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Big History: The Big Bang, Life On Earth, And The Rise Of Humanity
Big History
Contents
Threshold 1: The Universe - Cosmology
Threshold 2: The First Stars - Astronomy
Threshold 3: The Chemical Elements - Chemistry
Threshold 4: The Earth and the Solar System - Geology
Threshold 5: Life - Biology
Threshold 6: The Paleolithic Era - Human History
Threshold 7: The Agrarian Era - Human History
Threshold 8: The Modern Era - Human History
Contents
Threshold 1: The Universe - Cosmology
Threshold 2: The First Stars - Astronomy
Threshold 3: The Chemical Elements - Chemistry
Threshold 4: The Earth and the Solar System - Geology
Threshold 5: Life - Biology
Threshold 6: The Paleolithic Era - Human History
Threshold 7: The Agrarian Era - Human History
Threshold 8: The Modern Era - Human History
Audio CD
Published January 1, 2008
35 people are currently reading
1168 people want to read
About the author
David Christian
70 books415 followersDavid Gilbert Christian is an Anglo-American historian and scholar of Russian history notable for creating and spearheading an interdisciplinary approach known as Big History. He grew up in Africa and in England, where he earned his B.A. from Oxford University, an M.A. in Russian history from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in 19th century Russian history from Oxford University in 1974.
He began teaching the first course in 1989 which examined history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach with assistance from scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The course frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. He is credited with coining the term Big History and he serves as president of the International Big History Association.
Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course entitled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates who is personally funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to high school students worldwide in part via the website http://www.bighistoryproject.com
He began teaching the first course in 1989 which examined history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach with assistance from scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The course frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. He is credited with coining the term Big History and he serves as president of the International Big History Association.
Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course entitled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates who is personally funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to high school students worldwide in part via the website http://www.bighistoryproject.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 23, 2018
This was an strange and interesting lecture series. The professor stated up front that he would only deal with the more basic aspects of the evolution of the cosmos, and was true to his word because this series requires no prerequisite knowledge; and yet, he highlighted Eric Chaisson's work, which is not at all basic. That made me laugh a bit. He certainly packaged Chaisson's arguments into very simple digestible terms (it took me a while to get through Chaisson's books and articles), it was just curious that he used Chaisson's work at all.
Some highlights:
- The formation of stars and their galaxies will surely impart the lesson of "structure is function". Stars are huge and can therefore produce a lot of heat, because they have gravity to help pull elements in and smash those elements together, creating heat. The earth is not as big as the sun and so therefore could never have nuclear fusion occurring in its core because as hot as our core is, it can never be as hot as the core of the massive sun. Jupiter on the other hand is much larger and could have a much hotter core. I cannot remember if he talked about Brown Dwarfs at that point. If not, you should look that up because they are my favorite. They are too little to be a a star and too big to be a planet.
- Solar system formation depended on the original nebula that made our sun. He detailed the standard theory of how the sun blew our the elements that made all the planets. If you want a better explanation of this, I suggest reading Exoplanets by Michael Summers and James Trefil who provide the most up to date evidence for solar system and planetary formation.
- Really beautiful explanation of not only the origins of life but how single cells cooperate but are not multi celled organisms (some sponges look like multi celled organisms but they are actually a bunch of single celled organisms who group together) as well as the evolution of eukaryotic cells and more complex life. He is very passionate about all of this and makes the lectures that much more enjoyable.
- Even better was his discussion of energy capture- how organisms capture energy from the sun. I was a little put off by some points made in the energy discussion. He fell prey to the "humans are special" argument that I think many people take too far, but it was not really a strong argument, so it was tolerable.
- Energy capture naturally led to a discussion of agriculture and takes you on a really nice journey of the very first societies and follows societies of humans as they became more and more complex. I listened to this section more than once and learned a lot. He thoughtfully tried to understand how gender disparities arose in these societies. But even more enjoyable was his discussion of how humans were forced into small areas because of how wet or dry the soil around them might have been and if the local village or town had set up a water irrigation system (this was a fantastic discussion, probably my favorite in the series because I had the least amount of knowledge in this area)
- He included a really nice and basic primer on Adam Smith and specialization and the spread of competitive markets.
I recommend this even for people who already know all of this. It was a great experience to think about the development of 13.8 billion years as a fluid motion.
Some highlights:
- The formation of stars and their galaxies will surely impart the lesson of "structure is function". Stars are huge and can therefore produce a lot of heat, because they have gravity to help pull elements in and smash those elements together, creating heat. The earth is not as big as the sun and so therefore could never have nuclear fusion occurring in its core because as hot as our core is, it can never be as hot as the core of the massive sun. Jupiter on the other hand is much larger and could have a much hotter core. I cannot remember if he talked about Brown Dwarfs at that point. If not, you should look that up because they are my favorite. They are too little to be a a star and too big to be a planet.
- Solar system formation depended on the original nebula that made our sun. He detailed the standard theory of how the sun blew our the elements that made all the planets. If you want a better explanation of this, I suggest reading Exoplanets by Michael Summers and James Trefil who provide the most up to date evidence for solar system and planetary formation.
- Really beautiful explanation of not only the origins of life but how single cells cooperate but are not multi celled organisms (some sponges look like multi celled organisms but they are actually a bunch of single celled organisms who group together) as well as the evolution of eukaryotic cells and more complex life. He is very passionate about all of this and makes the lectures that much more enjoyable.
- Even better was his discussion of energy capture- how organisms capture energy from the sun. I was a little put off by some points made in the energy discussion. He fell prey to the "humans are special" argument that I think many people take too far, but it was not really a strong argument, so it was tolerable.
- Energy capture naturally led to a discussion of agriculture and takes you on a really nice journey of the very first societies and follows societies of humans as they became more and more complex. I listened to this section more than once and learned a lot. He thoughtfully tried to understand how gender disparities arose in these societies. But even more enjoyable was his discussion of how humans were forced into small areas because of how wet or dry the soil around them might have been and if the local village or town had set up a water irrigation system (this was a fantastic discussion, probably my favorite in the series because I had the least amount of knowledge in this area)
- He included a really nice and basic primer on Adam Smith and specialization and the spread of competitive markets.
I recommend this even for people who already know all of this. It was a great experience to think about the development of 13.8 billion years as a fluid motion.
January 12, 2015
This is the perfect reference guide for the transcendental non-material Artificial Intelligent machines of the future who want an apple pie since as Carl Sagan said "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe". All the steps necessary for making an apple pie are included in this lecture.
This lecture is a really profitable way of looking at history. He uses certain themes to tie all of history together. Most of our way of thinking about our place in the universe has started with thinking that the way things are today is the way things have always been. Even Einstein accepted the static universe at one time. the originator of the continental drift was laughed at up till the 1960s, evolution today is denied by a large significant number of people, and so on.
All of history can be tied together by many themes, there's a Recursive nature to processes, once an algorithm has been developed it can act on itself and give complexity and create things such as stars, solar systems and mufti-cellular life. From complexity we can get Emergent properties, characteristics that are part of the whole but could not be predicted from the parts. Think of the neurons in our brain. They give us consciousness. So, one can say the sum of the parts is greater than the whole since consciousness transcends individual neurons. The other theme is Entropy, useful energy only arises when there are differences within a system. When everything is the same, no exploitation is possible. This is true in the universe as the whole and true in the development of civilization or in capitalism. The Networking of complex systems make for better galaxies and better civilization. Our true strength as the most complex entities in the universe is our ability to Network and our advancements are based on developing ever better ways of communicating from the invention of symbolic communication (talking), through farming, living in cities and the development of the internet for sharing pictures of our cats.
The lecture does a marvelous job at tying all the pieces of making an apple pie (or more properly, developing a great service like Audible) into a coherent whole. The lecture listens more like a book than a series of independent lectures since the lecturer never forgets his central narratives.
Most of the audible books and Great Courses I listen to have covered the same topics as this lecture but did so in much more depth. So, therefore, most of this lecture seemed to be a review for me. I didn't mind that, because I need to hear the same thing presented in three different ways before I can fully understand it, and with that warning that this course could be mostly review for most people I can still highly recommend this course since he has such a good way of tying all the pieces together.
This lecture is a really profitable way of looking at history. He uses certain themes to tie all of history together. Most of our way of thinking about our place in the universe has started with thinking that the way things are today is the way things have always been. Even Einstein accepted the static universe at one time. the originator of the continental drift was laughed at up till the 1960s, evolution today is denied by a large significant number of people, and so on.
All of history can be tied together by many themes, there's a Recursive nature to processes, once an algorithm has been developed it can act on itself and give complexity and create things such as stars, solar systems and mufti-cellular life. From complexity we can get Emergent properties, characteristics that are part of the whole but could not be predicted from the parts. Think of the neurons in our brain. They give us consciousness. So, one can say the sum of the parts is greater than the whole since consciousness transcends individual neurons. The other theme is Entropy, useful energy only arises when there are differences within a system. When everything is the same, no exploitation is possible. This is true in the universe as the whole and true in the development of civilization or in capitalism. The Networking of complex systems make for better galaxies and better civilization. Our true strength as the most complex entities in the universe is our ability to Network and our advancements are based on developing ever better ways of communicating from the invention of symbolic communication (talking), through farming, living in cities and the development of the internet for sharing pictures of our cats.
The lecture does a marvelous job at tying all the pieces of making an apple pie (or more properly, developing a great service like Audible) into a coherent whole. The lecture listens more like a book than a series of independent lectures since the lecturer never forgets his central narratives.
Most of the audible books and Great Courses I listen to have covered the same topics as this lecture but did so in much more depth. So, therefore, most of this lecture seemed to be a review for me. I didn't mind that, because I need to hear the same thing presented in three different ways before I can fully understand it, and with that warning that this course could be mostly review for most people I can still highly recommend this course since he has such a good way of tying all the pieces together.
October 3, 2018
Highly recommended!
Big History is a photographic mosaic of everything. We typically study physics, geology, anthropology, history, and economics separately; however, Dr. David Christian takes a giant step back so we can see the larger details. Dr. Christian is a charming lecturer, and it is a pleasure to follow him on the fascinating, inspiring, and often horrifying journey that is Big History.
Leading up to my graduation as a history student, I felt disappointed. I felt the need for something to tie history together, some sort of message or understanding or anything to connect the many histories together. Dr. Christian's Big History fulfilled my desire and opened a new door to historical and scientific understanding. From the beginning to the present, isn't that what history really is?
The typical American historical education teaches a tribal like history and the false notion that over time, everything improves. People war, people suffer, innovation happens, things get better, war again, and so forth. Meanwhile, Big History highlights huge facts our institutions missed: the 2 billion years it took for single cells to transition to multi-celled organisms, the high standard of living in pre-agrarian societies, the peasant lifestyle that 90% of humans endured for thousands of years until the modern revolution, the monopolization of violence by States, and plenty more.
Often times dense, I found myself reviewing lectures frequently. It is also disappointing at first when some topics are skipped (dinosaurs, global wars, et cetera). This is however, justified; there's just so much to cover, especially in the beginning. There is a huge sense of reward in the newly granted perspective you will find in the Big Bang, life on Earth, and so forth.
I could go on forever about the merits of Dr. Christian's Big History. Do yourself a favor and get started!
Big History is a photographic mosaic of everything. We typically study physics, geology, anthropology, history, and economics separately; however, Dr. David Christian takes a giant step back so we can see the larger details. Dr. Christian is a charming lecturer, and it is a pleasure to follow him on the fascinating, inspiring, and often horrifying journey that is Big History.
Leading up to my graduation as a history student, I felt disappointed. I felt the need for something to tie history together, some sort of message or understanding or anything to connect the many histories together. Dr. Christian's Big History fulfilled my desire and opened a new door to historical and scientific understanding. From the beginning to the present, isn't that what history really is?
The typical American historical education teaches a tribal like history and the false notion that over time, everything improves. People war, people suffer, innovation happens, things get better, war again, and so forth. Meanwhile, Big History highlights huge facts our institutions missed: the 2 billion years it took for single cells to transition to multi-celled organisms, the high standard of living in pre-agrarian societies, the peasant lifestyle that 90% of humans endured for thousands of years until the modern revolution, the monopolization of violence by States, and plenty more.
Often times dense, I found myself reviewing lectures frequently. It is also disappointing at first when some topics are skipped (dinosaurs, global wars, et cetera). This is however, justified; there's just so much to cover, especially in the beginning. There is a huge sense of reward in the newly granted perspective you will find in the Big Bang, life on Earth, and so forth.
I could go on forever about the merits of Dr. Christian's Big History. Do yourself a favor and get started!
December 9, 2013
I wish we give this subject "big history" a different moniker and make it compulsory for any undergrads of any discipline.
Dr Christian's approach to understanding where, how and why we are today is comprehensive, thorough and unique. Most studies on various aspects of our astronomical, physical, chemical, biological, archeological, sociological, geographic or political/economic life tend to miss the big philosophical and historical perspective by being too narrow in their subject focus. The author traverses 13.7bn years of the universal existence until today from the humanity's viewpoint. It is a journey through all the above subject matters in a continuous fashion without ever losing the big existential thread. Effectively, the author builds the causal/historic chain of things/principles/historic developments that otherwise we would learn in different fields without a holistic connection or relevance to where we are now.
What is ventured is highly ambitious and the execution is simply superb. Over the next few decades, this subject will likely evolve rapidly. As Dr Christian himself points out, what will be told in Big History will change not only with new facts and studies but also due to the differing interpretations of its exponents. For example, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem offers a course on Coursera on the same subject without calling it Big History. His history of mankind is far lighter on the Big Bang up to the solar system evolution and focuses more on the last 250million years. His reading of the big trends are vastly different from the ones in this book. However, each such course or book - when presented well and with good insights - should prove as one of the best learning experiences for any reader.
The only real surprise is why the Big History lectures are far bigger success than they are. The lectures are amazingly lucid and told in a highly engaging manner. The style is like that of a popular non-fiction book than academic. The tales are relevant and interesting. And there is enough humour. The author never drags. Perhaps the packaging is too non-commercial and this is an injustice to anyone who misses out on such an important book as a result.
Dr Christian's approach to understanding where, how and why we are today is comprehensive, thorough and unique. Most studies on various aspects of our astronomical, physical, chemical, biological, archeological, sociological, geographic or political/economic life tend to miss the big philosophical and historical perspective by being too narrow in their subject focus. The author traverses 13.7bn years of the universal existence until today from the humanity's viewpoint. It is a journey through all the above subject matters in a continuous fashion without ever losing the big existential thread. Effectively, the author builds the causal/historic chain of things/principles/historic developments that otherwise we would learn in different fields without a holistic connection or relevance to where we are now.
What is ventured is highly ambitious and the execution is simply superb. Over the next few decades, this subject will likely evolve rapidly. As Dr Christian himself points out, what will be told in Big History will change not only with new facts and studies but also due to the differing interpretations of its exponents. For example, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem offers a course on Coursera on the same subject without calling it Big History. His history of mankind is far lighter on the Big Bang up to the solar system evolution and focuses more on the last 250million years. His reading of the big trends are vastly different from the ones in this book. However, each such course or book - when presented well and with good insights - should prove as one of the best learning experiences for any reader.
The only real surprise is why the Big History lectures are far bigger success than they are. The lectures are amazingly lucid and told in a highly engaging manner. The style is like that of a popular non-fiction book than academic. The tales are relevant and interesting. And there is enough humour. The author never drags. Perhaps the packaging is too non-commercial and this is an injustice to anyone who misses out on such an important book as a result.
July 2, 2022
The final chapters, looking to the future, were surprisingly thoughtful and raise a bunch of longtermist ideas over which much ink has subsequently been spilled.
One intriguing thread running through the book was viewing big history in terms of (increasing) complexity, and getting some mileage out of anolgies between different 'complex systems' at different scales. I vaccilate between thinking all this 'complexity science' stuff is a wonderfully promising proto-field that's still too hot for the mainstream, and thinking there's no real there there.
One intriguing thread running through the book was viewing big history in terms of (increasing) complexity, and getting some mileage out of anolgies between different 'complex systems' at different scales. I vaccilate between thinking all this 'complexity science' stuff is a wonderfully promising proto-field that's still too hot for the mainstream, and thinking there's no real there there.
February 1, 2017
"To understand ourselves," says Professor Christian, "we need to know the very large story, the largest story of all."
48 lectures | 30 minutes each
1 What Is Big History?
2 Moving across Multiple Scales
3 Simplicity and Complexity
4 Evidence and the Nature of Science
5 Threshold 1—Origins of Big Bang Cosmology
6 How Did Everything Begin?
7 Threshold 2—The First Stars and Galaxies
8 Threshold 3—Making Chemical Elements
9 Threshold 4—The Earth and the Solar System
10 The Early Earth—A Short History
11 Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Geography
12 Threshold 5—Life
13 Darwin and Natural Selection
14 The Evidence for Natural Selection
15 The Origins of Life
16 Life on Earth—Single-celled Organisms
17 Life on Earth—Multi-celled Organisms
18 Hominines
19 Evidence on Hominine Evolution
20 Threshold 6—What Makes Humans Different?
21 Homo sapiens—The First Humans
22 Paleolithic Lifeways
23 Change in the Paleolithic Era
24 Threshold 7—Agriculture
25 The Origins of Agriculture
26 The First Agrarian Societies
27 Power and Its Origins
28 Early Power Structures
29 From Villages to Cities
30 Sumer—The First Agrarian Civilization
31 Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions
32 The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made
33 Long Trends—Expansion and State Power
34 Long Trends—Rates of Innovation
35 Long Trends—Disease and Malthusian Cycles
36 Comparing the World Zones
37 The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era
38 Threshold 8—The Modern Revolution
39 The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500–1350
40 The Early Modern Cycle, 1350–1700
41 Breakthrough—The Industrial Revolution
42 Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900
43 The 20th Century
44 The World That the Modern Revolution Made
45 Human History and the Biosphere
46 The Next 100 Years
47 The Next Millennium and the Remote Future
48 Big History—Humans in the Cosmos
This was such an all compassing history of the world combining history, science, physics, biology and statistics into a huge epic of how we got to where we are now and where are we going from here.
Professor Christian taught at San Diego State University and now in Sydney, Australia. He is clear and concise on his explanations and there is so much to cover in this course that I know I will have to listen to it repeatedly.
I thoroughly enjoyed the big picture of the science of the creation of the universe and the beginnings of man in such a short time. There were many questions that were answered and many questions that we need to study more. We have so much more to learn about where we came from and where we are going.
I highly recommend this lecture series, I certainly learned from it.
January 20, 2022
This is the book I've been trying to find for years
A history of the formation of the universe, life on earth through the rise of human evolution, and human civilizations.
This is an excellent source if you want to learn about all of humanity unfiltered through a nationalistic viewpoint.
Small drawback, The end is a bit of a bummer.
A history of the formation of the universe, life on earth through the rise of human evolution, and human civilizations.
This is an excellent source if you want to learn about all of humanity unfiltered through a nationalistic viewpoint.
Small drawback, The end is a bit of a bummer.
November 15, 2021
Not nearly as good as "Origin Story". Dr. Christian's delivery is a bit dry and the subject matter is quite stretched out. If you are looking for an introduction to Big History then "Origin Story" is a much better choice.
May 13, 2016
Terrific book to tie knowledge together. This is knowledge everyone should have from how to universe began to broad strokes on cultural development.
December 31, 2019
Strongly recommended. Outstanding overview of...everything.
October 20, 2022
Amazing book tracing the history of the universe and life from before the big bang to present day. In a series of well explained easily digestible 20-minute lectures. He traces the various points of discovery of the different astronomical and biological history and explains the experiments that we’re done over the centuries to come to the conclusions now held by scientist.
A few interesting (to me) notes:
In the beginning there was a dense amount of matter which then exploded in the Big Bang. The resulting plasma a mixture of energy matter eventually coalesced into protons and electrons which forms the first two elements hydrogen and helium. These elements coalesced into massive suns and began to burn. The suns then crashed together and exploded creating massive amounts of energy and formed all of the other elements. So, my wedding band really is made up of stardust. With the coalescence of these particles the planets and moons and solar systems developed.
In 1952 Miller and Urey put methane, hydrogen, ammonia, and water in an enclosed container heated it and shot electric sparks through it. Amino acids, nucleotides, and sugars formed. Similar experiments have formed lipids out of basic elements.
It’s a stunning story and does away with the need for any master creating God-like force in the creation of life in the universe.
There were 20 or 30 hominids species of which Homo sapiens was the only one that did not go extinct.
The increase brain size of the chimps was probably due to the increase visual cortex. You just need a lot of computing power to analyze the visual information. Do you needed stereoscopic vision and she needed a possible forms and very good digital manipulation to find your way through the trees.
The hominid, Lucy, found an old of a gorge was named after the Beatles song Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds because the paleontologists had been listening to that song around that time.
Bipedalism developed before the development of large brains. Lucy was clearly bipedal but had a small brain.
Human and chimp DNA differs by about 1% which represents 7 million years. Prior to genetic dating it was thought to be 20 million years.
The Paleolithic period, the period in which man used stone tools, is often looked at as static in which nothing changed and it is skipped over by historians. It lasted from about 250,000 years ago to about 5,000 years ago when writing began in Mesopotamia. It is assumed by many that nothing happens in this period but actually many things did. The main three changes were in climate, in the growth of a population and migration, and in the beginnings of the ability to change the environment.
Migration of humans within Africa and south east Asia was nothing remarkable. Many other species such as elephants and tigers made the same migration. However, the migration to Sahul which was a continent that consisted of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia required crossing 40 miles of water. It required great organization of large numbers of people, and new seafaring technology. Upon arriving in Australia humans met a new landscape with new flora and fauna that they had never experienced before.
40,000 to 30,000 years ago humans begin migrate to be steppes of Ukraine and eastern Russia and this too required tremendous adaptation.
In Paleolithic villages in the Ukraine during the Ice Age temperatures in the winter would average 30 below. People live in these areas by making houses out of mammoth tusks, bones, and skin and made tight fitting clothing using. They had to manage fire. They stored mammoth meat in the ground and then could dig them up and start a fire over them to eat during the winter. The heat in their houses with fire and lighted them with oil lamps. Incredible adaptation.
The third major adaptation during the Paleolithic era was in humans change in the environment. One way they did this was by fire. They had controlled burnings to attract game and limit the buildup of flammable substance which could cause a devastating fire. This was done in Australia, North America and throughout paleolithic world. In fact, the environment that Europeans found in Australia dominated by eucalyptus was predominantly created by burning of areas in which eucalyptus trees resistance allowed it to remain. The landscape of Australia was just as much man-made as the English gardens of Great Britain.
The other environmental change caused by humans were the mega fauna extinctions. These extensions align very closely to the introduction of humans into an area in Australia, the Americas, and in Russia.,
The total biomass of domesticated animals is about 20 to 25 times greater than the total mass of biomass of non-domesticated animals
About 10,000 years ago agriculture started to be developed in Mesopotamia, in the Americas, in Papua New Guinea and then in Africa. How did these simultaneous beginnings of agriculture occur and why.?
It turns out that agricultural did not necessarily offer a better standard of living as evidenced by archaeological evidence that agriculturalists were shorter than their hunter gatherer neighbors.
The author proposes that the beginning of agriculture, was not something that people were drawn to but something that people were pushed towards. Hunter-gatherer societies in the Paleolithic times had immense amounts of information about the plants and animals surrounding them and they certainly had the knowledge of how to harvest crops and maybe even domesticate animals. Agriculture appeared 8-12,000 years ago in various parts of the world at nearly the same time. Was it such a good idea that it spread through diffusion. The problem with this is that it certainly was not a new idea. Another theory is that about 10,000 years ago the most recent Ice Age was ending and it may have allowed for the developing of spots that were like garden of Eden spots where there was so much abundance that people did not have to travel to get their food. Hunter gatherers were very good at keeping their populations down either by infanticide or prolonged breast-feeding etc. But if they settled in these gardens of Eden, they would not need to travel they would not need to take a long multiple infants or carry old people and that allowed for population growth. By this time humans had expanded into most areas of the world and now if the population grew in one area they would need to figure out a way to support that population and they might begin to grow crops and domesticate animals.
Once established and agrarian society can support 20 to 30 times the population of Hunter gathers and as they continue to spread there would be any conflict between groups for resources. And as the agrarian society’s got bigger more people were interacting on more different levels and collective learning was enhanced. This collective learning allowed for the immense technical progress and is the remarkable unique ability of Homo sapiens. Also the agricultural era resulted in increased diseases, more stressful life, and more violence and killing.
One of the first large agrarian cities was Sumer in what is now Iraq. It started about 5000 years ago. About 3000 years ago they develop a written language which probably came from accounting where you had symbols for sheep or grain etc. but eventually evolved into a written language.
Agrarian cities did not appear in tropical areas because in tropical areas the fruits and vegetables that were available remained on the tree or in the ground until they were ready to eat it. In more temperate areas grains were grown and had to be harvested all at once and then stored requiring systems of taxation and governing bodies to organize.
The book continues with these broad themes up to the present day in which the author presents the possibility of a human caused environmental apocalypse. He then finally suggests that there are some alternative possibilities.
A few interesting (to me) notes:
In the beginning there was a dense amount of matter which then exploded in the Big Bang. The resulting plasma a mixture of energy matter eventually coalesced into protons and electrons which forms the first two elements hydrogen and helium. These elements coalesced into massive suns and began to burn. The suns then crashed together and exploded creating massive amounts of energy and formed all of the other elements. So, my wedding band really is made up of stardust. With the coalescence of these particles the planets and moons and solar systems developed.
In 1952 Miller and Urey put methane, hydrogen, ammonia, and water in an enclosed container heated it and shot electric sparks through it. Amino acids, nucleotides, and sugars formed. Similar experiments have formed lipids out of basic elements.
It’s a stunning story and does away with the need for any master creating God-like force in the creation of life in the universe.
There were 20 or 30 hominids species of which Homo sapiens was the only one that did not go extinct.
The increase brain size of the chimps was probably due to the increase visual cortex. You just need a lot of computing power to analyze the visual information. Do you needed stereoscopic vision and she needed a possible forms and very good digital manipulation to find your way through the trees.
The hominid, Lucy, found an old of a gorge was named after the Beatles song Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds because the paleontologists had been listening to that song around that time.
Bipedalism developed before the development of large brains. Lucy was clearly bipedal but had a small brain.
Human and chimp DNA differs by about 1% which represents 7 million years. Prior to genetic dating it was thought to be 20 million years.
The Paleolithic period, the period in which man used stone tools, is often looked at as static in which nothing changed and it is skipped over by historians. It lasted from about 250,000 years ago to about 5,000 years ago when writing began in Mesopotamia. It is assumed by many that nothing happens in this period but actually many things did. The main three changes were in climate, in the growth of a population and migration, and in the beginnings of the ability to change the environment.
Migration of humans within Africa and south east Asia was nothing remarkable. Many other species such as elephants and tigers made the same migration. However, the migration to Sahul which was a continent that consisted of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia required crossing 40 miles of water. It required great organization of large numbers of people, and new seafaring technology. Upon arriving in Australia humans met a new landscape with new flora and fauna that they had never experienced before.
40,000 to 30,000 years ago humans begin migrate to be steppes of Ukraine and eastern Russia and this too required tremendous adaptation.
In Paleolithic villages in the Ukraine during the Ice Age temperatures in the winter would average 30 below. People live in these areas by making houses out of mammoth tusks, bones, and skin and made tight fitting clothing using. They had to manage fire. They stored mammoth meat in the ground and then could dig them up and start a fire over them to eat during the winter. The heat in their houses with fire and lighted them with oil lamps. Incredible adaptation.
The third major adaptation during the Paleolithic era was in humans change in the environment. One way they did this was by fire. They had controlled burnings to attract game and limit the buildup of flammable substance which could cause a devastating fire. This was done in Australia, North America and throughout paleolithic world. In fact, the environment that Europeans found in Australia dominated by eucalyptus was predominantly created by burning of areas in which eucalyptus trees resistance allowed it to remain. The landscape of Australia was just as much man-made as the English gardens of Great Britain.
The other environmental change caused by humans were the mega fauna extinctions. These extensions align very closely to the introduction of humans into an area in Australia, the Americas, and in Russia.,
The total biomass of domesticated animals is about 20 to 25 times greater than the total mass of biomass of non-domesticated animals
About 10,000 years ago agriculture started to be developed in Mesopotamia, in the Americas, in Papua New Guinea and then in Africa. How did these simultaneous beginnings of agriculture occur and why.?
It turns out that agricultural did not necessarily offer a better standard of living as evidenced by archaeological evidence that agriculturalists were shorter than their hunter gatherer neighbors.
The author proposes that the beginning of agriculture, was not something that people were drawn to but something that people were pushed towards. Hunter-gatherer societies in the Paleolithic times had immense amounts of information about the plants and animals surrounding them and they certainly had the knowledge of how to harvest crops and maybe even domesticate animals. Agriculture appeared 8-12,000 years ago in various parts of the world at nearly the same time. Was it such a good idea that it spread through diffusion. The problem with this is that it certainly was not a new idea. Another theory is that about 10,000 years ago the most recent Ice Age was ending and it may have allowed for the developing of spots that were like garden of Eden spots where there was so much abundance that people did not have to travel to get their food. Hunter gatherers were very good at keeping their populations down either by infanticide or prolonged breast-feeding etc. But if they settled in these gardens of Eden, they would not need to travel they would not need to take a long multiple infants or carry old people and that allowed for population growth. By this time humans had expanded into most areas of the world and now if the population grew in one area they would need to figure out a way to support that population and they might begin to grow crops and domesticate animals.
Once established and agrarian society can support 20 to 30 times the population of Hunter gathers and as they continue to spread there would be any conflict between groups for resources. And as the agrarian society’s got bigger more people were interacting on more different levels and collective learning was enhanced. This collective learning allowed for the immense technical progress and is the remarkable unique ability of Homo sapiens. Also the agricultural era resulted in increased diseases, more stressful life, and more violence and killing.
One of the first large agrarian cities was Sumer in what is now Iraq. It started about 5000 years ago. About 3000 years ago they develop a written language which probably came from accounting where you had symbols for sheep or grain etc. but eventually evolved into a written language.
Agrarian cities did not appear in tropical areas because in tropical areas the fruits and vegetables that were available remained on the tree or in the ground until they were ready to eat it. In more temperate areas grains were grown and had to be harvested all at once and then stored requiring systems of taxation and governing bodies to organize.
The book continues with these broad themes up to the present day in which the author presents the possibility of a human caused environmental apocalypse. He then finally suggests that there are some alternative possibilities.
June 27, 2020
David Christian did his PhD on the diet of 19th century Russian peasants. What qualifies him to explain the entire universe from its birth until now? He's pretty funny. He has a lush speaking voice. And turns out that an obsession with food creation and consumption gives you a pretty sharp lens on history.
Christian has neat insights on stories I thought I'd heard a gazillion times before:
1. Humans have only limited time and resources to check out facts, so we either base belief on evidence or authority. Science is based on evidence. As you might expect. But it's also based on authority too, because we trust the scientific process.
2. The Big Bang only created very light elements. The heavy elements got forged in stars much later.
3. Power from above differs from power from below. Power from below is what happened in egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands. Power-from-above is extractive and abusive. But even the worst, most tyrannical power-from-above states had to get some power from below, and they usually did this by accumulating extra stuff and giving it to their minions. Thanks, agriculture. :(
3. For tribute-taking states, taking resources was much cheaper than creating them through trade or innovation. Thus, kings and such didn't care about innovation. They despised merchants. That's why the agrarian era went on for so long, despite isolated changes. Back then, military power created wealth, instead of today, when wealth creates military power. Generally speaking.
4. Accountants invented writing! Yup, look up ancient Sumer. The scribes needed to keep track of all the barley and lentils. So let's thank ancient CPA's for everything from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Darmok & Jalad at Tanagra.
5. Rye grain enabled the Russian nation to exist in the first place. It's the only grain that could have grown on the cold steppes. I don't have to trust David Christian's authority on this. The evidence is proved by the ridiculous extent to which my Russian husband bakes delicious rye bread.
6. Vodka licenses made up 40% of the 19th Century Russian Empire's revenues.
Some critiques:
1. Christian spends some time talking about the "Columbian Exchange" (trade between the Old World and New during the early modern age). But he doesn't mention that PEOPLE were the main part of this exchange. I.E. slavery.
2. In his last 6 episodes, Christian jumps wayyy too hard on the "Capitalism and Globalism will solve all our problems" wagon. I'm a neoliberal shill, and I still think he needs to slow down here.
3. David Christian has teamed up with Bill Gates to get this curriculum to replace World History throughout high schools. Now, I enjoyed David Christian's class almost as much as Bill Gates did. But do I think it should replace World History? Probably not. David Christian can teach Big History amazingly well. It's what makes him tick. But it won't work for a lot of teachers -- because stuffing an extra 13 billion years into the curriculum means teachers won't have space to delve into what they love the most.
The person who makes the most sense on teaching history is Dan Carlin. Dan Carlin is a grumpy podcaster who loves war history, the gorier the better. He argues that history isn't a story of dates and facts, no matter how big. History is a way to see how one thing develops from another, how you can apply critical thinking to change. And sometimes you need to focus very narrowly on one person or place or subject to see how the world evolves. Carlin argues we should let students study what they love the most, whether it's the history of baseball or fashion or motorcycles. And in that vein, history teachers need flexibility to share what they love the most.
My 7th grade history teacher couldn't stop talking about Ibn Battuta. We considered my teacher officially obsessed. But learning about this one 14th century Moroccan traveler was such a wonderful way to learn geography, trace trade routes across Asia and Africa, and really set the stage for the global collision that was about to follow in the 15th century.
So let's give educators (and kids) space for their obsessions. Just think... if David Christian hadn't been so gosh-darn preoccupied with peasant bread and vodka in the first place, his brain wouldn't have gotten so big, and we'd never have gotten his course.
Christian has neat insights on stories I thought I'd heard a gazillion times before:
1. Humans have only limited time and resources to check out facts, so we either base belief on evidence or authority. Science is based on evidence. As you might expect. But it's also based on authority too, because we trust the scientific process.
2. The Big Bang only created very light elements. The heavy elements got forged in stars much later.
3. Power from above differs from power from below. Power from below is what happened in egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands. Power-from-above is extractive and abusive. But even the worst, most tyrannical power-from-above states had to get some power from below, and they usually did this by accumulating extra stuff and giving it to their minions. Thanks, agriculture. :(
3. For tribute-taking states, taking resources was much cheaper than creating them through trade or innovation. Thus, kings and such didn't care about innovation. They despised merchants. That's why the agrarian era went on for so long, despite isolated changes. Back then, military power created wealth, instead of today, when wealth creates military power. Generally speaking.
4. Accountants invented writing! Yup, look up ancient Sumer. The scribes needed to keep track of all the barley and lentils. So let's thank ancient CPA's for everything from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Darmok & Jalad at Tanagra.
5. Rye grain enabled the Russian nation to exist in the first place. It's the only grain that could have grown on the cold steppes. I don't have to trust David Christian's authority on this. The evidence is proved by the ridiculous extent to which my Russian husband bakes delicious rye bread.
6. Vodka licenses made up 40% of the 19th Century Russian Empire's revenues.
Some critiques:
1. Christian spends some time talking about the "Columbian Exchange" (trade between the Old World and New during the early modern age). But he doesn't mention that PEOPLE were the main part of this exchange. I.E. slavery.
2. In his last 6 episodes, Christian jumps wayyy too hard on the "Capitalism and Globalism will solve all our problems" wagon. I'm a neoliberal shill, and I still think he needs to slow down here.
3. David Christian has teamed up with Bill Gates to get this curriculum to replace World History throughout high schools. Now, I enjoyed David Christian's class almost as much as Bill Gates did. But do I think it should replace World History? Probably not. David Christian can teach Big History amazingly well. It's what makes him tick. But it won't work for a lot of teachers -- because stuffing an extra 13 billion years into the curriculum means teachers won't have space to delve into what they love the most.
The person who makes the most sense on teaching history is Dan Carlin. Dan Carlin is a grumpy podcaster who loves war history, the gorier the better. He argues that history isn't a story of dates and facts, no matter how big. History is a way to see how one thing develops from another, how you can apply critical thinking to change. And sometimes you need to focus very narrowly on one person or place or subject to see how the world evolves. Carlin argues we should let students study what they love the most, whether it's the history of baseball or fashion or motorcycles. And in that vein, history teachers need flexibility to share what they love the most.
My 7th grade history teacher couldn't stop talking about Ibn Battuta. We considered my teacher officially obsessed. But learning about this one 14th century Moroccan traveler was such a wonderful way to learn geography, trace trade routes across Asia and Africa, and really set the stage for the global collision that was about to follow in the 15th century.
So let's give educators (and kids) space for their obsessions. Just think... if David Christian hadn't been so gosh-darn preoccupied with peasant bread and vodka in the first place, his brain wouldn't have gotten so big, and we'd never have gotten his course.
December 29, 2015
Gives interesting perspective on history.
October 12, 2022
About 100,000 to 60,000 years ago, a species of hominines—bipedal ape-like creatures—began to move out of its home territory in Africa and into the Asian continent. Today, homo sapiens, the descendants of those first hominines—live in nearly every ecological niche. We fly through the air in planes, communicate instantaneously over immense distances, and develop theories about the creation of the Universe. In Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity, you’ll hear this ever-evolving story—the history of everything—in its monumental entirety from the moment the Universe grew from the size of an atom to the size of a galaxy in a fraction of a second.
Taught by historian David Christian, Big History offers a unique opportunity to view human history in the context of the many histories that surround it. Over the course of 48 thought-provoking lectures, he'll serve as your guide as you traverse the sweeping expanse of cosmic history—13.7 billion years of it—starting with the big bang and traveling through time and space to the present moment.
A Grand Synthesis of Knowledge
Have you ever wondered: How do various scholarly discourses—cosmology, geology, anthropology, biology, history—fit together?
Big History answers that question by weaving a single story from a variety of scholarly disciplines. Like traditional creation stories told by the world's great religions and mythologies, Big History provides a map of our place in space and time. But it does so using the insights and knowledge of modern science, as synthesized by a renowned historian.
This is a story scholars have been able to tell only since the middle of the last century, thanks to the development of new dating techniques in the mid-1900s. As Professor Christian explains, this story will continue to grow and change as scientists and historians accumulate new knowledge about our shared past.
Eight "Thresholds"
To tell this epic, Professor Christian organizes the history of creation into eight "thresholds." Each threshold marks a point in history when something truly new appeared and forms never before seen began to arise.
Starting with the first threshold, the creation of the Universe, Professor Christian traces the developments of new, more complex entities, including:
The creation of the first stars (threshold 2)
The origin of life (threshold 5)
The development of the human species (threshold 6)
The moment of modernity (threshold 8).
In the final lectures, you'll even gain a glimpse into the future as you review speculations offered by scientists about where our species, our world, and our Universe may be heading.
Getting the "Big" Picture
While you may have heard parts of this story before in courses on geology, history, anthropology, biology, cosmology, and other scholarly disciplines, Big History provides more than just a recap. This course will expand the scope of your perspective on the past and alter the way you think about history and the world around you.
""Because of the scale on which we look at the past, you should not expect to find in it many of the familiar details, names, and personalities that you'll find in other types of historical teaching and writing,"" explains Professor Christian. ""For example, the French Revolution and the Renaissance will barely get a mention. They'll zoom past in a blur. You'll barely see them. Instead, what we're going to see are some less familiar aspects of the past. ... We'll be looking, above all, for the very large patterns, the shape of the past.""
Thanks to this grand perspective, you'll uncover the remarkable parallels and connections among disciplines that remain to be explored when you view history on a large scale. How is the creation of stars like the building of cities? How is the big bang like the invention of agriculture? These are the kinds of connections you'll find yourself pondering as you undergo the grand shift in perspective afforded by Big History.
Fascinating Facts
Along the way, you'll encounter intriguing tidbits that put the grand scale of this story in perspective, such as:
The entire expanse of human civilization—5,000 years—makes up a mere 2 percent of the human experience.
Approximately 98 percent of human history occurred before the invention of agriculture.
All the matter we know of in the Universe is likely to be no more than 1 billionth of the actual matter that was originally created.
The Earth's Moon was probably created by a collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized protoplanet.
At present, we cannot drill deeper than about 7 miles into the Earth, which is just 0.2% of the distance to the center (4,000 miles away).
Between 1000 C.E. and 2000 C.E., human populations rose by a factor of 24.
Traveling in a jet plane, it would take 5 million years to get from our solar system to the next nearest star.
The Story We Tell about Ourselves
"To understand ourselves," says Professor Christian, "we need to know the very large story, the largest story of all." And that, perhaps, is one of the greatest benefits of Big History: It provides a thought-provoking way to help us understand our own place within the Universe.
From humankind's place within the context of evolutionary history to our impact on the larger biosphere—both now and in our species' past—this course offers a broad yet nuanced examination of our place in creation. It also poses a profound question: Is it possible that our species is the only entity created by the Universe with the capacity to ponder its mysteries?
There is, perhaps, no more profound question to ask, and no better guide on this quest for understanding than Professor Christian. A pioneer in this approach to understanding history, Professor Christian has made big history his personal project for more than two decades. Working with experts in a variety of fields, he designed and taught some of the first big history courses, and has published widely on the topic.
Accept his invitation to get the big picture on Big History, and prepare for a journey through time and across space, from the first moments of existence to the distant reaches of the far future.
Taught by historian David Christian, Big History offers a unique opportunity to view human history in the context of the many histories that surround it. Over the course of 48 thought-provoking lectures, he'll serve as your guide as you traverse the sweeping expanse of cosmic history—13.7 billion years of it—starting with the big bang and traveling through time and space to the present moment.
A Grand Synthesis of Knowledge
Have you ever wondered: How do various scholarly discourses—cosmology, geology, anthropology, biology, history—fit together?
Big History answers that question by weaving a single story from a variety of scholarly disciplines. Like traditional creation stories told by the world's great religions and mythologies, Big History provides a map of our place in space and time. But it does so using the insights and knowledge of modern science, as synthesized by a renowned historian.
This is a story scholars have been able to tell only since the middle of the last century, thanks to the development of new dating techniques in the mid-1900s. As Professor Christian explains, this story will continue to grow and change as scientists and historians accumulate new knowledge about our shared past.
Eight "Thresholds"
To tell this epic, Professor Christian organizes the history of creation into eight "thresholds." Each threshold marks a point in history when something truly new appeared and forms never before seen began to arise.
Starting with the first threshold, the creation of the Universe, Professor Christian traces the developments of new, more complex entities, including:
The creation of the first stars (threshold 2)
The origin of life (threshold 5)
The development of the human species (threshold 6)
The moment of modernity (threshold 8).
In the final lectures, you'll even gain a glimpse into the future as you review speculations offered by scientists about where our species, our world, and our Universe may be heading.
Getting the "Big" Picture
While you may have heard parts of this story before in courses on geology, history, anthropology, biology, cosmology, and other scholarly disciplines, Big History provides more than just a recap. This course will expand the scope of your perspective on the past and alter the way you think about history and the world around you.
""Because of the scale on which we look at the past, you should not expect to find in it many of the familiar details, names, and personalities that you'll find in other types of historical teaching and writing,"" explains Professor Christian. ""For example, the French Revolution and the Renaissance will barely get a mention. They'll zoom past in a blur. You'll barely see them. Instead, what we're going to see are some less familiar aspects of the past. ... We'll be looking, above all, for the very large patterns, the shape of the past.""
Thanks to this grand perspective, you'll uncover the remarkable parallels and connections among disciplines that remain to be explored when you view history on a large scale. How is the creation of stars like the building of cities? How is the big bang like the invention of agriculture? These are the kinds of connections you'll find yourself pondering as you undergo the grand shift in perspective afforded by Big History.
Fascinating Facts
Along the way, you'll encounter intriguing tidbits that put the grand scale of this story in perspective, such as:
The entire expanse of human civilization—5,000 years—makes up a mere 2 percent of the human experience.
Approximately 98 percent of human history occurred before the invention of agriculture.
All the matter we know of in the Universe is likely to be no more than 1 billionth of the actual matter that was originally created.
The Earth's Moon was probably created by a collision between the young Earth and a Mars-sized protoplanet.
At present, we cannot drill deeper than about 7 miles into the Earth, which is just 0.2% of the distance to the center (4,000 miles away).
Between 1000 C.E. and 2000 C.E., human populations rose by a factor of 24.
Traveling in a jet plane, it would take 5 million years to get from our solar system to the next nearest star.
The Story We Tell about Ourselves
"To understand ourselves," says Professor Christian, "we need to know the very large story, the largest story of all." And that, perhaps, is one of the greatest benefits of Big History: It provides a thought-provoking way to help us understand our own place within the Universe.
From humankind's place within the context of evolutionary history to our impact on the larger biosphere—both now and in our species' past—this course offers a broad yet nuanced examination of our place in creation. It also poses a profound question: Is it possible that our species is the only entity created by the Universe with the capacity to ponder its mysteries?
There is, perhaps, no more profound question to ask, and no better guide on this quest for understanding than Professor Christian. A pioneer in this approach to understanding history, Professor Christian has made big history his personal project for more than two decades. Working with experts in a variety of fields, he designed and taught some of the first big history courses, and has published widely on the topic.
Accept his invitation to get the big picture on Big History, and prepare for a journey through time and across space, from the first moments of existence to the distant reaches of the far future.
December 27, 2024
I loved this series, super interesting and insightful. One of my top 5 on great courses.
September 17, 2018
I'd compare the taking of this course to injecting an insultingly large amount of DMT before being spahgettified at the event boundary of a super massive black hole.
Let's unpack that a bit.
The first lecture starts off innocently enough with some artificial trumpet fan-fair and a humble lecturer giving you a brief overview of the topics to be covered. You are then jarringly, and in an arguably abusive manner, catapulted out of your current mental framework and forced into a god-like, über-macro perspective over the birth and subsequent development of complexity in our Universe. I listened to these lectures during my commute to and from work and I often arrived at my destination in a state which could best be described as a "slack-jawed yokel" where I was entirely unable to devote even the slightest modicum of attention to whatever tasks required my focus. How does one smoothly transition from being lectured about supernovae and the very birth of complex chemical elements to filling out credit card payment forms and trying to remember if your dental appointment was tomorrow or next week?
This is not a joke - be prepared for this course to shake your day-to-day motivational framework to its very core.
David Christian is the Father of the field of Big History and, let me say, it does not get any bigger or more grandeur than this. With 13.7 billion years of history covered in a bit under 30 hours of lectures, this isn't your High School AP History class, this is Usain-Bolt-strapped-to-a-rocket-ship-on-meth History. You read that right, not even just Usain Bolt on meth, the *Rocket Ship* is on meth. Strap in.
Christian will, at a high level, cover these topics
- the expansion of the universe and the creation of time itself
- the formation and death of stars
- the creation of the chemical elements
- the formation and life cycle of planets
- the formation and maturation of our own planet
- the origin of life on Earth
- the evolution of ever more complex forms of life
- the many important epochs of human development
- an overview of where we are today and where it can all possibly go from here
This course really does cover the entire history of the Universe from the largest perspective possible.
The most interesting part of this course is, in my humble opinion, the framework, pioneered and introduced by Christian, for extracting and analyzing the pattern of ever increasing complexity and emergent properties in our universe. This is where the true value of the course resides, in providing a framework for "seeing the forest for the trees". This framework given to us by Christian allows us to see parallels between events that appear to be completely unrelated; the formation of stars and the birth of the agricultural revolution, the orbital radius of the earth around the sun and the required wealth inequality in capitalistic systems, the transition from eukaryotic to prokaryotic life and the formation of the global internet, the last gasps of dying stars and the tragic wars between nation states. The true value of information lays not just in raw facts but in the ability to see trends and draw patterns out of these facts, and in this regard this course absolutely excels.
I'll likely go back and retake this course a few more times, whenever I feel that I'm being "too" down to earth and need to feel like the late, great, Carl Sagan has snuck into my bedroom and slapped me across the face.
Cannot. Recommend. Enough.
Let's unpack that a bit.
The first lecture starts off innocently enough with some artificial trumpet fan-fair and a humble lecturer giving you a brief overview of the topics to be covered. You are then jarringly, and in an arguably abusive manner, catapulted out of your current mental framework and forced into a god-like, über-macro perspective over the birth and subsequent development of complexity in our Universe. I listened to these lectures during my commute to and from work and I often arrived at my destination in a state which could best be described as a "slack-jawed yokel" where I was entirely unable to devote even the slightest modicum of attention to whatever tasks required my focus. How does one smoothly transition from being lectured about supernovae and the very birth of complex chemical elements to filling out credit card payment forms and trying to remember if your dental appointment was tomorrow or next week?
This is not a joke - be prepared for this course to shake your day-to-day motivational framework to its very core.
David Christian is the Father of the field of Big History and, let me say, it does not get any bigger or more grandeur than this. With 13.7 billion years of history covered in a bit under 30 hours of lectures, this isn't your High School AP History class, this is Usain-Bolt-strapped-to-a-rocket-ship-on-meth History. You read that right, not even just Usain Bolt on meth, the *Rocket Ship* is on meth. Strap in.
Christian will, at a high level, cover these topics
- the expansion of the universe and the creation of time itself
- the formation and death of stars
- the creation of the chemical elements
- the formation and life cycle of planets
- the formation and maturation of our own planet
- the origin of life on Earth
- the evolution of ever more complex forms of life
- the many important epochs of human development
- an overview of where we are today and where it can all possibly go from here
This course really does cover the entire history of the Universe from the largest perspective possible.
The most interesting part of this course is, in my humble opinion, the framework, pioneered and introduced by Christian, for extracting and analyzing the pattern of ever increasing complexity and emergent properties in our universe. This is where the true value of the course resides, in providing a framework for "seeing the forest for the trees". This framework given to us by Christian allows us to see parallels between events that appear to be completely unrelated; the formation of stars and the birth of the agricultural revolution, the orbital radius of the earth around the sun and the required wealth inequality in capitalistic systems, the transition from eukaryotic to prokaryotic life and the formation of the global internet, the last gasps of dying stars and the tragic wars between nation states. The true value of information lays not just in raw facts but in the ability to see trends and draw patterns out of these facts, and in this regard this course absolutely excels.
I'll likely go back and retake this course a few more times, whenever I feel that I'm being "too" down to earth and need to feel like the late, great, Carl Sagan has snuck into my bedroom and slapped me across the face.
Cannot. Recommend. Enough.
November 14, 2019
Big History is awesome. David Christian takes you from the Big Bang, to the formation of stars, to the development of new chemical elements, to the construction of our planet, to the beginnings and evolution of life, to the emergence of human beings, to the revolution of agriculture, and, finally, the modern revolution. All of this he does with wit, humor, and a clear passion for his subject that shows through in his erudite knowledge. Along the way, he discusses complexity, dealing with different time scales, and the perennial problem of the law of entropy: how does complex life (or complex anything) emerge in a universe governed by the second law of thermodynamics? As a religious person, this is a question that has intensely interested me. And I must say that the answers he provides were stellar. I've become a big fan of Big History through this course, and am glad that David Christian's work is making it into more schools and classrooms the world over.
For my own reference and that of others, here's the outline of each 30-minute lecture. (Taken from The Great Courses website about Big History.)
1 What Is Big History?
2 Moving across Multiple Scales
3 Simplicity and Complexity
4 Evidence and the Nature of Science
5 Threshold 1—Origins of Big Bang Cosmology
6 How Did Everything Begin?
7 Threshold 2—The First Stars and Galaxies
8 Threshold 3—Making Chemical Elements
9 Threshold 4—The Earth and the Solar System
10 The Early Earth—A Short History
11 Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Geography
12 Threshold 5—Life
13 Darwin and Natural Selection
14 The Evidence for Natural Selection
15 The Origins of Life
16 Life on Earth—Single-celled Organisms
17 Life on Earth—Multi-celled Organisms
18 Hominines
19 Evidence on Hominine Evolution
20 Threshold 6—What Makes Humans Different?
21 Homo sapiens—The First Humans
22 Paleolithic Lifeways
23 Change in the Paleolithic Era
24 Threshold 7—Agriculture
25 The Origins of Agriculture
26 The First Agrarian Societies
27 Power and Its Origins
28 Early Power Structures
29 From Villages to Cities
30 Sumer—The First Agrarian Civilization
31 Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions
32 The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made
33 Long Trends—Expansion and State Power
34 Long Trends—Rates of Innovation
35 Long Trends—Disease and Malthusian Cycles
36 Comparing the World Zones
37 The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era
38 Threshold 8—The Modern Revolution
39 The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500–1350
40 The Early Modern Cycle, 1350–1700
41 Breakthrough—The Industrial Revolution
42 Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900
43 The 20th Century
44 The World That the Modern Revolution Made
45 Human History and the Biosphere
46 The Next 100 Years
47 The Next Millennium and the Remote Future
48 Big History—Humans in the Cosmos
For my own reference and that of others, here's the outline of each 30-minute lecture. (Taken from The Great Courses website about Big History.)
1 What Is Big History?
2 Moving across Multiple Scales
3 Simplicity and Complexity
4 Evidence and the Nature of Science
5 Threshold 1—Origins of Big Bang Cosmology
6 How Did Everything Begin?
7 Threshold 2—The First Stars and Galaxies
8 Threshold 3—Making Chemical Elements
9 Threshold 4—The Earth and the Solar System
10 The Early Earth—A Short History
11 Plate Tectonics and the Earth's Geography
12 Threshold 5—Life
13 Darwin and Natural Selection
14 The Evidence for Natural Selection
15 The Origins of Life
16 Life on Earth—Single-celled Organisms
17 Life on Earth—Multi-celled Organisms
18 Hominines
19 Evidence on Hominine Evolution
20 Threshold 6—What Makes Humans Different?
21 Homo sapiens—The First Humans
22 Paleolithic Lifeways
23 Change in the Paleolithic Era
24 Threshold 7—Agriculture
25 The Origins of Agriculture
26 The First Agrarian Societies
27 Power and Its Origins
28 Early Power Structures
29 From Villages to Cities
30 Sumer—The First Agrarian Civilization
31 Agrarian Civilizations in Other Regions
32 The World That Agrarian Civilizations Made
33 Long Trends—Expansion and State Power
34 Long Trends—Rates of Innovation
35 Long Trends—Disease and Malthusian Cycles
36 Comparing the World Zones
37 The Americas in the Later Agrarian Era
38 Threshold 8—The Modern Revolution
39 The Medieval Malthusian Cycle, 500–1350
40 The Early Modern Cycle, 1350–1700
41 Breakthrough—The Industrial Revolution
42 Spread of the Industrial Revolution to 1900
43 The 20th Century
44 The World That the Modern Revolution Made
45 Human History and the Biosphere
46 The Next 100 Years
47 The Next Millennium and the Remote Future
48 Big History—Humans in the Cosmos
June 23, 2015
Listened to the audiobook. I came across this course on Bill Gates website Gates Notes. Gates reads and reviews books and posts his thoughts on his site. He's a big consumer of Great Courses and I listened to this off his recommendation. It's a fantastic course and Professor David Christian is excellent. A word of caution however. Though listed as history, this book is more akin to Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (which I can't recommend highly enough). Therefore, it's not a traditional history story. It's more a history of the planet starting with the big bang and progressing through increasing levels of complexity until we arrive at modern humans. It's about large changes in the planet and in society and can drag on and be a bit dry at times. Personally, I thought the course could have been several hours shorter. Christian is a clear, articulate lecturer and the content is interesting. Just understand that it's a long course and your attention may waver.
June 15, 2017
In Big History, the lecturer attempts to cover, in a very broad overview, the history of the entire universe and our place in it. He starts at the Big Bang, then covers the formation of the universe, galaxies, stars, and planets. He then moves on to describe how our planet formed and how life arose. This covers the first 1/2 of the series.
In the second 1/2, he describes how humans evolved. He explains the development of humans and their societies in the Paleolithic and Neolithic and modern periods. It is quite a good course and covers a variety of fields of study. I enjoyed the first half much more than the second. I thought that the second dragged a bit and maybe got a bit too detailed rather than staying with the big picture. All in all, though, it was enjoyable and enlightening.
In the second 1/2, he describes how humans evolved. He explains the development of humans and their societies in the Paleolithic and Neolithic and modern periods. It is quite a good course and covers a variety of fields of study. I enjoyed the first half much more than the second. I thought that the second dragged a bit and maybe got a bit too detailed rather than staying with the big picture. All in all, though, it was enjoyable and enlightening.
May 30, 2018
While I really appreciated the idea of this lecture series and most of the content, I found sections of it murderously boring; I think if he cut out about 5 of the 24 hours and left out some of the repetition, it would have held my attention much better. When he has already, clearly, made a point and keeps circling back to it, I tend to zone out. That being said, the attempt to view all of the sciences as one unified story, I think, will be of great importance moving forward. Christian does a good job of surveying all the different disciplines, picking certain aspects that unify, and telling it all as one story; again, the idea is fascinating, if, amazingly daunting. I have seen this trend other places and am hopeful that this sort of teaching and thinking will encourage broader perspectives.
March 9, 2014
Powerful series of 48 lectures tracing history from the Big Bang to today. Particular emphasis on the major thresholds from the superheated period of subatomic particles shortly after the Big Bang to the emergence of elements as the universe cooled to the formation of stars and planets. Fascinating context for the emergence of life on earth and the comparatively recent appearance of multi-cellular organisms before getting to human history around lecture 30. On these time scales, Homo sapiens arrived on the scene just moments ago and modern society as we know it comprises less than an instant and has no special claim to durability. For me, these lectures were a life experience. Highly recommended.
April 24, 2015
Good course. Since I'm older and over my years of schooling I took courses in cosmology, astrology, geography, world and american history, anthropology and economics, so really there wasn't much I didn't know about, but I believe I will pass it on to my daughters who didn't get that good an education, living as they are in a backwards state of the US that just passed a law so people can now carry conceled weapons without a permit, and therefore without training and likely without a background check to know if they're drug abusers, ex convicts or psychotic. I really wished he would have said something, anything, against genetic engineering, but he only mentioned it as a good thing, aggh! Also, I think he should change his name to something like Isis Inca.
October 16, 2015
This course spoke to my soul. I've always been interested in so many things it was hard to focus on just one. This course brought everything together; science, history, philosophy, psychology, biology, astronomy, the future, anthropology, archeology, evolution, plate tectonics. I could go on and on but now I'm going to have to find a book (or 5) to read. I've come home and it's wonderful.
Oh and I also appreciated how the professor made me understand why people of the past may have thought the way they did and why. Sometimes it's easy to brush off those older generations as silly and make fun of what they thought was true. But we stand on their shoulders and would not be where we are now if it wasn't for them.
Oh and I also appreciated how the professor made me understand why people of the past may have thought the way they did and why. Sometimes it's easy to brush off those older generations as silly and make fun of what they thought was true. But we stand on their shoulders and would not be where we are now if it wasn't for them.
April 8, 2015
A fantastic concept and execution. Looking at history in this way is a real joy and gives a whole different perspective. We humans are a little dot in the history of the universe and it's humbling.
The only downside is very personal I guess, because as an audiobook I think I loose myself too much. The numbers are hard to track because the huge differences in magnitude (I can keep track of 1800 vs 1700, but 20 000 vs 200 000 quickly throws me off) so I think I would need to see them as they're said. This course would be best as a video, or maybe even a book. As an audiobook it's a bit hard. At least for me. Still recommend it though!
The only downside is very personal I guess, because as an audiobook I think I loose myself too much. The numbers are hard to track because the huge differences in magnitude (I can keep track of 1800 vs 1700, but 20 000 vs 200 000 quickly throws me off) so I think I would need to see them as they're said. This course would be best as a video, or maybe even a book. As an audiobook it's a bit hard. At least for me. Still recommend it though!
August 9, 2018
I'm used to history courses that covered fairly limited periods, a hundred years, usually less. This course covers more than 13 billion years. It's an interesting perspective. I found a number of facts startling. 1) If an asteroid hadn't taken out the dinosaurs we would probably not be here because we mostly hid from those behemoths; 2) We are quite possibly one of the most complex things in the universe; 3) Darwin was a rich kid who got to spend all of his time doing science; 4) The sun will eventually burn itself out and turn into a black dwarf. It's nice to contemplate the early days of homo sapiens, but as always history is basically a nightmare.
May 7, 2021
I loved this Big History course. I know Big History isn't perfect because of how it generalizes or simplifies but I find that for me (not a scientist) I need a good context to organize new info on Non-Fiction Science/History books. And this book delivers that accompanied by the evidence for most topics and how scientists came about it.
I loved learning about the process of fusion in stars, how we recently found out about Earth's age, How to build a Civilization, Malthusian and Keynesian Cycles, and the future trends. Would definitely recommend, I did a lesson a day (30 min each) every morning.
I loved learning about the process of fusion in stars, how we recently found out about Earth's age, How to build a Civilization, Malthusian and Keynesian Cycles, and the future trends. Would definitely recommend, I did a lesson a day (30 min each) every morning.
January 24, 2014
If only I could REMEMBER all of this!!!! My goal is to outline the key points for myself. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. No way to summarize my thoughts. I just want to read it again and maybe get every word to stick in my head. My view of history will never be the same. Of course, I always thought about history as what we can see/read/decipher from previous humans. But, our humanness started with the big bang. And, scientists and experts are seeing/deciphering more and more about us/humans.
March 8, 2014
astounding. very, very highly recommended, even for -- or perhaps most especially for -- the nonhistorians among us. a mind-blowing, detailed, riveting account of the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present, with a few suggestions of what might happen next. christian does a wonderful job making technical discussions lucid and explicable for all readers/listeners.
if the narration weren't thirty-plus hours, i'd be tempted to tackle it again immediately. this subject matter is infinitely fascinating, thanks to christian's deft, incisive marshaling of fact.
if the narration weren't thirty-plus hours, i'd be tempted to tackle it again immediately. this subject matter is infinitely fascinating, thanks to christian's deft, incisive marshaling of fact.
April 6, 2014
How many times can the author repeat the same thing? 2, 3, 54? The first part about the Big Bang Theory, formation of universe, planets and stars and the creation of Earth was breathtaking. But once we reach biology and creation of life the author becomes less structured and unclear in his explanations. Further, when the history of humanity begins the narrative becomes repetitive, explaining quite banal things such as the essence of power in human societies to the last boring detail over and over again. I quit at this point.
April 20, 2015
This was really good even if I knew 95% of it already. Christian pulls together everything we know about the history of the universe into a single course, from the Big Bang to the present day. Something I wish the girls had the patience to sit through. There are some problems — for instance, I think Christian's too pessimistic about the likelihood that humanity will innovate our way out of what he predicts is a coming worldwide ecological crash. But overall his approach brings a great perspective.
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