These Were Our Triumphs

I've been given some flak recently about my facetious response to my own question as to what the single greatest moment in human history was. (Although, to be honest, I'd prefer it if y'all made comments on my posts in the comments section of the post, so that I can reference the comment if I want to make a reply.) Apparently, something that hasn't happened yet is not a valid choice for the greatest of mankind's triumphs (Although I'll note that everyone else who answered this question cheated as well.)

I think the lack of real answers to this question is indicative of the disaffection of our culture. Especially among the liberal and the young, there is nothing more chic than being down on the West, and on humanity in general. And, to be fair, we have screwed a lot up. But still, I think we spend too much time focusing on what we've done wrong, and not enough time focusing on the things we got right. There are two reasons to study history: to avoid the tragedies of the past, and to emulate their triumphs. Though we often accomplish neither, maybe if we thought about each more often, we could manage both.

Regardless, I thought to redress my flippancy, and so here I will share with you the ten pieces of human history that I consider to be the greatest things we have ever accomplished.

The War to End the World

The Cold War opens the festivities.

"What?" You are saying. "How can that possibly be a triumph?" Well, you're here to ask that question, is the thing. Somehow, reason and rationality prevailed over the hatred and terror of the time, and the incredible destructive power at our disposal was not unleashed. Well, yet, at least.

The Dwarf Wheat

In The Population Bomb, in 1968, Paul Ehrlich said "The battle to feed all of humanity is over.... In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.... India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980."* And he was right. Only, not completely right. We still have famine, we still have massive, widespread hunger, but thanks to one strain of wheat, a billion people are alive today who would be dead.

The Printing Press

I chose the printing press over the invention of written language for a single reason: power. No other invention in human history has done so much to put power in the hands of the masses rather than the few who ruled them. Free flow of information, as I am so fond of quoting, is the only safeguard against tyranny.**

Viricide

It may come as something of a surprise that the most deadly disease known to man is not AIDS or Malaria or Anthrax, but something that no longer troubles us. In 1980, The WHO issued a resolution which began with the following sentence: "[The World Health Organization] declares solemnly that the world and its peoples have won freedom from smallpox, which was a most devastating disease sweeping in epidemic form through many countries since earliest time, leaving death, blindness and disfigurement in its wake, and which only a decade ago was rampant in Africa, Asia, and South America."*** The eradication of smallpox has been called the single greatest undertaking of the human race, and the hundreds of millions of lives saved from death or ruination are testament to our triumph over the disease.

And All the Beasts of the Land Shall Serve Him

The domestication of animals, whether for food or labour, is one of the greatest steps forward we have ever made. Humans are not personally well-adapted for many tasks, but there is one thing we excel at, and that is finding the right tool for the job at hand. Harnessing the strength of animals has paved the way for all the rest of human progress.

And All the Plants of the Earth Shall Be His Right

Endless history classes will go over again and again how the development of agriculture was a turning point for human civilization. Many of them will even mention that, without it, human civilization could not exist at all. Agriculture means surpluses, and surpluses mean specialization. Without farming, there could be no cities (As those obnoxious stickers will happily point out to you), no rulers, no religion, no science, no industry. Nothing at all, in fact.

Not to Live in the Cradle Forever

(Rejected subtitle: "The World is Not Enough")

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite into Earth's Orbit. The 22 days of Sputnik One's radio transmission was the first time humanity was able to touch the world outside the world, and begin to truly learn some of the secrets of the universe we find ourselves in. Perhaps no other event has unlocked so many fields of exploration and endeavour - If only we made use of them.

The Spider 'Cross the World

Ah, the internet. Cesspool of hatred, intolerance, and stupidity, and yet the last remaining bastion of true freedom and unfettered thought. Nearly the complete sum total of human knowledge available at the tap of a few keys, and a thousand times its weight in ignorance ready to rush out of your screen. The internet is the logical conclusion of the process begun a thousand years ago by Chinese leadsmiths whose names are lost to history: information in the hands of the people, to do with as they will. That mostly what they do with it is ejaculate is a fault of humanity, not of the monument to human ingenuity that makes it all possible.

Awakened By A Dream of Equals

This one is sort of cheating, because I'm wrapping into it all the great revolutions of equality that the world has seen in the last three or four hundred years. The Women's Rights movement, the end of Apartheid, the desegregation of our schools, the Emancipation Proclamation, the destruction of the rotten burroughs, all the leaps and bounds towards human peace and equality that have been taken by people finally brave enough to stand up and say "No." We have a long, long way to go, to be sure. But we're winning. And, slowly but surely, hatred is losing.

Forcibly to Bind a Brother God

For the last one, I'm going to have to agree with Isabella, and speak out for the harnessing of fire. Not only for the potential for discovery and greatness, nor for the unfettered reign of power it gives us over the world, nor even for the symbolic and psychological grip it holds on our culture, but for this simple fact, as proposed by Arthur C. Clarke: If the termites had invented fire, who would be Earth's masters then?

The most surprising thing to me while writing this list (I had decided on maybe three entries before I began) was how many of the events are from the last hundred years. Partly that is historical perspective - after all, I'm more likely to think of something if it is ingrained in our collective consciousness - but partly it is due to the rapidly increasing rate of technological and scientific discovery. What gives us the power to work immense, terrible acts of evil also allows us to perform profound and wonderful acts of greatness. Perhaps the tragedies of the twentieth century outweigh its triumphs, but those triumphs are certainly there, and are no less incredible for all the failures of our species.

So, that's my take on human history. What do you think?

*See Wikipedia: "Norman Borlaug"
** Full quote from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: "'As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.' - Commissioner Previn Lal, "UN Declaration of Rights.""
***See Wikipedia: "Smallpox"