When enough was truly enough. Photo by Meressa Chartrand on Unsplash Early Human Life We know almost nothing about 98% of human existence, but what we do know suggests we were doing something right. For most of our time on Earth, humans lived within planetary boundaries. Our populations were small, our appetites and…
Tag: cooperation
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Ancestral Ways of Knowing
How did we used to know things? Why We Need to Know Despite scarce evidence, many people speculate about what human life was like before recorded history. Archaeologists study bones and fragments of human worlds that came before. Anthropologists investigate groups, like villages or early civilizations. Geneticists examine DNA to…
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We Have It All Wrong
Humans will never outsmart nature The Shift Ten thousand years ago, humans experienced a significant shift. Something – some things – happened that drastically altered our evolutionary path. Many believe that a shift toward lootable wealth, generated by increased proficiency in agriculture, storage of surplus, and larger community size, marked…
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Nature is Our Ally
Why cooperation > competition in diverse ecosystems Photo by Hiroko Yoshii on Unsplash How did patriarchy evolve in the social structure of a primarily cooperative species? I began asking myself questions like this after a couple of archaeological experiences in England and Egypt. I realized we must understand — as well as possible…
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Learning About Where We Goofed Up
What went right? Do you ever wonder how we got here? Do you ever think about what has changed over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution? The past few decades have seen exponential growth in technology. Smartphones. Passenger trips to space. Electric vehicles. Lots of crazy new tech. In…
How to Fix What is Broken
What’s the point? Of any of it? For me, it is the unrest that comes from acknowledging what is wrong in the world. Poverty. War. Violent crime. Social justice issues. Inequality. Racism. Choose your weapon. It isn’t hard to see problems in the world. My point is not to point…
Nature Cooperates to Reduce Competition
I really dislike Competition. And it is a touchy subject. In an article I published on Medium, I received several hateful comments defending the importance of competition in business and sports. In KEW Episode 95 I discuss Rugged Individualism vs. Unified Connection to make the point that competition focuses on…
Clarity is Evasive
Remember that time when everything seemed perfectly clear? Yeah, me neither. But once in awhile things DO seem clear. And it feels good. There’s no doubt (Episode 28) and things just make sense. Though these moments are fleeting, I think we can learn to maximize the amount of clarity we…