South Africa, April 23 -- 1. Everything starts with belief, and that foundation is cracking

Around 70,000 years ago, something quietly extraordinary happened. Humans developed a cognitive superpower no other species possessed: the ability to believe in things that do not physically exist.

Money. Nations. Corporations. Human rights. None of these can be held in your hand, spotted in the wild, or measured in a laboratory. Yet they have shaped the entire arc of human civilisation.

These invisible constructs are what allowed us to cooperate flexibly at scale, to build societies, economies, and, eventually, brands.

Human civilisation was built on shared belief. And right now, that belief is fracturing. The implications for brands, marketer...