History
The advantage of basing a belief system on science is the fact that you can draw on the totality of accumulated human knowledge, rather than a small collection of scripture. This enables a much more robust understanding of history than religion has ever provided.
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." -George Santayana
History in scripture typically tells the story of a single tribe or nation, usually passed down orally and narrowly focused on the family lineage of the kings and prophets of that time.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but It often rhymes” -Mark Twain
History in metaculture must tell the entire human story, considering the stories of all peoples and cultures, how they came to be, how they have interacted with each other in booth war and peace--the whole enchilada.
A Fractal Model of Repetitive History
The fractal metaphor helps us understand why history repeats itself, despite the enormous complexity of human society. The emergent patterns of human behavior are complex, but they are based on similar underlying rules. People acting according to human morality will tend to repeat the same patterns, both personally and culturally. The aspects of history that repeat are the attractors of this complex system.
Major Historical Events Change the Generating Equations
Another application of the fractal metaphor is to view memes, inventions, and ideas that have changed history as generating equations for new fractal patterns of human behavior.
For example, take the invention of the printing press. At first there was just the original, but it was quickly copied, and copied again, until every city and town in the world had its own press and newspaper. The self-similar presses exist at multiple levels of scale, with enormous presses printing millions of copies in big cities, to the smallest zine being handed out at a protest. And then consider the influence that each of the ideas printed on every one of those pages had on the people who read them, and so on. The fractal metaphor helps us understand and visualize how ideas replicate and form new patterns of behavior in societies.
The transition from polytheism to monotheism was another instance when there was a major change in the generating equation for how our culture and society is organized. Ultimately it is a simple change in a deeply rooted belief--one god instead of many. But it has impacted every aspect of culture from family life to politics to art to war for the vast majority of the people on earth for centuries.
A Brief Overview of History
The documentary series Cunk on Earth offers a concise overview of the major events of human history.
Telling the history behind a historic parody is meta on multiple levels. Watch the full movie and follow-up series: Part 1, Part 2
Musical History
The Voices Across Time project from the University of Pittsburgh library tells the story of American history through the folk songs of each period.
"In the beginning, there was Jack, and Jack had a groove,
And from this groove came the groove of all grooves,
And while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldly declared,
Let there be HOUSE!”
and house music was born."