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.

Double replacement reactions | Chemistry | Khan Academy

Charlie Munger: We're Playing With Fire (Interview)

View All

2015 AP Calculus AB 5a | AP Calculus AB solved exams | AP Calculus AB | Khan Academy

The figure above shows the graph of f prime, the derivative of a twice differentiable function f on the interval. It’s a closed interval from negative three to four. The graph of f prime has horizontal tangents at x equals negative one, x equals one, and …

The Man of a Trillion Worlds | Cosmos: Possible Worlds

NARRATOR: Harold Uris was a chemist. Like Gerard Kuiper, he also had to fight his way into science. Uris’ family was poor, like Kuiper’s, so he took a job teaching grammar school in a mining camp in Montana. The parents of one of his students urged him to…

Growing Sweet Potatoes | Live Free or Die: How to Homestead

[Music] This is how you grow sweet potatoes. This is the first step: get the sweet potatoes. Okay, the next step is to get some potting soil. So, I’m going to bury them down in there, and then they go into a hot spot. Then they’ll spring into action and…

Lecture 11 - Hiring and Culture, Part 2 (Patrick and John Collison, Ben Silbermann)

Part two of culture and team, and we have Ben Silberman, the founder of Pinterest, and John and Patrick Collison, the founders of Stripe. Um, founders that have obviously sort of some of the best in the world at thinking about culture and how they build t…

Small Talk Tip - How To Introduce Yourself To Someone New!

Emma: This is my best small talk tip, how to introduce yourself to someone new. Right now I’m going to teach you my four-step method to make introducing yourself to someone in English easy and enjoyable. You can use these steps to introduce yourself at wo…

The FED Just Crashed The Market (Major Changes Explained)

What’s up, Graham? It’s guys here, and it’s official. As of a few hours ago, the Federal Reserve just raised their benchmark interest rates by another 25 basis points, which means as of today we are sitting at the highest interest rates that we have seen …

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

More Articles