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  • 00:18

    Vsauce!

  • 00:20

    Kevin here.

  • 00:21

    Fighting an inflatable dragon with a plastic sword.

  • 00:25

    Which is all you can do with a dragon.

  • 00:27

    They’re fairy tale foes in the west.

  • 00:29

    But for some reason, the dragon image has existed all over the world since the dawn

  • 00:34

    of civilization.

  • 00:36

    So is the dragon just a fantasy cliché, or does it help explain our evolution, embody

  • 00:43

    our oldest fears, and unite all of humanity?

  • 00:47

    And when old maps marked unexplored territories with, “Here be dragons.”

  • 00:52

    Well...where be dragons?

  • 00:55

    Everywhere.

  • 00:57

    South America, Central America, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia - the dragon

  • 01:05

    is a universal ancient concept.

  • 01:08

    Long before legends of English knights besting maiden-devouring, fire-breathing dragons,

  • 01:13

    the Aztec worshipped Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent sky dragon god of wisdom and life.

  • 01:19

    And the ancient Greek serpent dragon Ladon was trusted with guarding immortality-granting

  • 01:24

    golden apples until he was defeated by the demigod Heracles.

  • 01:28

    Ladon, like many dragons, was very snake-y.

  • 01:31

    Wait, why are dragons and snakes so closely related?

  • 01:36

    To get to our imagination’s ultimate predator, we have to start with the first persistent

  • 01:41

    predator of our evolution.

  • 01:44

    Molecular Phylogeneticists who study DNA to date organisms, date like time not date like...y'know...

  • 01:53

    believe that our earliest placental mammal ancestors began flourishing within 400,000

  • 01:58

    years of dinosaur extinction about 65.5 million years ago.

  • 02:03

    But snakes basically as we know them today were around 100 million years ago.

  • 02:07

    They had about 20 million years of alone time eating placental mammals before predatory

  • 02:13

    birds joined the party, and had another 2 million before the first carnivorous mammals

  • 02:18

    evolved.

  • 02:19

    Snakes had been eating every iteration of our evolving ancestors for millions of years

  • 02:25

    - so by the time homo sapiens evolved and developed language, we were talking about

  • 02:31

    our oldest arch-enemy -- snakes.

  • 02:35

    In what’s considered the oldest known great piece of literature, Mesopotamia’s Epic

  • 02:39

    Of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh’s immortality is stolen by a snake.

  • 02:44

    A snake makes him mortal.

  • 02:47

    The Abrahamic origin story says that a serpent convinced Eve to eat forbidden fruit from

  • 02:52

    the tree of knowledge of good and evil by promising that, “her eyes would be opened.”

  • 02:58

    She and Adam were subsequently banished from an immortal paradise, but the mortal threat

  • 03:03

    of snakes might have literally helped our eyes.

  • 03:07

    The Snake Detection Hypothesis suggests that visual systems of primates evolved to detect

  • 03:13

    dangerous animals - primarily venomous snakes.

  • 03:17

    In The Fruit, The Tree, And The Serpent, anthropologist Lynne Isbell explains the hypothesis like

  • 03:22

    this: Snakes evolved to be difficult to see and mortally dangerous.

  • 03:26

    They coil their camouflaged bodies and remain motionless until they attack.

  • 03:31

    Surviving the peril of snakes for millions of years required selective pressure favoring

  • 03:37

    primates’ specialized visual systems.

  • 03:40

    And compared to other mammals, the pulvinar region of the brain, which helps visually

  • 03:44

    detect relevant objects, is disproportionately large in primates and humans.

  • 03:50

    Studies from different international labs have detailed the ability of humans’ enhanced

  • 03:54

    visual relay system to recognize snakes.

  • 03:59

    And this sight is preconscious.

  • 04:01

    Blindsight, which lets even those with cortical blindness respond to visual stimuli without

  • 04:07

    knowingly perceiving it, allows us to detect snakes and react without being consciously

  • 04:12

    aware of them.

  • 04:13

    Basically, we can notice and react to a snake without having to think, “There is a snake,

  • 04:18

    I’d better watch out!”

  • 04:21

    Or like explorer Percy Fawcett wrote after dodging the attack of a bushmaster, “I had

  • 04:26

    not seen it until it flashed between my legs, but the ‘inner man’ - if I can call it

  • 04:31

    that - not only saw it in time, but judged its striking height and distance exactly,

  • 04:36

    and issued commands to the body accordingly!”

  • 04:39

    Fawcett’s “inner man” was confirmed by a 1993 study on “Conditioned electrodermal

  • 04:45

    responses to masked fear-relevant stimuli.”

  • 04:49

    Not very catchy.

  • 04:51

    Consistent with the hypothesis, the lemurs of Madagascar, an early branch of primates

  • 04:56

    living on an isolated island off the coast of Africa with no venomous snakes, do not

  • 05:02

    fear snakes and have poor vision.

  • 05:06

    Armed with the vision to detect them, we quickly learn to fear snakes.

  • 05:11

    Ophidiophobia, or a fear of snakes, is one of the most common and intense phobias in

  • 05:16

    the world.

  • 05:17

    In The Dragons Of Eden, Carl Sagan notes dream studies in which almost half of the people

  • 05:21

    surveyed reported dreams about snakes.

  • 05:25

    And while modern psychologists’ studies show neither human infants nor monkeys raised

  • 05:30

    in captivity inherently fear snakes, studies of fear association showed both are prepared

  • 05:36

    to learn.

  • 05:37

    Lab monkeys showing no initial fear response were conditioned to fear live as well as toy

  • 05:42

    snakes after viewing videos of wild monkeys demonstrating a fear response to snakes.

  • 05:48

    Researchers were unable to condition the monkeys to fear non-threatening stimuli like flowers

  • 05:54

    or toy rabbits.

  • 05:57

    We notice and fear snakes as part of a co-evolution arms race for survival that eventually led

  • 06:03

    to us telling legendary stories of our origins amongst serpents.

  • 06:09


  • 06:10

    Skeptics of the Snake Detection Hypothesis would like to see more data, like studies

  • 06:14

    done with primates reacting not just to snakes, but to other primate predators like leopards

  • 06:20

    and eagles.

  • 06:21

    And in any case, dragons don’t just look like snakes, dragons have legs, they can fly

  • 06:28

    and they have a mouth full of ferocious sharp teeth.

  • 06:31

    Dragons are more like a snake mixed with a leopard and an…eagle.

  • 06:39

    The three predators monkeys are screaming about.

  • 06:43

    When Anthropologist David Jones studied howler monkeys, he noticed they use three distinct

  • 06:48

    alarm signals that lead to specific instinctive safety actions.

  • 06:53

    One call alerts the group to a snake and they stand up on their hind legs to look at the

  • 06:57

    ground and then climb to safety in the tops of trees.

  • 07:01

    Another call identifies a hunting bird or raptor and monkeys abandon the trees, hit

  • 07:06

    the ground and take cover in bushes.

  • 07:08

    Finally, a call for a leopard or large carnivoran causes them to run into the trees and out

  • 07:14

    onto the thinnest branches that can’t support heavier meat-eating mammals.

  • 07:18

    In An Instinct For Dragons, Jones writes that the dragon is a composite creature of the

  • 07:23

    three major predators of primates -- serpent, carnivore and raptor.

  • 07:29

    He believes combining them into one monster is a natural indexing mechanism performed

  • 07:34

    by the brain to consolidate a message.

  • 07:38

    That message is to recognize, beware, and honor what Georgess McHargue called in her

  • 07:43

    1968 book The Beasts Of Never, “the oldest, the first, and the most basic monster.”

  • 07:51

    McHargue was right.

  • 07:53

    The Epic Of Gilgamesh not only mentions dragons but featured the demigod Humbaba, whose dragon-like

  • 07:59

    characteristics included the head of a lion, the claws of a vulture, a body covered in

  • 08:04

    thorny scales, and a tail that ended in a snake’s head.

  • 08:08

    Also, a phallus that ended in a snake’s head.

  • 08:13

    Phallus means weiner.

  • 08:16

    Conquering or harnessing the power of this symbol of nature’s chaos granted the hero

  • 08:21

    the power to create order.

  • 08:23

    Chinese emperors are said to be descended from dragons, and adorned their kingdoms with

  • 08:28

    dragon imagery.

  • 08:30

    In the East, civilizations were created with the blessing of dragons.

  • 08:34

    In the West, civilizations drew power from tales of defeating them.

  • 08:41

    But something weird happened to dragons in Western culture over the last hundred years

  • 08:45

    - these manifestations of evil that needed to be vanquished to secure our future became

  • 08:52

    friends with our future.

  • 08:55

    Dragons became playmates for children.

  • 08:59

    The Reluctant Dragon, written by Kenneth Grahame in 1898, was the first popular western story

  • 09:05

    in which a dragon is a sympathetic character.

  • 09:08

    It tells the tale of a bookworm child who befriends and defends a peaceful, poetry-loving

  • 09:13

    dragon from the stubborn, ideological local villagers who believe all dragons must be

  • 09:20

    destroyed as tradition demands.

  • 09:22

    The valiant dragon slayer of legend, St. George, is summoned to kill the dragon but the child

  • 09:27

    successfully convinces the knight to spare his harmless friend.

  • 09:31

    To appease the blood-thirsty villagers, they stage a fake battle in which George innocently

  • 09:36

    pierces a fold of skin on the dragon’s neck.

  • 09:40

    George then parades the dragon through town and declares he is no longer a threat.

  • 09:45

    The knight, the child and the dragon walk away peacefully, hand-in-hand into the night.

  • 09:52

    Peter Green wrote in a 1959 biography of Grahame that he grew up in the countryside of Berkshire

  • 09:58

    during a time so simple kids entertained themselves by playing games like “push the heavy log.”

  • 10:06

    As an adult, Grahame was reluctantly forced into banking in the booming city of London

  • 10:11

    after being unable to afford his dream of going to Oxford University.

  • 10:16

    At the height of uncontrolled development of manufacturing during the industrial revolution,

  • 10:20

    the whimsy and serenity of Grahame’s rural youth contrasted starkly with the rigid responsibilities

  • 10:27

    of banking in polluted, urban 19th century London.

  • 10:31

    The Reluctant Dragon represents the inner turmoil Grahame felt between his creative,

  • 10:37

    artistic self -- the dragon -- and his dutiful, banker self embodied by the fabled dragon

  • 10:42

    slayer St. George.

  • 10:44

    In the end, the knight, the child and the dragon make peace with one another at a time

  • 10:50

    when Grahame reconciled with his own struggle between being an artist and being a prominent

  • 10:55

    member of The Establishment.

  • 10:59

    The first friendly dragon story is a negotiation between the rigid control of modern humanity

  • 11:05

    and the anarchist entropy of nature brokered by the precocious innocence of adolescence.

  • 11:12

    The dawn of modern science and human advancement required a compromise between our past and

  • 11:17

    our future.

  • 11:18

    We became friends with an enemy we had fought for time immemorial.

  • 11:23

    An enemy who represents time immemorial.

  • 11:28

    The ouroboros, a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, symbolizes the infinite cycle

  • 11:34

    of nature -- creation from destruction.

  • 11:37

    A fundamental truth recorded by the earliest civilizations.

  • 11:43

    Life and death eternal.

  • 11:48

    Today, we don’t need dragons.

  • 11:55

    Not like we used to.

  • 11:57

    The millions-year war is over and we’re still here.

  • 12:02

    Living and breathing the fire of curiosity and courage.

  • 12:06

    Instinctively exploring the deepest, darkest, depths of the unknown.

  • 12:09

    And overcoming the impossibly powerful enemy guarding the most valuable treasures imaginable.

  • 12:16

    Using our minds to detect problems and invent ways to conquer challenges.

  • 12:22

    It’s how we evolve.

  • 12:26

    But into what?

  • 12:30

    Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche warned, “He who fights too long against dragons becomes

  • 12:36

    a dragon himself...”

  • 12:42

    Devoid of the monsters that strengthened us for this moment, we’re left with the power

  • 12:47

    to decide.

  • 12:48

    “Am I the knight?

  • 12:51

    Am I the child?

  • 12:55

    Or am I the dragon?”

  • 13:00

    And as always - thanks for watching.

  • 13:13

    Don't you know?

  • 13:21

    You were brave with a free-talking mind and a voice that is still a cry for life.

  • 13:28

    And no matter what we want, we want to be loved.

  • 13:35

    Yes we were here.

  • 13:38

    We were afraid.

  • 13:40

    We paid them for the right to commit our own ego suicide.

  • 13:48

    But I believe it's just a ride.

All

The example sentences of ADVANCEMENT in videos (15 in total of 76)

the determiner dawn noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction modern adjective science noun, singular or mass and coordinating conjunction human adjective advancement noun, singular or mass required verb, past participle a determiner compromise noun, singular or mass between preposition or subordinating conjunction our possessive pronoun past adjective and coordinating conjunction
pn proper noun, singular advancement noun, singular or mass is verb, 3rd person singular present strongly adverb dependent adjective on preposition or subordinating conjunction laboratory noun, singular or mass data noun, plural , which wh-determiner is verb, 3rd person singular present why wh-adverb we personal pronoun closely adverb follow verb, non-3rd person singular present daily adjective
but coordinating conjunction it personal pronoun is verb, 3rd person singular present now adverb considered verb, past participle among preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner top adjective african noun, singular or mass countries noun, plural in preposition or subordinating conjunction terms noun, plural of preposition or subordinating conjunction technological adjective advancement noun, singular or mass
advancement noun, singular or mass into preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner nft proper noun, singular space noun, singular or mass right noun, singular or mass there existential there have verb, non-3rd person singular present been verb, past participle previously adverb on preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner markets noun, plural projects noun, plural where wh-adverb
and coordinating conjunction without preposition or subordinating conjunction any determiner authority noun, singular or mass to to police verb, base form these determiner different adjective places noun, plural - the determiner varying verb, gerund or present participle levels noun, plural of preposition or subordinating conjunction advancement noun, singular or mass
when wh-adverb he personal pronoun attended verb, past tense a determiner meeting noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner american proper noun, singular association proper noun, singular for preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner advancement proper noun, singular of preposition or subordinating conjunction science proper noun, singular
and coordinating conjunction the determiner company noun, singular or mass is verb, 3rd person singular present expanding verb, gerund or present participle , so adverb there existential there will modal be verb, base form lots noun, plural of preposition or subordinating conjunction opportunity noun, singular or mass for preposition or subordinating conjunction advancement noun, singular or mass in preposition or subordinating conjunction
for preposition or subordinating conjunction measuring verb, gerund or present participle the determiner advancement noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction civilizations noun, plural based verb, past participle on preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner amount noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction energy noun, singular or mass they personal pronoun can modal harvest verb, base form ,
beat verb, base form tesla proper noun, singular at preposition or subordinating conjunction its possessive pronoun own adjective gigafactory proper noun, singular game noun, singular or mass - all determiner good adjective news noun, singular or mass generally adverb for preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner advancement noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction
between preposition or subordinating conjunction progress noun, singular or mass , which wh-determiner lets verb, 3rd person singular present them personal pronoun save verb, non-3rd person singular present all determiner their possessive pronoun data noun, plural and coordinating conjunction advancement noun, singular or mass in preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner game noun, singular or mass , and coordinating conjunction
but coordinating conjunction , we personal pronoun 're verb, non-3rd person singular present really adverb focused verb, past participle on preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner success noun, singular or mass and coordinating conjunction advancement noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction openstack proper noun, singular in preposition or subordinating conjunction general adjective for preposition or subordinating conjunction everybody noun, singular or mass .
they personal pronoun 're verb, non-3rd person singular present not adverb going verb, gerund or present participle to to be verb, base form interested adjective you personal pronoun if preposition or subordinating conjunction it personal pronoun 's verb, 3rd person singular present a determiner tiny adjective advancement noun, singular or mass because preposition or subordinating conjunction it personal pronoun 's verb, 3rd person singular present more adjective, comparative
either coordinating conjunction in preposition or subordinating conjunction the determiner same adjective position noun, singular or mass , or coordinating conjunction ideally adverb having verb, gerund or present participle gained verb, past tense advancement noun, singular or mass or coordinating conjunction promotion noun, singular or mass to to a determiner higher adjective, comparative
help verb, base form slow adjective down particle the determiner advancement noun, singular or mass of preposition or subordinating conjunction nearsightedness noun, singular or mass myopia noun, singular or mass and coordinating conjunction young adjective children noun, plural but coordinating conjunction that wh-determiner 's verb, 3rd person singular present a determiner whole adjective
the determiner subject noun, singular or mass changes noun, plural like preposition or subordinating conjunction in preposition or subordinating conjunction 2001 cardinal number the determiner space noun, singular or mass odyssey verb, base form we personal pronoun see verb, non-3rd person singular present the determiner advancement noun, singular or mass in preposition or subordinating conjunction technology noun, singular or mass

Use "advancement" in a sentence | "advancement" example sentences

How to use "advancement" in a sentence?

  • As is natural with contiguous states having like institutions and like aims of advancement and development, the friendship of the United States and Mexico has been constantly maintained.
    -Chester A. Arthur-
  • Your ability to work with others on a complex task is a critical skill for advancement at work.
    -Brian Tracy-
  • Every great advancement was once nothing more than a dream in the mind of a visionary.
    -Robin Sharma-
  • The objective of spiritual advancement is not so much 'works' but the quality of life free from ego-consciousness.
    -Meher Baba-
  • The measure of a man's success must be according to his ability. The advancement he makes from the station in which he was born gives the degree of his success.
    -Walter Besant-
  • The more one makes spiritual advancement, one feels humble and as one's devotion is superficial that much he feels that he is a great devotee.
    -Radhanath Swami-
  • It is a remarkable honor to receive a Nobel Prize, because it not only recognizes discoveries, but also their usefulness to the advancement of fundamental science.
    -Peter Agre-
  • Sadat provides an important, insistent voice for continued advancement in peace and social justice.
    -Jehan Sadat-

Definition and meaning of ADVANCEMENT

What does "advancement mean?"

/ədˈvansmənt/

noun
Improvement; going forward; progress.