Ideas which changed the world

The city state of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia is one such settlement that grew out of increasing social complexity in the fourth millennium B. This device was developed at various sites across the Islamic world from around the 6th century A. D, and by the s they had become the primary tool for navigation in Europe as well.

The astrolabe allowed astronomers and explorers to calculate the position of the sun and stars in relation to the equator and tropics, giving an accurate idea of distance and direction. Not only would the astrolabe lay the foundation for the far more complex computing machines that we know today, it also made great journeys across continents and oceans possible. Johannes Gutenberg developed a system of movable metal type that could slot into a traditional screw press, making it possible to print multiple copies of a book at great speed.

By the end of the 15th century, similar presses had spread across Western Europe, churning out as many as 20 million publications. Rather than being printed in the elite language of Latin, many of these presses operated in German, French or Dutch, with the explicit aim of speaking to the masses.

As well as the books, filing cabinets, specimens and taxonomy charts used by the great scientist, you can find hints of his eccentric personality, such as the mirror he angled to spot unwanted visitors through the window as they approached the house, or the castors that he fitted onto all of his furniture so he could move them around his makeshift laboratory. It was here that Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species , in which the scientist stated that all species have developed through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase an individual's ability to compete, survive and reproduce.

Women are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and maths today, but this situation is even worse when looking at the history of invention, where the contributions of women have quite literally been erased from the record.

One notable exception is Marie Curie, the first woman to have won a Nobel Prize and still the only woman to have won it for two different disciplines chemistry and physics. Watch Now. Featured on Shop. Appearance Adjust the colors to reduce glare and give your eyes a break. You have the maximum of videos in My List. You have the maximum of shows in My List.

Now Streaming Take a journey through history told through iconic objects modern people take for granted. More More Take a mind-blowing journey through human history, told through six iconic objects that modern people take for granted, and see how science, invention and technology built on one another to change everything. Providing Support for PBS. Morse looking over work bench Bigger Bang Communications Ltd. Rocket to the moon Bigger Bang Communications Ltd. Koralev inspecting his rocket engine Bigger Bang Communications Ltd.

Graphic of glider Bigger Bang Communications Ltd. Cayley glider with child Bigger Bang Communications Ltd. The Club of Rome became alert to this danger and after studying the problem, it issued a report entitled The Limits to Growth , which had a considerable effect on governments and people around the world. He moved to London permanently from Germany and studied the growth of Capitalism from its inception. He spent most of his time in the British Museum and came up with a report.

His study identified businessmen as robber barons. Money showed itself to be the center of Capitalism and this type of social order was mainly run on the strength of violence.

You have nothing to lose but your chains. Economically speaking, only two philosophical systems—Capitalism and Communism— have ruled the world. While the former stresses selfish intensity, the latter values equality of opportunities. As Karl Marx predicted, capitalism showed signs of disintegration by In , following the Stock Market crash, the American economy plunged into a deep depression, which started spreading worldwide.

FDR corrected the malady. Only the arrival of World War II pulled the world economy out of the Depression and got it going again. His life ended before the Bill could be enacted as law. Communism was founded on the premise of eliminating economic and political inequalities. Conversely, Capitalism was founded on the basis of selfish aggrandizement. Any action initiated is backed by an idea.

That idea is shaped by the collective energy and organized into force. This is applicable to both the Individual and the Collective. Let us consider the case of the nation-state, which is the final form taken by the collective energy. There was a time in history when primitive man did not understand how a woman conceived. It was presumed that a woman automatically delivered a child without any external intervention.

It was her responsibility to train her child to walk and get his own food. Once that happened, her responsibility was over and she went on to beget other children. While the human species advanced, the weaning period kept lengthening.

This increasing burden necessitated help from another person. This led to the formation of the family. Meanwhile, the institution of property came into existence with the added stipulation that a man would give his property only to children his wife had conceived for him and not to any children born to men other than him. This explanation sounds very much plausible.

Thus, the family was born and it marked the first step in social collective organization. Man is social and gregarious by nature and at the same time very pugnacious. While his social nature helps to create a large settlement, his aggressive nature generates hostility towards outsiders.

Such a tendency for clashing led to the emergence of leaders who led the group during fights and clashes. Over a period, regional or national leaders rose on the scene. Ultimately, this led to the emergence of monarchs and royalty. Once royalty came on the scene, along came notions of loyalty and piety. In the beginning, the Collective was stronger than the leader and so he simply deferred to the wishes of the majority. Love of the land one lived on for ages gradually acquired the hue of patriotism.

In this manner, the nation-state came into existence. Before the year , no political entity designated as India even existed. The same was true of both Germany and Italy until the second half of the 19 th century. The actions and ideas that have gone into its making are obvious facts. These obvious facts are the inevitable truths of existence turning into history. We are venturing into a field where there has been no prior research or pioneering work.

The field itself has not secured any clarity. No answers can be formulated as even the questions have not been framed. Over time, the development of nation-states and industrialization fueled in humans the aspiration for continuous progress until the Club of Rome challenged that notion by insisting on the limits to growth in Yet in spite of obvious planetary limitations, the aspiration persists the world over and is embodied in the striving for limitless growth.

But the question is growth of what? This requires a shift from seeking ever more powerful technologies for external achievements to an inner seeking for inner well-being. Only recently has the world arrived at the form of the nation-state, but the limitations of division of the world into competitive units based on differences of nationality, language and religion are already apparent.

The challenges confronting humanity today are global in magnitude and can only be effectively addressed by global cooperation, coordination, rule of law and social culture. The need of the hour is for evolution of humanity beyond the nation-state and the gradual emergence of effective institutions for global governance founded on an awakened sense of the psychological unity of all human beings. This will in turn require other accompaniments including abolition of nuclear weapons, abolition of war and aggression, elimination of destabilizing financial speculation and rising levels of economic inequality.

Stated positively, political liberty must be made real by economic equality. Beyond that, further steps will be needed to achieve social and psychological equality. The beheading of Charles I began the decline of monarchy, which received a final death blow through the violence of the French and Russian Revolutions. Inflation remains a key symbol of human duality.

Human nature tries to reach goals by going in the opposite direction. When it seeks plenty of wealth, it chooses to do so by exercising austerity. As man evolves, we find him exhibiting such dual attitudes. On such occasions the importance of rationality becomes most evident. The vast expanses of Asia gave rise to emotions while the narrow spaces of peninsular Europe generated thinking and produced the most creative thinkers of the ancient world.

Mental culture first emerged in the West in the city-states of ancient Greece, which gave rise to the birth of great minds such as Socrates, Aristotle and Plato.

The initial spark of creative thinking in Greece matured many centuries later as active thinking among the common men of Europe. People in the Middle Ages in Europe were intensely emotional.

Hamlet lives among those who unquestionably accept appearances and the status quo, whereas his mind dwells on deeper questions. His deceased father represents the passing emotional man, who remains true to sentiment and convention even when he knows the truth. But Hamlet is raging to punish his mother first as she had sullied the sanctity of marital fidelity to his father.

The emotionally driven human being now receives a mental command. We have compiled a list of 10 ideas mankind should be thankful for. What ideas do you think changed the world?

Farming Ask people what the most important historical revolution is and their answers might include: the Industrial Revolution, the Information Revolution, or maybe even the French Revolution.

But without the Neolithic Revolution, none of the above would have taken place. It is this period of time, more than 14, years ago, which modern-day farming can be traced back to. Agriculture allowed hunter-gatherer societies to form permanent dwellings. With food no longer the sole motivation for existence, the way was paved for the development of government, trading and individual specialization.

The unconscious When Freud, the father of psychoanalysis suggested that our behavior is not always ruled by our conscious thoughts, nor is it always in our best interests, he formed the basis of the idea that individuals can be curious about themselves and make a study of their own minds. He thought people talking in certain situations could let out ideas from the unconscious in dreams or through slips of the tongue -- hence the term "Freudian slip.

Deduced from his theory of relativity, it suggests that tiny amounts of mass can be converted into huge amounts of energy. The theory has had an enormous impact on society: it paved the way for the development of nuclear power, which, although controversial, has alleviated a portion of society's reliance on non-renewable energy like coal and oil.

Atom bombs aside, it has also had huge applications for the military -- like the synchronization of the global positioning system GPS which is a network of satellites transmitting radio signals at the speed of light to receivers around the globe. So, next time your handy in-car navigation gadget guides you home flawlessly, remember, you have Einstein to thank for not getting lost.