The Things We Don't Know: How mankind found answers to some of life's most pressing questions.: 1 (A Shared Human Future)

Description

6000 years. Six Civilizations. One Ultimate Goal. From a letter, we wrote a word, then came sentences, books, epics. We asked questions that propelled the formulation of the sciences, the arts, our culture, and our philosophies. All that we know and love today was built by one daring life at a time over six thousand years.  Part historic, part scientific, and part philosophical, Tarun Betala meshes together an eclectic account of humanity’s greatest intellectual, scientific and artistic achievements, all motivated by the need to answer some of life’s most fundamental questions: Who are we? What is the purpose of life? Who is God? What is our universe? The Things We Don’t Know is the amazing story of the grit of Mankind: the story of winning at life against all odds, the story that reminds us that all of us are one in our search for the answers that haunt and drive us. This is book 1 of 'A Shared Human Future' series. Selected Quotes: "Some of us manage to think bigger, brighter, deeper thoughts. Some of these thoughts already shape the kind of research we do. Some of them will prove to be right, and our understanding of our home will deepen. Our home, one day, will be less of a mystery to us." "We believe because it gives us faith. It gives us the willingness to go through our day, to keep the existentialist threat of meaninglessness away. We believe because we crave to be seen, to be known, to be understood. We believe because that is the only thing we can do. If there is no one to judge us - to tell us that we are good, and that if we are bad, we can be redeemed - why bother living at all? Why bother being good at all? If there is no one to look after us, and we are truly alone in this universe, what purpose do we have? We have nothing but the present moment, and only temporariness." "We, of all the beings that we know of, can think. We can eat, write, build, save. We can predict, estimate, and count. We can preserve food for lifetimes, and in times of crisis, we can find ways to ensure our survival. With each passing generation, our sphere of control of our existence is larger. What if the earth is hit by an asteroid or there is no way to stop global warming? We look to colonize other planets. The fate of our species, in a few years, will not be tied to the fate of the earth. Our home planet must be cared for ... but as we go interplanetary and then interstellar, our control on our lives and the evolution of our species grows. As far as we know, we are the only species that has a say in the development of its future." "We ought to, as human beings, have the courage to seek a collective “truth” that benefits our species the most, and to accept that all of our doctrines and beliefs may just be incomplete. That we don’t know it all and that perhaps we never will. That others like us may have something to teach us, and we may have something to contribute to their communities. That communities, types of people, are divisions we’ve created for ourselves. That for all of what we know, the knowledge and wisdom that we have gathered in the few millennia may be a small fraction of what is there to be discovered, understood and applied."