WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS

Humanity has a problem, according to biologist Edward Osborne Wilson: “We have palaeolithic emotions, medieval institutions and God-like technology.”

For millions of years we were hunters of one sort or another. Our own species , together with all those variations on the theme of humanity that went before – , , – depended upon their ability to seek and find food and shelter. Our own sort has been abroad upon the Earth for around 200,000 years. A few recent centuries of science, industrial revolution, internal combustion engines and smartphones have changed the way we live beyond anything that might be recognised by those hunters of old, but our physiologies and cognitive abilities are essentially unaltered. For all the complexity of our societies and the cleverness of the machines with which we have surrounded ourselves, our own onboard computers – three pounds or so of pale pink meat kept safe beneath thin caps of bone –