Cultures and Religions

Chapter 1. Introduction

People seek meaning in their lives.

Although it can sometimes seem that life is meaningless and absurd, deep down everyone knows that life does have meaning.

However explicitly this is made clear by upbringing: the religion or ideology in which we have been raised or which we have adopted.

And that religion or ideology is instilled in us as children and depends on the culture in which we grow up.

We learn to think within the framework of the culture in which we grow up. We learn not only our parents' language, but also the customs, ways of thinking and ideas present in our own culture.

This is unconscious: we are not aware that we have adopted the thinking of our special culture until we come into contact with people of another culture.

Then everyone sees that we are part of a certain race with a certain appearance with usually a different culture, but we ourselves just think in our own culture, because it is in our body and we take it with us wherever we go.

The discovery that our culture is not universal can lead to what is called culture shock.

This is sometimes experienced when, as a traveler alone in a foreign country, you enter another culture, where your only contact consists of the people from that culture.

Since we live in one world, where everything is becoming increasingly international, it is inevitable that you will come into contact with people from other cultures.

Therefore, it is important to get informed about different cultures, religions, ideologies. It is also very important to preserve the good characteristics of all cultures. To give more insight into those cultures, some cultures are described in more detail in Chapter 5, which contains myths and stories.

This is the most important chapter of the book, which, by the way, can also be read separately.

Although this book is full of myths, it is essentially a non-fiction book, and it must get its information from the outside world. Thus, particularly in Chapter 5, that information relies on sources such as wikipedia, certain other websites and certain - sometimes old - books. The temptation to reproduce the text of the original source instead of such excerpts cannot be yielded to due to the limited length of this book.

Everyone, including the author of this book, thinks from his own culture. This implies that the writer may not have properly described certain religions and cultures that are not of his own. For that, the writer would like to apologize in advance.

It is notable that in many cultures certain themes and elements are the same.

The intention of this book is not to offend people of one's own or any other religion or culture, but on the contrary, by writing the truth, to achieve the unity of all people.

The world is becoming increasingly unified. This may threaten the survival of local cultures.  To arrive at a

new world culture, in which there is room for all people, it is necessary to achieve a reorientation within each culture and within each religion.

That is, within each culture and within each religion, people must ask themselves what are the good elements and what are not good elements of their own group.

For those who, due to lack of knowledge about other religions and cultures, think they have the best religion or culture, this can be a difficult process, but it is necessary in order to eventually come together as people and discover the real essence of all religions and to discover the real meaning of life, which applies to everyone. Both the biological, the material, and the spiritual, is universal and not limited to any particular group. However, at the core of every religion is the same spiritual.

In every culture, education and ethics play an important role. That is why this book also focuses on what requirements a good education for a globalized world should meet (Chapter 7) and in Chapter 8 what are important precepts.

Criteria for what is good are then, according to the author, healthy aging and being happy, both yourself and those around you, as well as nature and the world as a whole.

It is necessary in a globalized world to agree on what ethics and morality should be: that should become a guiding principle that unites all cultures and religions.

In a world that is one whole, there is no more room for conflict based on faith, race or culture.

Besides the importance of preserving the good from all traditional cultures, the question can also be asked as to what can be the guiding philosophy in a globalized world.

An attempt at this, admittedly speculative but nonetheless, the author undertakes in the final chapter.

The usefulness of a guiding philosophy may be to give all those good elements of all those cultures a place somewhere in a globalized world.

The writer hopes for criticism and comments, which can be sent to: vialucis360@gmail.com

Chapter 2 On cultures and subcultures

Ethnic cultures both carry certain hereditary characteristics of the particular people and that they stem from the history of that people. Another important factor is the natural environment or environment in which that people find themselves. And the interaction between those 3 factors.

At the core of a culture is the overall attitude toward each other, toward the outside world and toward nature. Heredity also plays a role in the creation of a culture. For example, some peoples have more hereditary predisposition to music, melody and singing, while other peoples have more predisposition to rhythm. Some peoples are predisposed to a lot of agility and others to sitting still. But once the culture is there, it is not necessarily hereditary and can also be learned by others.

History and morality are usually shaped in stories and myths. Stories and myths are at the core of every culture and subculture. Not only in the ethnic culture of natural peoples, but also in modern subcultures. Stories define their own heroes, saints and enemies. In addition to their own architecture, music, language and clothing, it is the stories and myths that are the binding factor for the members of a culture. Those stories are the same every time and are repeated and retold over and over again.

The inherent core characteristics and differences in culture among all indigenous ethnic and traditional cultures of each people must be recognized and respected, as well as the premise that persons of all ethnic cultures should have the same respect and rights.

Each ethnic group and region originally had its own culture.

Figure: World map of indigenous peoples. Source: Carlos Mota

It is important to distinguish between culture and race.

Races are groups with certain same hereditary characteristics, while cultures have developed through the history and natural conditions of a particular ethnic group.

Because of the uneven development of history between ethnic groups, some groups are still in a feudal-primitive stage, while others have developed technically and organizationally much further. Partly because of this, many prejudices of one group over the other emerged.

2.1. It is necessary for humanity to continue to consist of as many races as possible, because each race has somewhat different characteristics and this makes humanity more resistant to environmental changes.

Diversity of races is good for the survival of humanity.

For example, the black race may be more resistant to global warming. Or a particular race is more resistant to a particular pandemic.

In the past, there has been a discrepancy between numbers of members of different races. Those who know history know that the opposite of the racist "population theory" (promoted by the Russian secret service) is true.

In particular, the white race, the Europeans of origin, through colonialism and emigration in proportion from about 1500 onward, expanded far more than other races and populated large parts of the world where other races lived, such as in Australia, North and South America and Siberia. Europeans exterminated the Aborigines of Australia and New Zealand and took possession of their lands; Europeans murdered the Indians of all of North and South America and stole their lands; Europeans pushed Siberian tribes into the background and took possession of their lands. The genocide of Indians in the continents of North and South America is probably the greatest mass murder that has ever taken place.

Relatively oversized races compared to other races are then: the whites of European descent, the Arabs, the Chinese and the Bantus.

The Muslims have expanded to such an extent that the population of Egypt has increased fivefold since 1950: from 20 million to more than 100 million today, of Turkey quadrupled, of Pakistan more than 7 times.

The population of Communist China has tripled since 1950. That seems strange, because China lost tens of millions of people through Mao Zedong's rule and because China officially followed a one-child policy for years. What most people do not know, however, is that since Communist China took power, even during the worst period of the one-child policy, Communist Party supporters secretly encouraged unlimited childbearing, so it was not unusual for party members to have 13 children. But among non-party members, the 1-child policy was applied so cruelly that it was not inferior to the cruel eugenics policy of the Nazis: that is, even children who were born, in China if it was the 2nd child, were murdered by order of the state, often by midwives. Some midwives moved by remorse have openly acknowledged this.

Although white racists and apartheid agents have tried to eradicate Africa's black population through the spread of AIDS as well, they have not succeeded, and Africa's Bantu population is among the fastest growing, despite high rates of infection.

So to achieve a better balance, there would have to be relatively more of these original races.  However, this is a trend that is now taking place naturally.

It is therefore necessary to ensure that all breeds remain. In doing so, large breeds (more than 10 million individuals) can safely mix with other large breeds, but it is different for small breeds (especially for less than 100,000 individuals). To avoid extinction and to preserve their special characteristics, it is better not to mix them with other breeds. There should be a policy so that breeds in danger of extinction are helped in their survival.

These breeds should not engage in birth control and their physical and mental health should be improved. These are races with a small number of people, such as Papuans, Veddas, Negritos, Aborigines and pygmies, San, Inuit (Eskimos), Tibetans, and populations with special characteristics, such as six-fingered families in South America, that cannot get cancer and are resistant to numerous diseases.

Figure: For countries where multiple races or people of different cultures live, (often immigration countries), it is essential that there be a harmonious relationship between all ethnic groups by recognizing the equality of persons of all races and cultures.

It is possible through germline therapy to correct bad DNA in germline cells - sperm , eggs and embryos - which could prevent children being born with serious defects. If that gene therapy ever gets the green light, it could also reduce people's risk of diseases such as cancer and dementia.

This is also called genetic engineering (CRISPR-CAS). There is also so-called gene therapy to improve some less favorable hereditary traits in people who are already born. This is often done through viruses, but that change is not hereditary.

In people with discordant profiles, that is the preferred option.

Care must also be taken not to confuse acquired traits with hereditary traits.

Acquired traits are traits one has learned or happened to. A person may become disabled by an accident, but genetically he is not then disabled. A person may have learned certain habits and language that are totally inappropriate in a different environment.  IQ measurement between people of different cultures is therefore not easily comparable, because it is developed under the conditions of a Western culture, where the children go to school and have learned certain school skills from an early age.

Coming from a prominent family, or one that is rich or has power, has nothing to do with heredity of the individual. Sometimes addicted bums have better genes than a president or principal. This is not seen, only when the addiction is overcome, and the ex-addict gets a good education, showing his talent, it becomes visible.

If you come from a hunter-gatherer culture, you don't go to school at age 8, but learn to hunt as a boy or gather or grow plants on a boarding ground as a girl.

If you didn't learn to read or write because there was no school nearby and no books, paper and pen, or if your parents couldn't pay for school, then as an adult, you have a lower IQ from the outset, although that says nothing about your intelligence.

Similarly, if you lack a stable home situation, or if people have social or psychological problems caused by the environment, such as war or trauma, that negatively affects your IQ. The culture or subculture you grow up in also greatly affects your IQ.

However, all these things have nothing to do with your hereditary ability.

To improve hereditary traits for future generations, it is tempting to think of eugenics, the conscious effort by a state or an alliance of states, to breed people with better hereditary traits.

Unfortunately, humanity does not yet have enough ethical consciousness, to prevent its abuse. And that abuse is obvious.

One consequence is probably that it would reinforce the inequality of people, and you get a genetic elite and a genetic underclass. Logically, the latter group would be discriminated against. Then you get an unpleasant situation, where not only are differences magnified, but in the long run the question arises whether everyone should have the same rights. The challenge is to avoid such a situation. People both the privileged, and the disadvantaged do not feel good about that dichotomy. The natural state is for people to be part of a tribe or a community, where in principle everyone has the same rights. 

Only then can people be truly happy.

The important thing is that ALL people feel treated as equals, like at carnival it doesn't matter who you are. Whether there is eugenics or not, you should always accept those who perform less.

Accept stupid people.

Accept clumsy people.

Accept disabled people.

Accept sick people.

Accept people with very bad condition.

Accept cowardly people.

Accept ugly people.

Accept dirty people.

Accept deformed people.

Accept repulsive people.

Accept smelly people.

Accept people with totally different tastes or preferences.

Accept people with totally different looks.

Accept people who are totally different.

Accept crazy people.

Accept people who are much worse at something you are good at.

Accept people who are NOT good at anything.

Accept bad people as persons, but not their bad actions.

And respect all these people as you want to be respected yourself.

It all doesn't matter, even after us, the world just goes on.

It is about respecting everyone's differences, recognizing that the souls of all people are equal before God.

The above applies both within a culture, especially the culture you yourself are in, and to other cultures you are not a part of. It must apply to everyone. This is a task proclaimed in all world religions, both by Jesus and Buddha, and only in that way is a harmonious society possible.

By the way, in many ways in non-Western cultures, both primitive and semi-feudal, people have more characteristics that are attractive, than Western ones. Usually people there are more relaxed and in practice often less prejudiced.

2.1. All the original indigenous cultures of each people have both good and bad characteristics. Good core characteristics are those that promote happiness and survival; bad characteristics are those that counteract it.

Bad characteristics are: selfishness, unkindness, aggression against each other, black magic, female circumcision, discrimination and exclusion of a subgroup or of persons with certain characteristics (insofar as they are not antisocial), intolerance, war, smoking, (excessive) alcohol use, drug use and all habits that are bad for physical or mental health.

In the case of the original cultures, however, the good characteristics predominate, otherwise it is impossible for them to continue for thousands of years.

However, this is often different with newly emerged or developed cultures.

2.2. It is important that all the good features of all cultures continue to live on.

Western culture with technology, movies, television, newspaper, Internet, money, trade, etc. is waltzing over all kinds of indigenous cultures, threatening their survival. When those cultures disappear, their music, and other good elements disappear forever as well, and they will never come back. Those cultures or a future world culture that is a mix of all kinds of cultures can make our lives better and richer than if they were not there if at least the good elements from those indigenous cultures are involved.

The good characteristics especially of endangered cultures must remain. Therefore, outsiders should not interfere with those cultures or only with extreme caution and respect.

They also have to swallow their criticism of things that outsiders think are inappropriate or wrong for a while, because they don't understand what function that may have in that culture and because everyone only looks at other cultures through the lens of their own.

The positive features of indigenous cultures include, for example: their special music, dance, clothing, ethno-pharmacy and knowledge of plants and animals, oral or written stories, architecture, aspects of original religion and psychology, the way people treat each other, how people resolve conflicts together, sexual customs, psychic rituals to heal and help others, special foods, and so on. A large-scale attempt to reflect or preserve something of the goodness of other cultures is already being done by UNESCO, namely to designate and protect such valuable cultural elements as World Heritage Sites. A small-scale attempt at this is, for example, international folk dance groups and the promotion of world music.

2.1.1. Evolution of cultures.

2.1.1.1. The revolutions in technology

Technology is the main driver of the shape that cultures take, alongside the

(re-)organization of political and social structure, values and foreign influence.

But social structure and even values seem to change with the introduction and application of certain new techniques. That values, ethics or morality, changed with the introduction of new technology was evident, for example, in the 1960s, when with the introduction of contraceptives, there was a change in sexual morality. Before then, sex in Western society was permitted only in monogamous marriage; after the 1970s, sex before and outside marriage became much more accepted, and even homophilia was tolerated for the first time.

Changing sexual morality also affected the role of women in society.

Women were seen less and less as only sexual partners of men and as mothers, who were thus best served at home. But women began to play more and more of a social and political role, began to work outside s'home ( which, however, in some cases came into conflict with her role as a mother).

Before the 1960s, women also worked, but mostly with the family.

At that time, the labor force in the villages consisted of about 20% free farmers, (share decreased due to migration to cities and industrialization), 30% tenant farmers, 15% craftsmen, 10% shopkeepers, 20% factory workers and 5% of the local elite: the large landowner, factory owner, the mayor, the teacher, the pastor. In the big cities, the ratio was different: Instead of farmers and tenants, there were many more factory workers up to 40 %. But most people at that time did not yet live in the big cities, but in villages in the countryside. So

most people were farmers and the farmers' wives just helped out, often with the lighter tasks such as milking, feeding the animals and when the men who were working hard in the fields took a rest, they would bring sandwiches and coffee or tea which created a much more pleasant mood. The children simply went with mother and helped with the farm work from an early age.

Even with the artisans and shopkeepers, the children could just stay at home. So the children were constantly with their mother.

Only the poorest women went outside to work in a factory. There, if there was no grandmother or the eldest sister to babysit, the children were thus neglected, which was part of the reason for the emergence of the antisocial class, because there was no babysitter.

The introduction of contraceptives also resulted in fewer children being born. Families became smaller.

Before that time, it was normal for a woman to have 6 children. Then it was also almost impossible to go to work.

But after that time, the number of children became so small that it is to be feared that the population in a culture becomes so small that it may eventually disappear.

Because historical circumstances mean that the development of technology always proceeds differently between cultures, some cultures are even closer to a certain earlier technical stage, than others. By the way, this does not mean that the most modern culture is also the healthiest and happiest, because in many cases this is not the case.

Incidentally, the difference in technical development has been rapidly disappearing in recent decades due to globalization. Even in the remotest regions one can find cell phones with Internet connectivity today, which of course has major implications for culture.

Technical development was not gradual, but developed in waves. In particular, the first periods lasted the longest. The more development, the faster the technological revolutions succeeded each other.

The 14 major revolutions in technology were:

1. Use of stones and clay 2. Origin and use of language. 3. Using fire. 4. Clothing 5. The wheel. Agriculture, 7.Metal use, 8.Money, 9. Writing, 10 printing/bus powder, 11.steam engine, 12.electricity/combustion engine, 13.computer/internet and 14.robotization/computerization/eugenics/ artificial intelligence (AI).

1. Use of stones, branches and clay ± 2 million years ago

Use of stones to smash nuts, for example, has always been there and is known even in great apes. So probably also the use of a stone to hit or throw as a weapon. For the longest time nothing happened in terms of new inventions.

The first use of stones for tools (cut stones) is about 1-2 million years old . There was a hunter-gatherer society. Archaeological findings suggest that the use of a wooden spear with a sharpened stone as a point arose about 500,000 years ago. According to the evolutionary theory, man originated in the tropics or subtropics, so he did not necessarily need a home against the cold. However, he could simply build a shelter from the rain with some sticks and use of the large leaves of certain plants, for example the banana tree. After people migrated from Africa to the temperate zone (Europe, Asia) they did need shelter.  About 380,000 years ago, people discovered the use of reeds, sticks and leaves to build huts against the rain or people built plagge huts. In delta areas or along rivers where there was enough clay or loam, people started building mud houses: -a frame of branches docked with loam- with a thatched roof: a great advance, because loam insulates against heat and cold much better than branches and leaves. In the steppe, tents made of sticks and animal skins were sometimes used. The oldest bone discovered to have been used by Neanderthals for tools is about 50,000 years old. During the ice age, caves were widely used as homes: caves are very suitable for this purpose and offer the best protection from both cold and heat and have a constant temperature of 11 degrees.

2. Origin and use of Language. ± 100,000 years ago

Animals can also communicate with each other. Bees perform a dance for other bees to show them the way to flowers with nectar. A dog or pig in distress may squeal to make it clear that they are serious. Pooches, content on their mistress's lap, hum.  Birds sing to mark their territory and males to lure females. Pets know their names and come when called.  Monkeys have even managed to teach more than 100 terms through symbols. And by nature, several hundred of their cries have meaning. Probably in Stone Age humans, due to circumstances, a new sound was formed that had a special meaning. And from the idea that you could connect sounds to a thing or an event, more sounds came to designate things or events. In itself, that can be considered the greatest invention. There is debate among linguists and evolutionary biologists as to whether it was the brain that led to language or whether the use of sounds and words under pressure of circumstances, for example the use of stones for hunting, led to more language-brain area. It is generally believed that some kind of proto-language originated in East Africa 150,000 years ago. As humans began to swarm around the world, languages evolved from that proto-language. The primal sounds were standardized into words. There are great differences between different language families. And from those tribes that developed a language, offshoots, so new languages arose within that large language family, for example from the Indo-Germanic language family arose Germanic, Romance and Slavic and other languages. Then within the Germanic language family arose, for example, German, English, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Swedish and Norwegian. As a culture becomes more developed in technical-scientific terms, it has more words. For example, with the advent of computers, a whole new vocabulary has emerged.

All current human ethnic groups and peoples know language.

Language is a symbolic way of communicating. Concepts are replaced by symbols: sounds in this case. Language may also be the basis for all further technological revolutions, at least from the agricultural revolution onward.

Probably for tens of thousands of years, humans also communicated and represented concepts or events by symbols in other ways, namely drawings or paintings. Of course, most of these have been lost, but the oldest cave paintings that have survived are about 35,000 years old and found in South Sulawesi in Indonesia. Displaying through drawings sometimes allowed humans to convey more information than through language. It is believed that those petroglyphs were meant to influence the course of the hunt through magic, for example . Some also consider that ancient visual art as a kind of language and it is certain that those drawings formed the basis for later writing.

3. Fire ± 400,000 years ago

Fire has been around since the universe existed and in the world since the world existed: Lightning, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, etc.

But using fire to cook or roast meat, for example, is relatively new.

Almost all peoples and ethnic groups have learned to use fire except very few small groups such as the Andamanese. Initially, this will have been to use branches to keep a fire burning naturally, such as from lightning strikes, like the Tasmanian aborigines. Later, they learned to generate fire. Researchers Paola Villa and Wil Roebroeks argue in their article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the oldest remains of controlled fire are at most 400,000 years old. The oldest archaeological site is in Israel. Without the invention of the use of fire, the invention of agriculture and the steam engine would not have been possible. Later, about 20,000 years ago, fire was also used to bake clay, to make pots. With these, people could preserve food and drink much better than before. That was a prerequisite for agriculture, because why produce a lot of food if you can't preserve it ? If you can't preserve food properly, it gets spilled or eaten by mice or e.g. ants or it gets moldy much sooner. Water, milk or juice is then very difficult to preserve at all.

4. Clothing ± 170,000 years ago

The first clothing consisted of animal skins and skin. At least: that is what scientists suspect. The oldest clothing that has survived is only a scant ten thousand years old. The only evidence that people manufactured clothing before that are tools that could be used for that purpose. According to researchers, the switch from nudity to clothing was a necessary one. Homo sapiens at some point lost the thick hairs on their bodies and had to find another way to keep warm. This meant that people did not cover themselves because they thought it was beautiful or fun: they had to. Once the hairs on the body diminish, there is nothing wrong as long as you live in a warm area, says researcher Ian Gilligan. But if the environment suddenly changes then that characteristic (a bald body) can suddenly become a disadvantage. This, of course, raises questions: because when didn't humans evolve into a somewhat hairier species during that cold period? Even during the ice ages, summers in the lower latitudes remained warm, he says.

In the warm areas, no clothing is needed. That is why peoples and tribes who have not encountered civilization still live in the tropics, naked, as in parts of the Amazon and in parts of Africa and Papua New Guinea. Dressing in that climate is not pleasant and sometimes even unhealthy.

But dressing allows humans to live in colder climates.

5. The wheel ± 4000 BC

Precursors of the wheel were tree trunks. This is probably how Stone Age people moved heavy objects such as large stones (for hunebeds, e.g.) by rolling them over tree trunks, which when the stone was off the wheel would be placed back in front of it. Probably the Sumerians were the first to use the wheel about 4000 BC. Initially, the wheel was also used as a pottery wheel. After the invention of spokes, the chariot was invented about 2000 BC. However, the wheel as part of the chariot has the limitation that it is most easily used on flat terrain with relatively hard ground. The wheel is unusable in rugged mountainous terrain. Therefore, until recently, no chariot was used in Nepal, but belongings were carried by people who were porters by profession. The chariot rides best on a road. So with the chariot, roads came into existence. This created connections between towns and villages: created traffic and trade, which stimulated the progress of society. The invention of the wheel also made it possible to transport heavy stones that were used to build large structures.

6. Agriculture and animal husbandry. ±10,000 B.C. 

Muscle power man or animal was the source of energy. Labor was increasingly performed by slaves or serfs. Emergence of division of labor, trade, cities, and states.

The discovery that one could grow plants and use the roots and seeds for multiplication gave rise to numerous innovations. 

Source : https://slideplayer.nl/slide/2640380/

Thus, people could live in one place for a longer period of time, cities arose and the harvest that had been gathered had to be protected: armies arose. Eventually the hard work on the land was not easy and people from tribes that had been defeated in tribal wars started to use people as slaves to work the land. This created enough free time for new specialties, new professions such as blacksmith, carpenter, leather worker, tailor, etc. and therefore trade. The city-state started connecting with other cities and thus a land-state came into being. But after that, technology always remained at the same level for very long periods. The most important inventions were besides fire, writing , the wheel and the water mill and the windmill: both very environmentally friendly inventions. However, there were geniuses, such as in China the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, (2697 BC), according to legend inventor of agriculture and animal husbandry and other things such as the calendar, and in Italy Leonardo da Vinci (1452), who further developed technology, but that was usually not applied or further developed in society. Leonardo da Vinci described the concept for an airplane, but that was not taken up again until 1891 by a glider by the Otto Lillienthal and the motorized airplane by the American Wright brothers (1900).  The company remained a company of muscle power.

7. Metal use ± 9000 BC

Gold and silver are among the first metals that humans began to use. Both metals occur as small nuggets in the earth and are easy to work with. Copper and tin were also easy to extract and could Later people discovered that the mixed form of copper and tin - bronze - is suitable for making powerful weapons and good tools to work with primitive tools. Copper has been known for more than 10,000 years. It was first discovered around 9000 B.C. in the Middle East. At first, the metal was used for jewelry, tools and simple weapons. In Egypt and in the Balkans, pewter objects perhaps 6,000 years old have been found. However, the metal did not come into vogue in Europe until around 2500 BCE. Findings in Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea show that silver was being extracted from ore there as early as the 4th century BCE. Like gold, silver quickly became a valuable and sought-after precious metal. Silver was mainly used for jewelry and other ornaments, and as currency.

Between 3000 and 2000 B.C., the mining of iron from ore began in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The use of iron gradually spread to Europe and Africa, but it would be centuries before the new metal had fully taken over the role of bronze.

Historians believe that this happened not so much because iron was better, but because of a lack of tin. If copper and tin were scarce, the expensive bronze had to be imported. But one could easily extract iron from iron ore, making the importation of bronze unnecessary.

8. Money. Coins from ± 770 BC.

Previously, precious natural objects like shells were a primitive general medium of exchange. But metal had the property that you could separate it (after heating it) into smaller parts so that you could calculate better with it, so it could become a general medium of exchange because all products could be calculated with it. Money emerged after the introduction of agriculture and, along with it, agriculture and animal husbandry have been the main engine of trade and economic boom.

The money economy of the Roman Empire was largely based on the silver mined in various places throughout the growing empire.

9. Scripture ± 6600 B.C.

Emergence of writing probably occurred ± 6600 BC in China and in 3500 BC in Sumer.  This allowed events to be stored precisely and passed on to the next generation, allowing knowledge to accumulate.

10. Renaissance ±1400 in Europe

The Introduction gun, compass, paper and printing coincides with the beginning of the Renaissance, where standard images and stories from the Bible and Greek mythology are replaced by observation. This was first evident in the visual arts, where observation, combined from knowledge of anatomy and perspective, replaced the old icon-like art. This is evident in artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian and Michelangelo. Gunpowder, paper and printing had been known to the Chinese for centuries, but the Europeans started using gunpowder for a gun. This made them militarily superior. The invention of the compass, better astronomy and the compass, allowed for voyages of discovery. Guns were used to colonize Latin America and Siberia starting in 1500, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on plantations in the Americas.

11. Steam engine (coal, mines, factories), 1780, England

Trains, steam pumping station, era of colonialism, commercial capitalism, French Revolution 1795, Rise of working class, Karl Marx 1840, Conquest of Africa, South Asia, North America and Central Asia by Europeans. In 1863 slavery was abolished.

The First Industrial Revolution , in England was based on new technology and that technology was continuously developed from then on. The invention of the steam engine may be considered a turning point in terms of the development of technology. Although Hero of Alexandria described the first steam engine already in the first century A.D., the idea of a steam engine was not taken up again until 1698 and after several improvements after 1775 it was increasingly used in England. But there, the combustion of coal needed for the steam engine, which thanks to the steam engine was increasingly mined, transported (by the steam locomotive) and used for heating, also caused increasingly bad air pollution, especially in London: the so-called smog.  The working conditions of the workers deteriorated greatly compared to the medieval craftsmen. Medieval craftsmen could basically decide for themselves about their time and work within the framework of the guild. What they made was beautiful and they usually enjoyed it themselves. The new workers were at the mercy of the capitalist's whims. What they made and their houses and factories were often ugly. Although they themselves were usually not fond of the work, they had to make money in the factory, because the old method of craftsmen in a workshop made the products too expensive for the market. Unhealthy, tedious work was the only way to make money. Improving appalling working conditions was Karl Marx's source of inspiration, although in practice his theories rarely led to an improvement in working conditions and were even counterproductive in the socialist countries. However, there were usually inspired by Christianity some social capitalists, who tried to improve the work and conditions of the workers.  That was also the time when various social-religious movements emerged such as the Salvation Army, which cared for the poorest and the dropouts of society.

12. Introduction of electricity in England 1880 and internal combustion engine in Germany in 1900.

Oil as basis for electric power generation and transportation , Emergence of Photography from 19th century, Mechanization where muscle power is replaced by a machine, Telegraphy, Automobiles, Airplanes, Radio, after 1945 beginning of automation. Television from 1960

From 1900, compulsory education was introduced: very important for information of the masses. On the basis of capitalism the political forms of government emerged :Fascism, Communism (as a so-called opposite, but in reality state capitalism a kind of dictatorial feudalism) and Democracy. It was the time of World Wars and the Cold War between the West and Russia/China. More democracy and human rights came after 1945, except in China. Between 1945 - 1975, the last remnants of colonialism were cleaned up.  From 1945, the importance of making inventions became increasingly important.

The basis for the Second Industrial Revolution was laid by Englishman Michael Faraday, was based on the theoretical and practical basis to (be able to) use electricity, especially the invention of the electric motor and later the light bulb and telegraph. Electrification began from about 1860 and was also used for lighting and other purposes and took place mainly in the 20th century especially in England and America, but also in Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Italy and Japan. In other parts of the world often not until after World War II. The second industrial revolution was also characterized by increasing mechanization, that is, the work done by muscle power of man was taken over by the machine. The 19th and 20th centuries saw a series of inventions that brought all kinds of innovations.

Besides the discovery that electricity could be used, the most important invention was the internal combustion engine. It ran on oil. And that was initially obtained mainly from the Middle East, where there were still feudal and slave societies. The enormous demand for oil from America and Europe, in part due to the Arabs' shrewd trading mentality, created huge amounts of financial resources in the Arab world, so the Emirates and Saudi Arabia quickly became rich. That enormous wealth was then used by the Arabs to Islamize the rest of the world, in Africa and Europe. That is the root cause of the problem of Islamization. Also, Islamic terrorism was and is financially supported from the Arab world.

Although electricity and the internal combustion engine and other inventions brought great wealth, they also caused massive environmental devastation, especially from the chemical industry, huge amounts of plastics, fossil energy production and transportation, and large-scale agriculture and animal husbandry. This leads to a mass extinction of species of plants and animals, and the ugliness of cities and products and degradation of health. Initially, this was only noticed by naturalists and biologists and scientists in the 1950s. Only after 1970 did it begin to dawn on the general public that radioactivity and chemical waste (which in the 1950s was hailed as hallmarks of progress) might be harmful. In countries like Russia, China and Africa, that understanding has yet to come to the general public and government. Until after the year 2000, propaganda films from Russia and China showed smoking factory chimneys as the epitome of progress. This is the period of the power of unions against the capitalists.  After 1960 more democratization .

13. Introduction computer 1980 - present and mobile and Internet from 1995 in America.

Automation, Information Age. Cell phone from 2000 onwards, Globalization, Emergence of Asia and former colonies. Fall of communism(1990), Islamization, disappearance of working class, and traditional peasant class (workers and peasants become highly educated and a kind of ict'ers).

The invention of the computer may be regarded as the beginning of the Third Industrial Revolution or rather the Information Age. This is characterized by increasing mechanization and development of all kinds of programs based on computer science and computer science and software, whereby possibilities arise that were previously unthinkable. Although the first scientific computer training took place in Cambridge as early as 1953, computers were introduced to the general public in the 1980s. These new techniques make it possible to arrive at more refined methods of production, more attuned to individual preference (as was done by artisans in the Middle Ages, by the way) and to adopt more environmentally friendly methods. The laborers and miners are disappearing, and if they are not retrained, they are fired and put out of work. This creates a discontented uneducated proletariat that eventually has to be taken care of economically by the highly educated. The education system must therefore be adapted to the demands of the future and no longer train workers for a 1950s factory: something that still happens in most countries.

14. Future developments

Introducing the quantum or light computer(laser computer), computer based on other galaxies, teleportation, robotization, paranormal abilities based on technology, artificial intelligence (A.I.), nanonization, self-learning algorithms, self-driving or sailing vehicles, biotechnology, genetic engineering, computing society, laser technology, 4D printing, control of weather, nuclear fusion or other clean energy

The old work of the miner and factory worker: Heavy, boring, dangerous and dirty work will be done by robots. Huge amounts of data ("big data") will be processed at great speed so that useful information can be extracted from it. What used to be only the privilege of the elite will now encompass all of society: all of society will become elite.

The next (4th) industrial revolution, the beginning of which we are now witnessing, but most of which lies in the future, is likely to be the full computerization, automation and robotization of society, along with greatly improved artificial intelligence (a.i.), biotechnology , laser technology and nanonization.

So far, however, attempts to control the weather have not yielded much, so the West has basically abandoned those attempts. In Russia and China, however, people are busy researching weather control. Some claim that global warming is a Russian project to make Siberia more suitable for habitation and building. In the future, at least, weather control can be expected to become common and actually be able to prevent hurricanes and make it rain or get dry. Something that so far is only possible on a small scale by scattering chemicals or fine powders above the clouds. Presumably one will first have to investigate how the paranormal works because it is possible to paranormally influence the weather.

In theory, the quantum computer can operate at least 1,000 times faster than the best contemporary supercomputer, although so far that speed can only be used for very specific computational problems. However, there are still problems of principle attached to the quantum computer such as recording the results.  And then, based on entangled particles (which thus operate simultaneously), there is also the development toward a quantum Internet. Recent developments allow one to amplify entanglements whose power is decreasing and store that information in nuclear spins. For now, however, there is not much one can do with it other than to say that the information in this way is impossible to hack, that is, absolutely secret, because there is no medium over which the information travels. Although: the word impossible in and outside of science becomes obsolete time and again. We should also remember the words of Jesus, "What is whispered in the SECRET shall be shouted from the rooftops. It seems that IBM in 2018 and Google in 2019 have built the first quantum computer: for now, only for very specific tasks. An ordinary computer performs the tasks one after another: serial; the quantum computer does it at the same time: parallel. Therefore, the quantum computer is more than 1,000 times faster. A disadvantage is that the quantum computer cannot have a large memory, because then the qubits may decay by themselves. This is a limitation for both algorithms and memory. Perhaps a quantum computer will remain unstable, requiring calculations to be repeated many times to see if they have the same outcome.

In contrast, a light computer requires less energy, does not get hot and light is insensitive to the influence of electromagnetic fields and does not have to travel through a medium, such as a copper wire.

Storing via lasers on glass provides many advantages. It is stored like a DVD, only the bits become much smaller. Moreover, it preserves the information for hundreds of years.Conventionally, switching is done by applying an external magnetic field, which forces the direction of the poles either up (1) or down (0). An alternative is to do the switching optically, using a femtosecond laser pulse. This allows for faster and more efficient data storage.

But the best thing would be if instead of a number system with discrete values, there is a number system with continuous values, like the number line. It can be done with light, because the colors of the rainbow slip into each other.

It can also be done with electricity, with analog devices.

People are now researching computer memory based on continuous values.

The big problem is that the computer calculates on one side and then the result has to be sent to the other side. That transport eats up energy. If one were to connect the 2 together using continuous values, not only would it be much more energy efficient, it would also give 100 times more storage capacity.

It is important in this regard which materials one uses.

The operation of the human brain serves as an example.

One of the greatest technical revolutions is that of Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) : Designing software with algorithms, learning by itself and then designing better algorithms: This could go on for a very long time and become a kind of artificial evolution, but many times faster than the biological revolution. There are numerous apps being worked on that use a.i.. The most famous is Microsoft's chatcpt in Bing, but Google is working on Bard, and there are countless other applications. It is possible to have pictures created by giving a command in language, text, solutions to problems, codes for computer programs, music and other things produced by a.I. apps. Within a short time, what used to be impossible seems to be becoming possible.

This makes possible the building of robots or robot programs that can teach themselves things and improve themselves. Putin claimed that whoever controls artificial intelligence in the future will control the world. Judging by countries or regions, Europe appears to lag behind China and America. China has about half the patents in A.I., America about a third and Europe only about 10%.

Scientias writes: "Organoid intelligence

Researchers have come up with a groundbreaking way to advance computing. And they do so through a new concept they call organoid intelligence, they explain in the journal Frontiers in Science. An organoid is an artificially grown miniature organ. They are made outside the body from stem cells, which are programmed to grow into a scaled-down and simplified but functional version of the real, biological organ. And in this case, that means brain organoids. While these are not true mini-brains, they do share important aspects of brain function and structure. For example, think of neurons and other brain cells that are essential for cognitive functions, such as learning and memory."

Thanks to the quantum mechanical principles of superposition and entanglement, however, the old idea of teleportation as depicted in science fiction movies is no longer an impossibility. Teleporting information has already been done by Chinese researchers with an entangled particle in China on the ground and an entangled particle in a satellite 500 km above Earth.

2.1.1.2. Has the development of society made people happier ?

A hobbyhorse of the Marxists is the dogma that technical development would be blocked by social development or to put it in Marxist terms, "The development of productive forces is stopped by the relations of production" and this would give rise to the communist revolution.

In practice, however, the opposite is apparent: Technical development is much faster than social, social, ethical and spiritual development.

One could even argue that social and spiritual development is often hindered by certain types of technical development.

Such technical development has even gone so far as to put man's existence at risk. This became apparent early on with the use of gunpowder for weapons. But it only really became apparent with the invention of the atomic bomb. Social development clearly lags behind technology: we see this with the Internet: the technology is that of one world that is one, but in reality individuals and groups who use it rally behind dividing walls that separate their tribe, their religion, their nationality, their race or whatever separates them from others. One group tries to dominate or conquer another, as Russia did by sending fake messages to influence the U.S. election. Of course, there are also groups that want to communicate in harmony with other groups from around the world, but they seem to be in the minority. Even scientists, whose basis is international exchange of knowledge, are controlled by corporations and governments not to share everything anyway.

There is now a new phenomenon: space travel. Recently, Japanese scientists discovered that there is a giant cave on the moon. This is ideal for a base on the moon, because the moon's surface is plagued by striking meteors, so building a simple plastic house would pose a great danger to its resident astronauts. However, in such a cave, you won't be bothered by that. But Earth has not yet reached the point where it can confidently cooperate on an international base on the moon. The countries that are now capable of space travel: America, Russia, China, Japan, Europe do not trust each other one bit. They would prefer a base on the moon as a country: An American base or a Russian or Chinese base. Then they can boast: You see: we are better than the others.

The best solution would be if there is coordination and cooperation of those countries under the leadership of the United Nations, and in which all other countries can participate and the results of which are in the interest of the whole world, not just the space-faring countries. If this does not happen, there may be a race to the moon to get resources there, which in turn may lead to war on earth. Apart from Japan and Europe, America, Russia and China have imperialist leaders, who often have little responsibility and who sometimes threaten other ethnic groups, peoples and countries. Not exactly a positive outlook: In that case, it would be better to postpone a moon base until all space-faring nations recognize human rights, respect the environment and want to cooperate with each other for the benefit of the whole world. Given political developments, it may be several decades before that happens.

Incidentally, there are reasons to believe that humans have not become happier since the agricultural revolution:

Instead of an interesting life of free roaming and plucking from what nature offered, the new farmer had to toil in a dull life in the sweat of his brow and was subjected to a whole system of obligations, which also created new concerns. The freedom of people in nature society gave way to the serfdom of the great masses to a ruling clique or at best to an elite.

It is true that in the last 60 years, due to the development of technology, much heavy work has been taken over by machines, but because of this and because of the modern world, the human touch has largely been lost.

The greatest decline in freedom and happiness came from the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago. It also caused nature to deteriorate: forests were cut down, giving erosion free rein and deserts expanded enormously. The entire Mediterranean dried up. The natural balance was disturbed, but not as much as in the last 100 years: this is much worse.

But in some ways, happiness and health have also deteriorated compared to the time before the 1950s, although in other ways things have improved.

It used to be that a farmer kept a boarding ground where he grew enough for his family and kept about 8 chickens and 5 goats that he knew personally. Now chickens are kept in a minuscule area in which they can barely move in huge numbers as a kind of meat factory. But chickens, pigs, goats and cows are vertebrate animals with a mind too and with feelings: so the animals are wronged on a large scale.

The individual also used to be taken care of by the family and villagers and was part of that social group. Loneliness did not exist and almost everyone married, usually before the age of 20.

In those days, you had more the human touch.

Nevertheless, it was not always nice either. Often people lived in with the in-laws. Certain family members (the father and often the eldest son) considered themselves higher than others, who were oppressed, discriminated against and not heard.

After World War II, this was rightly rebelled against and all unjustified authoritarianism, and in the 1960s a new era seemed to be on the horizon: one of equality, freedom, democracy, sexual freedom, harmony in the world.  This was linked to the introduction of contraceptives, decolonization and greater attention to working conditions and, for the first time, to leisure. Other cultures provided inspiration for new forms of art .

Unfortunately, that degenerated in the 1980s and beyond: the freedom to start smoking pot changed people, who became psychotic or started using hard drugs as well, with all the crime that came with it, and that also brought insecurity. Much has indeed improved since the 1950s, but things have also deteriorated. Overwhelmingly, this is the case with nature.

But even for people, the dream of the 1960s has not come true, at least not to any great extent.

Decolonization liberated colonies, but not always has the state become what was expected in the 1960s and 1970s.

The cronyism of the colonizers has in many cases not been replaced by open honest governance, but by the cronyism and corruption of a bunch of elected people, who have capitalized on the ignorance of the people or have come to power by fraud and sometimes by common criminals. In particular, the socialists in the Third World, who made the finest promises to the people about popular power, fairness and prosperity, often missed the mark: In Venuzuela, Chavez brought not prosperity, but poverty and famine, causing people to flee the country en masse; in Cuba, not democracy, but dictatorship; in Zimbabwe, so-called fair distribution destroyed the economy, brought people to beggary and brought dictatorship instead of democracy. In Congo there was a prolonged civil war in the late 20th century and it is still not safe.

All this is not to say, of course, that the colonialism of the Europeans was better, quite the contrary. The rule of the Belgians in the Congo, for example, was appalling and sometimes bordered on genocide, as, for example, at the time of King Leopold II, responsible for one of the greatest mass murders in history, killing more than 10 million Africans. And some of today's misery is also the result of Europe's neocolonial influence on a number of former colonies.

However, that does not explain everything.

But the great expectation of freedom, rule of law, end of corruption and great development has not yet materialized in many cases. Particularly in Africa, there is still little enforcement of the law, democracy and free fair elections. However, there are developments now in the 21st century that are moving more in that direction.

And as for personal freedom in the Western world ?

In many cases, loneliness has become the price for complete individual freedom, but that price is too high, because most people are now social animals.

We seek connection with others, but with whom ? If everyone assumes the hostile intentions of the other, how can we live happily ?

Many people now sit in front of computers all day, do not exercise enough and live in a virtual world, where they are mainly behind screens.

The real experiences in life: Just that spot of sun that made something that was ugly beautiful, the sound of that bird, feeling the wind, smelling the wonderful fragrance of the flowering linden: we lost that or rather: we saved that for the vacations.

Real passion, real experiencing the weather, real relationships of people: where have they gone ? Even children lie in bed all day in the dark watching pointless movies on their cell phones, getting too fat and feeling uncomfortable as a result. Candy and French fries replace normal food, in which vegetables always played a role. Many children become hyperactive as a result, creating even more turmoil in the home, in addition to the television blaring pointless advertisements into the room all day.

Real peace is missing. Real deepening is missing. At first glance that seems fine, but the result is that people feel less well and start developing all kinds of ailments.

The number of depressed people seems greater than ever, and that is also because people are now so spoiled that they can no longer cope with setbacks. (Although another factor is that people have never been indoors so much, thus not getting enough sun, aka vitamin D)

Maybe it is a subculture, but if you put your ear to the ground in a group of elderly people you will hear a lot of complaining. So: In the Netherlands people seem to have it better than anywhere else in the world and we have never had it so good, but in spite of that people mainly complain. However: That comparison with other countries and other times does not make those complainers: despite great progress, many elderly people suffer from physical and mental illnesses. Also, the spending power of your pension seems