“Trying to look at the whole of the past is, it seems to me, like using a map of the world. No… — David Christian History Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, historians have become so absorbed in detailed research that they have tended to neglect the job of building larger-scale maps of… — David Christian Absorb Copy Share Image
“The efficiency of information exchanges reflects, above all, the nature and regularity of contacts and exchanges between different communities.” — David Christian Nature Copy Share Image
“Choices whose outcomes matter even though they are neither deterministic nor completely random surround us all the time. So it is not… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“The explosive properties of gunpowder were first used in war by the Jin, the northern rivals of the Song, in 1221.” — David Christian War Copy Share Image
“Thomas Malthus, was one of the first to analyze the relations between population growth and available resources. At the end of the… — David Christian Compound interest Copy Share Image
“despite the absence of a real state monopoly on violence, early states were much more formidable structures than chiefdoms. And everywhere they… — David Christian Division of labor Copy Share Image
“Even in Jericho, the oldest-known farming village, the walls, which were once believed to have been fortifications, are now thought to have… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“Human knowledge, by its nature, has limits, so some questions must remain mysteries. Some religions treat such mysteries as secrets that the… — David Christian Buddhism Copy Share Image
“Within a single information network, processes of collective learning may be more or less powerful in different regions; it is thus possible… — David Christian Copy Share Image
I remember very vividly, as a child growing up in England, living through the Cuban Missile Crisis. For a few days, the… — David Christian Children Copy Share Image
“Unlike water, which prefers to lie flat as it accumulates, material wealth in complex societies likes to pile itself up into huge… — David Christian Material wealth Copy Share Image
“A Moment’s Halt—a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste—And Lo!—the phantom Caravan has reached The NOTHING it set… — David Christian Time Copy Share Image
“There were African slaves in China from at least the seventh century CE, and, Wolf reports, “by 1119 most of the wealthy… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“John McNeill suggests that “we have probably deployed more energy since 1900 than in all of human history before 1900” — David Christian Energy Copy Share Image
“Moses Finley has argued, with only slight exaggeration, that “what passed for economic growth in antiquity was always achieved only by external… — David Christian Economic growth Copy Share Image
Humans are remarkable: the first species in almost four billion years of life on earth that dominates the biosphere. This gives us… — David Christian Almost Copy Share Image
“The primordial gases accounted for 98 percent of the material in the cloud from which our sun formed (hydrogen made up ca.… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“the basic rules of serious futurology are (a) look for the large trends and analyze how they work, (b) construct models to… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas which, given enough time, changes into people.” — David Christian Enough time Copy Share Image
“Robert de Balsac, ended a study on warfare with the remark that “most important of all, success in war depends on having… — David Christian Education Copy Share Image
“In mechanical terms, humans are quite efficient converters of food into energy, so human slaves were often more valuable than animal slaves,… — David Christian Fossil fuel Copy Share Image
“there are several distinct types of networks of exchange, each with its own typical range and characteristics. The main types that they… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“All knowledge systems, from modern science to those embedded in the most ancient of creation myths, can be thought of as maps… — David Christian Science Copy Share Image
In literature classes, you don't learn about genes; in physics classes you don't learn about human evolution. So you get a fragmented… — David Christian About Copy Share Image
