Bernard Werber is a French writer. In his book, The Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge, he refers to incredible things, claiming that it is a sincere truth, "suggestive."
Rats can dance and sing. But so far only in cartoons.
Do rats behave like humans?
According to Werber Didier Desor, a
researcher at the Biological Behavior Laboratory of the University of Nancy, put six rats in one cage. The only way out of the cage led to the pool, which had to be crossed to get to the trough with food. Soon, the rats were assigned roles: two exploited swimmers, two exploiters, one independent swimmer, and one scapegoat.
The exploited dived and brought food. The exploiters sat down first, then the swimmers, and then the scapegoat. The remaining independent swimmer got his own food himself and did not share with anyone. The same social structure has developed in twenty other cages, with new rats.
When Didier put the six exploiters together, they fought all night, and then formed the same group in terms of roles.
IN FACT
“I have not heard anything about such an experience,” biologist Alexander CHERNAVSKY shrugged his shoulders in response to my question. - Yes, and it is not clear whether we are talking about males or females, whether they are from the same flock and what their age. If there were only males in the cage, then after the obligatory fight they would have found out which of them is the sole leader - one, not two. If there were “girls” in the group, no matter how many, then the leader would take them for himself - here is the “class of exploiters” for you. But if you put five females and a male in a cage, then in many cases he himself would begin to get food for them. By the way, if there is a lot of food, then rats can feed sick and old relatives. But only from their flock, which have the same smell.
Another experience is much better known. In an aviary with an area of 64 sq. meters and completely imitating natural conditions, they planted a dozen rats, both males and females, from 15 different flocks. At first, the animals behaved peacefully. The battles began only when they settled down, began to form families and divide the territory. The very first couple to form began to pounce on rats of any gender nearby. Then the battles "pair for pair" began. The male fought with the male, and the female with the female. It is interesting that the losers no longer wanted to build a “cell of society”, but fled to different ends of the enclosure. Two weeks later, only one family remained in the aviary.
Werber claims that the Mayan civilization committed mass suicide.
Apocalypse of the ancient Maya
By Verber
Astrology was the official science of the Maya Indians. For each newborn, a special calendar was drawn up, which described his entire future life: when he starts working, marries, etc. The system worked well, as astrologers tried to make their predictions coincide. For example, if a young man had a meeting with a girl in his horoscope, then a girl lived in his own area, with whom a meeting was also scheduled for the same day. It is the same in business: if someone bought a house according to the horoscope, then some of the real estate dealers indicated in the horoscope that he should make a deal … Nothing depended on chance. No one was afraid of tomorrow.
The apotheosis of Mayan art was the prediction of the end of the world. It should have happened in the 10th century according to our chronology. Even the exact date was known. And on the eve, so as not to suffer, the Mayan men killed their loved ones and burned the cities. The few survivors disappeared into the jungle.
IN FACT
- The Maya built very large cities, says Alexander GURVICH, an archaeologist, an expert on the ancient civilizations of America, candidate of historical sciences. - And in many megacities the population exceeded a million. But, judging by the excavations, in the 9th-10th centuries, the inhabitants left their homes. Why is unknown. The most common version is that the Maya violated the ecological balance. The fields were depleted and stopped fertile, the rivers became shallow and swampy. Epidemics began, deaths exceeded births, and people left the killer cities. Many cities "died" over several decades. But there are facts that are perplexing. For example, the multimillion-dollar Karakol (its ruins are now located on the territory of Belize) was empty as if instantly. In houses and shops there were things, including precious, food.
A deadly experiment on children
I don't even want to check one more fact that Werber cites. Let's take our word for it.
In the XIII century, Emperor Frederick II decided to find out what the "natural" language of man was. He selected six babies and ordered the nurses never to speak a single word in their presence. Frederick hoped that these children would immediately speak the original language - Latin or Greek. But the babies withered and died. Conclusion: children need communication to survive.
Sex Statistics
According to Verber
People commit one hundred million sexual acts per day. 910 thousand of them lead to conception. And 365 thousand are accompanied by the transmission of infectious diseases.
REALLY
Werber wrote the pure truth. This is data from the World Health Organization.
Dinosaur Civilization
According to Verber
Among the dinosaurs there was one species about the size of a man who walked on his hind legs. And the brain was about the same volume as ours. Scientists have named this species Stenonychosaurus.
They could think, hunt together, grab and throw stones with their forelimbs. And, if not for a small environmental incident, this reptile would eventually learn to drive cars and build skyscrapers. And keep us poor homo sapiens in zoos.
IN FACT
The humanoid appearance of Stenonychosaurus was the first to draw attention to the Canadian paleontologist Dale Russell in the 70s of the last century. And, using the laws of evolution, he calculated what a dinosaur might look like if he realized the foundations laid in it. The result was a creature that colleagues called a dinosaur - a representative of the race of intelligent lizards.
“They were sick with cancer, like people, which, perhaps, ultimately killed them,” says Bruce Rothschild from Northeastern University Medical College, about another similarity of “big brothers in mind” to us. He studied the strangely altered bones of some dinosaurs and came to this startling conclusion. True, this is only a version. Perhaps the "intelligent dinosaurs" disappeared along with their other brethren 65 million years ago when the Earth collided with a giant meteorite, or they were destroyed by the hard radiation of a supernova.
Man of the future
It is impossible to say exactly how it will look. But there are many assumptions. Most often, the predictions of scientists (see diagram) are based on the fact that the environment will deteriorate further and people will have to adapt to new conditions.
But the probable portrait of a man of the future according to Verber
Zubov will be 28. The molars will disappear, because we will eat soft food that does not require chewing.
The growth will be higher. Humans have learned to fight most diseases that hinder growth. And the children are eating better. For example, over the past hundred years, the average height of men has already increased by 10 cm. The
eyes will become weaker. People will be short-sighted, because in cities it is not necessary to see vigilantly.
Skin color is dark. All races will mix.
The brain volume will increase. After all, since the appearance of the first people, it has already tripled.
The period of childhood will increase. Thirty thousand years ago, the bones of a teenager hardened by the age of 18. Now - by 25.
In women, on the contrary, the first menstruation will appear earlier, and menopause will be postponed to a later age.
You can sleep only an hour a day by
Verber
On average, we spend a third of our lives sleeping - eight hours a day. But a real deep sleep, restoring strength, a person is forgotten only for an hour during the night. And even then not a whole "specific" hour, but divided into periods of 15 minutes, which are repeated at night every one and a half to two hours. If you could calculate and manage the time of "deep sleep", you could sleep only an hour a day and during this time completely recover. How to do it in practice? To begin with, it is enough to note the time of the onset of light fatigue on the clock (usually somewhere after 18.00). And every day to accustom yourself to go to bed and fall asleep at this time and get up on the alarm clock, first after three hours, then after two and a half hours, etc. Over time, you can teach your brain to compress sleep phases, leaving only the necessary part …
I am sure that someday in schools children will be taught to control their sleep.
REALLY
Indeed, our sleep is divided into several phases, - says the doctor of the highest category, somnologist Alexander KHARITONOV. - But if during a "deep" sleep a person recovers his physical strength, then during a "light" - our brain processes the emotional and visual information received during the day. By the way, it is during the "easy period" that we see dreams. Therefore, I would not advise anyone to follow Werber's advice and experiment on my health.