Kirjahaku

Some 4.5 billion years ago the universe decided to try out a little experiment on a rather average planet somewhere in the Milky Way. Remarkably, the result was life on planet Earth, an event that would eventually see a species of well behaved, clean shaven monkeys evolve and boldly declare themselves to be the planet's intellectual masters. But just how did it all happen? How did that first tiny spark of life eventually evolve to give us Albert Einstein and Mozart? Well, simply put, we don't have a clue. However, some rather clever science-bods think they might have some ideas, and so here is a version of events that these brainy types believe may well explain how some rather hairy and not too bright tree-dwelling apes eventually evolved to walk on the moon. This then is a slightly irreverent jaunt through the history of human evolution, it's the story of you and me.

"What's the meaning of life?", "Is there a God?", "Why do washing machine doors have windows?". These are big questions that require some big thinking, and history is littered with some rather clever bods with long beards and sandals, who have forgone time down the pub with their mates to try and answer. We loosely term such chin-stroking intellectuals as philosophers, and the results of their mental gymnastics can often prove quite useful, and not just in helping us to fathom the "meaning of life", but also in our everyday lives. And so, for the benefit of those of us who don't have watermelon-sized brains, or actually would rather just spend time down the pub with our mates, here, in layman's terms, is a little insight into some of that previous thinking around those big questions. This then is a brief history of philosophy, the history of human ideas.

History is littered with the success stories and achievements of planet Earth's most evolutionary successful biped. Mankind has invented electricity, the wheel, created entire Empires, cured polio and smallpox, built pyramids, conceived of democracy, put a man on the moon, and probably most importantly of all created beer, pizza, the push-up bra, and soccer. But for every amazing achievement there are hundreds of other examples where mankind has also fallen just a little short of such greatness, where attempts to conquer, invent, build, or overcome, have ended up more in red-faced embarrassment than glorious fist-pump; Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the Spanish Armada, the sinking of the Titanic,...So here then is a collection of such knuckle-headed events, aimed at giving you a flavour of just what history-changing incompetence mankind is capable of when left to his own devices.