The Science of Discworld II

naïve young men who carry the suicide bomb, or fly the airliner into a skyscraper, that are the root of the problem; it is the actions of the evil old men who lead them to behave like that, all for the sake of a few memes.
    The key memes are not religious, in this case, we suspect, even though religion is often blamed: that’s mostly a smokescreen. Those old men are motivated by political memes, and the religious memeplex is merely another of their weapons. But they are also trapped in their own stories, and this is high tragedy. Granny Weatherwax would never make that mistake.
    The elves are still with us, in our heads. Shakespeare’s humanity, and the critical faculties encouraged by science, are two of our weapons against them. And fight them we must.
    And to achieve that, we need to invent the right stories. The ones we’ve got have brought us a long way. Plenty of creatures are intelligent, but only one tells stories. That’s us, Pan narrans .
    And what about Homo sapiens ? Yes, we think that would be a very good idea …
    1 Revelation xxi.16 gives it as 12,000 furlongs in length, breadth and height, or a cube 1,500 miles on a side. Noticeably smaller than the Moon.

INDEX
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
    A
    Aaron 141, 142
    â€˜aborigines’ 132
    abortion 344
    Abraham 172, 210–12, 344
    acids, alchemy 66
    actors 282–3
    Adam and Eve 125
    Adams, Douglas 304
    adaptive radiation, evolution 133–4
    adenine 52
    adultery 142
    advertising, memes 329
    Aeschylus 341
    Africa
    forests 107
    human evolution 88, 113
    human genetic diversity 122, 132–3
    Out of Africa theory 122, 124, 131–3
    tribal beliefs 167*
    African elephant 110–11
    agriculture 118
    aircraft 244*
    Aladdin 158
    alchemy 66–8, 239
    algorithms 183–4
    aliens 134
    Fermi Paradox 314
    Allah 167
    â€˜alternate universe’ stories, science
    fiction 312–13
    altruism 213–14, 215
    amino acids 186
    Amish 142
    ammonium chloride 66
    amoebas 165, 186, 188
    amusia, congenital 274–5
    Andersen, Hans Christian 155
    androstenone 287
    angels 247
    animals
    in cave paintings 276
    co-evolution 310
    co-evolution with humans 119–21
    cultural evolution 94–5
    domestication 117–21
    in fairy stories 74
    free will 165
    imagining being one 286, 287–9
    mimicry 284
    nests 94, 113
    play 94
    vomeronasal organ 287
    Anthropic Principle 28, 30
    Anthropithecus boisi 109
    anti-heroes 158
    Antikythera mechanism 237–8, 242
    Anubis 120
    apes
    evolution 107–8
    human evolution 87–92, 99, 108–9, 112–13
    paintings 265
    The Aquatic Ape (Morgan) 91–2
    Arabian Nights 75
    Arabs
    alchemy 66
    and the Renaissance 69
    archer-fish 116
    archetypal stories 340–1
    Archimedean screw 237
    Archimedes 70, 236–7, 238, 239, 241
    Arctic 122
    aristocracy, barbarian attitudes of 89, 99–100
    Aristophanes 341
    Aristotle 241–2
    â€˜arrow of time’ 190, 191, 192, 194,195
    arsenic 67
    art
    context 275
    perception of 275–7
    prehistoric man 275–6
    teaching with lies 293
    see also music; paintings
    Ashkenazi 141
    Asia, human evolution 113
    asteroids 47
    Astounding Science Fact and Fiction 134
    astrology 65, 66, 169–70, 173
    astronomy, predictions 173
    At Home in the Universe (Kauffman) 78
    Athens 65, 341
    atomism 72
    atoms
    carbon formation 28–30
    models of 247–8
    auditory nerve 268
    Australia
    â€˜aborigines’ 132
    human evolution 113, 122, 131
    rock drawings 276
    Australopithecus 88, 109
    authority, obedience to 136, 157
    autonomous agents 57
    Avicenna 67
    B
    babbling, language development 154
    babies
    development of 188
    human regard for 117
    listening to music 263–4
    predicting sex of 307–8
    smiles 153–4
    speech development 269
    baboons 90, 107, 108
    Babylon, Hanging Gardens 237
    Bach, Johan Sebastian 270
    background music 262–3, 265
    balance, seasickness 274
    bananas 217*
    Bar-Mitzvah 136–7
    barbarians
    distinction from tribalism 137–41
    nobility as 89, 99–100
    storytelling 78, 157–8
    Bastet 120
    Bateson, Gregory 158–9
    bats, echo-location 287–9
    BBC 208
    beaches, human evolution on 91–2
    The Beatles 263, 272
    bees 284, 290
    Beethoven, Ludwig van 263, 271, 330
    behaviour
    altruism 213–14, 215
    cheating