{"id":9266,"date":"2020-04-16T09:19:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T08:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=9266"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:59:39","slug":"what-is-civilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2020\/04\/16\/what-is-civilization\/","title":{"rendered":"What is civilization?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you understand by the term \u201ccivilization\u201d? You can check in the dictionary and there will be a definition, but we each have our own idea of what it means. I recall once that I expressed the opinion that, in a civilized country, the main functions of government are to provide education, healthcare and security [welfare, defense etc.] to its citizens. The person with whom I was chatting disagreed. He felt that the government had no business being involved in education and healthcare – the free market would take care of them. He and I had no choice but to agree to differ \u2026<\/p>\n

Politics aside, it is interesting to consider what constitutes civilization or civilized behavior. If we think about fundamentals, it is worth considering what scientists – anthropologists and archaeologists – use to determine if the historic [or prehistoric] artifacts they observe indicate that the people of that time were \u201ccivilized”. There are quite a few things that suggest people had developed to a certain level.<\/p>\n

First off, there are inventions – tools and machines. The wheel is the obvious starting point, but simple tools, like a plow, indicate a stabilizing of society that is moving towards civilization.<\/p>\n

Written documents show another step. Writing information is a much better communication mechanism than word of mouth. It can carry over a long distance – a message can be taken from one place to another and arrive intact. It can also travel through time; a document is a record of the past that is much more durable and reliable than stories passed down through generations. The cherishing of information is a mark of civilization.<\/p>\n

Mathematics [or just arithmetic] is another key factor. Simply being able to count and manage the quantities of things is important. Being able to calculate – even very simple mathematics – is a great step on. Being able to use mathematics to predict and design is a paramount achievement.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, there is a more \u201chuman\u201d way to look at this topic. Some years ago, the anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what the first indication of a civilized society would be. They thought that it might be some of the things that I mentioned above or perhaps something to do with religion. But the answer they go was a surprise \u2026<\/p>\n

Mead said that the first evidence of civilization was a broken bone from 15,000 years ago. The bone was a human femur – the top bone of a leg. This particular bone had been broken and had healed – a process that takes about 6 weeks. So, how does this indicate civilization? If an animal breaks a bone like this, it will not survive. Incapacitated in this way, the animal will soon fall prey to a predator. However, this person had been looked after by someone else or by his\/her tribe. They had cared about another individual instead of just themselves. This is how civilization starts; a civilized society today is one where people care about and for one another. This was Margaret Mead\u2019s view and I am with her.<\/p>\n

This kind of brings me back to my first definition of a civilized society …<\/p>\n

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What do you understand by the term \u201ccivilization\u201d? You can check in the dictionary and there will be a definition,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10883,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions\/10883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}