Over a very short period, only a few hundred years, our understanding of the cosmos, our planet Earth, the
evolution of life on it, and the beginnings of our very own human endeavor have radically changed. These revolutions in science
and technology have dramatically altered our societies in many ways. For quite some time it seemed as if our planets resources
were unlimited. Today we know that this is not the case. Human civilizations are shaping our planets future in ways that have
profound consequences for all other life on Earth as well as for us. We need to reflect broadly on what defines our human
condition if we wish our societies to be successful in navigating a future that cannot be just ours but must include the broad
diversity of life on Earth without which humankind will not survive. This book tells the story of how we discovered the
universe, how we learned about our planet and the life evolving on it, how humanity emerged from pre-history, and what some
of the future of our civilizations could hold.
Most of us do expect our children to graduate from high school with the kind of knowledge foundation that can support them as they enter adult life; and on which they can expand as they begin to make their own contributions to human knowledge. However, sadly, this often is not the case anymore. Our young struggle no less to distinguish facts from fiction than many adults seemingly do. Positive knowledge is a good whose value is often underestimated. It enables those who possess it to distinguish fiction from fact. Without positive knowledge at hand anyone would be at the mercy of those who would like nothing better than have us believe whatever benefits them or others whose interest they serve. This book allows young adults to leisurely explore some of the facts of our world, who we are as humans, and where humans fit into the tapestry of life on Earth. It explores basic positive knowledge which would benefit all of us and which, if all of us possessed it, could make for a very different world. However, the book can also be read with much gain by those who never were given the opportunity of higher education at all as it seek to speak to readers in ways that are accessible to anyone seriously interested in the topics discussed in the book.