Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Sir Isaac Newton, widely regarded as one of the most important and influential scientific figures in human history was proficient in the areas of physics, mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and theology.

For as revered and respected his legacy is, Sir Isaac Newton once exclaimed, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” What Sir Isaac was talking about was the work done in the fields of study before him. The intelligence that he had procured wasn’t created within himself, but throughout many generations and countless individuals, culminating the aggregate and organized whole of his knowledge, allowing him to simply take one more step ahead.

To catalogue the entire breadth of human intellectual capital is an almost impossible task, better left to the super-computers of the future. But what if we could create a set of blueprints for the inception point of human intellectual development; civilization?

Ecologist Marcin Jakubowski, a TED Fellow, presents the idea for an open source ecological blue-print that can act as the inception point for the start of civilization.

Because think about it, if you had to start from scratch tomorrow in the non-civilized state of nature, would you be able to sustain your life and the lives of those you love? Just how long would you last and how far would you go? You would most definitely need the “Blueprints for Civilization”.