The Christian religion appears and develops in the Roman Empire as a result of
the increasing capacity to make and operate symbolic models, and due to the
increase of the consciousness level of the population. The logical order
requests a monotheist religion. The increase of the level of consciousness
strengthens the prediction of death. A powerful religion is requested for this
higher level of the evolution of the brain. Christian religion was created in
accordance with this situation.
975 BC: The decimal positional writing of the numerals, taken from Arabs,
appears in Europe. The Roman representation of the numerals is associated to
image models. This new way of writing has no connection with the image models.
To use such a representation of the numerals, one needs only the ability in
the symbolic field (there is a total break from image models).
1250 BC: The decimal positional writing of the numerals is universally adopted
in Europe.
1482 BC: The Inquisition is established.
It lasted for centuries as an institution for punishment and basically
speaking, it persists up-to-date in another form, as a list of forbidden books
or ideas.
The brain development reached a higher level. The freethinking based on
symbolic models opened the minds of a big fraction of the population. This
entered into a violent clash with the invariant model of the religion. In that
period, the first violent clash between the Christian spirit and European
spirit occured. The Inquisition eventually disappeared, but not because
religion evolved, but because the European spirit was more and more powerful.
1543 BC: Nikolaus Copernicus published the theory that the Sun (not the Earth)
is the center of the Universe. It is very interesting to know that for
thousands of years, the official theory was that the Earth is the center of
the Universe. This theory predicts the Sun and Moon eclipses, and also the
ecuatorial and tropical lines were established with a fair precision. So, what
was the problem? The main problem was the imposibility to understand why the
planets have a rather chaotic movement on the sky.
Copernicus' theory was able to explain why the planets have that apparently
chaotic movement (based on logic), but, when the astronomer J. Kepler has
verified the theory, it failed. Kepler eventually discovered that the planets
are not moving around the Sun on circular orbits (as Copernicus said), but on
elliptical ones. With this change, Copernicus' theory was correct.
1585 BC: decimal fractions
The decimal positional writing of the numerals was universally accepted but
the fractions continued to be written based on image models (e.g. the fraction
1/2 is easily understood based on image models). Only after about 600 years
the decimal fractions were accepted. Even so, the opposition to decimal
fractions continues up to date.
1607 BC: The composer Monteverdi composed the musical work called Orpheus.
This marks a moment when the symbolic models supported image models in music.
In the same period, the "recipe" to compose a fugue was also established.
Europeans invented the polyphonic music.
1614 BC: the logarithms are introduced in mathematics.
1640 BC: Rene Descartes, scientist
He considers that the world can be understood based on mathematics. This is a
higher level in the developing of the symbolic models.
Mathematics is based on symbolic models only. In fact, any specific field of
mathematics is a symbolic model. But, a symbolic model from mathematics cannot
be used in a direct way to understand the external reality. Newton's mechanics
appeared at first as a logical model, and then it was translated to a
mathematical form.
Mathematics generates only numbers. They have no meaning without the
calibration of the model. To calibrate a model means to interact with external
reality and so, to go beyond the limits of mathematics.
The normal interaction with external reality of a symbolic model from
mathematics is: prediction > comparison with external reality > change of the
model > a new prediction. This loop has to continue as many times as needed,
so that the difference between the prediction and the external reality becomes
acceptably low.
It seems that Descartes did not understand this. This problem seems to be
difficult to be understood even in our days, taking into account that the
mathematician Godel "proved" the existence of God, without any interaction
with external reality.
1642 BC: Rembrandt van Rijn, the painter
Rembrandt marks a moment when the human brain reaches a peak in building and
operating image models.
1687 BC: Newton's Mechanics
After Euclid's Geometry (about 2000 years ago) this is the second fundamental
symbolic model created by the human mind. It is a big step in the evolution of
the brain. Starting with Newton, the development of the capacity to build and
operate symbolic models accelerates, and this process continues today.
Newton is not well understood even in our days. Some dictionaries say that
Newton discovered the law of gravity. This law was introduced by Newton to
save his theory. The inertia principle states that any material body, which is
left free, is moving in a straight line, with constant velocity to infinity.
But in the external reality such a phenomenon is not met. The planets are
moving on closed trajectories in space. The only solution to save the theory
was to invent a new force, which was called "gravity".
Einstein, for instance, says that gravity does not exist. The apparent
attraction between the material bodies is generated by the change of the shape
of the space. He is able to explain some phenomena which cannot be understood
based on the Newton's gravity (the precession of the planet Mercury, e.g.).
Newton's mechanics continues to make good predictions on Earth and near space.
It is not changed since over 300 years.
1749 BC: Sign language
This is one of the first artificial languages (a symbolic model). It
translates the GCL into another language, based on signs and gestures.
1781 BC: Immanuel Kant
Kant was able to understand some basic things in association with knowledge,
but although he knew Euclid's and Newton's theories (symbolic models), he was
not able to understand the means and methods of a positive science. He did not
build any symbolic model. In his books, one can find lots of definitions
almost on any page, but Kant does not understand that such definitions cannot
be correlated in a logical way, without the frame of a fundamental symbolic
model.
1791 BC: Napoleon
MDT considers that there are two basic modes of interaction between a brain
and the external reality: to predict the evolution of the external reality
(ZM-models) and to act on the external reality (ZAM-models).
A war can start only if a big fraction of the population has almost the same
ZAM, and if that ZAM is associated to war. War can be associated with an
increase in the level 2 of consciousness of the population. I mean, when
level-2 is high enough to believe that it will be better after a war, but no
so high to understand that there could be some other alternative solution,
then the tendency to war could really start the war. This idea seems to be
interesting in explaining why so many people are so happy to go to war, and
why this tendency is so powerful even today (e.g. WW1 and 2).
1834 BC: Braille writing
1837 BC: Morse code
1854 BC: The symbolic logic of George Boole
The facility to build and operate symbolic models increased to such a level
that the brain was not able anymore to keep the models in mind. George Boole
invented a language to write symbolic models.