Natural Science and Big History
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation e Scientific World Journal Volume 2014, Article ID 384912, 41 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/384912 Review Article The Natural Science Underlying Big History Eric J. Chaisson Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Eric J. Chaisson; [email protected] Received 16 February 2014; Revised 30 April 2014; Accepted 1 May 2014; Published 17 June 2014 Academic Editor: Lukas Kratochvil Copyright © 2014 Eric J. Chaisson. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nature’s many varied complex systems—including galaxies, stars, planets, life, and society—are islands of order within the increasingly disordered Universe. All organized systems are subject to physical, biological, or cultural evolution, which together comprise the grander interdisciplinary subject of cosmic evolution. A wealth of observational data supports the hypothesis that increasingly complex systems evolve unceasingly, uncaringly, and unpredictably from big bang to humankind. These are global history greatly extended, big history with a scientific basis, and natural history broadly portrayed across ∼14 billion years of time. Human beings and our cultural inventions are not special, unique, or apart from Nature; rather, we are an integral part of a universal evolutionary process connecting all such complex systems throughout space and time. Such evolution writ large has significant potential to unify the natural sciences into a holistic understanding of who we are and whence we came. No new science (beyond frontier, nonequilibrium thermodynamics) is needed to describe cosmic evolution’s major milestones at a deep and empirical level. Quantitative models and experimental tests imply that a remarkable simplicity underlies the emergence and growth of complexity for a wide spectrum of known and diverse systems. Energy is a principal facilitator of the rising complexity of ordered systems within the expanding Universe; energy flows are as central to life and society as they are to stars and galaxies. In particular, energy rate density—contrasting with information content or entropy production—is an objective metric suitable to gauge relative degrees of complexity among a hierarchy of widely assorted systems observed throughout the material Universe. Operationally, those systems capable of utilizing optimum amounts of energy tend to survive, and those that cannot are nonrandomly eliminated. 1. Introduction provincial, narrative of our past and present, an attempt to relate specifically how humanity emerged within a long and For many years, my scientific research has explored natu- remarkable story spanning unusually deep time. Somewhat ral science broadly yet deeply, striving to place humanity by contrast, when considering the Universe at large, including into a cosmological framework. I have especially sought all such galaxies and stars, and not at least the possibility to analyze the apparent rise of complexity among princi- of other Earth-like planets replete with potential intelligent pal, organized systems throughout the ∼14-billion-year-old beings, I have always referred to this subject more inclusively Universe—mainly galaxies, stars, planets, life, and society— as “cosmic evolution” [6–13].Thisisinterdisciplinarynatural as well as to decipher the myriad evolutionary events that history writ large, a broad synthesis of natural science with an have produced intelligent beings and their technological equally broad definition; to wit, cosmic evolution is the study machines on Earth. In doing so, I have ventured beyond mere of the many varied developmental and generational changes words and subjective analyses, rather to strongly and objec- in the assembly and composition of radiation, matter, and life tively embrace empirical findings while using hard-science throughout the history of the Universe. methodology to quantitatively synthesize understanding. I have recently reviewed aspects of cosmic evolution in Some scholars [1–5] call this subject “big history,”wherein technical journals [14–18] and produced several books and they trace a chronicle of events and systems that helped films on the subject9 [ , 19] and taught the subject in university produce specifically us: the Milky Way Galaxy, the Sun, the classrooms for decades [20, 21]. All these materials are widely Earth, and human beings. The result is a compelling, yet available in the published literature and easily accessible 2 The Scientific World Journal online, as noted in the references at the end of this paper, and its underlying processes that created us in particular. whichisitselfbothacomprehensiveaccountofthesubject What follows here therefore, in this empirical analysis of to date and a prequel to a subsequent paper that examines big history per se, is a limited examination of some of the several practical applications of cosmic evolution to global many salient evolutionary events that gave rise to increasingly issues now confronting humankind on Earth [22], including complex systems along an aimless, meandering path leading ways that this interdisciplinary synthesis might both explain eventually and remarkably to humankind on Earth. and guide our human condition now and in the future. This paper provides not only an underlying scientific rationale but also data-rich insights for the newly emerging 2. A Grand Evolutionary Synthesis subject of big history. In contrast to the established discipline of world (or global) history, which is limited to the study The past few decades of scientific research have seen the of relatively modern humanity on our particular planet emergence of a coherent description of natural history, and hence relates mainly to the recent past recorded in including ourselves as intelligent beings, based on the ancient writing, big history extends much farther back in time. concept of change. Heraclitus may have been right 25 cen- Similar to yet even broader than what our forebears called turies ago when he made perhaps the best observation of natural history, big history seeks to understand (indeed to Nature ever: ] , translated variously as “all flows, emphasize) humankind within the larger context of truly all fluxes, or nothing stays [the same].” From stars and deep time. It explores our remote roots that extend literally galaxies to life and humanity, a growing scholarly community intothewidercosmos,fromelementaryparticlesoftheearly is now discovering an intricate pattern of understanding Universe to cultured life on planet Earth, but it restricts its throughout all the sciences—an interdisciplinary story of the purview mostly to phenomena pertinent to specifically our origin and evolution of every known type of object in our Milky Way, our Sun, our Earth, and ourselves. Big historians, richly endowed Universe. The result is a grand evolutionary like all historians, basically strive to know themselves, nobly synthesis linking a wide variety of academic specialties— and ideally, yet sometimes dubiously rendering humanity as physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, biology, and anthro- central or special while deciphering our sense of place in pology,amongothers,andincludingsocialstudiesandthe the grand scheme of things (“...human history in its wider humanities as well—a cosmological epic of vast proportions context” [1], “...human history within the context of cosmic extending from the very beginning of time to the present, and history” [3], or “... human history as part of a much larger presumably on into the future. story” [5]), alas, a historical approach often allied with a Given the new intellectual age of interdisciplinarity, we poetic expression that “the proper study of mankind is man” are beginning to decipher how all known systems—atoms [23]. and galaxies, cells and brains, and people and society, among In my own research, I further distinguish big history innumerable others—are interrelated and constantly chang- from cosmic evolution, which also has aliases of cosmological ing. Our appreciation for evolution now extends well beyond history, universal history, epic of evolution, and sometimes the subject of biology; the concept of evolution, generally astrobiology; the former chronicles events mainly relevant to considered (as in most dictionaries) as any process of ascent the advent and exploits of humanity whereas the latter adopts with change in the formation, growth, and development of a more general purview regarding the origin, evolution, and systems, has become a robust unifying factor within and fate of all galaxies, stars, planets, and life throughout the among all of the sciences. Yet questions remain: How realistic expansive and expanding Universe. My interests focus neither isoursearchforunityinNatureandwilltheintegratedresult solely on human and planetary history nor even merely on resemble science or philosophy? How have the magnificent cosmic history regarding humanity; rather, I aim to explicate examples of order on and beyond Earth arisen from chaos? a broad cosmic narrative that includes our own big history Can the observed constructiveness of cosmic evolution be as part of an overarching universal worldview. Thus, as I reconciled with the inherent destructiveness of thermody- have argued elsewhere [24, 25]andcontinuetodosohere, namics? Most notably,