157 | The Copernican Principle

David gives the third in his series of talks about the future of democracy.  This one uses an idea from cosmology to work out where we might be in the story of democracy: are we at the beginning, in the middle or near the end?  It all depends when and where we think the story starts.  From Stonehenge to Les Miserables, from ancient Athens to Facebook, a simple idea turns out to have some surprising applications, and some important lessons for contemporary politics.