Why does it seem like civilisations - sometimes great distances apart - made similar discoveries at almost exactly the same time? Whether it’s the invention of the wheel, agriculture or early forms of writing, there seem to be parallels everywhere you look. Does it provide evidence for a kind of cultural clock that moves civilisations towards a converged form of progress?

In this week’s podcast, we discuss ancient civilisations and progress. We take a closer look at convergent evolution, the Andaman Islands, Fermi paradox, AI, aliens and the Arecibo message and ponder if globalisation ended this phenomenon. Finally, we share our favourite moments of contact between different civilisations.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:


- The Aztecs - A Clash of Worlds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8JVdpWCKeM 
- Sid Meier’s Civilization Advances Chart https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/civ1tech-png.458650/ 
- Cradle of Civilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization 
- Neuroscience, Evolution and the Sapient Paradox: The Factuality of Value and of the Sacred
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606703/pdf/rstb20080010.pdf 
- Aztec Technology https://aztecsandtenochtitlan.com/aztec-civilisation/aztec-technology/ 

For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website https://alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email podcast@alephinsights.com

Ancient Progress

Welcome to the Cognitive Engineering podcast. Occasionally coherent musings of Aleph Insights. We hope you like listening to them as much as we like recording them.