Guns, Germs, & Steel!

This caught the eye of Boing Boing, king of the blogosphere:

Guns, Germs and Steel on PBS

The TV series Guns, Germs and Steel, based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning sci/history book, premiers tonight on PBS. The companion Web site covers a lot of thought-provoking ideas that are interesting whether you read the book, never heard of it, or, um, didn't finish it. From the overview:

Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality. * Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet? * Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead? * Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East? * Why did farming never emerge in Australia? * And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?

Link UPDATE: Jared Diamond is speaking in San Francisco this Friday as part of The Long Now Foundation's free seminar series. Link posted by David Pescovitz

Jared Diamond's explanation of the sources of inequality are the most coherent and convincing I have heard. His view is strongly predestinarian, but that doesn't bother me because I'm a Calvinist :) The flip side of this that many Calvinists don't get, however, is the admission that indeed all persons are created equal, and that one of the most significant sectors of the Kingdom of God is restoring the balance of happiness that existed at creation. I do not believe socialism is the way to this goal, because it causes more problems than it solves, but the G8's re-dedication to alleviating Africa's plight is probably a clue to the solution. (Keep in mind that the church is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world!)