The next installment of The Story of Us by the blogger and illustrator Tim Urban of Wait But Why!

Building giants was a necessity for ancient humans. A human tribe was more than the sum of its parts, in physical power, in productivity, and in knowledge.

Given the powers of emergence, large human giants would be forces to reckon with. But unlike ants, humans are more than just cells in competing giants—they’re competing individuals too. So as tribes grew in size, the benefits of strength and capability would be accompanied by the cost of increasing instability.

Humans, like other animals, learn via direct experience, but their advanced language and imagination capabilities offer them a second learning pathway. Human history is a long progression of human behavior, and human behavior is largely driven by human beliefs. And as Harari, Weinstein, and others point out, what has mattered most in our past is not whether our beliefs were true but whether they drove the right behavior. At some point between 150-person ancient tribes and New York City, human evolution jumped off of the “survival of the fittest biology” snail and onto the “survival of the fittest stories” rocket.

This talk will be a story about stories, and about the power of stories.

This week’s speaker will be Jack.

After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.

This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81619012054?pwd=qcYnknsgcIsSdOaL1pLnKGUOkuztuc.1