It all began somewhere in Africa, a long time ago. The ancestor of Sapiens – Homo erectus – carved bifaces, mastered fire, made spears and built shelters. He possessed the extraordinary mental capacity to anticipate, invent and imagine. What we commonly call thinking. This ability gave rise to human cultures, mythologies, writing, mathematics, science, electricity and philosophy.

Over the course of these pages, we will attempt to identify and understand the profound dynamics that have guided and continue to guide the development of ideas. By following the roads of knowledge, we will finally witness that small miracle: the transfer of whole swathes of thought from one era to another. Some civilisations die, but some of their ideas survive them. Which makes us the heirs of a thousand-year-old history.