# What history is History is the domain of [storytelling](stories-storytellers.md) that come from a different [era](history-eras.md). - The definition between "old news" and "history" is very hard to define, but time typically converts old news into history when it was before you were alive. - In practice, this means that World War II in 1939-1945 was "old news" for old people in 2000, but was history for the people who ran the world by that time. Given that [art](art.md) is a depiction of the human condition, history is very much art. - While there is a [science](science.md) to uncovering [archaeological finds](history-archaeology.md), the actual *[story](stories-why.md)* of the information has to be articulated through some form of [symbolic association](symbols.md). ## Historians Historians end up performing a few types of roles: 1. The [accounting](money-accounting.md) of what was there, which is a very tedious role. 2. The [storytelling](stories-storytellers.md) of the [meaning](meaning.md) of the things they've found. 3. A skill at [marketing](marketing.md) what they find, through several possible avenues: - A captivating and plain writing style that shares the information to everyone. - A strong grasp of [jargon](language.md) to virtue signal the scientific publications. ## Historical records Historical records end up coming in two major forms: 1. Primary sources: the record of the event in question by someone who was there (e.g., a census document from the Roman Empire). 2. Secondary sources: the record of those primary sources later (e.g., a medieval scholar talking about the census of the Roman Empire). There are often a wealth of secondary sources, but not as many primary sources. The passage of time destroys history in several ways: 1. Natural disasters destroy things. 2. [Wars](people-conflicts-war.md) in general destroy things. 3. [Cultural](people-culture.md) "cleansing" destroys things (e.g., censorship, book-burning). 4. Sometimes, someone was simply not noteworthy when they were alive at all, so nobody bothered to preserve their works. In many ways, history is the "greatest hits" of what has survived. - Due to [logistical constraints due to death](https://gainedin.site/death/), there would simply not be enough time, energy, or space to capture and store every single recorded thing a person made. - The surviving documents weren't the *best* things, but they were certainly the most popular in light of what the culture accepted to be communicated. - For example, there may have been a far more brilliant writer than Socrates, with more insight and a clearer flow of thought, but he was killed by the government because he spoke so plainly. - As another example, the works of Chopin are well-maintained, but there may have been someone Chopin directly stole from who never became popular, even though his skill at composition was greater than Chopin. However, most historical records consist of the surviving trash from the past. - Many times, academic and intellectual works were "purged" in wars. - Other times, natural disasters destroyed archives. - For that reason, some of the most reliable sources of information comes from trash piles, former sewage dumps, and other discarded locations. - Further, the poor quality of historical archives requires a *lot* of [forensic work](security-forensics.md). ## History's relatability One entertaining reality is that history is very closely connected to today's [human universals](humanity-universals.md). - There are multiple discovered tablets about administrators saying they didn't get water and the crops will die, and that they warned them. - This is the equivalent of the forwarded email from six months ago stating "per my last discussion on this topic, we are now seeing what happens when you don't make the necessary changes I proposed." - There is a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet where someone drew out the equivalent of a [spreadsheet](database.md). Another way to see history is as a completely different [culture](people-culture.md), but you know what ended up happening to them. Most ideas present in ancient cultures were nowhere near as fixed in peoples' minds as our [science-minded](https://trendless.tech/scientism/) modern thinking would lead us to believe. - Very typically, they were willing to accept a [religious](religion.md) acceptance that they didn't know things. - Their world was far more tangible than the [Information Age](history-eras.md), so the truth and knowledge wasn't as relevant as relationships with other people. Many myths and facts were *not* referring to the same things: - Different regions had differing associations to the "seven seas" (Greek, Arabian, or Medieval European): - Adriatic - north of the Mediterranean (the east side of Italy) - Greek - Arabian Sea - the northernmost portion of the Indian Ocean between Africa and India - Greek, Arabian, Medieval Europe - Atlantic Ocean - body of water connecting North and South America with Africa and Europe - Baltic - inlet stretching from North Sea all the way to Finland - Medieval Europe - Bay of Bengal - the northernomst portion of the Indian Ocean between India and indochina - Arabian - Black - inland north of Turkey - Greek, Medieval Europe - Caspian - inland between Europe and Asia, north of Iran - Greek - Gulf of Thailand - inland sea near Thailand connected to the South China Sea - Arabian - Mediterranean - between Africa and Europe - Greek, Medieval Europe - North - inlet from the UK to Norway - Medieval Europe - Persian Gulf - inland between Saudia Arabia and Iran - Greek, Arabian - Red - inland between Africa and the Middle East - Greek, Medieval Europe - Singapore Strait - small area between Indonesia and Malaysia - Arabian - South China Sea - region that goes from Malaysia to Taiwan - Arabian - Strait of Malacca - small area between Indonesia and Malaysia - Arabian ## Relating with media The problem with history is that it was from a long time ago, so it can be boring to retell the events. This is why [storytelling](stories-storytellers.md) skills are necessary. - However, truthful history can never capture the full scope of fiction. Fiction can always [distort the image](people-image-distortion.md) of events to conform to whatever [values](values.md) the creator wanted. To make it more interesting, most people working with history add [artistic](art.md) flair to the information. - Scandals that would have otherwise been a minor part of the chronological history of that person's life are given more attention in the story (e.g., the full story of Richard Nixon versus the Watergate scandal). - They'll usually make visual depictions of what people would have had, which often require taking creative liberties (e.g., ancient Greek armor with painted ornamentation). - To portray it in a film, they'll use the "Ken Burns effect" to convey more emphasis to a portrait or picture.