IBHA Wiki - User contributions [en]

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:59:02Z

David.LePoire: /* Computer Science */

== General Structure of Discussion ==

For each discipline represented in the Big History community, list concisely:

1) Key insights from the discipline, that seem most essential for collaboration (what each discipline contributes to the whole picture).

2) Assumptions/limitations/blinders inherent to the discipline.

3) Current puzzles and paradoxes active in the discipline, stated within the framework of the discipline but with an eye toward the whole. How do these puzzles fit within questions of interest beyond the narrow confines of the discipline? (This question invites participants to think about how their discipline relates to others, and to the whole.)

I have in mind starting with standard disciplines such as history, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, sociology, psychology, environmental science, philosophy, anthropology, mathematics, geography, literature, languages, political science, economics, computer science, art, theatre, music, education, complexity science, information theory, etc. But these need not be limiting: categories should be chosen and shaped by participants.

While the three questions above provide an initial foundation for the framework I have in mind, it may be useful to also suggest other questions as food for thought to spark conversation. For example:

• What similarities can I find between questions or problems in my discipline and those in other disciplines? Are there places where they are trying to solve the same problem (or where the problem in both fields can be revised to reveal a more general problem that is essentially the same)?

• What solutions do they have to similar problems, and can I adapt them to my discipline? Or can I modify the questions I ask to better align with their solutions?

• What does the narrative of another discipline emphasize that we tend to ignore in mine?

• It may be useful to apply narratives from different disciplines to overlapping topics and look for contradictions. Then ask, “What assumptions would I have to change or what tweaks could I make to one or more perspectives, to resolve the contradictions?”

• What core terminology from my specialty can I translate to make it more generally accessible, to help facilitate shared dialog?

== Astrophysics ==

1) Key insights include a few basic patterns or laws that are universal and underlie everything we observe; the importance of basing our conclusions on empirical evidence; and a basic timeline of key overall stages of the development of the known universe over its 13.8 billion-year history.

2) Limitations include omitting the experience of subjectivity from direct consideration within the field.

3) Current puzzles include

-the nature of the dark matter and dark energy needed to explain large-scale motions within and among galaxies,

-how the first galaxies formed,

-how life emerges from non-living structures,

-how the laws of physics are encoded within the universe,

-why fundamental constants take on the particular values they have (such as the speed of light, strength of gravity, etc.), and

-why these values are such that they allow the emergence of life within the universe.

-Another puzzle is how to include observers within our models. As Sara Walker (2024) writes: “We cannot see ourselves clearly because we have not built a theory of physics yet that treats observers as inside the universe they are describing: that understanding is muddled across seemingly disparate concepts we refer to as ‘matter,’ ‘information,’ ‘causation,’ ‘computation,’ ‘complexity,’ and ‘life.’”

== Computer Science ==

1) Key insights:

-Elements of intelligence: Planning, learning, analogy, decision making, pattern recognition, handling uncertainty, integrating multiple modes of information

-Compilers as a way to translate one knowledge representation to another with syntax

-The importance and power of recursion in computation

-In software development: the need to utilize decomposable hierarchical structures to maintain operations under large stresses from growth and change

-There is a difference between standard digital computing and quantum computing

2) Assumptions, Limitations:

-Often: computing is digital although there are elements of symbolic reasoning and analog computing

3) Current Puzzles:

-Why are the current AI techniques so effective?

-Is our current AI model of a neuron, an insult to the real workings of neurons?

-How can our brain work on such a small energy flow (20 W) compared to the near GW of data centers?

-Is there a way to solve NP Complete problems with quantum computing?

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:58:28Z

David.LePoire: /* Computer Science */

== General Structure of Discussion ==

For each discipline represented in the Big History community, list concisely:

1) Key insights from the discipline, that seem most essential for collaboration (what each discipline contributes to the whole picture).

2) Assumptions/limitations/blinders inherent to the discipline.

3) Current puzzles and paradoxes active in the discipline, stated within the framework of the discipline but with an eye toward the whole. How do these puzzles fit within questions of interest beyond the narrow confines of the discipline? (This question invites participants to think about how their discipline relates to others, and to the whole.)

I have in mind starting with standard disciplines such as history, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, sociology, psychology, environmental science, philosophy, anthropology, mathematics, geography, literature, languages, political science, economics, computer science, art, theatre, music, education, complexity science, information theory, etc. But these need not be limiting: categories should be chosen and shaped by participants.

While the three questions above provide an initial foundation for the framework I have in mind, it may be useful to also suggest other questions as food for thought to spark conversation. For example:

• What similarities can I find between questions or problems in my discipline and those in other disciplines? Are there places where they are trying to solve the same problem (or where the problem in both fields can be revised to reveal a more general problem that is essentially the same)?

• What solutions do they have to similar problems, and can I adapt them to my discipline? Or can I modify the questions I ask to better align with their solutions?

• What does the narrative of another discipline emphasize that we tend to ignore in mine?

• It may be useful to apply narratives from different disciplines to overlapping topics and look for contradictions. Then ask, “What assumptions would I have to change or what tweaks could I make to one or more perspectives, to resolve the contradictions?”

• What core terminology from my specialty can I translate to make it more generally accessible, to help facilitate shared dialog?

== Astrophysics ==

1) Key insights include a few basic patterns or laws that are universal and underlie everything we observe; the importance of basing our conclusions on empirical evidence; and a basic timeline of key overall stages of the development of the known universe over its 13.8 billion-year history.

2) Limitations include omitting the experience of subjectivity from direct consideration within the field.

3) Current puzzles include

-the nature of the dark matter and dark energy needed to explain large-scale motions within and among galaxies,

-how the first galaxies formed,

-how life emerges from non-living structures,

-how the laws of physics are encoded within the universe,

-why fundamental constants take on the particular values they have (such as the speed of light, strength of gravity, etc.), and

-why these values are such that they allow the emergence of life within the universe.

-Another puzzle is how to include observers within our models. As Sara Walker (2024) writes: “We cannot see ourselves clearly because we have not built a theory of physics yet that treats observers as inside the universe they are describing: that understanding is muddled across seemingly disparate concepts we refer to as ‘matter,’ ‘information,’ ‘causation,’ ‘computation,’ ‘complexity,’ and ‘life.’”

== Computer Science ==

1) Key insights:

Elements of intelligence: Planning, learning, analogy, decision making, pattern recognition, handling uncertainty, integrating multiple modes of information

Compilers as a way to translate one knowledge representation to another with syntax

The importance and power of recursion in computation

In software development: the need to utilize decomposable hierarchical structures to maintain operations under large stresses from growth and change

There is a difference between standard digital computing and quantum computing

2) Assumptions, Limitations:

Often: computing is digital although there are elements of symbolic reasoning and analog computing

3) Current Puzzles:

Why are the current AI techniques so effective?

Is our current AI model of a neuron, an insult to the real workings of neurons?

How can our brain work on such a small energy flow (20 W) compared to the near GW of data centers?

Is there a way to solve NP Complete problems with quantum computing?

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:57:38Z

David.LePoire: /* Computer Science */ new section

== General Structure of Discussion ==

For each discipline represented in the Big History community, list concisely:

1) Key insights from the discipline, that seem most essential for collaboration (what each discipline contributes to the whole picture).

2) Assumptions/limitations/blinders inherent to the discipline.

3) Current puzzles and paradoxes active in the discipline, stated within the framework of the discipline but with an eye toward the whole. How do these puzzles fit within questions of interest beyond the narrow confines of the discipline? (This question invites participants to think about how their discipline relates to others, and to the whole.)

I have in mind starting with standard disciplines such as history, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, sociology, psychology, environmental science, philosophy, anthropology, mathematics, geography, literature, languages, political science, economics, computer science, art, theatre, music, education, complexity science, information theory, etc. But these need not be limiting: categories should be chosen and shaped by participants.

While the three questions above provide an initial foundation for the framework I have in mind, it may be useful to also suggest other questions as food for thought to spark conversation. For example:

• What similarities can I find between questions or problems in my discipline and those in other disciplines? Are there places where they are trying to solve the same problem (or where the problem in both fields can be revised to reveal a more general problem that is essentially the same)?

• What solutions do they have to similar problems, and can I adapt them to my discipline? Or can I modify the questions I ask to better align with their solutions?

• What does the narrative of another discipline emphasize that we tend to ignore in mine?

• It may be useful to apply narratives from different disciplines to overlapping topics and look for contradictions. Then ask, “What assumptions would I have to change or what tweaks could I make to one or more perspectives, to resolve the contradictions?”

• What core terminology from my specialty can I translate to make it more generally accessible, to help facilitate shared dialog?

== Astrophysics ==

1) Key insights include a few basic patterns or laws that are universal and underlie everything we observe; the importance of basing our conclusions on empirical evidence; and a basic timeline of key overall stages of the development of the known universe over its 13.8 billion-year history.

2) Limitations include omitting the experience of subjectivity from direct consideration within the field.

3) Current puzzles include

-the nature of the dark matter and dark energy needed to explain large-scale motions within and among galaxies,

-how the first galaxies formed,

-how life emerges from non-living structures,

-how the laws of physics are encoded within the universe,

-why fundamental constants take on the particular values they have (such as the speed of light, strength of gravity, etc.), and

-why these values are such that they allow the emergence of life within the universe.

-Another puzzle is how to include observers within our models. As Sara Walker (2024) writes: “We cannot see ourselves clearly because we have not built a theory of physics yet that treats observers as inside the universe they are describing: that understanding is muddled across seemingly disparate concepts we refer to as ‘matter,’ ‘information,’ ‘causation,’ ‘computation,’ ‘complexity,’ and ‘life.’”

== Computer Science ==

Key insights:

Elements of intelligence: Planning, learning, analogy, decision making, pattern recognition, handling uncertainty, integrating multiple modes of information

Compilers as a way to translate one knowledge representation to another with syntax

The importance and power of recursion in computation

In software development: the need to utilize decomposable hierarchical structures to maintain operations under large stresses from growth and change

There is a difference between standard digital computing and quantum computing

Assumptions, Limitations:

Often: computing is digital although there are elements of symbolic reasoning and analog computing

Current Puzzles:

Why are the current AI techniques so effective?

Is our current AI model of a neuron, an insult to the real workings of neurons?

How can our brain work on such a small energy flow (20 W) compared to the near GW of data centers?

Is there a way to solve NP Complete problems with quantum computing?

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:40:06Z

David.LePoire: /* Astrophysics */

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:38:19Z

David.LePoire:

== General Structure of Discussion ==

For each discipline represented in the Big History community, list concisely:

1) Key insights from the discipline, that seem most essential for collaboration (what each discipline contributes to the whole picture).

2) Assumptions/limitations/blinders inherent to the discipline.

3) Current puzzles and paradoxes active in the discipline, stated within the framework of the discipline but with an eye toward the whole. How do these puzzles fit within questions of interest beyond the narrow confines of the discipline? (This question invites participants to think about how their discipline relates to others, and to the whole.)

I have in mind starting with standard disciplines such as history, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, sociology, psychology, environmental science, philosophy, anthropology, mathematics, geography, literature, languages, political science, economics, computer science, art, theatre, music, education, complexity science, information theory, etc. But these need not be limiting: categories should be chosen and shaped by participants.

While the three questions above provide an initial foundation for the framework I have in mind, it may be useful to also suggest other questions as food for thought to spark conversation. For example:

• What similarities can I find between questions or problems in my discipline and those in other disciplines? Are there places where they are trying to solve the same problem (or where the problem in both fields can be revised to reveal a more general problem that is essentially the same)?

• What solutions do they have to similar problems, and can I adapt them to my discipline? Or can I modify the questions I ask to better align with their solutions?

• What does the narrative of another discipline emphasize that we tend to ignore in mine?

• It may be useful to apply narratives from different disciplines to overlapping topics and look for contradictions. Then ask, “What assumptions would I have to change or what tweaks could I make to one or more perspectives, to resolve the contradictions?”

• What core terminology from my specialty can I translate to make it more generally accessible, to help facilitate shared dialog?

== Astrophysics ==

1) Key insights include a few basic patterns or laws that are universal and underlie everything we observe; the importance of basing our conclusions on empirical evidence; and a basic timeline of key overall stages of the development of the known universe over its 13.8 billion-year history.

2) Limitations include omitting the experience of subjectivity from direct consideration within the field.

3) Current puzzles include
-the nature of the dark matter and dark energy needed to explain large-scale motions within and among galaxies,
-how the first galaxies formed,
-how life emerges from non-living structures,
-how the laws of physics are encoded within the universe,
-why fundamental constants take on the particular values they have (such as the speed of light, strength of gravity, etc.), and
-why these values are such that they allow the emergence of life within the universe.
-Another puzzle is how to include observers within our models. As Sara Walker (2024) writes: “We cannot see ourselves clearly because we have not built a theory of physics yet that treats observers as inside the universe they are describing: that understanding is muddled across seemingly disparate concepts we refer to as ‘matter,’ ‘information,’ ‘causation,’ ‘computation,’ ‘complexity,’ and ‘life.’”

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:37:03Z

David.LePoire: /* General Structure of Discussion */

== General Structure of Discussion ==

For each discipline represented in the Big History community, list concisely:

1) Key insights from the discipline, that seem most essential for collaboration (what each discipline contributes to the whole picture).
2) Assumptions/limitations/blinders inherent to the discipline.
3) Current puzzles and paradoxes active in the discipline, stated within the framework of the discipline but with an eye toward the whole. How do these puzzles fit within questions of interest beyond the narrow confines of the discipline? (This question invites participants to think about how their discipline relates to others, and to the whole.)

I have in mind starting with standard disciplines such as history, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, sociology, psychology, environmental science, philosophy, anthropology, mathematics, geography, literature, languages, political science, economics, computer science, art, theatre, music, education, complexity science, information theory, etc. But these need not be limiting: categories should be chosen and shaped by participants.

While the three questions above provide an initial foundation for the framework I have in mind, it may be useful to also suggest other questions as food for thought to spark conversation. For example:
• What similarities can I find between questions or problems in my discipline and those in other disciplines? Are there places where they are trying to solve the same problem (or where the problem in both fields can be revised to reveal a more general problem that is essentially the same)?
• What solutions do they have to similar problems, and can I adapt them to my discipline? Or can I modify the questions I ask to better align with their solutions?
• What does the narrative of another discipline emphasize that we tend to ignore in mine?
• It may be useful to apply narratives from different disciplines to overlapping topics and look for contradictions. Then ask, “What assumptions would I have to change or what tweaks could I make to one or more perspectives, to resolve the contradictions?”
• What core terminology from my specialty can I translate to make it more generally accessible, to help facilitate shared dialog?

== Astrophysics ==

1) Key insights include a few basic patterns or laws that are universal and underlie everything we observe; the importance of basing our conclusions on empirical evidence; and a basic timeline of key overall stages of the development of the known universe over its 13.8 billion-year history.

2) Limitations include omitting the experience of subjectivity from direct consideration within the field.

3) Current puzzles include
-the nature of the dark matter and dark energy needed to explain large-scale motions within and among galaxies,
-how the first galaxies formed,
-how life emerges from non-living structures,
-how the laws of physics are encoded within the universe,
-why fundamental constants take on the particular values they have (such as the speed of light, strength of gravity, etc.), and
-why these values are such that they allow the emergence of life within the universe.
-Another puzzle is how to include observers within our models. As Sara Walker (2024) writes: “We cannot see ourselves clearly because we have not built a theory of physics yet that treats observers as inside the universe they are describing: that understanding is muddled across seemingly disparate concepts we refer to as ‘matter,’ ‘information,’ ‘causation,’ ‘computation,’ ‘complexity,’ and ‘life.’”

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:35:34Z

David.LePoire: /* Astrophysics */ new section

Talk:Main Page

2026-01-27T15:33:33Z

David.LePoire: /* General Structure of Discussion */ new section

Main Page

2024-07-17T18:39:04Z

David.LePoire: added other aspects and questions

=== What is Big History? ===
'''Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods.'''

Beginning about 13.8 billion years ago, the story of the past is a coherent record that includes a series of great thresholds. Beginning with the Big Bang, Big History is an evidence-based account of emergent complexity, with simpler components combining into new units with new properties and greater energy flows.

== The Narrative ==

=== The Beginning of Space and Time in Our Universe ===
In the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe is thought to have been so hot and dense that matter could only exist in the form of a soup of quarks and gluons. (What explains the Big Bang itself? We still need to figure this out to our satisfaction.) As the universe expanded and cooled, matter could take on new forms, including the first protons and neutrons, followed much later by neutral atoms. Though the early universe was almost perfectly uniform, slight non-uniformities existed from the beginning, and over cosmic time gravity has enhanced those non-uniformities, pulling matter from less dense regions into more dense regions. This has produced the large-scale structure of the universe that we see today, including galaxies, galaxy clusters, and superclusters.

Within galaxies, gravity causes the collapse of gas clouds to form stars, which combine atomic nuclei to produce heavier elements through nuclear fusion. Before the first stars formed, the universe contained only hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of lithium (created in the first minutes after the Big Bang, when the universe as a whole was still hot enough to sustain fusion). But massive stars create carbon, oxygen, and all manner of heavier elements through fusion all the way up to iron. When these stars run out of fuel and explode as supernovae, the huge amounts of energy released often allow for the formation of even heavier elements like gold, uranium, and others. The heavy-element-enriched gas propelled outward by a supernova mixes with pre-existing gas and dust clouds, which may then collapse under gravity’s influence to form second-generation stars. Because first-generation stars had created heavy elements, these were available for gravity to form rocky or terrestrial planets.

=== The Beginning of Our Solar System and Earth ===
The formation of our own Sun and Earth took place about 4.6 billion years ago. The Solar System is located in one of the Milky Way’s outer spiral arms, known as the Orion Arm or Local Spur. We are between 25,000 and 28,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which consists of a few hundred billion stars. We are traveling around that center at a rate of about 220 kilometers per second, completing one revolution every 225- 250 million years. Over the past 4.6 billion years, the Earth has seen many chapters in its own history, with changes in atmosphere, the appearance and continual reformation of land masses through plate tectonics, and many other transformations.

=== The Beginning and Evolution of Life ===
Elements and molecules on the Earth formed various combinations in a process of chemical evolution, although exactly how still eludes us. About 4 billion years ago, some of them formed membranes, gained access to additional chemicals and energy that became metabolism, and became able to reproduce with variation. What is called life then began its own highly uneven process of evolution, sometimes becoming more complex and diversified. Major transitions led to such features as cell nuclei, photosynthesis, intentional motion, multicellular specialization and cooperation, heads, backbones, four limbs, and many other features.

The rise of mammals following the extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago led to the emergence of hominids. Eventually Homo sapiens emerged 200,000 years ago. Bipedal, largely hairless, large- brained, and with opposable thumbs, humans developed symbolic and imaginative language, inherited a social nature, and made ethics explicit.

=== The Beginning and Development of Culture ===
Through our culture, humans shaped some of the natural forces from which we emerged. We added hunting to scavenging and gathering. Beginning about 70,000 years ago, we left our African home and migrated throughout the globe, crossing Beringia into the Americas some 20,000 years ago (though the precise date is still heavily debated). We formed bands, kinship groups, villages, chiefdoms, cities, nations, and empires. Our species crossed other major thresholds with the emergence of agricultural states, the burning of fossil fuels, and the recent entrance into an information-rich, digital era.

We have fought many wars among ourselves and brought about environmental degradation and resource depletion. These and other problems threaten the quality and even survival of our species. We face a current crisis and a possible loss of complexity. Over 99% of the species that have ever existed are now extinct. No complex species is likely to survive intact for more than a few million years; we will be lucky if we survive that long.

== Other Aspects and Questions ==

=== Can Big History Help Us Now? ===
2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001.

Does Big History provide a narrative that can help nurture the development of the empathy and cooperation that are part of our social nature? Can humans form a more perfect human community as we continue to create a more complex society than has existed before? Or will our current levels of social complexity face inexorable demise?

=== The Long Term Future ===
Whatever the answers to these questions, any species still surviving on Earth a few billion years from now would be well-advised to hop a spaceship to another solar system. Those still on Earth will face a much hotter sun. About 5 billion years from now, the Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel in its core and will grow into a red giant, evaporating the oceans and possibly engulfing the Earth. The Sun will eventually eject its outer layers, leaving behind its core, a white dwarf that will cool and fade over trillions of years. Meanwhile, other galaxies may keep racing away from our own Local Group of galaxies, perhaps leaving us with a sky devoid of the images of distant galaxies that have contributed so much to our understanding of the universe and the cosmic context of the Earth.

Have other universes already existed? Will there be more universes after ours has ended? Are there an infinite number of universes, perhaps with some even sharing our space?

We need your help to help find the evidence to answer these and many other questions – and to draw on the lessons learned to help solve our problems now.
*
[[Category:Introduction]]

Main Page

2024-07-17T18:37:42Z

David.LePoire: Simplified first topic. Made "The Narrative" section

=== What is Big History? ===
'''Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods.'''

Beginning about 13.8 billion years ago, the story of the past is a coherent record that includes a series of great thresholds. Beginning with the Big Bang, Big History is an evidence-based account of emergent complexity, with simpler components combining into new units with new properties and greater energy flows.

== The Narrative ==

=== The Beginning of Space and Time in Our Universe ===
In the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe is thought to have been so hot and dense that matter could only exist in the form of a soup of quarks and gluons. (What explains the Big Bang itself? We still need to figure this out to our satisfaction.) As the universe expanded and cooled, matter could take on new forms, including the first protons and neutrons, followed much later by neutral atoms. Though the early universe was almost perfectly uniform, slight non-uniformities existed from the beginning, and over cosmic time gravity has enhanced those non-uniformities, pulling matter from less dense regions into more dense regions. This has produced the large-scale structure of the universe that we see today, including galaxies, galaxy clusters, and superclusters.

Within galaxies, gravity causes the collapse of gas clouds to form stars, which combine atomic nuclei to produce heavier elements through nuclear fusion. Before the first stars formed, the universe contained only hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of lithium (created in the first minutes after the Big Bang, when the universe as a whole was still hot enough to sustain fusion). But massive stars create carbon, oxygen, and all manner of heavier elements through fusion all the way up to iron. When these stars run out of fuel and explode as supernovae, the huge amounts of energy released often allow for the formation of even heavier elements like gold, uranium, and others. The heavy-element-enriched gas propelled outward by a supernova mixes with pre-existing gas and dust clouds, which may then collapse under gravity’s influence to form second-generation stars. Because first-generation stars had created heavy elements, these were available for gravity to form rocky or terrestrial planets.

=== The Beginning of Our Solar System and Earth ===
The formation of our own Sun and Earth took place about 4.6 billion years ago. The Solar System is located in one of the Milky Way’s outer spiral arms, known as the Orion Arm or Local Spur. We are between 25,000 and 28,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which consists of a few hundred billion stars. We are traveling around that center at a rate of about 220 kilometers per second, completing one revolution every 225- 250 million years. Over the past 4.6 billion years, the Earth has seen many chapters in its own history, with changes in atmosphere, the appearance and continual reformation of land masses through plate tectonics, and many other transformations.

=== The Beginning and Evolution of Life ===
Elements and molecules on the Earth formed various combinations in a process of chemical evolution, although exactly how still eludes us. About 4 billion years ago, some of them formed membranes, gained access to additional chemicals and energy that became metabolism, and became able to reproduce with variation. What is called life then began its own highly uneven process of evolution, sometimes becoming more complex and diversified. Major transitions led to such features as cell nuclei, photosynthesis, intentional motion, multicellular specialization and cooperation, heads, backbones, four limbs, and many other features.

The rise of mammals following the extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago led to the emergence of hominids. Eventually Homo sapiens emerged 200,000 years ago. Bipedal, largely hairless, large- brained, and with opposable thumbs, humans developed symbolic and imaginative language, inherited a social nature, and made ethics explicit.

=== The Beginning and Development of Culture ===
Through our culture, humans shaped some of the natural forces from which we emerged. We added hunting to scavenging and gathering. Beginning about 70,000 years ago, we left our African home and migrated throughout the globe, crossing Beringia into the Americas some 20,000 years ago (though the precise date is still heavily debated). We formed bands, kinship groups, villages, chiefdoms, cities, nations, and empires. Our species crossed other major thresholds with the emergence of agricultural states, the burning of fossil fuels, and the recent entrance into an information-rich, digital era.

We have fought many wars among ourselves and brought about environmental degradation and resource depletion. These and other problems threaten the quality and even survival of our species. We face a current crisis and a possible loss of complexity. Over 99% of the species that have ever existed are now extinct. No complex species is likely to survive intact for more than a few million years; we will be lucky if we survive that long.

=== Can Big History Help Us Now? ===
2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001.

Does Big History provide a narrative that can help nurture the development of the empathy and cooperation that are part of our social nature? Can humans form a more perfect human community as we continue to create a more complex society than has existed before? Or will our current levels of social complexity face inexorable demise?

=== The Long Term Future ===
Whatever the answers to these questions, any species still surviving on Earth a few billion years from now would be well-advised to hop a spaceship to another solar system. Those still on Earth will face a much hotter sun. About 5 billion years from now, the Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel in its core and will grow into a red giant, evaporating the oceans and possibly engulfing the Earth. The Sun will eventually eject its outer layers, leaving behind its core, a white dwarf that will cool and fade over trillions of years. Meanwhile, other galaxies may keep racing away from our own Local Group of galaxies, perhaps leaving us with a sky devoid of the images of distant galaxies that have contributed so much to our understanding of the universe and the cosmic context of the Earth.

Have other universes already existed? Will there be more universes after ours has ended? Are there an infinite number of universes, perhaps with some even sharing our space?

We need your help to help find the evidence to answer these and many other questions – and to draw on the lessons learned to help solve our problems now.
*
[[Category:Introduction]]

Main Page

2024-07-17T18:18:22Z

David.LePoire: Copied the introductory text from the web site to explore options

=== Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods. ===
Beginning about 13.8 billion years ago, the story of the past is a coherent record that includes a series of great thresholds. Beginning with the Big Bang, Big History is an evidence-based account of emergent complexity, with simpler components combining into new units with new properties and greater energy flows.

=== The Beginning of Space and Time in Our Universe ===
In the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe is thought to have been so hot and dense that matter could only exist in the form of a soup of quarks and gluons. (What explains the Big Bang itself? We still need to figure this out to our satisfaction.) As the universe expanded and cooled, matter could take on new forms, including the first protons and neutrons, followed much later by neutral atoms. Though the early universe was almost perfectly uniform, slight non-uniformities existed from the beginning, and over cosmic time gravity has enhanced those non-uniformities, pulling matter from less dense regions into more dense regions. This has produced the large-scale structure of the universe that we see today, including galaxies, galaxy clusters, and superclusters.

Within galaxies, gravity causes the collapse of gas clouds to form stars, which combine atomic nuclei to produce heavier elements through nuclear fusion. Before the first stars formed, the universe contained only hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of lithium (created in the first minutes after the Big Bang, when the universe as a whole was still hot enough to sustain fusion). But massive stars create carbon, oxygen, and all manner of heavier elements through fusion all the way up to iron. When these stars run out of fuel and explode as supernovae, the huge amounts of energy released often allow for the formation of even heavier elements like gold, uranium, and others. The heavy-element-enriched gas propelled outward by a supernova mixes with pre-existing gas and dust clouds, which may then collapse under gravity’s influence to form second-generation stars. Because first-generation stars had created heavy elements, these were available for gravity to form rocky or terrestrial planets.

=== The Beginning of Our Solar System and Earth ===
The formation of our own Sun and Earth took place about 4.6 billion years ago. The Solar System is located in one of the Milky Way’s outer spiral arms, known as the Orion Arm or Local Spur. We are between 25,000 and 28,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which consists of a few hundred billion stars. We are traveling around that center at a rate of about 220 kilometers per second, completing one revolution every 225- 250 million years. Over the past 4.6 billion years, the Earth has seen many chapters in its own history, with changes in atmosphere, the appearance and continual reformation of land masses through plate tectonics, and many other transformations.

=== The Beginning and Evolution of Life ===
Elements and molecules on the Earth formed various combinations in a process of chemical evolution, although exactly how still eludes us. About 4 billion years ago, some of them formed membranes, gained access to additional chemicals and energy that became metabolism, and became able to reproduce with variation. What is called life then began its own highly uneven process of evolution, sometimes becoming more complex and diversified. Major transitions led to such features as cell nuclei, photosynthesis, intentional motion, multicellular specialization and cooperation, heads, backbones, four limbs, and many other features.

The rise of mammals following the extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago led to the emergence of hominids. Eventually Homo sapiens emerged 200,000 years ago. Bipedal, largely hairless, large- brained, and with opposable thumbs, humans developed symbolic and imaginative language, inherited a social nature, and made ethics explicit.

=== The Beginning and Development of Culture ===
Through our culture, humans shaped some of the natural forces from which we emerged. We added hunting to scavenging and gathering. Beginning about 70,000 years ago, we left our African home and migrated throughout the globe, crossing Beringia into the Americas some 20,000 years ago (though the precise date is still heavily debated). We formed bands, kinship groups, villages, chiefdoms, cities, nations, and empires. Our species crossed other major thresholds with the emergence of agricultural states, the burning of fossil fuels, and the recent entrance into an information-rich, digital era.

We have fought many wars among ourselves and brought about environmental degradation and resource depletion. These and other problems threaten the quality and even survival of our species. We face a current crisis and a possible loss of complexity. Over 99% of the species that have ever existed are now extinct. No complex species is likely to survive intact for more than a few million years; we will be lucky if we survive that long.

=== Can Big History Help Us Now? ===
2015 was the warmest year since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to a new analysis by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The record-breaking year continues a long-term warming trend — 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have now occurred since 2001.

Does Big History provide a narrative that can help nurture the development of the empathy and cooperation that are part of our social nature? Can humans form a more perfect human community as we continue to create a more complex society than has existed before? Or will our current levels of social complexity face inexorable demise?

=== The Long Term Future ===
Whatever the answers to these questions, any species still surviving on Earth a few billion years from now would be well-advised to hop a spaceship to another solar system. Those still on Earth will face a much hotter sun. About 5 billion years from now, the Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel in its core and will grow into a red giant, evaporating the oceans and possibly engulfing the Earth. The Sun will eventually eject its outer layers, leaving behind its core, a white dwarf that will cool and fade over trillions of years. Meanwhile, other galaxies may keep racing away from our own Local Group of galaxies, perhaps leaving us with a sky devoid of the images of distant galaxies that have contributed so much to our understanding of the universe and the cosmic context of the Earth.

Have other universes already existed? Will there be more universes after ours has ended? Are there an infinite number of universes, perhaps with some even sharing our space?

We need your help to help find the evidence to answer these and many other questions – and to draw on the lessons learned to help solve our problems now.
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[[Category:Introduction]]