ビッグ・ヒストリー
Summary
TLDR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
🥚 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。
🌌 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。
🧬 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。
🌍 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。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡スクランブルエッグ
💡熱力学第2法則
💡複雑性
💡Goldilocks条件
💡閾値
💡生命
💡DNA
💡進化
💡隕石
💡集約学習
💡化石燃料
💡ビッグヒストリー
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
Посмотреть больше похожих видео
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)