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| The Nature of Humankind |
The Nature of Humankind
Historical evidence provides significant clues about how humans make use of their neural systems to think, create, build, and destroy.
From the archaeological records of civilizations over the past 5000 years we can observe many basic characteristics of humans, some admirable, some not. We apparently like to build – homes, villages, towns, cities, fortresses, monuments, palaces, and temples. We like to decorate and embellish – our homes, our implements, our public buildings, and ourselves. We like to invent and create – new tools, new weapons, and new farming techniques. We fear and revere the supernatural – we sacrifice plants, animals, and people to appease the gods, we pray to the gods for forgiveness and for favours, we bow to priests who may communicate directly with the gods on our behalf. We like status and power – we are almost always ready to fight to maintain our social status, we are ready to fight to protect our families, we are ready to fight to take advantage of weakness in a neighbouring tribe or town.
The general characteristics of humans, as revealed by history, still dominate much of human activity today. We need to consider these innate tendencies as we strive to improve our own thought processes. These tendencies seem to be embedded in our societies, and our societies establish frameworks that shape much of our thinking as individuals.
Historical evidence provides significant clues about how humans make use of their neural systems to think, create, build, and destroy.
From the archaeological records of civilizations over the past 5000 years we can observe many basic characteristics of humans, some admirable, some not. We apparently like to build – homes, villages, towns, cities, fortresses, monuments, palaces, and temples. We like to decorate and embellish – our homes, our implements, our public buildings, and ourselves. We like to invent and create – new tools, new weapons, and new farming techniques. We fear and revere the supernatural – we sacrifice plants, animals, and people to appease the gods, we pray to the gods for forgiveness and for favours, we bow to priests who may communicate directly with the gods on our behalf. We like status and power – we are almost always ready to fight to maintain our social status, we are ready to fight to protect our families, we are ready to fight to take advantage of weakness in a neighbouring tribe or town.
The general characteristics of humans, as revealed by history, still dominate much of human activity today. We need to consider these innate tendencies as we strive to improve our own thought processes. These tendencies seem to be embedded in our societies, and our societies establish frameworks that shape much of our thinking as individuals.
