Dust & Equations

This is a summary of what I’ve learned over six years of self-study. It tries to answer one question – How did we get here?

The work is divided into three parts.

Part One: World History

This covers the journey of humans from the Paleolithic Era to modern times. It explains the Neolithic Revolution, the first civilizations, and major turning points like the Axial Age, the Silk Road, the Mongol Empire, the Columbian Exchange, the Gunpowder Empires, the Industrial and French Revolutions, the Berlin Conference, the World Wars, and Decolonization. It also tells the separate stories of European, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese history.

Part Two: Thought History

This traces how humans learned to think about the world. It covers economic thought (from Adam Smith to Keynes), psychological thought (from Freud to cognitive science), cosmological thought (from Aristotle to dark energy), physical thought (from Newton to quantum mechanics), mathematical thought (from Babylon to AI), and computer thought (from algorithms to machine learning).

Part Three: Philosophical History

This follows Western philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the present – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, existentialism, utilitarianism, analytic philosophy, postmodernism, and the questions AI is raising today.

Each chapter stands alone. You can start anywhere.

This is not academic work. I am a 21-year-old college dropout (as of 2026), not a professional historian or philosopher. I have tried to be accurate, but I may be wrong in places. Read it as a starting point, not a final word.

History of Philosophical Thought (3/3)

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While Hegel and Marx were busy making big, grand stories about history and society, two thinkers started a different kind of revolution. They felt that the individual person was being crushed by “The System.” Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, though very different from each other, shared a common enemy. They hated the idea that truth … Read more

History of Philosophical Thought (2/3)

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By the 200s CE, the Roman Empire was falling apart. People stopped looking for practical advice like the Stoics gave. Instead, they wanted something more spiritual and mystical. This is when Neoplatonism was born. It tried to bring back Plato’s ideas but made them into a big cosmic ladder. The main thinker was Plotinus. He … Read more

History of Philosophical Thought (1/3)

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Studying Eastern thought for three years straight significantly deepened my understanding of the Cosmos. But eventually, I hit a ceiling. Metaphysics has its limits. However, I’m glad I immersed myself in it first. Because the moment I stepped into Western Philosophy, I was able to grasp their arguments with a clarity I wouldn’t have had … Read more

History of Computer Thought

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The story of computer thinking did not start with electricity or microchips. It started with a big change in how people thought about thinking itself. Long before the first computer was built, some smart people began to feel that human thinking might actually follow fixed, step-by-step rules. If we could write down these rules, then … Read more

History of Mathematical Thought

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I always HATED Mathematics, until I discovered its role. When I was in high school, I used to ask my parents, teachers and seniors, what is the application of all the concepts which we learn. Like Equations, Trigonometry, Probability, etc. One of my biggest mistakes in life was opting out of Mathematics in Intermediate school. … Read more