Mass Extinctions, Evolutionary Leaps, and the Virus-Information Connection

Thank you Pierre!

Only a few this time.

In 1321, the last Cathar, Guillaume Belibaste[9], was burnt at the stakes. In 1343, Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull
-...stake.
-...issued...

...Southern Europe by the troubadours, which embodied the new Occitan culture based.
- ...base? (or delete?)

John Damascene, writing in the 8th century AD, also notes of an earlier sect called the "Cathari", in his book On Heresies, taken from the epitome provided by Epiphanius of Salamis in his Panarion[16] This suggests that Cathars were active for decades before growing enough to be worth being mentioned in written document.
-... On Heresies (Italisize)
-...Panarion. This...
-...that the Cathars...
-...growing large enough...
-...in written documents. (or) ... in writing.

Like for the plague of Justinian, it took centuries for civilization to re-emerge after the Black Death. I ndeed, the European population did not
- As with...
- Indeed...

Similarly to the recovery from the plague of Justinian, the recovery from the Black Death exhibit features evoking life explosion.
-...exhibited features evoking a life explosion.

Did Black Death virus induce beneficial genetic changes that increased fertility and height in survivors?
- Did the Black...

The effects on the very way of thinking might even be greater.
-...might have even been greater.

Of all places Renaissance is believed to have started in Florence
- Of all places, the Renaissance...

Maybe, like the above mentioned quote suggests, the birth of the three of greatest minds of the renaissance was due to sheer luck, or maybe the integration of the viral sequence of the Black Death virus, in the genome of the survivors and their progeny enable a new way of thinking?
-...the three greatest minds... (or) ...three of the greatest minds...
-...Renaissance...
-...enabled...

If it’s so, why did the plague of Justinian induced exactly the opposite effects,
-...induce...
-...effect...
 

Chapter 22: Two plagues, one pattern?​


The plague of Justinian and the Black Death share many similarities:
- they appeared in times of great oppression
- they were probably caused by smallpox-like viruses
- they are correlated with times cometary activity and the associated catastrophes and weather changes
- they lasted about three centuries
-
they induced tens of million deaths
- they started almost immediately civilizational leaps

Is it sheer coincidence that the chain of events exhibited by the two plagues is so reminiscent of the sequence of events of cometary-induced mass extinctions and their ensuing virally-induced life explosion?

Was the comet-borne virus that caused the two major plagues of also caused the civilizational leap experienced by the survivors? Is there an analogy, albeit at different scale, between individual-specific plagues caused by cometary-borne virus and species-specific mass extinction caused by similar cometary-borne viruses? Are the evolutionary leaps that follow mass extinctions comparable to civilizational leaps that follow human plagues and the induced near extinction?

The diagram below depicts the two chains of events, Mass extinction (species-specific) VS. Plague (individual-specific):



comets virus civilizational leap.jpg
© Sott.net
Plagues are to mass extinctions what civilizational leap is to evolutionary leap



R.G. Collingwood[1], theorized[2], that civilizations go through awareness leaps, or increasing stage of thinking level, whereby the implicit becomes explicit.

For example Art delivers truth, but it’s only implicit truth, it suggests, it evokes, but it doesn’t assert or prove anything. Next come religion, with it revealed truths and written laws. Religion asserts truths but it doesn’t prove it. Finally come the age of science, which prove truths with the use of experimentation, theories, logic and observations.

For example, we can see one such civilizational leap in action between the collapse of Sumer, ca. 2200 BP and ancient Greece. The Sumerians were not able to do inductive reasoning. They could do endless lists of observations but they could synthesize them with a general principle[3].

By contrast, the Greeks, as exemplified by the work of Aristotle[4] theorized and used inductive reasoning[5].

Coincidently or not, the Sumerian civilization collapsed because of a massive cometary bombardment known as 4.2 kY BP[6] event:

It has been proposed that sudden climate changes and catastrophic events around 2200 BCE (including the collapse of the Sumerian civilization) could be linked to a comet or asteroid impact.[7]

Several researchers posit plagues (introduced by the above mentioned cometary bombardments?) as the reason for the collapse of the Sumerian civilization and other Bronze Age civilizations[8].

Similarly, the 540 AD cometary events and the ensuing plague of Justinian may marks another civilizational leap through the adoption of the central values at the core of Paleochristianity – mercy, forgiveness and love – until then were so foreign. Another major innovation was the introduction of monotheism in a world dominated for millennia by polytheism.

In the same vein, the 1347 AD cometary events followed, a few months later, by the Black Death, might have triggered another civilizational leap whereby religion (implicit/revealed truth) was replaced by (explicit/proven truth):

500-1300 timeline updated.jpg
© Sott.net
500 AD – 1348 AD reconstructed history VS official history



[1] (1889–1943) British philosopher and archaeologist. Collingwood is the author of two of the most important treatises in meta-philosophy written in the first half of the twentieth century.
See: Editors of the Encyclopedia (2006) “Robin George Collingwood” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
[2] R. G. Collingwood (2016) “Speculum Mentis” Read Books Ltd
[3] Marc Van De Mieroop (2015) “Philosophy before the Greeks: The Pursuit of Truth in Ancient Babylonia” Princeton University Press
[4] Aristotle (1989) “Prior Analytics”· Hackett
[5] Biondi, Paolo C. (2004) “Aristotle, Posterior Analytics II.19: Introduction, Greek Text, Translation and Commentary Accompanied by a Critical Analysis” Presses Université Laval, p. 195
[6] The 4.2-kiloyear BP event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene epoch. It has been hypothesized to have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, the Liangzhu culture and the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.
[7] Wikipedia contributors (2022) “Umm al Binni lake” Wikipedia
[8] Norrie P. (2016) “How Disease Affected the End of the Bronze Age. A History of Disease in Ancient Times: More Lethal than War”, p. 61–101
 
Thank you Pierre!

Only a few this time.


-...stake.
-...issued...


- ...base? (or delete?)


-... On Heresies (Italisize)
-...Panarion. This...
-...that the Cathars...
-...growing large enough...
-...in written documents. (or) ... in writing.


- As with...
- Indeed...


-...exhibited features evoking a life explosion.


- Did the Black...


-...might have even been greater.


- Of all places, the Renaissance...


-...the three greatest minds... (or) ...three of the greatest minds...
-...Renaissance...
-...enabled...


-...induce...
-...effect...
Corrections incorporated in the master file. Thank you!
 
Thank you Pierre!

A quick correction (I think):
For example, we can see one such civilizational leap in action between the collapse of Sumer, ca. 2200 BP and ancient Greece. The Sumerians were not able to do inductive reasoning. They could do endless lists of observations but they could synthesize them with a general principle[3].
but they could not synthesize them with a general principle
 
Thanks Pierre! Good chapter.

Chapter 22:

- they are correlated with times cometary activity
-...times of cometary...

- they induced tens of million deaths
-...tens of millions of deaths

- they started almost immediately civilizational leaps
It's different in the pdf version:
- they started almost immediately what could called by civilizational leaps

If you keep the pdf version:
- they started almost immediately what could be called civilizational leaps

Was the comet-borne virus that caused the two major plagues of also caused the civilizational leap...
- remove 'of'

comparable to civilizational leaps that follow human plagues and the induced near extinction?
-...extinctions

Plagues are to mass extinctions what civilizational leap is to evolutionary leap
-...leaps are... leaps (caption under the first image)

For example Art delivers truth, but it’s only implicit truth, it suggests, it evokes, but it doesn’t assert or prove anything. Next come religion, with it revealed truths and written laws. Religion asserts truths but it doesn’t prove it. Finally come the age of science, which prove truths with the use of experimentation, theories, logic and observations.
I've rewritten the above two ways as continuity suggestions. One where (almost) everything is pluralized ('...proves truths...' is just horrible English and am not going to use it):

- For example, Art delivers truths, but they're only implicit truths; they suggest, they evoke, but they don't assert or prove anything. Next comes religion, with its revealed truths and written laws. Religion asserts truths but doesn't prove them. Finally comes the age of science, which proves truth with the use of experimentation, theories, logic and observations.

... and singularized:

- For example, Art delivers truth, but it's only implicit truth; it suggests, it evokes, but it doesn't assert or prove anything. Next comes religion, with its revealed truth and written law. Religion asserts truth but doesn't prove it. Finally comes the age of science, which proves truth with the use of experimentation, theory, logic and observation.

Similarly, the 540 AD cometary events and the ensuing plague of Justinian may marks another...
-...mark...

core of Paleochristianity – mercy, forgiveness and love – until then were so foreign.
-... that, until then, were so foreign.
 
Valla showed that the document could not possibly have been written in the historical era of Constantine (4th Century) because its vernacular style dated conclusively to a later era (8th Century). One of Valla's reasons was that Mantis Gräfelfing.
The bolded sentence seems to be incomplete.
 
Long time I did not say thank you Pierre!
I'm late reading chapters, but I am really grateful for the enormous (and fascinating!) work you are doing. :cheer:

Thanks too for the additional datas and help provided by others. :thup:

It's great that you appreciate this work!

I'm been thinking lately about publishing two books instead of one.

This first book would consist of the 25 first chapters of which 22 already have been published in this thread. It would include this first four parts.

The title would be something like: "Comet, Virus and Evolutionary Leaps"

As it is, the first book would be approximately 300 pages.

The second book would consist of the last 20 or so chapters. It would include the last three parts.

The title might something like "Virus and Proteins, Antennas to the Information Field"

What do you all think?
 
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