The History of Everything: Big History!
Welcome to Big History! Dr. Craig Benjamin Grand Valley State University Bright Horizons 19 Lecture 1 Welcome!
• Everything that exists has a history: each person, plant, animal and object, our county, planet, the en re universe • Big history weaves evidence from many disciplines into a single origin story – one that explores who we are, how we got here, how we are connected to everything around us, and where we may be heading • This knowledge encourages each of us to consider our place in the global world of the 21st century, and to think of how we might contribute to the future of that world • Welcome to the big history of everything! Presenter: Dr. Craig Benjamin But most of all loves hiking in
the high mountains of the world!!
• Professor of History, Meijer • Recorded for History Honors College, GVSU Channel, and The Teaching (Michigan) Company • Jazz musician for 25 years • Current President of the before becoming an academic World History Association • Author of many articles, • Chair of AP World History chapters and books on ancient Development Committee Central Asia, big history, and • Teaching and writing about historiography big history for 20 years! • Approach was devised in 1989 by How I Became David Christian, (Macquarie Involved with Big University, Sydney) History • I was David’s TA in the 1990s; taught BH in Australia for 8 years • And at GVSU since 2003, so almost 20 years! • Now hundreds of big historians and BH courses
being taught all Big historians at the KT in Italy, August 2010 round the world L-R: Christian, Alvarez, Benjamin, Rodrigue Brown, Spier (with son Louis), Gustafson State of the Field Today • Big history is in the news! - Text book by Chris an, Brown, Benjamin – Big History: Between Nothing and Everything – published by McGraw-Hill 2013 - History Channel just finished showing a 17- episode series on big history on their H2 network - Bill Gates Big History Project released to the public in 2013 - Interna onal Big History Associa on formed in 2012 (CB Treasurer) Program for the Series • Lecture 1: What is Big History and Why does it Ma er • Lecture 2: Big History of the Universe, Stars, Planet Earth, and Life • Lecture 3: Big History of Humanity • Lecture 4: Big History of the Future
Lecture One Part A: What is Big History Part B: Objec ons to Big History Part C: Big History and Orienta on Part D: Humans and Big History Part A: What is Big History • A new way historians are trying to understand and communicate the past – Big History • Natural extension of the idea of trying to conceptualize the past on larger scales • Prolifera on of world history courses in universi es in the USA grew out of the western civiliza on approach • Big history goes further - argues that there is a lot to be learned by looking at human history on very large scales, much larger than world history! Compare Big History with Tradi onal History • Tradi onal history is the study of individuals; change; periods, regions, na ons • Result? Fragmented, meaningless view of the past – like a flashlight in an a c – no sense of coherence • Or like fireflies in the garden – everything else is dark! • True illumina on requires broadening and deepening our enquiry • Looking at rela onships between historical elements over larger spa al and temporal scales Fireflies! Big History is …
• A more unified view of the past • Looks at history on the largest possible time scale – from the beginning of the universe! • Reveals an underlying sense of unity and coherence – almost a ‘meaning’ to everything • Allows us to consider ‘our time’ in history as part of the ‘modern revolution’, arguably the most profound moment in all of human history View the past through • In tradi onal history the lens through which we view mul ple lenses the past is stuck at a certain magnifica on – the ‘viewing of individual ac ons’ • Big history opens up our choice of lenses again, and helps us see pa erns • Like stepping back from the rocks and seeing the Nazca Lines • Through this enhanced, interdisciplinary perspec ve, big history has the poten al to contribute to genuine consilience – the unity of all knowledge!
www.hat.net/album/south Big History helps students answer the following ‘Science’ ques ons
• How and when did the universe begin? • How are stars formed and why are they fundamental to the crea on of all the more complex elements in the cosmos? • How and when were our sun and solar system made? • How and when was the earth made? • What forces created and shaped the earth’s lands, seas and atmosphere? • How and when did life first appear on earth? • How did life assume the variety of forms we see today? • How and when did modern humans evolve? And these ‘human history’ Ques ons
• When does human history begin, and why? • How did the first human communi es live? • How and when did agriculture first appear? • How and when did the first ci es and states evolve? • How did agrarian civiliza ons evolve over 3000 years? • What are the origins of modern industrial society? • Why did the ‘modern revolu on’ take a European form? • Was the 20th century ‘different’? • Does the study of big history help us predict the future? • What do we know about the ul mate fate of the universe? • Many feel they know the answers because of their faith Modern • Big history uses modern ‘ ’ scien fic knowledge to try and Scien fic answer these ques ons • Not necessarily a clash – Answers intelligent students can accommodate mul ple versions of reality - they are not mutually exclusive • Too much science content? The course is pitched at the scien fic beginner • Most interes ng science there is – Big Bang, stars and galaxies, how the Earth was formed, how life emerged and evolved – the BIG ques ons! www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov B. Objec ons to Big History: No. 1
• History on this scale is too thin, loses too much detail, become vacuous and meaningless • While some details disappear, others come into view • E.g. the importance of popula on pressure to human history
www.global-vision.org/ popex/ Popula on Growth • In the 20th century, world popula ons rose from – C. 1.6 billion, to – C. 6 billion people • It took 250,000 years to reach 1 billion people • It took just 100 years to add another 5 billion people! • Then just 12 years to add another 1 billion (2000 – 2012)!! World P opulation 10,000 BP - Now
7,000
6,000
5,000 2nd Millennium 4,000 The 20th century Millions 3,000
2,000
1,000
0 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Years Before Present Objection to Big History No. 2
• We must go beyond the boundaries of our discipline • Yes – we enter the disciplines of everything from cosmology to geology to biology to economics! • But ‘to understand your own country you must travel beyond its borders’! • Enriching experience for historical enquiry
Objec on to Big History No. 3 • Big history a empts to create a grand, unifying narra ve in a postmodernist age • Postmodernism: ‘all history is fragmented, discon nuous, without center’ • Big history does a empt to create a grand, sweeping, connected narra ve • Because epic stories (Lord of the Rings etc.) are powerful – people need them to make sense of a disjointed and apparently meaningless world
www.newcastle.edu.au Objec on to Big • Can we be sure our story is true? History No. 4 • No! Story may seem quaint and childish in the future • But we need a story that will work well for the me and place we live in (21st Century) • Like the ancient crea on myths – helped people make sense of the universe, and of their place in it
www.dhont.nl/bkunst.htm C. Big History and Orienta on • Big history can help us understand our place in the universe, like a map for the purpose of personal orienta on • Great need for a map of human history, like the scien fic paradigms of big bang cosmology, plate tectonics, natural selec on • There is no paradigm in the study of human history, no map of the terrain, so it is difficult to grasp human history as a coherent story • At the small scale we can partly ignore this problem; on the larger scale this lack of a paradigm or large-scale map is a serious problem, par cularly because we all want to know … How do I fit into space, me and the Universe?
All human societies have asked this question. I’m sure you ask yourselves this question every day!! Big History helps us understand our place in the Universe
• Like tradi onal CREATION STORIES,
BIG HISTORY can help us see our place in – SPACE, and – TIME • By doing this, Big History (like tradi onal Crea on Stories) can help us understand
WHO AND WHAT WE ARE THINK OF BIG HISTORY AS A SERIES OF MAPS • Maps tell you where you are, so … • We can think of ‘Big History’ as a series of maps from different perspec ves … – Our Universe – Our place in the Universe • Maps of Space • Maps of Time • Maps of Complexity Maps of Space Where is our region in space? Wher e • THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES am I? OF MAPS. EACH SHOWS US SOMETHING NEW ABOUT OURSELVES The Street map reminds us that we belong to a neighborhood
The National map reminds us that we belong to a country
What can the ‘world map’ tell us about who we are?
Are there even larger maps? Pamela Benjamin, Grand Rapids, Midwest USA, Summer 2011
What do you notice at this scale? What seems important at this scale? The Street Map Pamela was here!
This map shows where we live & What do you notice at this scale? who our neighbors are What seems important at this scale? The City Map
Pamela lives here
What do you notice at this scale? What seems important? The Con nental Map
What does this map say about our identity? We live here! World Map from N. & S. Poles
We live here!
What does this map say about who and what we are; what it means to live on earth? Are there even larger scales?
What’s beyond the world map? And what can larger maps tells us about who and what we are? We are somewhere here?!
The Solar System Our Galaxy We all live near the Sun. At this moment we are flying through space at about 66,000 mph!
What do you notice at this scale? What are the most important ‘objects’ you see now? The Galac c Neighborhood: The Astronomer’s ‘street map’
We live somewhere in here! The Virgo Supercluster: The astronomer’s ‘regional map’
Getting lost! Now we’re not sure where we live!! Seriously lost! The Map of the Universe • Einstein showed that the Universe has …
– no edge, and Return to – no center Sender • According to the ‘Theory of Rela vity’, Great Lakes Region, ‘ ’ Milky Way Galaxy, all addresses are rela ve Somewhere in the Universe • So everywhere has the same address: ‘SOMEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE So what’s our place in the Universe? And how big is the Universe?
– If you flew in a Boeing 747 across the USA, it would take you (Guess!) • c. 5 hours – If you flew to the Sun, it would take you (Guess!) • 20 years – If you flew to the nearest star, it would take you (??) • 5 million years But there are 100+ billion stars in our galaxy And there are 200+ billion galaxies in the Universe Help! The Universe is so big, I can’t find where I am! ‘When am I?’ Maps of Time
Ok, so when am I?
Can you make maps of time as well as of space? Why not? • Maps of Space tell you WHERE you are in space • Maps of Time tell you WHERE you are in time • BIG HISTORY is also a sort of Timemap Here’s a single list of dates that includes all of me
It pretends that everything took place in just 14 years It should make it easier to see the strange proportions of the modern map of time If the Universe began 14 years ago, then, at this moment … – the earth would have existed for about • six years – large organisms with many cells for • 8 months – the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs would have landed • 3 weeks ago – Hominids would have existed for just • 3 days – our own species, Homo Sapiens, for • 53 minutes – agricultural socie es would have existed for • 5 minutes – the en re recorded history of civiliza on for • 3 minutes – modern industrial socie es for • 6 seconds We live here! So what’s our place in the Universe? And how old is the Universe? The Universe is 13.82 billion years old! How long have you been alive? How many of your life mes would fit into the life me of the Universe?
That makes this poor student feel pretty unimportant! The scales of me and space make humans seem u erly insignificant D. HUMANS AND THE UNIVERSE • This is why so many people are unimpressed with the modern, scien fic, crea on story • Unlike most other Crea on Stories – It seems to make humans insignificant – It seems to make human existence pointless • BUT: – Properly understood, even the modern Crea on Story makes humans seem pre y significant – HOW?? Here’s another ‘map’: a map of ‘Complexity’ WHICH OF THESE 4 IS THE MOST COMPLEX?
1) EMPTY SPACE
2)
3)
4) Answer No.4 Human Socie es
4)
What’s so complicated about us?
Eastown Streetfair, Grand Rapids What does ‘Complex’ mean anyway? The more complicated something is – The more energy it produces and uses (weight for weight) – The more difficult it is to create – And the more rare it is in the Universe Human socie es are – as far as we know – excep onally rare in the universe, even unique! Complexity as Energy (measured as ergs/gram/second) Eric Chaisson (Harvard)
A galaxy 0.5 A star 2 The surface of the earth 75 Plants in the biosphere 900 The human body 20,000 The human brain 150,000 Modern human societies 500,000 So modern human socie es are incredibly complex!
• They are better at ‘adapting’ to changing environments • So, over time, they can extract more and more energy from their environment • To support more and more complex lifestyles Perhaps the most complicated en ty we are aware of in the en re universe?! If there are other intelligent creatures like ourselves, we haven’t heard from them yet!
Maybe we humans are pretty important after all! • That’s one of the main questions that a Big History course can ask • I hope to give you some answers during this mini big history course! But how did human societies get to be so complicated? By way of conclusion, here is an overview of what is to come! The Universe has crossed 8 main thresholds in 13.82 BYs 1. The Universe [Cosmology]: 13.8 BYA 2. The first Stars [Astronomy]: 13.6 BYA 3. Chemical elements [Chemistry]: from 13.5 BYA 4. Planets and our earth [Geology]: 4.5 BYA 5. Life [Biology]: 3.8 BYA 6. Human beings [Anthropology]: c. 250 KYA 7. Agriculture [Archaeology]: c. 10 KYA 8. Modern Society [History]: c. 200 Years ago! 9. Where’s the next threshold? [Futurology] ... Next lecture we will begin by winding the me line back 13.82 billion years, to … TIME ZERO!
Because that is the moment at which ….
THE EARLY UNIVERSE WAS VERY SIMPLE. SO WE FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO UNDERSTAND THE EMERGENCE OF GREATER COMPLEXITY
Threshold 2: Creation of Stars 1ST STARS FROM C. 200 MYS AFTER THE BIG BANG Our Sun photographed in ultra-violet THRESHOLD 3: CREATION OF COMPLEX ELEMENTS STAGE 1: big bang Hydrogen (1 proton) Helium (2 protons) STAGE 2: fusion Iron (26 protons)
Uranium (92 protons)
STAGE 3: supernovae create all the rest! Gold (79 protons) Complexity Builds…
…through threshold 4 (the appearance of planets)
ABUNDANCE OF CHEMICAL ABUNDANCE OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS IN EARTH'S CRUST ELEMENTS IN SUN & GAS
PLANETS Hydrogen Oxygen Helium Silicon Oxygen Aluminium Carbon Iron Nitrogen Calcium Neon Iron Magnesium Silicon Sodium
Magnesiu, Potassium
Sulfur Titanium Nickel Carbon Calcium Hydrogen
Manganese
…through threshold 5 (the evolution of life on earth) THRESHOLD 6: Homo sapiens: from c. 200,000 years ago
• Probably the oldest fossil remains of our species • Found in 2003 at Omo in Ethiopia, in the African rift valley (c. 195,000 BP) • Compare with modern human skull (right) • WE WILL CONSIDER WHAT MAKES HUMANS UNIQUE! All you need to know about human history is on this chart! ERA 1: From 200,000 Early signs of ‘collective learning’; small communities; PALEOLITHIC – 10,000 BP global migrations; megafaunal extinctions; slow population growth; climate change
ERA 2: From 10,000 Farming; faster population growth; cities, states, empires; AGRARIAN BP – 200 BP writing; warfare; different histories in different world zones; stable climates ERA 3: From 200 BP – Globalization; rapid growth in energy use; increasing rate of MODERN Now extinctions; increased life expectancies; rapid population growth; climate change THRESHOLD 7: 11,000 Years ago: Agriculture: An Energy Revolution
Only with the end of the ice age could humans spark this major revolution: new and much more powerful ways of getting food and energy from our surroundings gave humans access to many more resources. Threshold 7(b): Agrarian Civilizations: 5,000 Ys ago
(but none appeared in North America)
TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Temple of the Sun) flourished c. 200-600 CE Threshold 8: Modern Societies 200 years ago some powerful states began to industrialize driving the world into the ‘modern revolution!
Britain transformed by the first Industrial Revolution Today’s world began to emerge just 200 Ys ago and look where we are now! A species that can manipulate an entire biosphere
What would an alien visitor make of these lights? Eventually in our course we will arrive back at 2014 a er a journey of 13.82 billion years • Then we will be ready to ask: • Where’s it all going? – What’s the next threshold? – Endless growth? – Collapse? – Sustainability? • The Big History perspec ve will prepare us well to explore these vital ques ons http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130124.html , photo from Argentina; the streak is the ISS By the end of a Big History course we should all end up with a sense of … • Our place in space & me • What it means to be human • How we fit into a modern ‘Crea on Myth’ • And how we can transform our world in the present and the future • Welcome to the Big History of EVERYTHING!
Until next lecture fellow humans!