Words Are the Most Powerful Drug | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

Humans stand alone in the animal kingdom. Our power over nature is unparalleled. What separates us? What is it that makes us human? The answer lies in our mastery of communication: the power to express complex thoughts and ideas; to organize and think collectively. These are the engines of our success, driving our ascent from hunter-gatherers to a global civilization.

Communication is everywhere. Our technology has propelled us to a new age of interconnectedness. Waves of data pass through us at the speed of light. Music, language, art, the written word—through these tools, the boundless human imagination has been given a voice. They give us self-expression and collective knowledge.

But they have a dark side. These tools are so powerful that they distort our very perception of reality. They can subvert and corrupt, and even manipulate entire populations. Communication is what makes us, us. How did it emerge? How did it transform us into a creature that could dream, into a creature that could imagine, where millions could eventually learn to cooperate, to overcome, to transcend?

This is the story of how our world came to be; how communication defined our species and created the modern age. How it connected humanity and sent our voice on a course for the stars. This is Origins.

Dostoevsky - Don't Become A Slave to Pleasure

This Indigenous Practice Fights Fire with Fire | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic

View All

The 5 Secrets to making a TON of Money

What’s up, you guys? It’s Graham Years. So, when it comes to learning how to make more money, I’ve noticed a few major differences between the people who make a normal average income and the people who end up making a ton of money. And when I talk about …

Truth Serums and False Confessions

[Music] How do you get information from someone who wants to keep it from you? Somewhere locked inside their brain could be the truth about a crime, or the plan for a terrorist attack, or the password to a bank account, or nuclear codes. To get informatio…

How Eating Venomous Lionfish Helps the Environment | National Geographic

Fortunately, lion fish is an invasive species that actually tastes good. On a weekly basis, I’m getting calls from a number of places throughout the country, really asking when the next time is we’re going out to go hunt lion fish, cuz they need fish for …

Lion Falls From Tree During Rescue From a Wire Snare Injury | National Geographic

We pretty much picked up on finding that Orinda at a point where she was treated about two weeks back. So even though the snare was removed, we saw that over about a two and a half week period, her conditions started again to rapidly decline. So we find …

Packet, routers, and reliability | Internet 101 | Computer Science | Khan Academy

Hi, my name is Lynn Root. I am a software engineer here at Spotify, and I’ll be the first to admit that I often take for granted the reliability of the internet. The sheer amount of information zooming around the internet is astonishing. How is it possibl…

Why We Should NOT Look For Aliens - The Dark Forest

The Universe is incredibly big and seems full of potential for life, with billions of habitable planets. If an advanced civilization had the technology to travel between the stars, at just 0.1% of the speed of light, it could colonize our galaxy in roughl…

Words Are the Most Powerful Drug | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

More Articles