountsfor its sudden rise and for its unparalleled achievements?

Lecture 12: The Marriage ofScience and Empire

Modern science developed inalliance with the modern European empires. The conquest of new knowledgedepended upon and made possible the conquest of new territories. What exactlywas the contribution of science to the rise of the European empires, and whatwas the contribution of the European empires to the development of science? Andwhy did it all start in Europe, rather than in China,India, or the Middle East?

Lecture 13: The Capitalist Creed

The close ties between science andimperialism were in fact just one part of a more complex relationship. Thethird crucial member of this relationship was capitalism, which financed bothscience and empire, and which led to an unprecedented growth in the worldeconomy. How does a capitalist economy function? How is it different from traditionaleconomies? Is capitalism natural, or is it really a kind of religion?

Lecture 14: The IndustrialRevolution

During the last 200 years, thecombination of science, imperialism and capitalism produced the IndustrialRevolution. This revolution gave humankind control of enormous new energyresources, and enabled humankind to start manufacturing far more things thanever before, far more quickly, and far more cheaply. How did this change theglobal ecology, daily life, and human psychology?

Lecture 15: A PermanentRevolution

The Industrial Revolution opened anera of permanent revolution. The late modern socio-political order is constantlychanging, never settling into any stable pattern. The pillars of humanorder—most notably, the family and the intimate community—are crumbling aroundus. How do humans deal with the resulting vacuum and chaos? How do society andpolitics function without stability? Is the world becoming more violent anddangerous, or is it actually more peaceful and secure than ever before?

Lecture 16: And They LivedHappily Ever After

Have 500 years of amazing discoveries,developments, and revolutions made people happier? Are people today happierthan in the Middle Ages, or in the Stone Age? If not, what was the point of allthese changes? Most history books ignore these issues, yet these are the mostimportant questions we can ask about history. New studies in biology,economics, and psychology are offering fascinating insights into the history ofhuman happiness.

Lecture 17: The End of Homo Sapiens

Over the last few decades humanshave began to bend and break the laws of natural selection—laws that havegoverned life on Earth for the past four billion years. New technologies suchas genetic engineering and nanotechnology are giving us unprecedented abilitiesto design not only the world around us, but also our own bodies, ourpersonalities, and our desires. How will this influence society and culture?Does anybody know where we are heading? What is the likely future of humankind?