Page 169 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1

crease in the amount of passive information from generation to generation occurs;
that, in principle, serves as a background for the evolutional development of human
civilization. If future generations get less high-quality information than the preceding
ones, a reverse evolution or degeneration is observed. If only the same volume of
information is passed on to future generations which was received from previous
generations — then evolutional stagnation is observed. Accordingly, evolutional
progress is observed when every next generation receives an amount of passive in-
formation which is greater than the previous one. Thus, the growth of passive in-
formation is a necessary condition for evolutional development of both a civiliza-
tion in general and a person in particular.

In order that a child is able to evolve from the animal stage to the stage of rea-
soning animal, his brain must absorb a certain amount of passive information. There
is a minimal amount of passive information without which the brain of a child will be
unable to reach a new quality which corresponds to the stage of reasoning animal. Al-
so, there is a minimal amount of information without which the brain of a teenager
will be unable to acquire a new quality which corresponds to the stage of man.

It turns out that in order to become actually man, everyone must assimilate two
critical amounts of passive information, one by one. At the same time, the second
critical amount of passive information is several times greater than the first one. A
question arises: how is passive information accumulated in a human community?
And how much time will a tribe or people require in order to accumulate a minimal
amount of passive information? If we understand this we will get the key to pene-
trate the “secrets” of man’s evolution and human society.

The speed of evolutional development in a family, tribe, people and nation de-
pends on the speed of accumulation of passive information and its quality. Exactly
the amount of passive information accumulated in the human community plays a
determining role in man’s evolutional development, not the colour of skin. The dif-
ference is not in the colour of skin, but in the speed of the accumulation of passive
information and, primarily, its critical amount. Precisely this speed is a determina-
tive factor for the evolution of an individual in particular and the whole civilization
in general, as is the quality of the information accumulated. A million repetitions of
one and the same piece of information is not the equal of only two different qualita-
tive reports.

The importance of information plays a significant role. For example, the de-
scription of the principle and technology of the wheel is immeasurably more im-
portant for a civilization than the description of a bird’s plumage and habits. We can
find a lot of examples of this kind. Nevertheless, the description of a bird’s plumage
and habits and other similar information is incredibly important for evolutional de-
velopment. This information, being accumulated, forms the first critical amount of
passive information necessary for the neurons of the human brain to change qualita-
tively, without which the transition from the phase of animal to the phase of reason-
ing animal and further on is impossible. In fact, the technology of wheel-making
could not appear without information like that about a bird’s plumage! In order to
even understand the information about this kind of technology and be able to make a

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