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csours·

See Also Extra Credits on the Bronze Age Collapse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkMP328eU5Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBM1qazAXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-8uv4D7cOE < This one in particular

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Wow thanks, these were great. Can't wait for the next video in that series about the theory of systems collapse. Watching and reading about this stuff, I can't help but think about how prophetic these lessons may turn out to be for the world as we come to grips with the global effects of climate change.

All of extra history is great and so is crash course world history if you aren't familiar with all of world history.

If your interested then here is a good talk on the various contributing factors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRcu-ysocX4 . Looks like youtube has quite a few more as well.

I don't think those civilizations have much in common with today's simply due to technological and scientific progress that has taken place--they were barely literate and subject to mythological reasoning and magical thinking.

I kind of disagree with that. Yes we have more technology and science, but there are also lots of human processes and social orders (like nations and governments) that don't really change. I'm not sure superior technology guarantees the survival of civilization as we know it in the event of some cataclysm, or wide-scale famine... imagine how many things in the world would be messed up if the US and China were to lose all their value/power in a short amount of time.

Also, I think it's a mistake to assume people were dummies back then. If you think about it, humans have accomplished amazing things over the millenia, and some of those discoveries are still important today (every cryptography book still covers Euclid's GCD in its early chapters). Dismissing them as barely literate IMO is ignoring the important lessons that history has for us.

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