Progress has long been seen as a linear road, but this metaphor fails to reflect the complexity of life. Drawing on insights from a u3a group, we propose the watershed as a richer symbol—a living system that gathers, integrates, and sustains, offering a new vision for humanity’s journey.
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During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the pursuit of wealth and power through global trade drove European empires to seek direct access to lucrative goods like spices, sugar, and tobacco, reshaping economies and societies across continents. In Ming China, the introduction of a silver tax intensified demand for silver with severe social consequences, while in the Americas, labour-intensive crops spurred the brutal reliance on enslaved Africans. As European powers like the Dutch and English East India Companies clashed over trade monopolies, joint stock companies emerged, allowing broader public investment and profit-sharing. This new economic structure, alongside the crown’s reliance on commercial success, laid the groundwork for modern capitalism and its enduring global influence.
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We often hear that science deals with what is objective—facts, measurements, and what can be proven. On the other hand, personal insights are often seen as subjective, and for some, this automatically makes them less valuable or “unreliable.” But what if that isn’t the case? What if both the objective and subjective aspects of our experience are two sides of the same coin?
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An article summarising how Ottoman domination of Indian and Chinese trade routes to Europe led to European maritime exploration of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans between 1450 and 1600. Subsequent European colonisation of America and Africa transformed global interactions, destroyed ancient and long-standing empires in the Americas, established the Atlantic slave trade, and amplified the religious upheaval in Europe.
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This essay relates the work of the u3a “Science, Philosophy, and Spirituality” group, to the currents of thought that are leading some people to claim that we are entering a “Second Renaissance”.
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