Tools and the Development of Contemporary Society
Evolutionary Perspective
Featured Books
The Axemaker’s Gift
Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
James Burke and Robert Ornstein
Explore the double-edged history of human culture—how those with capacity for sequential analysis generated technologies to “cut and control” the world and and shape their community.
Against the Grain
A Deep History of the Earliest States
James C. Scott
When early humans lived in settled communities and devoted their time to growing grains and caring for animals, were they really better off?
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Fates of Human Societies
Jared Diamond
Was the Eurasian culture able to use tools to conquer and dominate the world a result of innate differences in people—or was really due to different environmental conditions like geography and climate?
1491
New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
Contrary to popular myths, pre-Columbian Indians were landscaping, manipulating, and even genetically engineering their world in ways we are only beginning to understand.
1493
Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Charles C. Mann
How the post-Columbian network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and sowed the seeds of today’s fiercest political disputes.
Our Digital World
Viral Ideas
We are in the midst of the greatest revolution in communication technology since humanity spread across the globe, exceeding in scope and impact the printing press. A change of this magnitude to how we communicate with each other requires us to adapt both as individuals and as nations.
Taming the Web
Prior to the advent of algorithms, we explored the web like some new land. Now, in a very real way the web has begun to explore us.
The Great Attention Heist
To give and receive attention is a fundamental human need and a cornerstone of human behavior. Increasingly, propagandists, media executives, and internet moguls are using new technology to turn our attention into a commodity for profit. What does this means for our humanity and our culture?
Social Networks and the Marketplace of Ideas
Social networks, the ones we have belonged to ever since we ventured out of the trees and onto the savannah, have always been our most important source of information. More than ever before, we need to understand the nature of such networks and the impact of digital technology, taking into account what we know about human perception and psychology. More than ever before, scientists and especially psychologists, have generated information that ensures we can do so.
Reclaiming the Public Square
Global communication now easily crosses borders and has surpassed the traditional mechanisms for maintaining the integrity of information and debate. Democracy and human rights depend on a healthy information ecosystem. Principles like transparency, accountability, and standards can foster trust that the information ecosystem is being governed in a way that is open and accountable to the citizens.
Featured Books
On Tyranny
Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Timothy Snyder
The wave of discontent and division currently washing over the Western world will lead to a loss of liberty unless it is checked. Our democratic heritage does not necessarily protect us from this threat. Democracies can fall, to be replaced by gulags and men with guns. The twenty lessons presented here can help us avoid these catastrophes.
The True Believer
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Eric Hoffer
Today’s political movements such as “Stop the Steal,” Black Lives Matter, neo-Nazism, Occupy Wall Street, and contemporary white supremacy movements, all share something fundamental with historical mass movements such as Nazism, Communism, the French Revolution, the rise of Protestantism, and of the ancient Catholic Church. These contemporary and historical religious and political mass movements all spring from a single psychological cause: the need for the discontented to look outside the self for the cause of their frustration.
Travel the Journey
Estonia, The Digital Republic
Nathan Heller, New Yorker
A government effort to transform the country from a state into a digital society has made Estonian life more efficient. Through its government sponsored nation-wide digital network, citizens of Estonia can handle almost all aspects of their daily lives online and even extended the opportunity and benefits to residents of other countries. The project shows how a truly global, borderless society can function.
The Case Against Civilization: Did Our Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors Have It Better?
John Lanchester, New Yorker
We flatter ourselves, says Lanchester, by believing that the “dark age” existence of our hunter-gatherer progenitors was so grim and our modern, civilized one so great. Drawing on two recent works he suggests this may not be the case. Is there a lesson to be learned from the radical egalitarianism of their hunter-gatherer way of life?