Origin Story: A Big History of Everything

by David Christian

But the fungi do well either way, as they recycle corpses.

known as Homo floriensis (or the Hobbits), which lived on the island of Flores as recently as sixty thousand years ago.11

As we approach today’s world, we can see with much more precision how new Goldilocks conditions accumulated, eventually preparing the way for the astonishing burst of innovation that would create today’s world, the world of the Anthropocene.

I thought of John Green's podcast when I read this.

Instead, he argued, “the best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.” Growth was still needed, he stated, in many poorer countries, but the richer countries were more in need of a better distribution of wealth.

Ideas will change, too—ideas about what a good life looks like and about the goals of good government.