Canadian Politics Today
Beyond Canada => The World => Topic started by: Queefer Sutherland on March 17, 2017, 06:46:32 pm
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This is a transcript of a talk by Jared Diamond, who wrote "Guns, Germs, and Steel", and he summarized his theory of history of why different continents developed technology and wealth at different rates. ie: Why Europe became wealthier and more technologically developed than ie: Africa and the rest of the world, even before European colonization. This will forever change the way you view the world:
https://www.edge.org/conversation/jared_diamond-why-did-human-history-unfold-differently-on-different-continents-for-the (https://www.edge.org/conversation/jared_diamond-why-did-human-history-unfold-differently-on-different-continents-for-the)
In short, it has to do with geography. Enjoy and discuss.
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Noting this so I'll come back to it ...
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Jared Diamond is a shallow hack, who oversimplifies and reduces culture and the realm of ideas to geography and environment.
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Interesting theory, I can see how geography was one of the influencing factors on societal and technological development. Mr. Diamond however seems to imply that if given the same geography and same genetic makeup we should expect a similar pace of development. I disagree with that premise, as we are not talking about a textbook script but cascading development based on earlier successes. We reinforce ideas that we have had success with by duplicating them and building on them, and the same time tend to reject ideas the we have had previous failures with. That is probably the most important factor influencing development.
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We reinforce ideas that we have had success with by duplicating them and building on them, and the same time tend to reject ideas the we have had previous failures with. That is probably the most important factor influencing development.
He mentions that point in the article, re: Australia and Tanzania's isolation.
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Jared Diamond is a shallow hack, who oversimplifies and reduces culture and the realm of ideas to geography and environment.
Well I'm surprised he doesn't talk more about culture here, but can you be more specific?
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I've seen this before. I think there was a documentary about it. It certainly makes sense to me. Of course, other issues have arisen since then, cultural issues, which explains why Europe, which was once behind the Middle East and China in terms of scientific and cultural advances has left them in the dust.