This is edition 2026/108 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. Civilisation Is Shrinking Our Brains.
Chris Trotter
- 🏰 Nietzsche as a solitary thinker — Portrayed as an isolated figure whose philosophy surveyed vast but “dark” intellectual landscapes, detached from optimism or moral comfort.
- ⚠️ Fear of human decline — Nietzsche believed humanity was degenerating, losing its nobility and becoming weaker, more submissive, and less individualistic.
- 🐑 Rise of the herd mentality — Civilisation, in his view, “tamed” humans into dependent, collective-minded beings who sacrifice individual will for social conformity.
- ⬇️ Concept of the “untermenschen” — He warned of the emergence of lesser humans, signalling the collapse of humanity’s heroic and independent past.
- ⬆️ Call for the “ubermenschen” — Nietzsche proposed that only superior individuals—strong, independent, beyond conventional morality—could restore greatness.
- ☠️ “God is dead” implication — With traditional religion gone, humanity would shape its own values, potentially beyond good and evil.
- 🪖 Misuse by fascism — His ideas were later distorted, with “superior man” twisted into “superior race,” something Nietzsche himself would have despised.
- 🧬 Modern science echoes concerns — Research suggests human brains have shrunk since prehistoric times, possibly due to reliance on shared knowledge in complex societies.
- 🧠 Civilisation vs capability — Hunter-gatherer societies required sharper awareness and survival skills, arguably producing more capable individuals than modern humans.
- 🏹 Indigenous excellence — Observers noted “superhuman” traits in Native American and Polynesian peoples, including navigation, awareness, and resilience.
- 🌍 Impact of civilisation on indigenous peoples — Rapid exposure to industrial societies led to cultural and functional decline, supporting Nietzsche’s critique of civilisation.
- ⚙️ Not just colonisation, but systems clash — The essay argues the damage came from incompatible modes of human organisation rather than colonialism alone.
- 🧪 Evolution favouring conformity — Modern humans may be evolving toward cooperation, tolerance, and group dependence rather than individual excellence.
- 📱 Modern life as evidence — Scenes of people absorbed in smartphones raise questions about whether humanity has lost something essential.
- 🤖 Future beyond humanity? — Suggests that if humans cannot regain greatness, artificial intelligence might surpass them, creating a new “post-human” civilisation beyond morality.
