In "Cosmos: Possible Worlds" episode 11, titled "The Immortals," the focus is on the concept of human legacy and the idea of achieving immortality through our actions and thoughts, exploring the story of ancient Sumerian figures like Enheduanna, the first known female writer, and Gilgamesh, who famously sought literal immortality, highlighting how their deeds and stories live on through time even after their deaths.
Key points about the episode:
1. Ancient Sumeria:
The episode primarily takes place in ancient Sumeria, specifically the city of Uruk, where writing was first developed and where the concept of recording time through writing is explored.
2. Enheduanna:
The episode highlights Enheduanna as a pioneer of written language, showcasing her poetry as a means of achieving a form of immortality through her words.
3. Gilgamesh:
The story of Gilgamesh, a legendary king who desperately searched for the secret to eternal life, is also featured, demonstrating the human desire for immortality.
4. The Power of Story:
The episode emphasizes how stories and written records can preserve our memories and legacies, effectively making us "immortal" through the impact we leave on the world.
Thanks for watching. Follow for more videos.
#cosmosspacescience
#cosmospossibleworlds
#season1
#episode11
#cosmology
#astronomy
#spacetime
#spacescience
#space
#nasa
#spacedocumentary
#darkmatter
#twinstarstars
#aliensolarsystem
#TheCosmicConnection
#cosmos
#neildegrassetyson
#Themanofmillionstars
#neildegrassetyson
#immortal
#ancientsumeria
Key points about the episode:
1. Ancient Sumeria:
The episode primarily takes place in ancient Sumeria, specifically the city of Uruk, where writing was first developed and where the concept of recording time through writing is explored.
2. Enheduanna:
The episode highlights Enheduanna as a pioneer of written language, showcasing her poetry as a means of achieving a form of immortality through her words.
3. Gilgamesh:
The story of Gilgamesh, a legendary king who desperately searched for the secret to eternal life, is also featured, demonstrating the human desire for immortality.
4. The Power of Story:
The episode emphasizes how stories and written records can preserve our memories and legacies, effectively making us "immortal" through the impact we leave on the world.
Thanks for watching. Follow for more videos.
#cosmosspacescience
#cosmospossibleworlds
#season1
#episode11
#cosmology
#astronomy
#spacetime
#spacescience
#space
#nasa
#spacedocumentary
#darkmatter
#twinstarstars
#aliensolarsystem
#TheCosmicConnection
#cosmos
#neildegrassetyson
#Themanofmillionstars
#neildegrassetyson
#immortal
#ancientsumeria
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:07What would we think if an extra-terrestrial scouting party surveyed Pritvi?
00:15Who are we?
00:18Can we fundamentally change as a species?
00:23Or will something in our lives determine our destiny?
00:29Did our ancestors steer us in a direction over which we have no control?
00:36Will we be able to free our children from our shortcomings?
00:42Can we be trusted with our future?
00:47We have been thinking about ancient Persian civilization, or perhaps even earlier.
00:53Is it not in our human nature that we are destined for destruction?
01:17Do that, our friends have come to our humanity
02:06The sacred places on Earth for our species
02:09This is one of them
02:12One of the earliest places where fire was adapted to human needs
02:18about one million years ago
02:22Here in Vanderveck Cave, South Africa, our ancestors first lit fire.
02:32All humans on Earth today belong to the species Homo sapiens.
02:38means intelligent species
02:41And here today we are talking about Homo Erectis, that is, the one who got up and walked.
02:48He is not alive today, but he is present somewhere within us.
02:52We don't know much about them, but they took care of each other when they got old or sick.
02:59He was a master tool maker.
03:03It was around such a fire that we started cooking and telling each other stories.
03:10And also to hang out with your friends
03:28If we humans had evolved just a few thousand years ago
03:32Then we would know most of the important things related to our life and why we are like this today.
03:38But we humans know that our species is millions of years old.
03:42And Homo erectors are probably tens of millions of years old, and primates are millions of years old.
03:47Ma'am, this is about 200 million years old, and life on Earth is four billion years old.
03:53We don't even know about some of our ancestors.
03:56We keep on digging the land
03:58ashes and pieces of animal bones
04:01so that we can know
04:03remnants of humanity
04:04About Suguts
04:07always on our minds
04:09We were mindful of the future and deliberately
04:11Leave your records behind
04:12five thousand years ago
04:14what we were like and what we believed in
04:16Yet there was one thing that never changed.
04:19From Homerctes
04:20To the ancient and great Parshya
04:24Our attraction to fire
04:28This seems to be true here.
04:30In Paraspalis
04:31This magnificent complex
04:33The great 6th century B.C.
04:35It was built by Persian kings
04:37When Parshya came into this world
04:39The only superpower was
04:52This great king
04:53a god named Ahura Mazda
04:55used to worship
04:57About whom we do not know anything
04:59His prophets were
05:01Zoroaster
05:03Every Zoroastrian Temple
05:05Summer Pitha to the eye
05:06Zoroastrian Ways of Worship
05:08It played a special role in
05:10This was the symbol
05:11The light of a mind filled with the purity and awareness of God
05:16This sacred fire burned for centuries during the Zoroastrian era.
05:20which was part of their special rituals
05:23He chose the first human achievement
05:26They made fire the center of their worship.
05:31Ahura Mazda didn't need much
05:33He did not need sacrifices and did not need money.
05:36He only expected good thoughts, good words and good deeds from people.
05:44But for some reason, most people were unable to fulfill even these modest expectations.
05:50Often their thoughts and actions were evil, and they even committed some heinous crimes.
05:55But why so?
05:58All this was happening because of the Angara menu, which was completely opposite to Ahura Mazda.
06:04This is where the devil started, he had little horns and hooves too.
06:11Zoroastrianism was considered a major religion from Greece to India for thousands of years.
06:17This is why he had a significant influence on the religions that came after him.
06:22For the Suruastins, all the evils in the world, crimes committed by humans
06:28And natural calamities and diseases were also considered to be the gifts of the Angra minions, the devils, which never stopped.
06:36Their god Ahura Mazda wanted help from humans to eradicate this evil.
06:42By his actions any human being can determine the future of this universe either in the direction of good or evil.
06:49could turn to
06:55In this pre-science world, whenever any evil would anger its inferior, it would be considered the dominion of the devil.
07:02was supposed to be
07:18This story is not about the conflict between good and evil or gods and demons.
07:24This is about a hunter and his prey.
07:28In this case, the predator is a small size and it has been incubating inside its prey.
07:35Eosinophilic microbes can be dangerous predators.
07:38They don't just attack and kill.
07:41They even dominate their host.
07:44They are able to spread their microorganisms to other hosts by changing their behavior.
07:49These are in the blood of this unfortunate and helpless dog
07:53Through no fault of his own, he came into contact with a sick bat.
07:58And now he is forced to become the main character of this horrific story.
08:05These are the bullets of the rabies virus.
08:10By entering the blood of this innocent dog who loves people
08:14These reach his brain, his limbic system
08:18and control the aggression within him.
08:29By attacking nerve cells, the rabies virus transforms this poor creature.
08:35A feral animal with neither loyalty nor love left
08:39Animals exposed to rabids are free of fear.
08:45After overcoming the limbic system
08:47The rabies virus now travels to the saliva-producing system in the dog's throat.
08:54Now the virus starts showing its effect from here.
08:57and paralyzes the swallowing nerve
09:01This causes the infected saliva to come out of the mouth of the bitten person and attack its next target.
09:08But how does a virus work so efficiently?
09:11How does it know which part of the brain of another animal is the aggressive one?
09:17We have also received information about this recently.
09:21So this is the power of nature to develop in a natural way.
09:25Given time, a mutation will take root.
09:29Now no matter how powerful the virus is in paralyzing the throat of its victim
09:35If this increases the virus's chances of survival, it will continue to spread.
09:39All it needs is a victim in every weedy who is a carrier of the disease that can increase its lethal potential.
09:47maintain
09:48The transformation from family protector to dangerous monster is complete
09:53The beat is in the hole, though it does not know its reason.
09:59As a slave to the virus within it, it will not be able to stop itself from attacking.
10:04If the attack is successful, the virus will be transmitted through the mosquito's saliva into the victim's body through a cut.
10:11And then he will start taking over this new prey.
10:15The rabies virus is adept at altering the behavior of its prey.
10:19It attacks while avoiding the defense system.
10:22forces the body of the victim to rebel against itself
10:27And it can make even the most calm people become very angry and aggressive.
10:33This is why it is so dangerous
10:39We are at the mercy of unseen forces.
10:42Viruses, microbes, hormones
10:45which are part of our own DNA
10:49Where does this programming end?
10:51And where does the chaos begin?
10:55If this happens then
11:00Do bees have free will or control?
11:06A dying bee releases a death pheromone.
11:10Its distinctive odor signals its companions to pull it out of the reef.
11:18This death pheromone is oleic acid.
11:23If a drop of oleic acid is placed on a healthy bee
11:29So what will happen is that in such a situation the other bees immediately start throwing it out of the nest.
11:38So are bees aware of the danger posed by rotting carcasses in the hive?
11:44Do they know the relationship between death and oleic acid?
11:49They also have a premonition of death.
11:51And are we even aware of death?
11:56This would never have happened in millions of years of evolution.
12:00that a bee could protect itself from death by oleic acid
12:05This means that the bees have no confusion about this.
12:08The smell of oleic acid means dead bees to them.
12:13The development process didn't need to know this in such detail.
12:18A little smell is enough
12:20The bee has what it needs
12:25Unlike humans, he doesn't need to know everything.
12:32The same applies to deaths.
12:43And the transparent glass windows have been there for a thousand years.
12:47So this mortal's mind is unable to tell him this
12:50that it is not possible to cross this invisible thing
12:54need to find another way
12:56That is, till recently the work of these deaths
12:58It was going on without any understanding of it.
13:02Because it exists in that world only on the surface
13:04where there are no glass on the windows
13:18But if we consider the existence of creatures that are said to be more mentally developed,
13:23Something similar was seen
13:24So what conclusion do we draw? Have you ever thought about this?
13:31A jib goose egg rolls out of the nest
13:35So the mother, who has been away from him for several weeks, knows the importance of bringing him back to the nest.
13:41Does she know she's missing one egg?
13:45She brings everything that is near the nest inside.
13:49Ping pong balls and beer bottles too
13:53The importance of this behavior for the goose's genes is clear.
13:57She understands something, but not as much as we do.
14:02Do any beetles have feelings?
14:05Does it have any understanding or is it just a simple robot created by nature?
14:09A machine complete with caravan-based sensors, actuators, programs and subroutines
14:17According to the order of the deen of what is created
14:21We can easily assume that insects or geese are mindless, machine-like creatures.
14:30But what can be said about us?
14:33If other creatures think at all, what will that be?
14:36If he wanted to say something to us, what would he say?
14:40If we observe them carefully, we will see their ability to take any decision quickly.
14:46If we look at all the creatures in the world, is it so
14:50Maybe we humans have a soul inside us that never dies.
14:55So what about the rest of the creatures?
14:58It is natural for a goose to roll its eggs back into its nest.
15:02But after the babies hatch from the eggs
15:05especially before they leave their nest
15:08The mother becomes familiar with their voices, facial features and smells.
15:12She learned about her chicks
15:14Now she is well aware of her children.
15:18And now she will not consider any unknown thing or other children as her own.
15:22No matter how similar they may seem to us humans
15:26Let's talk about the Beetle again.
15:29Beetles can see, walk, run, smell, taste, fly, mate, defecate, and lay eggs.
15:38Nature has given it the ability to do this work.
15:42The mass of its brain would be only one milligram.
15:45And it also has special components to run these programs.
15:49But is the matter limited to this?
15:52Is there someone controlling these functions inside it or is there a controller?
15:59And what do we mean by someone?
16:02Or does this beetle do everything as per the will of nature and not on its own?
16:06Isn't this a decision you can take yourself?
16:08Is it completely different from other creatures?
16:11Let's see
16:20See how it looks to me
16:22Trying to find out what this big three-dimensional thing is?
16:27This fly keeps wandering around without any worry.
16:29But you didn't pick up the newspaper.
16:32that it just fades away
16:34We know that nature has programmed its brain in this way.
16:42If you ask some scientists about awareness in the common fly
16:47Then they will be scared
16:48Is there no option to choose in its small mind?
17:04No satisfaction with the day's achievements
17:10If its brain is ten times smaller than ours
17:14So will the period of its feeling and thought also be ten times shorter?
17:18And even after seeing all these things, we still feel like just a robot?
17:25How can we say with certainty that this decision does not apply to us also?
17:36What is so special about humans? Is there something that belongs exclusively to us?
17:51Does our hypothetical extraterrestrial observer think that some of our actions are different from those of other creatures on Earth?
17:59Is it different?
18:01Is there something that people from every culture in the world have been doing in the same way and now
18:07Are you doing the same thing?
18:08Something that no animal on this earth can do
18:14Plato was the first to define man.
18:18He said that we humans are birds without mud.
18:23When this definition of Plato reached the philosopher Dia Genius, he included a plank in Plato's Academy.
18:30brought
18:31and asked the scholars present there to salute this man of Plato
18:36Plato's disciple also had this to say
18:38Man is a social animal and politics is a part of his life.
18:47ants
18:51bees
18:54and termites
18:56have more organized and stable social structures than we do
19:03The 16th-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote
19:08There is no one worse than a human being in the world when it comes to loyalty.
19:14But perhaps he was not aware of the firefly.
19:17Did you know that fireflies glow to attract females?
19:24But some males create their own unique patterns to attract a mate.
19:30Friendship like we are being drenched by one of our friends to his girlfriend
19:34Twist the message to change its meaning
19:37If this happens, his girlfriend will get angry and will conspire to win the lottery.
19:42Isn't it amazing
19:47The eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith
19:51wrote in support of free enterprise capitalism
19:54That the ability to exchange one thing for another is found only in one creature.
20:00in humans
20:01But is this true?
20:06Chimpanzees are creatures that understand transactions very well.
20:10They use things like food, service and deceiving the leader for sex.
20:18Even to save the child's life.
20:21I mean, you can do anything for sex.
20:25So is our species the only expert in this art?
20:30Not J
20:31This artwork is by Bavo Bird.
20:45And this too
20:49And this too
20:52Only we raise our children until they grow up
20:57No, wrong answer
20:59This tendency is also found in elephants.
21:04We are the only species that enslaves and exploits other animals.
21:10keeping them captive
21:18If only this cockroach from African Sevana knew this
21:22An Emeril Wasp wants to drug it and hold it captive in his basement
21:30The poison the wasp injects into its body will kill the cockroach's desire to be free.
21:40Whatever happens now, this cockroach is not going to run away from here.
21:48The wasp will not rest until it drags it into its den.
22:01Then it lays an egg in its body.
22:09And then it closes the entrance to the burrow with stones and wood.
22:19The reason behind this is to keep the cockroach alive for as long as possible.
22:25to keep its organs fresh
22:29The baby wasp will feed on the cockroach while growing inside its body.
22:34When it grows up, it will come out of the dead cockroach.
22:42But what about Azar and the use of technology?
23:13And from what?
23:18what will go away
23:21What comes to mind?
23:23But Aza goes
23:25Vast ka Baega
23:25But Aza
23:53So can we claim that only our species has this ability to express emotions?
24:00method does it follow?
24:14Remember this place? It's a sign of the broken branches of the tree of life. This place is full of environmental
24:22from the damage caused by the devastation and from the competition that existed before we arrived
24:28There is a path on it that we
24:32has created it himself. Ahead are all those species which have become extinct only because of us.
24:48Could our carelessness towards nature have anything to do with this? Animals and
24:56There should be a distinction between human beings
25:02We have to fight and experiment on them but we are just bent on eliminating them.
25:08And that too without any regret in the heart, this is how we humans are.
25:32But we all know that now this careless person is using his evil boat on us.
25:50Are we automata robots whose fate is written in DNA, leaving no room for escape?
25:58Is
26:00So is this DNA our destiny?
26:04If so, does it have the power to write a tale of bravery and decency?
26:38Let's assume for a minute that our existence is merely a sum of our genetic heritage.
26:45Well, this isn't so bad either.
26:47There are parts of our DNA that are filled with bravery.
26:51These parts are as wonderful as any epic.
27:12This mother is deliberately risking her life by jumping like this.
27:19so that it can alert
27:42from the danger to your children and flock
27:47If this is not bravery then what is?
27:50And nature gave this reason for bravery
27:53Thomson has shown itself in the programming of Gazelle
27:56If this is not bravery then what is?
27:57to raise your children
27:59He put his life on the line
28:01And this matters
28:04See the sacrifices made for loved ones in every aspect of life.
28:07The passion that exists is present in everyone.
28:10Even among us humans
28:13Do you have any doubts?
28:14So let's go and experiment and see
28:19Think carefully about what your children will do
28:22Hungry, homeless and in a very sick condition
28:26We wouldn't want to think of it that way much.
28:30But every day approximately 16,000 children
28:33due to hunger or blindness
28:36or die of illness
28:38while we're sleeping or watching this show
28:42Even then, children will continue to die.
28:44He is very far from us
28:46They have no direct relationship with us.
28:49So now tell me what
28:51Bloody relationships have no significance.
28:53We are based on our DNA
28:55To protect the carriers
28:57I will give my life but for those with whom I have no relation.
28:59will not care about them
29:00We are our brothers because of our blood relationship.
29:03We can give our lives to save others and bad and selfish people take advantage of this emotion of ours.
29:09driving a wedge between us and them
29:16Let's do another experiment. Suppose you are visiting a recently discovered planet for the first time.
29:23You have used many techniques to know that there are many amazing creatures in this world.
29:29Are
29:30You want to interact with them, but not with their scorpions, cobras, or great white sharks.
29:38You want someone who treats you with decency, empathy, and understanding.
29:46These macaque monkeys may be one of the world's kindest species
29:51This was discovered through several experiments conducted in the 1960s.
29:5715 macaques were given food only if they pulled a chain to attract unrelated macaques.
30:04giving electric shock to
30:05And whose suffering was visible in a mirror before him.
30:08This means that if they hadn't bitten another mecca, they would have died of starvation.
30:13Upon learning this, the macaque monkeys stopped pulling the chain.
30:17In one experiment, only a few monkeys did this, while two-thirds chose to remain hungry.
30:23One macaw went hungry for two weeks rather than harm another.
30:29This was something that touched my heart.
30:31In the experiment, the macaques that had been hit earlier were even more adept at pulling the chain.
30:40Neither Makaga's social status nor gender was a barrier to harming others.
30:46Through these experiments, we learned that even non-humans have the ability to sacrifice to save others.
30:52is the substance of
30:53Whether he was close to him or not and this information was very important.
30:59Be it the cruelty of the rabies virus or the spirit of macaque monkeys to take care of each other.
31:05These are the two extremes of the evolutionary process, and we are part of it.
31:11The brain of us humans has become bigger and bigger during the process of evolution
31:16And that is why the birth of a child became a cause of immense pain for us.
31:26Feeling is controlled, at least in mammals, by the lower and older parts of the brain.
31:32Whereas the ability to think comes from the upper and more recently developed outer layers.
31:40Pre-existing behaviors overshadowed basic thinking abilities.
31:48This part of the evolutionary process remains with us.
31:52In school, at weddings, in voting booths, in violent crowds, and even on the war front
32:01So what does this reveal about our future?
32:04Is this a terrifying recurrence that even our children will not be able to escape?
32:14My hope is tied to a story
32:17This story shows that we can change.
32:20At this point, it's difficult for us to know how true this is.
32:26All this happened a few thousand years ago.
32:28This is a long time for us.
32:31But in the cosmic calendar this is the period
32:33Just five seconds
32:36The Cosmic Calendar compresses all of time into just one year
32:42I can understand this by saying that we are very new in this universe.
32:48The Big Bang happened on January 1st.
32:51And this time is midnight on December 31st of our cosmic year
32:59This development process of approximately 14 billion years has been completed in one economy.
33:08Just five cosmic calendar seconds ago
33:11This means that till about 22 years ago, most of our world was under the control of kings.
33:19Was
33:19Wherever their armies went around the world, they harassed the people, committed atrocities, and
33:27She launched a campaign to enslave them.
33:32A young man from an obscure backwater region called Macedonia had built an empire in less than three years.
33:39The first one stretched from the Adriatic to the Indus River in India
33:45On the way, Alexander the Great also crushed the Persian army.
33:51And around the same time, King Chandergup also conquered the whole of North India.
33:57After his death, his son Bindu Sara took over the throne.
34:14It is said that Bindu Sara had declared his son to be the rightful heir to the throne.
34:19He was so desperate to get her that he killed all his 99 stepbrothers.
34:27In a grand manner like a king, he reached in front of his father who was breathing his last and said
34:36Now I am your only heir.
34:41And that only son was Ashok and this was just the beginning.
35:01The ruthless orgy of violence started by the Indian emperor Ashoka in the second century BC was unmatched.
35:09was scary
35:11When Ashoka's ministers showed hesitation in his order
35:15that the fruit trees around the palace should be cut down, then his answer was okay then
35:22chop off your head
35:29Ashoka's ruthlessness was unmatched; he built a palace for his ministers.
35:36The ministers did not know that there were such torturers in this palace who had five most painful ways to kill.
35:43Detri was present
35:46It was named Ashoka's Hell
35:51But Ashoka's cycle of oppression did not stop here.
35:54He now embarked on the pan-India conquest campaign started by his grandfather.
35:59Kalinga in the Deccan was not ready to make a treaty with Ashoka.
36:04Ashoka's army laid siege to the city.
36:07But Kalinga did not give up and when Kalinga's courage started failing
36:11So Ashoka's soldiers attacked.
36:27Ashoka was assessing his victory when he saw a man standing in front of him.
36:43O Shaktisha Linresh, you are so powerful that you can take the lives of hundreds of thousands in the blink of an eye.
36:52Show your strength and bring life to this dead child.
37:03After all, who was this fearless monk who dared to remind us of Ashoka's war crimes?
37:10His real identity is not known, but it is known that he was a disciple of Buddha.
37:15The name of this thinker, who existed 200 years before that time, was not very famous.
37:21Buddha preached the message of non-violence, understanding and compassion.
37:25His followers, renouncing wealth and luxury, traveled the world, setting an example for their lives, following Buddha's teachings.
37:32kept spreading the message
37:34This monk was one of them, and with his courage and wisdom, he even defeated a cruel king.
37:41Compassion was awakened, and Ashoka was changed forever.
37:45He built this pillar at the place of Katle Aam, and other such pillars were also built, with Ashoka's inscription on it.
37:52One of the first messages recorded was
37:56All people are my children, and I want all my children to be well and happy.
38:11It was not that Ashoka had broken the rules regarding choosing his close associates, in fact who were his close associates
38:18The definition of who they were had changed.
38:22He banned animal sacrifice and hunting for entertainment, and established a law for animals throughout India.
38:28Build hospitals and ask citizens to be kind to animals
38:38Ashoka ensured that wells were dug for the people living in villages and towns.
38:42He planted trees along the roads and built shelters to provide convenience to travelers and keep animals safe from the trees at all times.
38:50may the wishes of
38:52Ashoka signed peace treaties with neighboring small nations that once trembled at his name.
38:59Ashoka ruled India for another thirty years, during which time schools, universities, hospitals, and health centers were built.
39:07He started education for women, he believed that women could also become monks.
39:13Free health services were introduced, and medicines were ensured to be available at all times.
39:24Ashoka's order was that all religions should be treated equally.
39:28He said that justice should be done to those who are wrongfully imprisoned or brutalized.
39:33Temples, palaces and pillars built in India during the reign of Ashoka
39:37Religious fundamentalists destroyed most of them.
39:41He considered all these things of Emperor Ashoka to be mere show.
39:48Ashoka's legacy endures despite opposition from religious fundamentalists.
39:52Buddhism became one of the most influential religious ideologies in the world.
39:59Ashoka's edicts were carved on stones in the Eram language.
40:03This was the language of Jesus, who was born some one hundred years later.
40:12Ashoka sent Buddhist emissaries to the Middle East to spread the message of compassion, mercy, humility and peace.
40:20Hear your
40:23This is one of the few temples of Ashoka that survived destruction.
40:27It is located in a cave in the Barabar Hills in India.
40:30It is famous for its echo
40:32My voice waves are bouncing off the arrows and being absorbed by the surface of objects
40:40And then there will be nothing left
40:48But Emperor Ashoka has a different dream.
40:51Its echo is only growing with time.
41:19Who are we
41:22will you tell me this
41:31what has been
41:32You tell me this
41:46This is its first love, this is this, then
41:53that you will make me go
41:55that it is not being told
41:57Jhaal
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