It's a bit strange, I've developed a fascination with prehistory and early history. I was explaining the timeline behind how I became interested in it to Derek, and realized it was a little convoluted. Here's the rundown:

• I saw Dave reading Collapse, by Jared Diamond, and he said it was a good book, but I didn't think much about it.
• John said that one of his friends listened to Jared Diamond's first book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, on a road trip and liked it a lot
• On my way back from Florida after Matt's wedding, I decided to get an audio book, and saw Collapse, so I picked it up. It was really interesting, and followed the reasons for the collapse of several isolated ancient civilizations.
• I didn't think much about it for a while, but on my trip to Europe I was looking for something to read on the plane, and bought Guns, Germs, and Steel. It was amazing, detailing the unfolding of society across the world. It focused on reasons why some societies advanced faster than others, but made the point that all societies continually advance when viewed over a long enough time period.
• When I came back from Europe, Dave and I decided to go see a 'sermon' at the Unitarian church in Norfolk on evolution. The guest speaker was Michael Dowd, who introduced the though to me that science could be viewed as a religious idea — that the history of where we came from and how the world works could be stated in a way that gives meaning and purpose, while still embracing science and the scientific method. He also recommended the book Nonzero by Robert Wright.
• I bought Nonzero while in Florida over Christmas, and it's been a really good book. It focuses on the idea that human history is the history of increasing non-zero-sum interactions among larger and larger groups of people. It takes a decidedly quasi-deterministic and quasi-religious slant, but is a great book none the less.

That's the background, but it doesn't really give the reasons I'm so interested. Just to be clear, there are a few reasons I think humanity's history is intriguing:

The thought of living without modern knowledge

Whenever I go camping I can't help but think about what it must have been like for early humans, having the same brains as we do but none of the accessible knowledge and none of the luxuries that make our lives safe and comfortable. Can you imagine living in a society where writing hadn't been invented yet? You would be just as 'intelligent' as you are now, but would have no way of transmitting information besides face-to-face communication. The only way you would know what is going on in the next village is if someone visited, and I'm sure wild rumors of war, famine, gods and beasts abounded. The only real learning you received would be from your family or perhaps you tribe, so nearly every technique used would have been developed locally.

A sense of place

The amount we've been able to find out about times before written records is amazing. Besides just 'interesting', though, I find the evolution of mankind gives me some sense of place in time and history. Looking at the 'arrow' of human evolution, the setbacks along the way seem small when compared to the overall trend of increased knowledge, complexity, peace and prosperity. As part of society, and part of this evolution, we all help create a future of better ideas, deeper understanding, and expanding complexity. Our genes are now far less important than our memes, and how we absorb an spread ideas is probably the greatest function of our usefulness in society.

I still shy away from religious-sounding speech, mostly because it's usually used to over-simplify and cover up truth, not explain. In the end, though, I hope we can embrace the idea of a shared destiny with all mankind, as corny as that sounds.