“Be less curious about
people and more curious about ideas.” ― Marie Curie
“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have
guns, why should we let them have ideas.” ― Joseph Stalin
One of these days I was by myself
thinking about what are those path breaking concepts or thoughts that have captivated
men and societies for hundreds of years if not a millennium. As I thought about
it, it was important to reframe the question to address what it meant to
today’s world rather than to any other time. Even then, there have been so many
ideas and thoughts since the beginning of time that it would make any
representation difficult. This consequently got me to a more limited set -
identifying one idea from each of the last four millennia that have a
disproportionate impact today.
Democracy (1,000BC to 0 BC)
Athens in the 4th to 5th century
BCE had an extraordinary system of government, where all male citizens had
equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate
directly in the political decision-making. The citizens not only participated
but they also served in the various institutions that were in place. While this
idea did not survive the Peloponnesian War, it was revived fully in the 19th
century. In some form they existed in various times as advisors to rulers.
The Athenian assembly met at least
once a month, more likely two or three times, on the Pnyx hill in a dedicated
space which could accommodate around 6,000 citizens. Any citizen could speak to
the assembly and vote on decisions by simply holding up their hands. The
majority won the day and the decision was final. They evolved a system whereby
a body could prioritize the discussions, developed executive councils and law
courts.
Pericles, one of the leading men of the time, described the basic
principles of democracy in his speech, "Our constitution is called a
democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole
people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal
before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in
positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a
particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of
service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And,
just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our
relations with each other… We give our
obedience to those whom we put in positions of authority, and we obey the laws
themselves, especially those which are for the protection of the oppressed, and
those unwritten laws which it is an acknowledged shame to break.”
At the time it was a unique and
revolutionary concept that realized its goals in an unprecedented manner (Athens
was the strongest state of the time) and the seeds of which lay dormant but
strong to spring up more than 2 millennia later.
Christianity and Islam (0BC to 1,000AD)
Between the two religions 2/3rd
of global population is covered. While they have within them multiple factions
but undeniably the idea espoused by Jesus and the Prophet encouraged the masses
to give up their earlier beliefs they had of worshipping various natural
phenomena’s like the sun, moon, birds or trees for a supreme power that was
responsible for occurrence of these including human beings or for that matter
some of the earlier existent Byzantine, Sassanian, Zoroastrian or other
political identities.
For the polytheistic and pagan
societies, apart from the religious and spiritual reasons each individual may
have had, conversion to Christian or Islamic "represented the response of a tribal, pastoral population to the
need for a larger framework for political and economic integration, a more
stable state, and a more imaginative and encompassing moral vision to cope with
the problems of a tumultuous society."
Christianity emerged in the Levant
in the mid-1st century AD. It spread initially from Jerusalem to large areas of
the middle east like Mesopotamia, Jordan and Egypt. In 313, Emperor Constantine
issued the Edict of Milan, officially legalizing Christian worship. The loss of
Western Roman Empire dominance coincided with early missionary efforts into
areas not controlled by the collapsing empire. In the 4th century it was
successively adopted as the state religion by Armenia in 301AD, Georgia in 319AD,
the Aksumite Empire in 325AD, and the Roman Empire in 380AD. Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Christianity spread to all of Europe in the Middle Ages. Then
the next burst came as it expanded throughout the world during Europe's Age of
Exploration from the Renaissance onwards, becoming the world's largest
religion. Today there are more than two billion Christians worldwide.
The expansion of the Arab Empire in
the years following Prophet Muhammad's death led to the creation of caliphates,
occupying a vast geographical area and conversion to Islam was boosted by
missionary activities particularly those of Sufis, who easily intermingled with
local populace to propagate the religious teachings. These early caliphates,
coupled with trading and the later expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in
Islam's spread. Trading played an important role in the spread of Islam in
several parts of the world, notably southeast Asia, like Indonesia. Muslim
dynasties such as those of Mughals in India and Safavids in Persia and Ottomans
in Anatolia were among the largest and most powerful in the world.
Verify and Believe, Individuality (1000AD to 2000AD)
While the ancient civilizations of
India, Greece, Egypt or China had pushed the frontiers of science and
philosophy, but it was in next phase in Europe that the next giant push to
understand the natural world came. Until this time the belief was that the
priests knew the laws of the natural world interpreted from the holy books. While
it grew and became extremely influential by the 18th century, in
almost as early as the 13th century Thomas Aquinas rediscovered
Aristotelian logic to question the dogmas by the Church. He said, “The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have
thought, but what the truth of things is.”
In 1521 Martin Luther is said to
have declared, “Unless I am convinced by
the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either
in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often
erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted
and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant
anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I
stand, I can do no other. May God help me. Amen.”
In the 16th and early 17th
century, scientists or natural philosophers like Galileo and Sir Issac Newton
discovered the existent natural laws contrary to the Bible. Galileo, regarded
now as the father of observational astronomy, science and modern physics,
championed heliocentrism (Sun is at centre of our solar system) which
undermined the biblical belief that Earth is at the centre. Sir Issac Newton
formulated the laws of motion, gravitation, mechanics among other
accomplishments. All these drove towards a greater understanding of the natural
environment through measures of proof and not belief. Then there was Michel de
Montaigne, French Renaissance philosopher, who lived from 1533 to 1592, who in
his work Essais which was to inspire many writers after continuously asked the
question, “What do I know?”
Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan written
in 1651, which is supposed to have established the agenda for significant portion
of Western philosophy, wrote, “Science is
the knowledge of Consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another: by
which, out of that we can presently do, we know how to do something else when
we will, or the like, another time.” Locke defined the state of nature as a
condition in which humans are rational and follow natural law; in which all men
are born equal and with the right to life, liberty and property. With this they
declared that true understanding could not happen without consonance with human
reason and experience. For centuries, the Church had characterized human beings
as naturally sinful and in need of forgiveness through religion. Enlightenment
philosophy was in direct opposition with an emphasis on the importance of the
individual. They did not think the Church was necessary to make people behave
morally. The concept of favouring individual liberty over the power of an
institution became prevalent in France, Britain and the United States, leading
to revolutions in two of those of those countries, as well as a concept of
"basic human rights" that shaped the U.S. Constitution.
With the need for empiricism grew
the scientific endeavours. Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by
scientific societies and academies, which had largely replaced universities as
centres of scientific research and development. After 1700, a tremendous number
of official academies and societies were founded in Europe, and by 1789 there
were over seventy official scientific societies. In reference to this growth,
Bernard de Fontenelle coined the term "the Age of Academies" to
describe the 18th century. Another important development was the popularization
of science among an increasingly literate population. The 18th century saw
significant advancements in the practice of medicine, mathematics, and physics;
the development of biological taxonomy; a new understanding of magnetism and
electricity; and the maturation of chemistry as a discipline but what followed
in the later century with the seeds sowed here was dramatic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_scientific_discoveries).
Communication
People to People (2000AD+)
In a society driven by commerce,
individuality and knowledge the most important element is to have the ability
to communicate instantly free from interference. The advent of internet and
telecom networks in the late 20th century provided the foundation for
the massive innovation in communication we have witnessed. There is no longer
the need for a book to be published or a newspaper to be written.
The concept of “instant
messaging” finds its origins in 1960s, when Multi-user operating systems or
Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) was created at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Computation Center in 1961. It allowed up to 30 users to log in at
the same time and send messages to each other. This further evolved to peer to
peer protocols between universities. In 1996, Israeli company Mirabilis (acquired
by AOL in 1998) launched ICQ - it allowed for multi-user chats, file transfers
and a searchable user directory.
The turning point occurred in 1997,
when AOL launched AIM. AIM allowed users to send messages to each other, and
included user profiles, away messages and icons for more engagement. With AIM
also came the development of bots – StudyBuddy, SmarterChild - with whom users
could interact. By 2005, AIM dominated the instant messaging market with 53
million users.
Yahoo launched Yahoo! Messenger
in 1998. Pidgin, founded as "Gaim" in 1998 as an open-source instant
messaging client. Microsoft released MSN Messenger in 1999. Microsoft renamed the
service Windows Live Messenger in 2005, adding photo sharing capabilities,
social network integration and games. In 2000, Jabber, a multi-protocol instant
messenger that acted as a single gateway for users to chat with friends and
access their buddy lists on all of the big networks at the time: AIM, Yahoo and
MSN. Apple developed iChat for its Mac OS X operating system in 2002. In 2011,
Apple announced iMessage. Founded in 2003, Skype allowed Internet users to
communicate with others through video, voice and instant messaging. In 2005,
Google released Google Talk. The service includes text-based messaging, voice
calls and video conferences. Most recently, Google Talk has been integrated
with Google+, allowing users to chat while in the social network. Facebook
released Facebook Chat in 2008, allowing users to instant message one friend or
multiple people through the groups feature. In July 2011, Skype announced
integration with Facebook.
Then, there is Linkedin (launched
in 2003) which also allows users to communicate with one another and the
ubiquitous messaging channels on smartphone like Whatsapp (founded in 2009) and
now less used Blackberry Messenger.
Between some of the main channels
~1.5 billion of humanity is now connected - Google+ (estimated 90m users globally
with 80% being active), Facebook (1.6bn users), Linkedin (400m+ users),
Whatsapp (1Bn+ users) and networking platforms like Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr and
Instagram.
John Lennon once said, “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A
dream you dream together is reality.” This togetherness is creating more active
and aware societies within nations aspiring for change based on global
benchmarks. It is enabling Arab Spring, innovative and cheaper product
launches, awareness in heavy censorship society like China, money transfers, solution
to and creation of medical problems, getting jobs to fulfilling the basic
elementary level human need to feel connected.
Just as the Athenians gathered on
the Pnyx hill once or twice a month, these tools are ensuring a gathering every
second of some group or another. Imagine the impact on human society!!
“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” ― Margaret Heffernan.
