Physics - Chemistry - Biology - Cultures
Revolutions
Cognitive 70,000 years ago
Agricultural 12,000 years ago
Scientific 500 years ago
Humans began 2.5 millions ago
Humans are successful -- because they can organize in large groups -- because they can share belief in intersubjective ideas. Ie shared fictions like gods money laws morals, organizational goals, shared ideals, codes of behavior
Writing evolved first for numbers
Written numbers so useful because the brain can't handle them perfectly
The whole world speaks one language with numbers.
Numbers and maths are a partial script. And they're worldwide. Music is a partial script. It crosses many language boundaries. Partial scripts travel faster than general scripts. DSL's move faster than general purpose languages.
Science got a huge boost from empire building. Recognizing that science and technology could unlock a new world, scientific expeditions went hand in hand with military conquest.
Modern wars are advanced by technology. The stalemate of the trenches of wwi was broken by technology: tanks, poisons, aerial bombardment