To put it all in perspective, perhaps as early as 1.8 million years ago, but certainly by 500,000 years ago, humans began to use fire for heat and cooking.
The Paleolithic also saw humans develop language as well as a conceptual repertoire that included both the systematic burial of the dead and adornment of the living.
Signs of early artistic expression can be found in the form of cave paintings and sculptures made from ivory, stone, and bone, implying a form of spirituality
Beginning around 10,000 BCE, the Neolithic Revolution marked the development of agriculture, which fundamentally changed the human lifestyle.
Whether in prehistoric or historic times, people always needed to be near reliable sources of drinking water.
Settlements developed as early as 4,000 BCE in Iran, in Mesopotamia, in the Indus River valley on the Indian subcontinent, on the banks of Egypt's Nile River, and along China's rivers.
As farming developed, grain agriculture became more sophisticated and prompted a division of labour to store food between growing seasons.
Labour divisions led to the rise of a leisured upper class and the development of cities, which provided the foundation for civilization.
The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of accounting and writing and that was the moment that knowledge systematically was stored on external media, for instance clay tablets.
What have we learned about homo sapiens and his knowledge history? The first thing we see is, that fundamental changes took place at a very slow pace initially.
The tempo increased when the Greek philosophers looked for other answers than pointing at gods and demons.
The process stopped for a number of centuries with the introduction of Christianity and increased again with the Renaissance around 1340.
From then on the speed with which fundamental changes in society took place increased relatively speaking almost exponentially.
What was the cause of this acceleration? Some of you already have remarked earlier that man in fact hardly has changed through the centuries.
He still is that peculiar mix of rationality, emotionality and irrationality. Those seem to be the tools that he uses to shape his culture and environment.
However, there is one thing that affects his world drastically: knowledge and the way man handles knowledge.
Knowledge became independent from the individual the moment writing was invented. It became more easily spread when printing and books were invented.
It became larger and larger when tools were invented that allowed man to look into the micro world and the macro world with microscope and telescope.
In the 17th century a lot of knowledge was gathered driven by real curiosity and motivated by the longing to understand God's plan.
When the use of the Empirical Cycle became the method to obtain knowledge, there was little room left for explaining phenomena by referring to some spiritual plan or the like.
In the 19th century with the discovery of chemistry and electricity knowledge became a tool to make products. Growing knowledge stood at the cradle of capitalism, consumerism and the industrial revolution.
While 500 years telescope and microscope widened our knowledge horizon into the micro and macro, today our knowledge is widened by handling immense amounts of data with computers.
This process goes hand in hand with the development of communication, to begin with the possibility to send someone a letter centuries ago to the Internet of today.
It all shows how our ability to discover patterns and principles in our reality shapes our everyday world. If you ask "What is the future of knowledge?",
you can answer the question by looking at the 17th century and what followed, so that you see what the 17th century knowledge its future was,
but if you apply the question to our current knowledge....What will it bring us? How will it shape our world? Who can predict the future?
Maybe a cleaner world, maybe more equal distribution of wealth, maybe better vaccines, maybe....... I can't tell.
This anyway is the end of our journey and the beginning of our Holidays. The new project will begin Tuesday January 4.
Thank you for your attention again....
The Discussion
[13:17] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): wow
[13:18] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i missed a lot
[13:18] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): I'm Sorry!
[13:18] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): I sorry..
[13:18] herman Bergson: there still is the blog.... ^_^
[13:18] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): it was a great lecture
[13:18] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): new camera going out to space farther than ever will maybe open new doors
[13:18] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): and knowledge
[13:18] druth Vlodovic: the future of knowledge will need to be better ways for humans to process it
[13:19] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): oh yes
[13:19] druth Vlodovic: or a way to bypass humans
[13:19] herman Bergson: Data mining is the current hype and A.I.
[13:19] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yep
[13:19] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): and how to control it all
[13:19] druth Vlodovic: ironically I'd just started reading an article on "mother's little helper" from the 1950s, amphetamines
[13:19] herman Bergson: But what I find most interesting of the whole history
[13:20] herman Bergson: is that the growth of knowledge is speeding up exponentially through time
[13:20] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:20] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:20] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): in gulps and leaps
[13:21] herman Bergson: But now we live in a period where knowledge mainly is seen as money producing
[13:21] herman Bergson: knowledge is money....patents
[13:21] druth Vlodovic: I wonder if altruism can be blamed for part of that, if everyone who knew anything just used it for their own advantage then it could hardly be used for much, or grow
[13:21] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): that part is scary
[13:22] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): the authoritarianism that is spreading and misusing
[13:22] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): knowledge
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed
[13:22] herman Bergson: And the discrediting of knowledge.....
[13:22] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): sigh
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): today money is all and patent trolls rule the world
[13:22] druth Vlodovic: I was reading about all of the navigation devices dug up in the Mediterranean, most of them unique, and few records kept, so that the inventor could keep making money off of it
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): like Apple
[13:22] herman Bergson: Science is just another opinion....is the adagium of the stupid
[13:22] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ha
[13:23] druth Vlodovic: for a while Patents let people release their designs and still make monmey, supposedly
[13:23] herman Bergson: look a Pfeizer....it keeps its formula for the vaccine secret
[13:23] druth Vlodovic: money, that is
[13:23] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): nono
[13:23] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it is going to share
[13:23] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): it is going to bypass the patent
[13:23] herman Bergson: is it Gemma?
[13:23] herman Bergson: That is news
[13:23] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): was announced last week
[13:23] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:24] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): when Gemma?
[13:24] herman Bergson: The poor countries want to make their own vaccines
[13:24] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): when we paid a lot?
[13:24] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): soon as it is able i think
[13:24] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): let med see
[13:24] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): we need to focus on sciewell if used correct it is a good thing but today its missused a lot, for ex it delayed 3D printing for others then airspace and science labs with billions in budget
[13:24] druth Vlodovic: they got afraid that countries would just seize it in the name of public safety, now they are buying time
[13:24] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): today u can get a great working machine for a couple of 100 dollars so anyone can afford one
[13:24] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): but it will take sometime for many places to have labs to be able to create the vaccine
[13:24] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and this have created a new industrial revolution i say where the factories move into everyones home
[13:25] herman Bergson: I think so too Gemma
[13:25] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm the vaccine chais yes
[13:25] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): chaos
[13:25] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i am looking for quotes
[13:26] herman Bergson: Anyway knowledge takes a central position in our culture
[13:26] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): I hears it from the chairman
[13:26] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): on tv
[13:26] druth Vlodovic: I was imagining a future world where we lease physical objects, like we so software now, cops scanning your shirt to see if it expired
[13:26] druth Vlodovic: that would get around 3d printing at home
[13:27] herman Bergson: Alll technological knowledge has changed our world immensely
[13:27] herman Bergson: Like the steam machine did in the 1850s and the industrial revolution
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hm
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[13:28] herman Bergson: and one consequence is that a group af people, mainly elderly has lost contact
[13:28] druth Vlodovic: we have a rolling problem of "the new normal", the death rate of covid would not shock our great grandparents, but it does us because of advanced in medical tech
[13:29] druth Vlodovic: it makes it hard to properly assess sociological effects
[13:29] herman Bergson: indeed Druth
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): we consider it all slow
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ha
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): will take years
[13:29] herman Bergson: In the Middle Ages a plague was a common phenomenon :-)
[13:30] herman Bergson: and today we want a medicine and a doctor for every disease
[13:30] druth Vlodovic: I am not sure conservatism is a universally bad thing, a bit more suspicion of science would have slowed down deployment of asbestos and DDT back in the day
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): true
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ddt omg
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): OMG!!!
[13:31] herman Bergson: If there is big money in it, Druth, I doubt it
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ehhe thats a nice classic
[13:31] druth Vlodovic: :-/
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): DDT and methylisoicyanate(Bophal)
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): together woth PCB snd some other stuff
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): fin fact DDT is harmless to humans but kills of birds like crazy
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): fun
[13:31] herman Bergson: Take for instance cars on hydrogin
[13:32] herman Bergson: We could have build them decades ago, but that would have killed the oil industry
[13:32] Ciska Riverstone is offline.
[13:32] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): that is true I knew one of the scientists working on it
[13:33] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): and hydrogen batteries
[13:33] herman Bergson: but the big money was in oil, not in a cleaner air
[13:33] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): now the oil industry is killing the earth
[13:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed so the oil industry holds everything back
[13:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and now and then induces an environmental disaster like Piper Alpha and Deepwater Horizon
[13:33] druth Vlodovic: the oil industry only makes money because it is supported by government donations, they say
[13:34] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): in many countries yes
[13:34] herman Bergson: Well...take the Middle East...it would collapse if oil is out
[13:34] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): some countries are the owners
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed
[13:34] druth Vlodovic: it might be better off if it did, less money but fewer people starting wars there
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[13:35] herman Bergson: yes,,,
[13:35] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): the future is interesting AND scary
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and take a place like Dubai. a place for the rich with slave labor dying in hordes and financed soley by oil
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): shudders
[13:36] theo Velde is offline.
[13:36] herman Bergson: Yes Bejiita...being old has it advantages in relation to an uncertain future :-)
[13:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): we don't need places like that
[13:36] druth Vlodovic: they need to figure out what do do about the poor if they don't want a replay of Marxist revolutions
[13:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm
[13:37] herman Bergson: That, Druth , is indeed a growing problem
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well take care of them maybee
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): same thing all these gang shootings here, i think the root cause is segregation and treating them like shit, its no wonder this happens then
[13:37] herman Bergson: People look for certainty in accumulating money and wealth
[13:38] Medussa Reddevil is online.
[13:38] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[13:38] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[13:38] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): enough to live on anyway
[13:38] druth Vlodovic: and group membership
[13:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm, thats another factor, most of these shootings are related to drug dealers making huge money
[13:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): killing everyone in their way
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): shooting people openly on the streets among other people
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): horrible
[13:39] herman Bergson: In Sweden, Bejiita?
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): happening in Stockholm and Malmö ect
[13:39] herman Bergson: wow
[13:39] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): oh
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): a famous rapper was shot cold blood a while ago cause they were jealous he was rich and not them
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): cause he had made a carrier
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): so they were jealous
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and so they shot him
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): scary and tragic development
[13:41] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): going on all over the us
[13:41] herman Bergson: Let's not end our session all too pessimistic about the future
[13:41] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): true
[13:41] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): remember we decided Man is basically good
[13:41] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hopefully its just a short chapter while we make great progress in general
[13:41] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): exceptions
[13:41] herman Bergson: although there seems to be an increase of authoritarianism, the number of democracies in the world increased through the past decades
[13:42] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): but the discussion now is are they strong enough
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm indeed
[13:42] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): or real democracies
[13:42] herman Bergson: And these days the US have a unique chance to show that democracy really holds strong
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hope so
[13:42] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): here that is the discussion of our usa democracy
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hope for the best there also
[13:43] herman Bergson: yes, for it is in serious danger
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): so much false info circulation
[13:43] druth Vlodovic: a lot of authoritarianism and violence is powered by fear and hopelessness
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): Mr T cant be allowed to return for one thing and spread his BS
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): omg
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): that is a fear
[13:43] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but he has his followers
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and they are many
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): well
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): like these Qanon idiots
[13:44] druth Vlodovic: If we could start picking up the solar punk idea of imagining a workable future, with places for people, things would get better
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): some of his "tours " are getting smaller attendance
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): fingers crossed
[13:45] herman Bergson: yes....half empty stadiums and worse
[13:45] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): good
[13:45] druth Vlodovic: I like to think of Trumpism as a last gasp of some of the more damaging aspects of Christianity, a God who deserves total loyalty and owes nothing in return
[13:45] druth Vlodovic: it is an idea that is getting watered down
[13:45] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): scary
[13:45] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm
[13:45] druth Vlodovic: we need to demand results of our "gods"
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): true
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): exactky
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and give us a working world
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): with clean energy, electrified transports ect
[13:47] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and where all is just good
[13:47] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): utopian dreams or?
[13:47] herman Bergson: Ok....to conclude our discussion and project today
[13:47] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i hope not
[13:47] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ♥ Thank Youuuuuuuuuu!! ♥
[13:47] herman Bergson: and to prepare for the Holidays I'll send you this
[13:47] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): was a great project for sure
[13:47] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): happy holidays
[13:47] herman Bergson: https://www.facebook.com/herman.bersgon/videos/203994718588369
[13:47] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i surley hope the general pattern of the future is pretty
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): beautiful
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:48] herman Bergson: eventually it will, Bejiita
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:48] bergfrau Apfelbaum: Thank ou Herman and class!! and happy christmas holidays :-)
[13:48] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): YAY! (yay!)
[13:49] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): :)))))
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): should we do a christmasplupp
[13:49] herman Bergson: Yes, have a good time the coming weeks...
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
