History

From metawiki
Learn from history or repeat it. Roughly every 100 years it seems, just long enough that the living no longer remember.

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.

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 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.

Major Historical Events Change the Generating Equations

The unique perspective on the interpretation of history that this belief system offers 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.

Watch Full Series on Netflix

Best Cunk on Earth Interviews

Musical History

Groove Armada - History
Propellerheads feat: Miss Shirley Bassey - History Repeating