The history of our world in 18 minutes | David Christian | TED

Summary

The script explores the paradox of increasing complexity in a universe governed by the second law of thermodynamics. It narrates the cosmic journey from the Big Bang to the emergence of life and human civilization, highlighting 'Goldilocks conditions' as crucibles for complexity. The speaker emphasizes humanity's unique ability for collective learning through language, which has led to our current global interconnectedness and challenges, such as climate change. The presentation concludes with a call for understanding big history to navigate future challenges.

Takeaways

• 🔄 The video script discusses the concept of 'unscrambling' an egg, illustrating the second law of thermodynamics and the natural tendency of the universe to move from order to disorder.
• 🌌 The universe is described as evolving from a simple, hot state to a more complex one, with the formation of distinct forces and matter within the first second after the Big Bang.
• 🌐 The script highlights the vast complexity of human society, with an estimated 10 billion SKUs in New York City alone, surpassing the number of species on Earth.
• 🔑 The concept of 'Goldilocks conditions' is introduced as the right environmental conditions that allow for the creation and sustenance of complexity in the universe.
• 🌟 Stars are identified as crucial for creating the conditions necessary for the formation of heavier elements, contributing to the universe's chemical complexity.
• 💫 The script explains how planets, with their diverse materials and liquid environments, provide a stage for further complexity, leading to the formation of life.
• 🧬 DNA is presented as a key molecule in the evolution of life, allowing for information storage and replication, with mutations introducing diversity and complexity.
• 🌱 Life on Earth is depicted as a progression from single-celled organisms to multicellular forms, with significant evolutionary leaps marked by environmental pressures and disasters.
• 🦄 The human species is distinguished by its ability to learn collectively through language, allowing knowledge to accumulate and be passed down through generations.
• 🌍 The script emphasizes the rapid pace of human advancement, driven by collective learning and the exploitation of energy sources like fossil fuels.
• ⚠️ The narrative includes warnings about the potential dangers of human progress, such as the threat of nuclear war and the impact of climate change on the conditions that have allowed civilization to thrive.
• 📚 The importance of understanding 'big history' is underscored, as it provides a framework for recognizing both the challenges and opportunities facing future generations.

Q & A

What phenomenon does the video script describe as 'unusual' and why?

The video script describes an egg unscrambling itself as unusual because it goes against our understanding of the natural order, which is governed by the second law of thermodynamics or the law of entropy, suggesting a natural progression from order to disorder.

What is the second law of thermodynamics and how does it relate to the video's opening scene?

The second law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of entropy, states that the general tendency of the universe is to move from order and structure to a lack of order and structure, or 'mush'. It relates to the video's opening scene as the unscrambling egg defies this expected natural progression.

How does the script explain the existence of complex structures in the universe despite the second law of thermodynamics?

The script explains that the universe can create complexity in specific 'Goldilocks conditions' where the environment is neither too hot nor too cold, allowing for the emergence of slightly more complex things. This complexity builds stage by stage, creating the impression of something new appearing in the universe.

What is a 'threshold moment' in the context of the script?

A 'threshold moment' in the script refers to a significant transition point in the universe's history where a new level of complexity is achieved. These moments are characterized by the creation of something seemingly new and are considered magical because they defy the general trend of increasing entropy.

How does the script describe the process of complexity building in the universe?

The script describes the process of complexity building as a step-by-step progression where each new stage of complexity creates the conditions for the next. This is achieved through the right conditions that allow for the formation of more complex entities, such as stars, planets, and eventually living organisms.

What role do stars play in the creation of complexity in the universe according to the script?

Stars play a crucial role in creating the conditions necessary for further complexity. When very large stars die, they create high temperatures that allow for the fusion of protons in exotic combinations, forming all the elements of the periodic table. This enriches the universe's chemical complexity, enabling the formation of more complex structures.

How does the script connect the formation of planets and moons to the creation of complexity?

The script connects the formation of planets and moons to the creation of complexity by explaining that these celestial bodies, especially rocky planets like Earth, contain a much greater diversity of materials than stars. This diversity allows for the crossing of a fourth threshold of complexity, leading to the emergence of life.

Outlines

00:00

🥚 The Unscrambling Egg and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

The video script begins with an unusual video of an egg unscrambling itself, which defies our understanding of the natural order as dictated by the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that the universe tends toward disorder rather than order. Despite this, the script highlights the incredible complexity found in the world, such as the vast number of distinct commodities in New York City, which far exceed the number of species on Earth. The speaker introduces the concept of 'Goldilocks conditions' as a necessary environment for the creation of complexity, which builds stage by stage, each time becoming more fragile and requiring more precise conditions. The script sets up a puzzle: how does complexity arise in a universe that naturally moves toward disorder?

05:03

🌌 The Universe's Journey from Simplicity to Complexity

The script takes us on a cosmic journey starting from the Big Bang, explaining how the universe evolved from a simple state of hydrogen and helium atoms to a more complex one with the formation of stars. It discusses how gravity compacted these clouds, leading to the creation of the first stars and the synthesis of heavier elements in supernovae. The script then describes how these elements came together to form planets and moons, marking a significant increase in complexity. It emphasizes the importance of planets for the Goldilocks conditions necessary for chemistry and life, setting the stage for the emergence of living organisms.

10:03

🧬 The Emergence and Evolution of Life

This paragraph delves into the origins of life, highlighting the role of chemistry and the conditions necessary for life to emerge, such as the right amount of energy and the presence of liquid water. It explains how life began with simple, single-celled organisms that evolved into more complex multicellular forms over billions

Keywords

💡Scrambled Egg

The 'scrambled egg' serves as a metaphor for the second law of thermodynamics, illustrating the natural tendency of the universe to move from order to disorder. In the script, the unscrambling of an egg is presented as an anomaly, contrasting with the expected natural progression to 'mush', which is a visual representation of entropy.

💡Second Law of Thermodynamics

This law, also known as the law of entropy, is a fundamental principle in physics that dictates the direction of the universe's progression from order to disorder. The script uses the concept to highlight the counterintuitive nature of increasing complexity in the universe, despite the overall trend towards chaos.

💡Complexity

Complexity in the script refers to the intricate and interrelated structures that emerge in the universe, from the variety of commodities in New York City to the biological intricacies of life on Earth. The video discusses how complexity arises and builds upon itself in stages, challenging the second law of thermodynamics.

💡Goldilocks Conditions

The term 'Goldilocks conditions' is used to describe the specific, optimal circumstances required for the emergence of complexity. The script mentions these conditions as being 'not too hot, not too cold,' just right for fostering the development of complex structures and organisms.

💡Threshold Moments

Threshold moments are pivotal points in the development of the universe's complexity. The script refers to these as stages where new levels of complexity are achieved, such as the formation of the first stars or the emergence of life, each presenting new challenges and opportunities for further development.

💡Big History

Big history is the overarching narrative of the video, encompassing the entire history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day. It is the framework through which the script explains the development of complexity and the role of humans within this grand scheme.

💡Collective Learning

Collective learning is the ability of humans to share and accumulate knowledge across generations, a process that has accelerated the development of human societies. The script highlights this as a unique human capability that has allowed for the rapid advancement of culture and technology.

💡DNA

DNA is the molecule that carries genetic information and is central to the development and evolution of life. The script discusses DNA's role in storing information, allowing for the replication of organisms, and facilitating the process of natural selection through mutations.

💡Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels are a significant energy source that has powered the industrialization and modernization of human society. The script points out the role of fossil fuels in enabling the current level of complexity in human civilization, while also warning of the potential environmental consequences of their use.

💡Vulnerability

Vulnerability in the script refers to the fragility and susceptibility of complex systems to collapse or be disrupted. It is highlighted as an inherent characteristic of complex entities, from individual organisms to human societies, emphasizing the need for understanding and managing these vulnerabilities.

💡Big History Syllabus

The 'big history syllabus' mentioned in the script is an educational initiative aimed at teaching high school students the broad strokes of the history of the universe. It is presented as a tool to help the next generation understand the challenges and opportunities they face in the context of big history.

Highlights

Introduction of a video showing an egg unscrambling itself, challenging the natural order of the universe as per the second law of thermodynamics.

Discussion of the second law of thermodynamics, which states the universe tends towards disorder rather than order.

Contrasting the second law with the observable complexity in the world, such as the vast number of distinct commodities in New York City.

Explanation of 'Goldilocks conditions' as a prerequisite for the creation of complexity in the universe.

Description of the universe's early stages, from the Big Bang to the formation of simple atoms like hydrogen and helium.

The role of gravity in creating structures from simple cosmic 'mush' by compacting hydrogen and helium clouds.

Formation of the first stars and the creation of heavier elements through supernova explosions.

The development of our solar system and the formation of planets with diverse materials, crossing a threshold of complexity.

The emergence of life as a result of chemistry under Goldilocks conditions on planets like Earth.

The importance of DNA as a molecule that carries information and allows for the replication and evolution of life.

The evolutionary process leading to the appearance of multi-celled organisms and the diversity of life on Earth.

The impact of an asteroid causing a mass extinction event that paved the way for the rise of mammals.

The advent of humans as a significant threshold in the story of life, with unique capabilities for learning and communication.

The concept of collective learning in humans, allowing knowledge to accumulate and be passed down through generations.

The transformative effect of farming on human societies, leading to population growth and societal complexity.

The acceleration of human learning and societal complexity through global interconnectedness and technological advances.

The current challenges humanity faces, such as the misuse of collective learning and the environmental impact of fossil fuel consumption.

The call to action for understanding big history and its implications for the future, especially for the younger generation.

The initiative to create a free online syllabus in big history for high-school students to equip them with the knowledge to face global challenges.

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 unscrambling itself.

And you'll 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 Beinhocker estimates that in New York City alone,

there are some 10 billion SKUs, or distinct commodities, being traded.

That's hundreds of times as many species as there are on Earth.

And they're being traded by a species of almost seven 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 Spier,

calls "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 do something

that may, at first sight, seem completely impossible.

You have to survey the whole history of the universe.

So let's do it.

(Laughter)

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,

bang!

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 you 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 WMAP 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 works.

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,

the temperature crosses the threshold temperature

of 10 million degrees,

protons start to fuse,

there's a huge release of energy,

and --

bam!

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 two 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 a chemically more complex universe,

it's possible to make more things.

And what starts happening is that, around young suns,

young stars,

all these elements combine, they swirl around,

the energy of the star stirs them around,

they form 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're 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 than 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 are 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,

at cracks in the Earth's crust,

you've 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 you 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 rungs,

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's learning

and it's building greater diversity and greater complexity.

And we can see this happening over the last four 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 amphibia, 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 the niches 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.

But it is so slow.

DNA accumulates information through random errors,

some of which just happen 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 learned that information,

and it can accumulate from generation to generation.

And that's why, as a species, we're 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 it at 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 10,000 years ago,

exploiting a sudden change in global climate

with the end of the last ice age,

humans learned 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 global brain

of almost seven billion individuals.

And that brain is learning at warp speed.

And in 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, a return journey, of 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 are still armed.

If we avoid that trap, others are waiting for us.

We're burning fossil fuels at such a rate

that we seem 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-school students 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.

(Applause)