What are you curious about?

I am curious about human history at least from the beginning of the Holocene. The various technological revolutions like Agriculture, Metallurgy, and Coinage. I am trying to find a discourse to speak about them, and identify secondary revolutions.

For instance, Agriculture led to the growth of material culture, and the birth of first cities. And while Agriculture meant corralling of herd animals, Metallurgy ment corralling of the people. The master and slave relationship was born, without which the birth of the first civilizations wouldn’t be possible. Coinage, developed in the 5th century BC made Industrial Revolution and capitalism possible many centuries later.

Karl Jaspers described the last revolution as the Axial Age. Not only coinage was developed but this was a philosophical and religious revolution, first histories were written. This form of speculation also contributed to the scientific and industrial revolutions centuries later.

And following the pattern we are up for another technological revolution about a thousand years from now, which will bear fruits again in several hundred years after that. This is a question to the futurists, Ray Kurzweil thinks technological singularity is near, so it cannot be what I think. Provided, Kurzweil is wrong and there will be a dark age and regression on the way, which would also follow the pattern.

The eventual outcome is humanity becoming a type I civilization on the Kardashev scale. This means that it will use the entire energy of planet earth. Fossil fuels might be finite and dirty but energy is actually abundant. It is a question of how we harness it, store it and use it.