• Human capacity to believe in inter-subjective myths (not just religions, but corporations, governments, ethics, money, etc) is central to our dominance.
• Money is an extremely successful meme - think of Bin Laden buying in USD even when he rejected so much else of what US stood for.
• Culture has created weirdly / uniquely human expressions of power. For example, travel and tourism is a modern concept; neither a Pharoah nor an alpha male gorilla would express their power and wealth by taking a holiday elsewhere.
• Shift from gathering to agriculture may have made life worse for average person, but it enabled rapid population growth, and there was no way to go back.
• Capitalism, empires and science had a symbiotic relationship in last few hundred years. Examples like East India Company; Cook’s expedition to Australia; Darwin’s captain mapping South America.
• Empires and religion were instrumental in reducing the number of separate spheres of humanity. Shift in conceptualising people outside the border as targets of conversion rather than just external aliens not worthy of thought.
• European countries that prospered were those that maintained good credit allowing them to finance armies. Netherlands scrupulously repaid loans whereas Spain was riskier.
• In 17th century England, 15% died before age 1 and 30% before age 15. Now, figures are 0.5% and 0.7%.
• There may be arguments in favour of empire. What if people are happier? What if it enables more art and culture to prosper?