In our first TWC lesson the main topic covered in our lesson was on Yali's Question ( from Gun's Germs and steel ) .The Class also ventured into a short debate on the status of the future direction of mankind's Evolution, or "Devolution " as I would like to call it.
Yalis questions ( on why white man had so much "Cargo" )as brought up in Guns Germs and Steel is a on the surface Something that sounds so simple, but yet this simple query has often been taken for-granted by many ( including me) . Perhaps it because we are so used to using western technology in our everyday life and the effects of globalization make as feel like this same technology is available to all through out the world, that we forget that most of the the technological progress in the the past 500 years has more or less come to past due to the European Civilation. The question on How and why the Europeans had such a superior technology compared with other civilization ( which they then conquered ) Was Something that really bugged me throughout the week !
I was So troubled by the question that i decided to watch all 18 episodes of Guns Germs and steel on YouTube. I must say I find it really amazing on how one civilization could be have developed Guns, Steel Weapons , Domesticated animals for battle while the others were still using Primitive technology namely the (Inca's and the natives in New Guinea ) However I did find that the argument in Gun Germs and Steel is too one sided, attributing all of the Europeans Technological advantage to their geographical locations. While It may be true that geography did play a part, I believe there is other factors that did contribute to their society rising up to develop technology light years ahead of others.
Factors which Jared Diamond did not include in his argument included the Political Systems which evolved in europe allowed them to be able orgainse themself into relative well run countries which could engaged in exploration and trading with other parts of the world. This for example helped open the europeans civilisation to new ideas and technology from other parts of the world ( such as gunpowder form china ).
Another factor was the presence of many different countries / factions in Europe and their Continues conflicts between each other and external civilizations This gave rise to major Conflicts and Arms race in europe which is a catalyst for how military technology in the Europe as a whole developed at such a fast pace. Tough Jared Diamond inisit that the natives in New Guinea have been having conflicts , these are mainly tribe or clan conflicts. The Europeans Have been fighting large scale battles right from the time of the Graeco- Persian wars to the Romans battles with the Persians and later the vikings and medieval warfare. Their constant engagement in such conflict could also be cited as a possible explanation for their rise in technological level as they came into contact with various ideas from different civilisation on the battlefield.
Lastly our debate on the future of mankind evolution was relatively interesting, however, Ihave to disagree with the concept of mankind evolving to become weaker physically for one simple reason. It is far too early ( less the 50 years!! ) s which obesity has been on the rise. furthermore , becoming Fat is mainly a matter of choice, the likeliness of our genes permanently changing to adapt to our new easy life style is too unrealistic.As evolution would take thousands of years for even a small change in out appearance to become permanent.Perhaps what could be considered is how we would use technology to alter and shape our evolution . I believe it is far more likely that we will be able to tweak our genes and correct or even improve our physical abilities before our bodies can even naturally evolve to a state of permanent obesity.
It was a pitty that we were unable to go into a broader discussion on Yali's question as I believe that there would be even more views on this topic. But however ,the lesson was still very engaging and thought provoking.rating :7/10
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