Lord George Macartney was accustomed to the finer things in life. He was a diplomat and politician of the most powerful nation in the world, during a time when those two professions came with a high level of prestige and paid well. He was no stranger to luxury.
However, the sheer display of opulence he saw in the Forbidden City, with its sprawling complex of palaces, gardens, and pavilions, adorned with intricate carvings, gold leaf, and exquisite paintings—a testament to the wealth and power of the Qing Dynasty—put what Macartney had seen back home to shame.
Everywhere he looked, there were signs of imperial might and the refined aesthetics of Chinese culture. Courtiers in richly embroidered silks moved gracefully through the courtyards, while the air was filled with the subtle fragrances of incense and blooming flowers.
In the heart of this splendor awaited the Qianlong Emperor, the Son of Heaven, whose authority was absolute and whose word was law throughout his vast empire. It was to this formidable figure that Macartney was to present the gifts from King George III, among them the sophisticated European clocks intended to dazzle and persuade.
However, Macartney knew he had something the Emperor did not: the finest hand-made machines in all of the world. These clocks kept more precise time than any other devices, anywhere. They were marvels of modern engineering in the late 18th century.
Only the British Empire could make such a clock, and Macartney (and King George III) wanted to make sure that the Son of Heaven knew it.
Surely, this wonder would open up trade between these two great nations. Surely the Qing dynasty would benefit tremendously from scientific innovation and industry that was flourishing in Britain at the time.
The Emperor’s translators listened attentively to what the Son of Heaven said, and then spoke his words in English to Macartney (I’ll paraphrase):
“No thanks. The great Empire of China has the greatest minds in the world, and we have no need of your audacious little toys. If we ever need to come up with any ideas, we’ll come up with them ourselves, and anyway, your idea is pretty lame. But hey, thanks for bringing your lame toys to our emperor as gifts to show that you think he’s the center of the universe, too!”
This mindset—that all of the good ideas are right here, and that there was no need to look elsewhere—has plagued human history since the very beginning. It is a limiting mindset that always ends in the consequences of idea-isolation.
In the case of the Qing emperor, the hubris wasn’t entirely unfounded. China had been the dominant force in the region for centuries, all the way back to Zheng He’s voyages of exploration in the 15th century and beyond. China was the richest nation in the world for most of the time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, right up until the time of Macartney’s visit.
In sum, they had the best things in the world, and probably many of the brightest minds. However, Macartney’s visit represents a symbolic beginning to more than a century of decline in China’s preeminence on the world stage. Two Opium Wars would be fought and won by Britain so that addictive drugs could be sold in China and Britain would profit. A Century of Humiliation followed.
Arrogant hubris followed by intellectual isolationism is a great formula for a decline.
Places like this become Jurassic Parks: a place where antiquated ideas flourish, like an ecosystem made of things from the distant past. Over time, the Vatican became a bit of an informational island, doubling down on a model of the solar system that put earth at its center, silencing and censoring scientists like Galileo.
Today, the easiest place to find Jurassic Parks is right in front of you: the internet, and you don’t even have to go outside of the realm of antiquated astronomical observations to see the parallels. Who among us would have imagined that flat-eartherism would be on the rise in the 21st century?
In stark contrast to the secluded grandeur of the Forbidden City or the hallowed halls of the Vatican, the internet is famously wide open terrain. You can go anywhere and do anything, or so the thinking goes. Unfortunately, most of us don’t really go to very many places. Instead, we get stuck in a small handful of spots.
Intellectual entropy is strong. People are drawn to echo chambers. Ideas are reinforced and then bulletproofed.
Little digital enclaves represent the paradox of the internet, wherein the entire world’s information is at our fingertips, and yet we are mired in misinformation. We have to be careful not to slide into self-reinforcing feedback loops that amplify conspiracy theories.
We need to be open to nuance. We need to realize how wonderfully complex the world out there is, and embrace the fact that we’re going to have to continue to learn about things.
The challenge in our digital age is to apply the lessons from history—to navigate the vast ocean of information with a discerning eye, to break free from the echo chambers, and to engage with the world in its rich complexity.
Don’t fall into digital "Jurassic Parks."; Instead, consciously seek out varied and credible sources of information. Ask yourself whether your ideas are all there is to know on a given subject continuously.
Stay curious. Let’s think together. Can you come up with any similar Jurassic Parks from history?
I've seen the inside of the mindset that became Flat Earther. A decade ago I started on my own Theological Adventure coming from a background loosely considered evangelical Christianity. Following the challenge of 2 Timothy 2:15 (Study to show yourself approved) what we quickly found was how far from the truth modern Christianity actually was. I aligned with a group (more of a mindset) called Hebrew Roots.
The immediate issue was that this group took the hardline interpretation that the Bible was literally the word of God and therefore Truth. There was no room for allegory, analogy, etc. even though Jesus spoke in parables and Matthew used Midrashes. On the one hand, Hebrew Roots started stripping off all the odd vestiges of Christianity and its 'pagan' influences. On the other hand, they typically lost the ability to discern nuance. So if the Bible talks about the earth as flat and the powers that be have been shown to have lied and even conspired to promote divergent dogma, the simple answer was to reject the authority and put your faith in the Bible. Since the Earth being flat or spherical has zero impact on 99% of humans’ daily existence, it’s a low cost belief.
That's the same issue with the internet writ large. So often we get fractured out of one echo chamber that we find out was wrong, only to switch to a new echo chamber that's not any more right, but just not clearly proven wrong yet. It's a surprisingly hard place to be where you aren't in a specific tribe and are able to parse the nuance. That's not a common human trait.
So yes, the Internet gives us access to the most information ever and, more often than not, this information shows that what we thought we knew was wrong. That's a hard position for most humans to handle
I think science itself is at risk of becoming a Jurassic Park. The way we fund it influences the outcomes of the experiments, leading to pious declarations of “The science says...” when in fact there is serious doubt. The best example of this is the debacle over Dr. Beatty charts at Stanford and the Great Barrington protocol.”