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"First Principle:  Civilization is a complex invention of sentient minds.  Non-sentient forces of nature include gravity, electro-magnetism, nuclear fission and fusion, evolution, erosion, fire, reforestation, and so on.  For all of its power and complexity, "nature" doesn't evolve civilizations.  We know very well that sentience is part of nature and thus that everything done by sentients is natural.  Still, we will distinguish "nature" from "civilization" on the basis that civilization evolves out of the inventions of sentient minds, often in conflict with the rest of nature.

"Civilizations vary dramatically, yet virtually all have common features in two classes:  societies and constructs.  Societies are groups of people organized around shared interests or needs.  Societies vary in size from two people to the whole species.  Indeed, every sentient in a civilization belongs to many distinct and overlapping societies. 

"Constructs are inventions that enable and structure civilizations.  A social construct is a set of rules about how societies are created, bounded, and changed.  A social contract is an agreement to obey the rules.  Complexes of constructs are social systems.  Durable complex social constructs are called social institutions.  Perhaps you recognize social institutions on Earth?" 

Oops!  This was going to be interactive learning, not all lecture.  While I was organizing myself, my resident anthropologist spoke up.  "We tend to think of the major institutions as government, religion, industry, military, education, and the arts.  More and more, I think the Internet is a new institution."  Silence.  They wanted more.

"Of course," I said, "Within each are countless other institutions.  As I begin to understand the concept of construct, every function, department, hierarchy policy, ... they are all constructs.  And the social norms that function in each are also constructs."

"Yes," said Samuel.  "You begin to see.  Just as the number and variety of societies is almost limitless, constructs are everywhere – in layers, networks, webs, and tapestries, from grand and obvious to fine detail and almost negligible.  The entire synthesis of constructs into civilization and the ongoing synthesis of each of its many, many parts...all of these are all built on abstract rules invented by sentients and their societies.  Again... built on abstract rules invented by sentience.  Though rules may derive from evolutionary pasts, the constructs are the inventions of logic, reason, and emotion.

"One primary construct of civilization, for instance, is division of labor.  Rules establish how those who develop science will be fed by those who grow food.  The construct called government is a segment of that division of labor whose job is, in part, to maintain order among the other divisions.  The construct of taxation pays for government.  Cities, states, and nations are constructs of government that serve local needs.  War is a construct for projecting or protecting institutions and their related societies. 

"Over time, constructs and contracts take on lives of their own.  They form vast interwoven webs that resist change.  They become institutions so solid that societies may assume that this is the only way the world could logically work. 

"All constructs are enabled by social contracts.  That is, constructs survive by conscious or tacit agreement of people and societies.  Over time, the vast majority of such contracts become completely unspoken.  People don't even know they've made agreements.  Their behaviors are programmed by the maze of constructs to the point that they have neither reason nor tools for questioning the way their worlds work.

"Again:  No reason and no process for questioning the way their worlds work.

"The First Principle lays a groundwork of language for thinking about and creating change in societies bound by invisible yet virtually indestructible borders and sets of rules.  At its core, changing society and civilization means changing the rules by which societies operate and interact.  In other words, such change alters social constructs and/or social contracts.