Some years ago I had a discussion with Ian Morris about the approach he took to quantify the social development of East versus West in his book, The Measure of Civilization. So I asked him: Which pre-industrial society was the richest in terms of energy use per capita? I have an answe

In a news article published by this week’s Science magazine, Wealth may have driven the rise of today’s religions, Lizzie Wade writes: Today’s most popular religions all have one thing in common: a focus on morality. But the gods didn’t always care whether you are a bad person. Resear