On OCD

I think I can safely say that I have been dogged by OCD for all of my life. Its exact time of birth remains uncertain, but my earliest memory of an OCD-related event most likely occurred when I was around five years old.

As a young child, I valued neatness. My room had to be organized according to a definite pattern that conveyed a sense of purpose: smaller books beside larger books, toys arranged with decorum, order prevailing over chaos, structure dominating randomness. Symmetry over imbalance. Things had to be a certain way, or else I was haunted by the dread of imperfection.

Once, I was forced to leave the house in a hurry, and my mom helped me pack up my toys. Unfortunately, she failed to return all of them to their proper places. I was haunted by the disruption to the natural order that such recklessness seemed to represent. For hours afterward, I ruminated on the consequences of such folly, wondering with desperation about the severity of the misdeed.

This was one of many such incidents that would linger in my mind, particularly when circumstances prevented me from physically correcting the error. Such was the perilous equilibrium upon which the world's fortune seemed to hang.

Later, my obsessions spread to cleanliness. Germs were everywhere, and I loathed the notion that I might become infected. Touching anything that appeared even remotely unclean became a harbinger of disease, and I constantly needed reassurance from my parents—my mom more than my dad—that I had not fallen under the influence of some diabolical pox.

I never did. Clearly, my immune system was tougher than I gave it credit for. At the time, however, this rarely mattered. For all intents and purposes, I was the equivalent of a "dead boy walking."

As I matured, my fear of the unclean was compounded by a need to wash and purify. I subjected my hands to endless episodes of vigorous scrubbing that invariably left them chafed and reddened. This was my remedy for coping with the infection that, at its most diabolical, seemed terrifyingly real.

Thankfully, my mom could see through what I was doing and coaxed me to stop through a well-judged mixture of gentle reprimand and necessary empathy. My OCD would subside briefly, choked back but waiting behind the door to pounce should the next opportunity present itself.

In a sense, OCD is a cunning beast. It seeks out the lowest level of your mental being and then strikes with brazen cruelty. Any doubt it can latch onto becomes fair game. Once an intrusive thought worms its way into your head and escapes that initial check, it remains there, clawing at whatever contentment you possess and magnifying its presence with every passing moment. It can consume you, and it will, because it is extraordinarily resilient.

The only respite, at least in those early days, was rest: a clearing of the mind and a retreat to some cerebral space that OCD could not penetrate. There was an urgent need to refocus, and I gradually learned how to do this while eagerly waiting for the return of some facsimile of peace of mind—a peace that, in the moment, could seem impossibly remote.

Who was Tamerlane?

 Tamerlane was born in 1336. His real name was Timur, although he became widely known in the West as Tamerlane, a name derived from Timur Leng, or “Timur the Lame.” He was not a Mongol, as is popularly believed, but a Turkic Muslim who rose to power in Central Asia and built one of the most formidable empires of the late medieval world. Before his death in 1405, his campaigns had carried his armies across a vast stretch of Asia, from Persia and India to the territories of the Golden Horde and the Ottoman Empire.

Although Tamerlane was not a Mongol, he deliberately borrowed many of the military methods associated with Genghis Khan. His armies were renowned for their discipline, mobility, deception, and, above all, their brutality. Terror was an important weapon in Tamerlane’s campaigns. Cities that resisted him could face mass executions and destruction, while those that surrendered might be spared if they accepted his authority.

Tamerlane’s power base emerged from the Chagatai Khanate, one of the successor states that had developed from the old Mongol Empire. After consolidating his authority in Central Asia, he embarked on a series of extraordinary conquests. By 1387, his forces had driven Persian opponents as far west as the Euphrates, establishing Tamerlane as one of the dominant powers of the region.

One of his most persistent rivals was Toktamish, the powerful ruler of the Golden Horde. The two men clashed repeatedly between 1382 and 1395. Their rivalry culminated in a series of devastating campaigns. At the Battle of the Kondurcha River in 1391, Toktamish came close to defeating Tamerlane, but Tamerlane's reserves helped turn the battle in his favor. Four years later, in 1395, Tamerlane delivered the decisive blow at the Battle of the Terek River. Toktamish was defeated, and his power was effectively broken, removing one of Tamerlane’s most dangerous rivals in the steppe regions.

Tamerlane’s ambitions extended far beyond Central Asia and Persia. In 1398, he invaded northern India and attacked Delhi. His forces captured and devastated the city, carrying away enormous quantities of wealth. Lahore was also laid waste during his campaigns. Much of the wealth seized from his conquests was subsequently used to transform Samarkand into a magnificent imperial capital, filled with monumental architecture and monuments celebrating Tamerlane’s victories.

His armies also pushed into Eastern Europe. In 1399, Tamerlane’s forces defeated the Lithuanian army commanded by Grand Duke Vytautas at the Battle of the Vorskla River. His campaigns reached into territories associated with Poland, demonstrating just how far the influence of his armies had spread. During his northern campaigns, Tamerlane also came within striking distance of Moscow. Rather than continuing toward the city, however, his forces turned back after capturing Yelets and redirected their attention toward Persia.

Tamerlane’s conquests were accompanied by extreme violence. He was a committed Muslim ruler, but his treatment of non-Muslim populations—and even of Muslim opponents who resisted him—was often ruthless. Entire populations could be massacred when cities resisted his armies. The pyramids of skulls reportedly left behind after some of his victories became a terrifying symbol of his methods.

Perhaps Tamerlane’s most famous victory came in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara, sometimes called the Battle of Angora. There he confronted the forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, one of the most powerful rulers in the Islamic world. Tamerlane defeated and captured Bayezid, dealing a severe blow to the Ottoman Empire and temporarily halting its expansion.

Even after conquering enormous territories, Tamerlane’s ambitions remained vast. He planned an invasion of China, intending to expand his empire even farther east. But the campaign never took place. In 1405, while preparing for his expedition, Tamerlane died.

His empire did not survive intact for long after his death, but his legacy endured. His descendants continued to rule important parts of Central and South Asia. Among them was his famous grandson Babur, who would eventually found the Mughal Empire in India. In that sense, Tamerlane’s influence continued long after his own conquests had ended.

Tamerlane remains one of medieval history’s most extraordinary and controversial figures: a brilliant military commander, a ruthless conqueror, and the architect of a vast empire that stretched across much of Asia. His career combined the military traditions of the Central Asian steppe with the political and cultural world of the Islamic Middle East, leaving behind a legacy that was as magnificent as it was brutal.

What would you consider to be some of the greatest developments in the history of technology?

Technology has, in a sense, come to define and time-stamp various periods in history. In the ancient world, metal smelting and alloy formation gave rise to the Bronze Age. However, it was the development and widespread use of iron that truly advanced toolmaking and, of course, weapons technology. The development of writing and the wheel in Mesopotamia extended the reach of communication and transportation. Improved irrigation techniques should also not be understated, as they were vital to the expansion and sustainability of the Agricultural Revolution. From a construction perspective, much was owed to our understanding of simple machines, especially the lever and the gear, which provided critical mechanical efficiencies.

Astronomical tools developed in both the Middle East and the Far East improved our understanding of the calendar, which in turn allowed agricultural societies to better anticipate seasonal changes and maximize crop yields.

Papyrus, as a medium for writing, was enormously beneficial to scribes, but the truly great breakthrough came with the development and refinement of papermaking in China and its eventual spread throughout surrounding regions. The Chinese would also contribute enormously to the technological advancement of our species through their invention of the compass and the development of gunpowder, which was initially used extensively for fireworks and other forms of entertainment.

The Egyptians were masters of construction, but this should not diminish the achievements of the remarkably sophisticated cities built by the Indus Valley civilizations, as well as those that developed along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in China. Earlier Mesoamerican civilizations also proved highly adept at pyramid construction, urban planning, and water management. Their achievements were particularly noteworthy in the areas of water distribution, drainage, and sewage management. The Greeks, Phoenicians, and Chinese, meanwhile, proved to be excellent traders and shipbuilders, laying important foundations for the spread of maritime technology and commercial networks throughout Europe and Asia.

It was in the ancient world that many of the foundations of technology were laid, and it was through travel and trade routes such as the Silk Road that these innovations were shared across vast distances. The Islamic Golden Age, together with the earlier technological and intellectual achievements of China, particularly during the Tang dynasty, helped sustain this remarkable flow of knowledge across Eurasia. However, it was the European Renaissance and the innovation it stimulated that helped set the stage for the extraordinary technological expansion of the last four centuries.

This transformation was reinforced by the development of the scientific method in its modern form. Mechanics, astronomy, the Earth sciences, chemistry, and human biology would all experience significant advances. In the 19th century, this progress was exemplified by the development of the battery, electric motor, generator, and transformer. These technologies allowed electrical energy to be converted into and between other forms of energy, dramatically increasing the efficiency and flexibility of machinery and manufacturing. They also gave the world the telegraph, telephone, and, eventually, radio.

The laws of thermodynamics became better understood, contributing to the development of the internal combustion engine and the diesel engine. A stronger understanding of fluid mechanics and aerodynamics advanced aviation and ultimately made heavier-than-air flight possible. Working in synergy, these advances—many of them rooted in physics—laid the groundwork for the numerous machines and appliances that have transformed everyday life and improved the quality of life in the modern world.

Yet it was not physics alone that drove these breakthroughs. Chemical and biological research formed the basis for what might be called the “Three As”—anaesthetics, antibiotics, and antiseptics—which have made modern medicine vastly more successful than many of the treatments available in previous centuries. Advances in other interdisciplinary fields also gave us plastics, synthetic materials, and increasingly sophisticated composite materials.

In the post-World War II era, electronics came to dominate the technological landscape. Transistors, logic gates, and integrated circuits made the computer revolution possible, which subsequently evolved into the Information Age and, more recently, the Artificial Intelligence Revolution. Each of these developments has transformed society. Some would argue that the transformation has been overwhelmingly positive; others remain far more skeptical about its consequences.

Whatever one's perspective, our world in the early 21st century has come an extraordinarily long way from the extended timeframe of the hunter-gatherer period. Where will technology take us in the future? Nobody fully knows. The frontiers of space certainly beckon.

Technology has offered humanity enormous hope, but we remain victims of our own frailties and circumstances as an imperfect species. We can splinter in different directions, pursue competing objectives, and make decisions that are difficult to reverse. In this sense, the course of history is not nearly as predictable as some would have us believe.

Perhaps that is the greatest lesson of all. Technology may determine what we can do, but history will ultimately be shaped by what we choose to do with it.