Civilization - Bryant McGill

# Civilization ## Definition **Civilization** is the durable organization of knowledge, institutions, infrastructure, memory and cooperation across generations. Its continuity depends not only on survival but on whether a society can preserve and renew the systems that make collective life intelligible and operable. ## Conceptual relationships [[wiki/Systems Civilization|Systems Civilization]] · [[wiki/Civilizational Payload|Civilizational Payload]] · [[wiki/Civilizational Continuity Circuit|Civilizational Continuity Circuit]] ## Martin Rees research route [[research/Martin Rees on Machine Succession, Post-Human Intelligence, and the Cosmic Future|Martin Rees on Machine Succession, Post-Human Intelligence, and the Cosmic Future]] supplies a primary quotation dossier connecting this concept to Rees's work on cosmology, technological risk, machine intelligence, posthuman evolution and deep time. ## Article and collection routes - [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match]] - [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts  > “This is the first century where one species, the human species, can really control the whole planet and its fate.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Martin Rees brings 'On the Future: Prospects for Humanity' to Harvard, Harvard Gazette, 2018* [[reminders/Civilization/Humanity Can Control the Planet's Fate by Martin Rees|Humanity Can Control the Planet's Fate by Martin Rees]] > “I think we will have a bumpy ride through this century, and that’s why I think it is helpful to spell out the risks and the opportunities and some recipes. But I don’t see any way in which we can avoid these risks. I think, for instance, the fact that we have a society where social media can spread panic and rumour at the speed of light, literally, where a small group of people can have a big effect, where fake news can have a big effect, and where a biological accident or cyber-attack can have global effects, we’re going to have a bumpy ride. It’s going to be very hard for governments to cope, and there’ll be a growing tension between privacy, security and liberty. This is inevitable. But of course I never really thought we would wipe ourselves out, but I did think and still think there is a serious risk of a setback to civilisation. And that’s because our society is more brittle and fragile.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Martin Rees — On the Future, Prospects for Humanity, ABC Science Show, 2018* [[reminders/Civilization/A Brittle Civilization Faces a Bumpy Century by Martin Rees|A Brittle Civilization Faces a Bumpy Century by Martin Rees]] > “The global village will have its global village idiots.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Grounds for Optimism, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2007* [[reminders/Civilization/The Global Village Will Have Global Village Idiots by Martin Rees|The Global Village Will Have Global Village Idiots by Martin Rees]] > “Can civilization be safeguarded, without humanity having to sacrifice its diversity and individualism?” > **— Martin Rees**, *Grounds for Optimism, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2007* [[reminders/Civilization/Can Civilization Preserve Both Security and Individualism by Martin Rees|Can Civilization Preserve Both Security and Individualism by Martin Rees]] > “For most people, there has never been a better time to be alive than now.” > **— Martin Rees**, *Can Science Save the World?, Project Syndicate, 2008* [[reminders/Civilization/There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be Alive by Martin Rees|There Has Never Been a Better Time to Be Alive by Martin Rees]]