On Humankind

On Rutger Bregman’s “Humankind: A Hopeful History”

Rex Lui

What would Covid-19 do to us Homo sapiens if this pandemic was not happened in this grand Information Revolution Epoch?

Way worse would be an educated assumption.

Since the turn of the 21st century, we’ve entered a brand new era. The change between the 20th and the 21st century is even biggest than the change from Protohistory to Written History. This highly transparent flow of information fixes and clarifies a lot of myths and anecdote of the past. One of the most important one is our scientific recognition of human nature.

One prominent theory that was once popular but went out of fashion now is the selfish gene assumption. Molecular Scientists, Biochemists, Neuroscientists, and Geneticists have proved that we Homo sapiens survive because of compassion. The power of good nature is that it assures a sustainable and healthy environment for our next generation.

The polar opposite is the emphasis of social constructed identities. Those fake identities such as race, skin color, nation, gender, religion, sexual orientation blinds us from pursuing compassion. That’s why historians predict that the decline of those identity based society such as Religionism is inevitable. The more compassionate we are, the less likely we live our life based on those identities.

Departing our daily life from those identities is like switching from an anthropocentric zeitgeist to a biocentric zeitgeist. Under this altruistic trend, we can see why Green is more than just an environmental friendly lifestyle. The rising concept of Green will replace our outdated ideology of Religion as the main melody of the 21st century. This is also the product of a compassionate society.

Academic-wise, the subject of History has become more and more scientific oriented. Meaning that when we look through our evolutionary past, genes, neurons, endocrines are all central characters even when we are studying human nature. Civilization, by and large, is nothing more than a tiny little snapshot of our evolutionary path. More advanced, sure; genetically superior than the past? No.

Our Information Revolution Epoch is just one prolong period of the Enlightenment Epoch.

Survival the compassionate. It’s the law of evolution. Effective altruism works.

RL

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