DEVOLUTION OF CIVILISATION

Have you ever imagined that the progress of human civilization is not linear improving but will degenerate? I once read an article about how the island effect might be killing civilisation. In anthropological studies, there is a term called the “Tasmanian effect”. With no outside technology input and a low population, technology levels in some areas will not only stay the same forever but will even go backward.

 

Tasmania is an island that has been traced by humans since 42,000 years ago.Tasmanians are one of the loneliest groups in recent earth history because their isolation had left them in a state of cultural degradation. The island was once rich with goods that would have kept the people well-fed and clothed, but when Europeans first landed in Tasmania, they were shocked that Tasmanians had lost the skills to make clothes and even the most basic tools.

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Europeans thought they were a primitive group or a transitional stage between ape-man and human, but later archaeological discoveries have shown that Tasmanians' original technological level is equal to that of the Aborigines of Australia, and they originally had advanced hunting and fishing skills. But step by step, they were throwing away those skills.

 

This led me to think that human cognitive ability is manifested in social learning, in a limited society, it is possible to reach the upper limit of civilisation development and resources. And earth is a Tasmanian island isolates in the universe.

 

So, if human society has really fallen back to the Stone Age, what can we use to show contemporary culture?