One way to explain the complexity and unpredictability of historical systems, despite their ultimate determinacy, is to note that long chains of causation may separate final effects from ultimate causes lying outside the domain of that field of science.
("Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies")
More Quotes from Jared Diamond:
Introspection and preserved writings give us far more insight into the ways of past humans than we have into the ways of past dinosaurs. For that reason, I'm optimistic that we can eventually arrive at convincing explanations for these broadest patterns of human history.Jared Diamond
I'd rather spend my leisure time doing what some people call my work and I call my fun.
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Rhino-mounted Bantu shock troops could have overthrown the Roman Empire. It never happened.
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Eurasia's main axis is eastwest, whereas the main axis of the Americas is northsouth. Eurasia's eastwest axis meant that species domesticated in one part of Eurasia could easily spread thousands of miles at the same latitude, encountering the same day-len
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Lest those islands still seem to you too remote in space and time to be relevant to our modern societies, just think about the risks... of our increasing globalization and increasing worldwide economic interdependence.
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Even to this day, no native Australian animal species and only one plant species-the macadamia nut-have proved suitable for domestication. There still are no domestic kangaroos.
Jared Diamond
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