2019.03.11
Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition. No culture has ever bothered to forbid men to photosynthesise, women to run faster than the speed of light, or negatively charged electrons to be attracted to each other.This also reminds me of Star Treks "Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics": "Nothing Unreal Exists".
Christians and Muslims who could not agree on religious beliefs could nevertheless agree on a monetary belief, because whereas religion asks us to believe in something, money asks us to believe that other people believe in something.I guess we can call this "moneytheism"
There was an image in "Sapiens" that rather exaggerated the difference between Chinese Explorer Zheng He's flagship and what Columbus was sailing, but the difference was still impressive:
Harari uses this difference to argue that China not setting out an making a worldwide empire (unlike the European powers) is an issue of cultural temperament and not technological disadvantage.
During World War Two, BBC News was broadcast to Nazi occupied Europe. Each news programme opened with a live broadcast of Big Ben tolling the hour – the magical sound of freedom. Ingenious German physicists found a way to determine the weather conditions in London based on tiny differences in the tone of the broadcast ding-dongs. This information offered invaluable help to the Luftwaffe. When the British Secret Service discovered this, they replaced the live broadcast with a set recording of the famous clock.