ビッグ・ヒストリー

Summary

このスクリプトは、宇宙がどのように複雑性を生成し、それを維持するという基本的な法則を探求する物語です。スクランブルエッグの比喻から始まり、宇宙の熱力学的法則、熱の不均勻性、星の生成、元素の形成、惑星の誕生、生命の進化、そして最後に人間とその集団学習の力までを説明し、私たちが直面する課題と共に、未来の機会を理解する重要性を強調しています。

Takeaways

• 🥚 宇宙が複雑性を作り出す過程は、熱力学の第二法則（エントロピーの法則）と相反する現象を示しています。
• 🌐 複雑性は、特定の「Goldilocks条件」の場所でのみ生成され、段階的により複雑なものが生み出されます。
• 🌟 星は複雑性をもたらすためのGoldilocks条件を作り出すことで、元素の形成や惑星の誕生を促します。
• 🚀 生物の誕生は、化学反応によって引き起こされ、生命はより複雑な化学的組み合わせを可能にします。
• 🧬 DNAは生命の情報を持ち、コピーし、変化をもたらすことで、より大きな多様性と複雑性をもたらします。
• 🌿 地球上の生命は、単細胞から多細胞へと進化し、生物の多様性が増しました。
• 🦴 恐竜の絶滅は、哺乳類の進化を促し、最終的に人類の登場をもたらしました。
• 🗣️ 人類は、言葉という強力なコミュニケーションツールを通じて集団的な学習を実現し、複雑性を増大させました。
• 🌾 農耕の開始はエネルギーの大量生産をもたらし、人類の集落がより複雑化しグローバルにつながり始めました。
• 🔥 化石燃料の発見と利用は、人類の集約的な学習と共に、現代の複雑な文明を築きました。
• ⚠️ 人類は集約的な学習の力を持つが、その力をコントロールしているわけではありません。環境への影響や核兵器の存在が示すように、私たちは大きな課題に直面しています。

Q & A

スクランブルエッグのビデオが不快に感じられる理由は何ですか？

スクランブルエッグが自らスクランブルされている様子が、宇宙が秩序から無秩序へと進むという基本的な法則である熱力学第二法則に反するため、不快に感じられることがあります。

熱力学第二法則とは何ですか？

熱力学第二法則は、宇宙が秩序と構造から無秩序と構造の欠如へと進むという一般的な傾向を持っていることを述べた法則です。

複雑性がどのように生まれるのですか？

複雑性は、宇宙の一部の地域で「ちょうどいい条件」と呼ばれる環境条件下で、少しずつより複雑なものが現れます。このプロセスは段階的に進み、各段階で複雑性がより高度化され、より脆弱で脆弱になる様子を示しています。

宇宙の初期段階で何が起こりましたか？

宇宙の初期段階では、エネルギーが独自の力として分裂し、物質がクォークからプロトンとレプトンを形成しました。これは宇宙が複雑性を獲得する上で最初の閾値を越えることでした。

星が生命の複雑性にどのように貢献しましたか？

星は、超新星爆炸などの過程で元素の周期表に含まれるすべての元素を形成する高温を生み出します。これにより、化学的に複雑な宇宙が生まれ、より多くの種類の物質を形成できるようになります。

地球が生命を育むために必要な条件は何ですか？

地球上で生命が育むために必要な条件は、エネルギーの供給、多様な化学元素の存在、および液体如水の存在です。深海の海底から熱が湧き出し、地球の表面から熱が提供されることで、生命が誕生しました。

DNAはどのように生命の複雑性を増やしましたか？

DNAは、自己の情報を含んでおり、コピーすることができます。コピーの過程でエラーが発生すると、新しい方法で生命体を作る方法が蓄積され、生命の多様性と複雑性が増大します。

人間がどの時点で複雑性の閾値を越えたとされていますか？

人間は約200,000年前に登場し、この時点で複雑性の新たな閾値を越えたとされています。なぜなら、私たちは脳を持った生物であり、リアルタイムで情報を蓄積し、学習することができます。

人類が持つ「集約的な学習」とは何ですか？

「集約的な学習」とは、人類が持つ強力なコミュニケーション能力であり、学んだことを正確に共有し、集団の記憶に蓄積できることで、個人よりも長く情報を保持できる能力です。

化石燃料の使用はどのように複雑性に影響を与えていますか？

化石燃料の使用は、エネルギーの大量供給をもたらし、人類の集約的な学習を加速させましたが、環境への影響や気候変動をもたらす可能性があり、人類が持つ複雑性に悪影響を与える可能性があります。

「大きな歴史」とは何ですか？

「大きな歴史」とは、宇宙の起源から現代の人類社会までを統括する歴史の流れであり、宇宙がどのように複雑性と脆弱性を獲得し、人類がその中でどのように創造的役割を果たしてきたかを説明します。

Outlines

00:00

🥚 宇宙の複雑性と熱力学第二法則

この段落では、スクランブルエッグが自分でスクランブルするという不安定な映像から始まり、宇宙が複雑さをどのように生成するかという謎が述べられています。熱力学第二法則（エントロピーの法則）によれば、宇宙は一般的に秩序から混乱へと進むと言われています。しかし、私たちの周りには驚くべき複雑性が存在し、それがどのように生まれたかを説明しています。宇宙は特定の「Goldilocks条件」でのみ複雑性を生成することができ、それは非常に困難であり、複雑な物体はより脆弱性と脆弱性を意味します。

05:01

🌌 宇宙の歴史と複雑性の閾値

この段落では、宇宙の歴史と複雑性の閾値について説明されています。宇宙が生まれた13.7億年前に遡り、最初の秒でエネルギーが力に分かれ、物質が形成されました。380,000年後には、水素とヘリウムの単純な原子が形成され、宇宙は「宇宙のムース」と呼ばれる単純な状態でした。しかし、微小な密度の違いが存在し、重力が原子を圧縮させ、温度が上昇し、最終的に恒星が誕生しました。恒星の死によって元素が形成され、さらに複雑な宇宙が生まれました。

10:04

🧬 生命の誕生と進化

この段落では、生命がどのように誕生し、進化して複雑さをもたらしたかが説明されています。生命は化学的なプロセスによって生まれ、DNAがその情報を保持し、コピーし、進化させます。DNAの不完全さは、進化の過程で新しい生き物が生み出されるため、複雑性が増大します。600万から8億年前までに多細胞生物が登場し、生物の多样性が増加しました。6500万年前の隕石の衝突によって恐竜が絶滅し、哺乳類が進化し、最終的に人类が登場しました。

15:06

🌍 人類の歴史と集約学習

この段落では、人類の歴史と集約学習（collective learning）の力について述べられています。人類はDNAが進化を促進するのと同じように、脳と言語を通じて情報を集約的に学び、伝達し、蓄積する能力を持っています。人類は新しい環境に適応し、農耕を始め、人口が増加し、社会が発展しました。産業革命以来、化石燃料の使用と集約学習は、人類の歴史において大きな変化をもたらしました。しかし、これらの活動は地球のGoldilocks条件を損なっている可能性があり、私たちはその影響に注意する必要があります。

📚 ビッグヒストリーと未来への挑戦

最後の段落では、ビッグヒストリーが私たちの複雑性と脆弱性を示し、私たちが直面する課題と機会を理解するための重要なツールとなる可能性について話されています。講師は、私たちの力、特に集約学習の力を強調し、未来の世代がビッグヒストリーを学び、それを理解し、地球の歴史的瞬間に直面する巨大な課題と機会に対処できるように望んでいます。

Keywords

💡スクランブルエッグ

スクランブルエッグは、卵が自分でスクランブルされている様子が描かれ、宇宙が複雑さをどのように生成するかを疑問に思わせるシーンです。このエッグは、宇宙が「むし」から複雑性へと進むべきという基本的な法則に反する例として用いられています。

💡熱力学第2法則

熱力学第2法則、またはエントロピーの法則は、宇宙が秩序と構造から無秩序と構造の欠如へと進む傾向があるという基本的な物理学の法則です。この法則は、複雑性が生成されるのを困難に思い、スクランブルエッグのような逆転が不自然に感じられる理由です。

💡複雑性

複雑性とは、システムが持つ高度な秩序や多様性、相互作用の網羅性を指す概念です。ビデオでは、複雑性は宇宙の進化の中でいくつかの「閾値」を超えることで生み出され、それがどのように人類の歴史にも影響を与えたかが説明されています。

💡Goldilocks条件

Goldilocks条件とは、複雑性を生み出すために必要な適切な環境条件のことを指します。この表現は、「ちょうどよく」という意味の「Goldilocks」から来ており、ビデオでは複雑性を生み出すための適切な温度やエネルギーのバランスを示しています。

💡閾値

閾値とは、複雑性の進化において、一つの段階から別の段階へと進むための重要なポイントを指します。ビデオでは、宇宙の歴史において複数の閾値が存在し、それぞれが新たな複雑性の生成を可能にしていることが強調されています。

💡生命

生命は、自らの複雑な組織や機能を持つ、自発的な成長や繁殖を可能にする現象です。ビデオでは、生命は化学反応によって生み出され、それがさらに進化を遂げることで複雑性を高めることが述べられています。

💡DNA

DNAは、生物の遺伝情報を持つ分子であり、生物の個体がどのように形成されるかを制御する重要な役割を果たしています。ビデオでは、DNAは複雑性を高めるために進化と学習のメカニズムとして機能し、新しい生命形態を生み出すために欠かせないものです。

💡進化

進化とは、生物種が時間の経過に伴い、遺伝子的な変化を経験し新たな特徴や種類を生み出す過程です。ビデオでは、進化は複雑性の成長を遂げることで、単細胞生物から多細胞生物、そして最終的には人類へと至る過程を示しています。

💡隕石

隕石とは、地球に落ちてくる小惑星の一部であり、地球の歴史において重要な役割を果たしています。ビデオでは、6500万年前に地球に衝突した隕石が恐竜の絶滅を引き起こし、哺乳類に代わって人類が進化するきっかけを与えたと述べられています。

💡集約学習

集約学習とは、人類が共有する知識やスキルを伝統や教育を通じて後世に伝えることを指します。ビデオでは、集約学習は人類が複雑性を持つ他の生物と区別される能力であり、文明の発展や技術の進歩に不可欠な要素とされています。

💡化石燃料

化石燃料とは、地下に長い期間閉じ込められていた炭素を含んだ燃料のことを指します。ビデオでは、化石燃料の発見と利用が人類の歴史においてエネルギーの波動をもたらし、文明の発展に大きく貢献したと述べられています。しかし、その使用には環境への影響があることが警告されています。

💡ビッグヒストリー

ビッグヒストリーとは、宇宙の起源から現代の人類社会までを統括する歴史の枠組みです。ビデオでは、ビッグヒストリーは人類が直面する課題と機会を理解するための重要な知識として提唱されています。

Highlights

The video of a self-scrambling egg defies our intuitive understanding of the universe's tendency towards increasing disorder, as described by the second law of thermodynamics.

The second law of thermodynamics, or the law of entropy, states that the universe generally moves from order to disorder.

Despite the second law, complexity can arise in the universe under specific 'Goldilocks conditions' that are just right for its creation.

The concept of 'threshold moments' in big history refers to pivotal points where complexity increases significantly, making it seem as if something new appears out of nowhere.

The universe's complexity is built stage by stage, with each new stage requiring more stringent conditions and making complex entities more fragile and vulnerable.

The story of how the universe creates complexity, despite the second law, is crucial for understanding our own existence and the nature of life.

The history of the universe began with the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, where the universe was extremely hot and contained everything from today's universe in a tiny space.

The first second after the Big Bang saw the shattering of energy into distinct forces and the formation of matter, including protons and electrons.

380,000 years after the Big Bang, simple hydrogen and helium atoms formed, marking the universe's first threshold and the beginning of its complexity.

Tiny temperature differences in the early universe led to the formation of hydrogen and helium clouds, which eventually collapsed under gravity to form the first stars.

The death of large stars in supernovae created the elements necessary for the chemical complexity of the universe, including the gold in a wedding ring.

Planets, like Earth, provided the Goldilocks conditions for life to emerge, with the right amount of energy, diversity of elements, and presence of liquid water.

Life on Earth began as simple single-celled organisms, but over 4 billion years, DNA's ability to copy itself and accumulate information led to greater complexity and diversity.

The appearance of multi-celled organisms marked a new threshold in complexity, leading to the evolution of a wide variety of life forms, including dinosaurs and eventually humans.

The asteroid impact 65 million years ago wiped out the dinosaurs but allowed mammals, and eventually humans, to flourish and further increase complexity.

Human language and collective learning have allowed us to accumulate knowledge across generations, leading to the rapid development of human civilization.

The combination of fossil fuels and collective learning has resulted in the immense complexity of our current global civilization.

Big history teaches us about our complexity, fragility, and the challenges we face, as well as our potential for collective learning and problem-solving.

The speaker advocates for the teaching of big history to young generations to help them understand and address the challenges and opportunities of our time.

Transcripts

first a video yes it is a scrambled egg

but as you look at it I hope you'll

begin to feel just slightly uneasy

because you may notice that what's

actually happening is that the egg is on

scrambling itself and you will now see

the yolk and the white have separated

and now they're going to be poured back

into the egg and we all know in our

heart of hearts that this is not the way

the universe works a scrambled egg is

mush tasty mush but it's mush an egg is

a beautiful sophisticated thing that can

create even more sophisticated things

such as chickens and we know in our

heart of hearts that the universe does

not travel from mush to complexity in

fact this gut instinct is reflected in

one of the most fundamental laws of

physics the second law of thermodynamics

or the law of entropy what that says

basically is that the general tendency

of the universe is to move from order

and structure to lack of order lack of

structure in fact to mush and that's why

that video feels a bit strange and yet

look around us what we see around us is

staggering complexity Eric pine hotter

estimates that in New York City alone

there are some 10 billion skews or

distinct commodities being traded that's

hundreds of times as many species as

there are on earth and they're being

traded by species of almost 7 billion

individuals who are linked by trade

travel and the internet into a global

system of stupendous complexity so

here's a great puzzle in a universe

ruled by the second law of

thermodynamics how is it possible to

generate the sort of complexity I've

described the sort of complexity

represented by you

and me and the convention center well

the answer seems to be the universe can

create complexity but with great

difficulty in pockets there appear what

my colleague Fred's vehicle's Goldilocks

conditions not too hot not too cold just

right for the creation of complexity and

slightly more complex things appear and

where you have slightly more complex

things you can get slightly more complex

things and in this way complexity builds

stage by stage each stage is magical

because it creates the impression of

something utterly new appearing almost

out of nowhere in the universe we refer

in big history to these moments as

threshold moments and at each threshold

the going gets tougher the complex

things get more fragile more vulnerable

the Goldilocks conditions get more

stringent and it's more difficult to

create complexity now we as extremely

complex creatures desperately need to

know this story of how the universe

creates complexity

despite the second law and why

complexity means vulnerability and

fragility and that's the story that we

tell in big history but to do it you

have to do something that may at first

sight seemed completely impossible

you have to survey the whole history of

the universe so let's do it

let's begin by winding the timeline back

13.7 billion years to the beginning of

time around us there's nothing there's

not even time or space imagine the

darkest emptiest thing you can and cube

it a gazillion times and that's where we

are and then suddenly a universe appears

an entire universe and we've crossed our

first threshold the universe is tiny

it's smaller than an atom it's

incredibly hot it contains everything

that's in today's universe so we can

imagine it's busting and it's expanding

at incredible speed and at first it's

just a blur but very quickly distinct

things begin to appear in that blur

within the first second energy itself

shatters into distinct forces including

electromagnetism and gravity and energy

does something else quite magical it

congeals to form matter quarks that will

create protons and leptons that include

electrons and all of that happens in the

first second now we move forward 380,000

years that's twice as long as humans

have been on this planet and now simple

atoms appear of hydrogen and helium now

I want to pause for a moment 380,000

years after the origins of the universe

because we actually know quite a lot

about the universe at this stage we know

above all that it was extremely simple

it consisted of huge clouds of hydrogen

and helium atoms and they have no

structure they're really a sort of

cosmic mush but that's not completely

true recent studies by satellites such

as the W map satellite have shown that

in fact there are just tiny differences

in that background what you see here the

blue areas are about a thousandth of a

degree cooler than the red areas these

are tiny differences but it was enough

for the universe to move on to the next

stage of building complexity and this is

how it worked

gravity is more powerful where there's

more stuff so where you get slightly

denser areas gravity starts compacting

clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms so

we can imagine the early universe

breaking up into a billion clouds and

each cloud is compacted gravity gets

more powerful as density increases the

temperature begins to rise at the center

of each cloud and then at the center of

each cloud the temperature crosses the

threshold temperature of ten million

degrees protons start to fuse there's a

huge release of energy and we have our

first stars from about 200 million years

after the Big Bang stars begin to appear

all through the universe billions of

them and the universe is now

significantly more interesting and more

complex stars will create the Goldilocks

conditions for crossing to new

thresholds when very large stars die

they create temperatures so high that

protons begin to fuse in all sorts of

exotic combinations to form all the

elements of the periodic table if like

me you're wearing a gold ring it was

forged in a supernova explosion so now

the universe is chemically more complex

and in the chemically more complex

universe it's possible to make more

things and what starts happening is that

around young sons young stars all these

elements combine they swirl around their

energy of the star stirs them around

they form the particles they form

snowflakes they form little dust motes

they form rocks they form asteroids and

eventually they form planets and moons

and that is how our solar system was

formed four-and-a-half billion years ago

rocky planets like our earth are

significantly more complex than stars

because they contain a much greater

diversity of materials so we've crossed

a fourth threshold of complexity now the

going gets tougher the next stage

introduces entities that are

significantly more fragile significantly

more vulnerable

but they also much more creative and

much more capable of generating further

complexity I'm talking of course about

living organisms living organisms are

created by chemistry we are huge

packages of chemicals so chemistry is

dominated by the electromagnetic force

that operates over smaller scales and

gravity which explains why you and I are

smaller than stars or planets now what

are the ideal conditions for chemistry

what are the Goldilocks conditions well

first you need energy but not too much

in the center of a star there's so much

energy that any atoms that combine will

just get busted apart again but not too

little in intergalactic space there's so

little energy that atoms can't combine

what you want is just the right amount

and planets it turns out are just right

because they're close to stars but not

too close you also need a great

diversity of chemical elements and you

need liquids such as water why well in

gases atoms move past each other so fast

that they can't hitch up in solids atoms

stuck together they can't move in

liquids they can cruise and cuddle and

link up to form molecules now where do

you find such Goldilocks conditions

well planets are great and our early

Earth was almost perfect it was just the

right distance from its star to contain

huge oceans of liquid water and deep

beneath those oceans that cracks in the

Earth's crust you got heat seeping up

from inside the earth and you've got a

great diversity of elements so at those

deep oceanic vents fantastic chemistry

began to happen and atoms combined in

all sorts of exotic combinations but of

course life is more than just exotic

chemistry how do you stabilize those

huge molecules that seem to be viable

well it's here that life introduces an

entirely new trick you don't stabilize

the individual you stabilize the

template the thing that carries

information and

allow the template to copy itself and

DNA of course is the beautiful molecule

that contains that information you'll be

familiar with the double helix of DNA

each rung contains information so DNA

contains information about how to make

living organisms and DNA also copies

itself so it copies itself and scatters

the templates through the ocean so the

information spreads notice that

information has become part of our story

the real beauty of DNA though is in its

imperfections as it copies itself once

in every billion runs there tends to be

an error and what that means is that DNA

is in effect learning it's accumulating

new ways of making living organisms

because some of those errors work so DNA

is learning and it's building greater

diversity and greater complexity and we

can see this happening over the last 4

billion years for most of that time of

life on earth living organisms have been

relatively simple single cells but they

had great diversity and inside great

complexity then from about 600 to 800

million years ago multi-celled organisms

appear you get fungi you get fish you

get plants you get and fibia

you get reptiles and then of course you

get the dinosaurs and occasionally there

are disasters sixty-five million years

ago an asteroid landed on earth near the

Yucatan Peninsula creating conditions

equivalent to those of a nuclear war and

the dinosaurs were wiped out terrible

news for the dinosaurs but great news

for our mammalian ancestors who

flourished in lanisha's left empty by

the dinosaurs and we human beings are

part of that creative evolutionary pulse

that began 65 million years ago with the

landing of an asteroid humans appeared

about 200,000 years ago and I believe we

count as a threshold in this great story

let me explain why we've seen that DNA

learns in a sense it accumulates

information

it is so slow DNA accumulates

information through random errors that

just some of which just happened to work

but DNA had actually generated a faster

way of learning it had produced

organisms with brains and those

organisms can learn in real time they

accumulate information they learn the

sad thing is when they die the

information dies with them now what

makes humans different is human language

we are blessed with a language a system

of communication so powerful and so

precise that we can share what we've

learned with such precision that it can

accumulate in the collective memory and

that means it can outlast the

individuals who learnt that information

and it can accumulate from generation to

generation and that's why as a species

we are so creative and so powerful and

that's why we have a history we seem to

be the only species in four billion

years to have this gift I call this

ability collective learning it's what

makes us different we can see that work

in the earliest stages of human history

we evolved as a species in the savanna

lands of Africa but then you see humans

migrating into new environments into

desert lands into jungles into the Ice

Age tundra of Siberia tough tough

environment into the Americas into

Australasia each migration involved

learning learning new ways of exploiting

the environment new ways of dealing with

their surroundings then ten thousand

years ago

exploiting a sudden change in global

climates with the end of the last ice

age humans learnt to farm

farming was an energy bonanza and

exploiting that energy human populations

multiplied human societies got larger

denser more interconnected and then from

about 500 years ago humans began to link

up globally through shipping through

trains through telegraph through the

internet until now we seem to form a

single

brain of almost 7 billion individuals

and that brain is learning at warp speed

and that the last 200 years something

else has happened we've stumbled on

another energy bonanza in fossil fuels

so fossil fuels and collective learning

together explain the staggering

complexity we see around us so here we

are back at the convention center we've

been on a journey or return journey 13.7

billion years I hope you agree this is a

powerful story and it's a story in which

humans play an astonishing and creative

role but it also contains warnings

collective learning is a very very

powerful force and it's not clear that

we humans are in charge of it I remember

very vividly as a child growing up in

England living through the Cuban Missile

Crisis for a few days the entire

biosphere seemed to be on the verge of

destruction and the same weapons are

still here and they're still armed if we

avoid that trap others are waiting for

us we're burning fossil fuels at such a

rate that we seemed to be undermining

the Goldilocks conditions that made it

possible for human civilizations to

flourish over the last 10,000 years

so what big history can do is show us

the nature of our complexity and

fragility and the dangers that face us

but it can also show us our power with

collective learning and now finally this

is what I want I want my grandson Daniel

and his friends and his generation

throughout the world to know the story

of big history and to know it so well

that they understand both the challenges

that face us and the opportunities that

face us and that's why a group of us are

building a free online syllabus in big

history for high schools

throughout the world we believe that big

history will be a vital intellectual

tool for them as Daniel and his

generation face the huge challenges and

also the huge opportunities ahead of

them at this threshold moment in the

history of our beautiful planet I thank

you for your attention