I recently read Sapiens by Yuval Harari, and this is a recurring theme in the book. &quot;Collective fictions&quot; throughout human history, the different forms of these myths, and how they help a society grow, or need to change as one does grow.<p>One sort of related example is local religions versus universal, missionary religions. The majority of religions in history have been local and exclusive. Deities such as nature&#x2F;animal spirits and the like, other tribes may have their own spirits in their own regions, and there is no need to convert people outside of your regions. But the most successful religions are ones are universal and missionary; they believe that their religion is affects everyone, regardless of whether they believe it (and is often the only true religion), and that for some reason, it is beneficial to convert others to your religion.<p>Ideas like money, capitalism, art, really anything not essential to the biology of humans, are such &quot;fictions&quot;, and the most successful (from any evolutionary standpoint) societies are the ones that have or adapt the most effective &quot;fictions&quot; for their societies. I guess to put it in HN terms, &quot;how scalable are your beliefs?&quot;<p>A lot of the old ways we&#x27;ve lost touch with, or never had, aren&#x27;t helpful to modern society. A hunting trip in which you become a man doesn&#x27;t amount to much in a society with mega-farms, slaughter mills and processed foods that don&#x27;t expire immediately. Instead, our equivalent goals would be like &quot;get a degree, get another degree, get a job&quot;. You&#x27;re an adult when you&#x27;re old enough to vote, and so on.<p>There&#x27;s a lot of other topics as well, but that&#x27;s what stuck with me the most and my interpretation of it. It&#x27;s fascinating to think about.