Andrew Vang

You are writing a paper on a topic that you have presented. You remember all the other
papers you have written in your life and how you have changed or improved to make the papers
you have written better. This is a small scale example of the question of how has humanity
learned from its past? This question is very broad so the key viewpoints will be narrowed down
to three main points: environment/agriculture, technology, and social.
First up is about environment and agriculture and how we have learned from the past to
constantly improve and become better at farming and preserving the world we live in. There
have been many advances in the way we approach agriculture and farming to improve
production and maintenance of the land we grow them on. There have been many
implementations such as better irrigation systems, improved planting techniques such as crop
rotating, and better things to use on plants such as new fertilizers and planting gear. With these
improvements to agriculture also comes concern for the environment and all that it encompasses.
The present nature and complexity of socioecological systems are heavily contingent on the
past, we cannot fully appreciate the present condition without going back decades, centuries, or
even millennia(Costanza, et al.). This is especially true when coming talking about the
environment. Even in the past hundred or so years we have done many things to improve the
environment. Examples of this include preserving certain endangered wildlife and plants and
replanting trees in areas where we have harvested trees for lumber. If you look back a bit further
you would see that few of these things were practiced if at all. The views of the
agriculture/environment has greatly changed since the past and we are constantly learning to
improve and better understand the environment.

Technology is probably one of the biggest things we have been able to learn from and
advance from by looking at our past. There are so many cases of this that has happened already
and so many more cases going on even now. In the past, societies have benefited from many
great technological advancements that today most wouldnt even consider as technology. The
invention of the wheel is one. Over the years the wheel has been used to make the lives of
everyone easier. It was later improved by many different methods such as making the wheels
smaller or bigger and even changing the material a wheel is made out of from wood to rubber has
made the wheel much better as a better developed tech. Everything we own or use on a daily
basis has been an innovation that was touched on and improved so that it would make our lives
easier. Examples of these is how we have evolved over the years to use more electricity instead
of fire and using computers and web more to save on paper usage and waste. Even in the past
century we have seen many technological improvements such as better cars, computers, phones,
and even television. This is an essential reason why we must also look back on history and try to
be better than it, especially when it comes to technology. We have to learn from the past to
improve otherwise we will get complacent and stop being one step better than our predecessors.
The social or societal aspect of learning from our past has also been very beneficial to us.
As a society that has to interact with others learning from and doing better than the past is a must
to improve relations with all those that you meet and talk to on a regular day basis. Examples of
social changes can include everything from how nations have developed, how economies sprung
up, and even how we treat others. Smith, a writer for the Journal of International studies, says
Imagery has always played a crucial role in politics and nowhere more so than in our
understanding of nationalism. He talks about how we as a society learn to view nations and
have pride for where we live. This is a big difference from the age where everything was either

city-states or empires ruled by a few people. He also talks about how humans have come to have
a better appreciation and love for their country of residence too. Another social aspect that we
have changed over the course of time is on the treatment of others. We have come a long way
from the way things were in the past. There is far less discrimination and prejudice today then
there was in the past hundred years. I believe this to be a major improvement because even
though there is still some discrimination or dislike for a certain thing or people there is by far less
of it. The viewpoint of most people have also changed greatly regarding this. Whereas back in
the day you could be publicly discriminated by the mass that is no longer the view held by most
the general population and most of the population tend to look down on discrimination or any
such acts.
In conclusion human society has come a long way from what it used to be. Whether that
be improvements to agriculture, technology and human interactions. There is still many things to
learn from the past though and we have to constantly learn from our mistakes and successes and
those of our predecessors. This thesis has only scratched the surface of learning from the past.
The area is of study is very broad and hard to put into one piece of writing. Hopefully you are
aware that we have to learn from the past to improve the future and will take steps to learn or
research yourself.

Note: Inlcude the naysay about technology and how we are losing the art of communication.
Quote: An Einstein quote about how we are learning less due to technology.
Tesla for support of how tech helps.
Note: Try to add more connector words to better transition between topics of interest.

Works Cited
Anthony Smith.The Nation: Invented, Imagined, Reconstructed. Millennium Journal of
International Studies Vol. 20 no. 3.(1991)n.page.Web.16 March 2015.
Pimentel, David.Agrodiversity: Learning from Farmers across the World Review. BioScience,
Vol. 55, No. 5 (May 2005), pp. 452-253. Web. 23 March 2015.
Sustainability or Collapse: What Can We Learn from Integrating the History of Humans and the
Rest of Nature?
Robert Costanza, Lisa Graumlich, Will Steffen, Carole Crumley, John Dearing, Kathy Hibbard,
Rik Leemans, Charles Redman and David Schimel
Ambio, Vol. 36, No. 7 (Nov., 2007), pp. 522-527. Web. 16 March 2015.