My theory of human history (the series)
We need an intellectual framework to understand and teach human history and the history of progress
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As of this article’s publication date, I have been writing on Substack for about 1.5 years. During that time, I have written just over 400 articles on many topics. In contrast to the vast majority of Substack columns, almost all my articles are tied together by a common theme: human material progress:
what it is,
how it has transformed our lives (largely for the better)
when and where it started
what caused it,
how progress spread throughout the world.
I guess Substack readers enjoy reading my articles as subscriptions are growing fast. Thank you all for using your scarce time to read my articles.
Unfortunately, the organization of Substack is not optimized for new readers joining an existing Substack column with as many articles as mine. It is easy for new readers to get overwhelmed by the number of articles and just read the most recently published article. If you do so, I fear that you will miss my most important arguments.
To make up for this, I will be publishing a series of “Table of Contents” articles over the coming weeks. Each will consist of a sequential list of articles on a specific sub-topic related to human material progress. I try to make each article self-standing, but I would recommend reading the articles in the displayed order.
Enjoy reading!
Table of Contents for the “My theory of history” series:
History before the advent of human material progress:
The history of human material progress:
If you enjoyed reading this series of articles, you might also be interested in reading my “From Poverty to Progress” book series:
Bing Copilot identifies the final step in the scientific theory as communication:
Communication: Share your findings with the scientific community for review and further testing.
I think this review is intended to be a free-ranging review by others and not a review of a tiny fragment of your findings at a time.
I fully understand that it would be quite burdensome to have to discuss your entire theory in the comments section on every single post. I think once a month is quite reasonable, however.
You have presented a general theory of history. Where and how can we discuss that in its fullness, on a regular basis, rather than a tiny fragment of it?
One of the strengths of your theory is that it is has a whole with interacting parts. I know of no other realm of intellectual discourse where there is no place to frequently discuss “the big picture.”
I think that your reluctance to entertain discussions of the big picture is a devastating weakness in introducing your ideas to the world. Those who seek to understand the world, want to freely discuss the whole of a theory. What if Columbus came back from his first voyage and told everybody that he would only discuss the ocean currents that affected his outward voyage today? He would drive everyone crazy.
I suggest that a good compromise is to put out a post once a month where any and all forms of discussion are welcome.