It focuses on the cognitive revolution, agricultural revolution, human unity and integration of the scientific revolution of four parts.
The contents of the book involves many aspects, not only history, punctuated biology, chemistry, economics, physics, philosophy, authors can combine it all together and showing us a different perspective on the world, give us great imagination.
Some of the points of the book is very strange angle, for example, Homo sapiens from the collection of socio-agricultural revolution into the agricultural society, our general understanding is that Homo sapiens tamed plant wheat rice, let it be able to provide more food for mankind. But the author has proposed in the end is a human tame wheat or wheat tamed mankind? Because wheat before just one of many plants, relative to other plants and there is no advantage, but Homo sapiens has a lot of growing wheat, irrigation for weeding, hard work, and ultimately makes the wheat out of a number of other plants, from biological evolution point of view, a narrow evaluation of the success of a species perspective is to look at how much of its gene copy number, from this point of view, how can you say unsuccessful wheat?
Money, empire and religion work together to promote the integration of human unity. Standing a global vision point of view of the course of human history, not in decades, centuries, millennia as a unit, but in the entire human history to tell the story, indicating that humans have been moving toward integration in a unified, regardless of past and present. Money contributed to the imperial vision of trade, rulers, religious belief to the people, shaping their ideas, together play a role.
Science differs from religion at that willingness to admit ignorance, we think the vast majority of the world know nothing about. The development of science has led to the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution, then why the Industrial Revolution in Europe rather than Asia, Africa? And why the United States, Japan and other countries to keep up with rapidly, and China and India but far behind? The answer given by the authors is modern science and capitalism . Marriage of science and empire, the empire of science to create wealth and empire to fund research scientists, Empire willing to believe that this investment can get more returns, and science indeed live up to. Dogma of capitalism in the first: the production of profits must be reinvested to increase production . It is believed that the future will be better, the establishment of credit, the bank, the money to invest in the future, willing to lend money to people who do not know, I believe it can create greater value for themselves, this approach to promote economic development, social also from the elite aristocracy into a capitalist, free-market capitalists worship, but rely on the free market is impossible to form a sound economic system, there is no legal protection, freedom is just a joke. Capitalism also brings disadvantages, such as the slave trade from Africa to America, only to take care of the estate of the capitalists, to provide cheap labor; Another example is the Qing government banned opium, harm the interests of the capitalists, the capitalists persuaded Britain launched a war . Therefore, we can not just one-sided look at the problem, to think more about some of the angles.
Now only expect so much to write so many, if after review, then, to say when. Overall, I think this book is still well worth a visit.