1. |
Can We Know Our Past?
02:30
|
|||
|
What happened in the past? And how do we know?
Even though today we take great pains to document every major event that occurs, more than 99% of human history is not written down. In a time when histories are being contested, monuments removed, and alternative facts compete with established orthodoxy, how do we evaluate competing narratives about what really happened in the past?
Everybody knows, “You can’t change the past!”
I was first exposed to the idea of time travel in my childhood. The cartoon dog Mr. Peabody on the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" pretty much illustrates the popular idea that time travel would allow us to go back into the past and change some small thing that results in an extraordinary change in the present. Mr. Peabody and Sherman inspire Ludwig von Beethoven to write his Fifth symphony!
“You have to know the past to understand the present.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan
|
||||
2. |
Homo Sapiens
02:38
|
|||
|
Modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Our species, Homo sapiens then spread to all parts of the world. We interacted with local archaic human populations and we colonized the globe.
We shared this planet with several other species of human, so why did only Homo sapiens survive?
Our success may have been due to our deepest vulnerabilities: being dependent on others, feeling compassion and experiencing empathy. We could explore and adapt and were very good at living in widely different parts of the world.
We still think of ourselves as special, but maybe not so special - a little dose of humility wouldn't hurt.
|
||||
3. |
Ancestry
02:54
|
|||
|
Virtually every culture tells a story about the origins of humankind—a story about its ancestry. Origin stories provide collective accounts of where “we” come from, but they also help some lineages claim power over others.
Ruling dynasties often boasted of sacred or supernatural ancestors. Egyptian pharaohs styled themselves sons of Amun-Ra, and Chinese emperors were “sons of heaven.” Inca emperors traced their pedigree to the sun, and Roman rulers to Venus.
Maybe families should be merged into the great, obscure mass of humanity, and forget all about its ancestors. Stories about ancestry tend to be instruments of exclusion.
|
||||
4. |
Can Machines Think?
03:12
|
|||
|
"Can machines think?"
- Alan Turing, 1950, the father of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence research in the 1950s explored topics like problem solving and symbolic methods. In the 1960s, the US Department of Defense took interest in this type of work and began training computers to mimic basic human reasoning.
Computer scientists and philosophers have suggested that AI may become an existential risk to humanity if its rational capacities are not steered towards goals beneficial to humankind.
Artificial intelligence provides tools that are useful for authoritarian governments. Smart spyware, face recognition and voice recognition allow widespread surveillance.
Artificial intelligence models could soon be smarter and more powerful than us. Is it time to impose limits to ensure they don't take control over humans or destroy the world?
|
||||
5. |
Exodus 1947
02:35
|
|||
|
The Exodus 1947 was a worn-out US-owned coastal freight passenger ship launched in 1928. In 1947, the ship was acquired by the Hagana - an underground Jewish military organization. They arranged to dock the ship in Europe in order to transport Jews who sought to illegally immigrate into Palestine.
It carried over 4,500 Jewish men, women, and children, all displaced persons or survivors of the Holocaust. British destroyers surrounded the ship and a struggle ensued between British naval forces and passengers on the ship. The British towed the ship to Haifa and transferred the passengers onto three navy transports which returned to Europe.
The passengers, including many orphaned children, forced the issue by declaring a hunger strike which lasted 24 days. Mounting pressure from international media coverage pressed British authorities to find a solution.
The ensuing public embarrassment for Britain played a significant role in the diplomatic swing of sympathy toward the Jews and the eventual recognition of a Jewish state in 1948.
|
||||
6. |
Tikkun Olam
03:20
|
|||
|
The Hebrew phrase "tikkun olam" means “repair the world” and has become synonymous with the notion of social action and the pursuit of social justice.
Humanity's responsibility to change, improve, and fix its earthly surroundings is powerful. It implies that each person has a hand in working towards the betterment of his or her own existence as well as the lives of future generations. Tikkun olam forces people to take ownership of their world.
Every human being can be involved in Tikkun olam - child or adult, student or entrepreneur, industrialist or artist, caregiver or salesperson, political activist or environmentalist, or just another one of us struggling to keep afloat.
|
||||
7. |
Book Banning
02:24
|
|
||
|
In the past two years, there have been more than 4,000 instances of book banning in the U.S.
Those banned books range from Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” a fictional tale of freed enslaved people, to Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl”, a nonfiction account of a Jewish girl’s life under Nazi occupation.
“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”
― Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" 1890
"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."
― Lyndon B Johnson 1965
“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”
― Golda Meir, "My Life" 1973
|
||||
8. |
Our Ugly Past
02:35
|
|||
|
Our Ugly Past.
The genocide of indigenous peoples. Jim Crow laws. Slavery. The Crusades. The Inquisition. The Holocaust. Colonisation and Conquest.
Our Ugly History shows us how very alike we are. The line between good and evil runs through every human heart. We recognize, through that Ugly History, that we are all capable of the depravity that has led some people to act with unimaginable cruelty toward their fellow men and women.
Our Ugly History has the potential to unify those who study it. We are all horrified and we all identify with these victimized men and women.
We need to talk honestly about the most painful parts of our world’s history and confront our ugly past.
|
||||
9. |
History
02:36
|
|||
|
To study history is to study change.
In many countries history textbooks are tools to foster nationalism and patriotism, and give students the official narrative about national enemies.
In Japan, mention of the Nanking Massacre has been removed from textbooks and the entire Second World War is given cursory treatment. There is no mention of the Armenian Genocide in Turkish textbooks. And It was standard policy in communist countries to present only a rigid Marxist history.
In the United States, textbooks published by the same company often differ in content from state to state. An example is the history of the Southern states, where slavery and the American Civil War are treated as controversial topics. A McGraw-Hill textbook was criticized for describing Africans brought to American plantations as "workers" instead of slaves.
In Germany, the history curriculum is characterized not by superpatriotism but rather by a deliberately unpatriotic tone. German textbooks downplay national pride. Students must learn about the Holocaust and World War II. Most students visit concentration camps, Holocaust memorials, battlefields, war cemeteries, or museums as part of their educational experience.
Studying history gives us deeper insight into our lives and the lives of others.
“The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.”
- James Baldwin
|
||||
10. |
The Atlantic Slave Trade
02:44
|
|||
|
Another genocide that we did not learn about in school.
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE involved the transportation of enslaved African people by slave traders. Europeans gathered and imprisoned the enslaved at forts on the African coast and then brought them to the Americas.
In the 15th century, the Roman Catholic Church granted Portugal a monopoly on trade in West Africa and Spain the right to colonize the New World. The Portuguese were the first to buy slaves from West African slavers and transport them across the Atlantic. They were sold to work on coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar, and cotton plantations, gold and silver mines, rice fields and as domestic servants.
The major Atlantic slave trading nations were Britain, Portugal, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the USA. Enslaved people were seen not as people at all but as commodities to be bought, sold and exploited.
The Atlantic slave trade was genocide. Extermination was not the final objective; it was an "unfortunate consequence" of making money.
|
||||
11. |
Time Travel
03:09
|
|||
|
The laws of physics allow for time travel.
Einstein’s theory of relativity says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). The faster you travel, the slower you experience time. The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time.
Traveling at high speed isn't the only way to produce the slowing of time. Einstein showed that gravitational fields produce a similar effect. If a person were to hang out near the edge of a black hole, where gravity is very strong, only a few hours might pass for them while 1,000 years went by for someone on Earth.
Is time a human construct? Is it the result of neurons firing, memories forming and books written?
No one knows about the future of time travel. And so far, no time travelers have come to tell us about it.
“I have a hunger to be young again, a desperate hunger to go back where it all began.”
- Rod Serling
|
||||
12. |
Past, Present, Future
02:37
|
|||
|
History has a long memory. While we are consumed in the moment, we should have the humility to understand that we are only a link to the future. Our actions today will benefit or harm those who will follow.
The past is written, but the future is ours to wield, subject to the choices we make. Make good ones because the actions we take right now will determine the state of our children’s world.
“What's past is prologue, what to come In yours and my discharge.”
- William Shakespeare
|
||||
13. |
The Waltz Of Apathy
02:25
|
|||
|
Our Founding Fathers envisioned a government that received its powers from the governed. It required an informed, highly involved electorate. An active, educated constituency makes its presence known and serves as a check on the excesses of government.
Without the involvement of the people, our government is highly susceptible to the actions of unscrupulous, corrupt forces intent on their own agenda to the detriment of our country.
Our freedoms, liberty and prosperity are at stake. As Americans we must wake up and become an active part of the political process. Political apathy is a danger that we must overcome.
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
- Plato
“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think. It is not truth that matters, but victory.” - Adolf Hitler
|
||||
Steve Shapiro Oakland, California
Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more
If you like Steve Shapiro, you may also like:
orchestral suite no.1 new lanark [ALBUM]
by A Sea Warren
This debut classical piece from UK musician A Sea Warren captures the grandeur of the natural world in melodies that recall Aaron Copland.
go to album
Expansive orchestral music that has all the weight and heft of post-rock.
go to album
Scripted Orkestra (Conducted By Jules Buckley)
by Henrik Schwarz & Metropole Orkest
Celebrated electronic producer Henrik Schwarz teams with Metropole Orkest for music that blends dance rhythms with symphonic grandeur.
go to album
Always & Only the Lonely -- music from The Dorothy K
by Brian Lawlor and Zac Pennington
Soaring operatic pop written for the theater by Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls and composer Brian Lawlor.
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 30, 2016
go to album
featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 3, 2013
go to album
Conversations in Ritual
by Balladeste
This new album from the contemporary classical duo was completely improvised.
go to album
