I'm not about to defend the Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition! However there are certain differences between say, Europe in the year 1200 and any random warrior nomadic tribe of the same time. I keep getting back to private property rights, which I believe is the foundation of all western civilization. Also the religious insistence on personal responsibility (as opposed to blind submission) was nascent even at that point. And the Magna Carta showed that the idea of governance being a two way street. These themes bloomed into the Reformation, which kicked off the 100 years war, which got us modern secularism, which enhanced the renaissance and set the stage for all those miracles that happened in the last 400 years or so. I would tell you to wait for the movie, but it would be something like a 200-hour serial or something just for the highlights.
You hit on an interesting startup topic, though. Is it possible to algorithmically determine cultures and sub-cultures by biometrics, writing analysis, web sites visited, or some other factor? Aside from the big brother implications, there's actually a real market need -- people who belong to the same "clans" usually like spending time together on the web. Any way to make that easier should have value. In the information age, it's very possible that people belong to some sub-culture that they are not even aware of.
You hit on an interesting startup topic, though. Is it possible to algorithmically determine cultures and sub-cultures by biometrics, writing analysis, web sites visited, or some other factor? Aside from the big brother implications, there's actually a real market need -- people who belong to the same "clans" usually like spending time together on the web. Any way to make that easier should have value. In the information age, it's very possible that people belong to some sub-culture that they are not even aware of.