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[Man Narrating]
This is the epic story of our World.
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But it's not the one We 're used to.
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It's the story
of how we almost didn't happen.
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We turn back time 4. 5 billion years...
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to our solar system
still forming around the sun.
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This planet is early Earth.
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It's at a critical distance from the sun.
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It is in this zone that liquid Water
Will be able to exist.
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Any closer and our future cities
Would burn and our oceans boil.
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Any further out
and our future freezes over.
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Earth's location
is just one of many lucky breaks.
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The next comes in the form
of cosmic disaster.
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A massive object the size of Mars
collides into early Earth.
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If the collision Were head-on,
our planet Would have shattered.
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Instead, the debris forms our moon.
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The moon is a counterbalance,
stabilizing Earth's rotation...
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Which will prevent
catastrophic swings in climate.
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Another lucky break.
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As Earth cools, the heaviest metals sink
and form a spinning core...
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sending a giant invisible force field
around the planet.
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A magnetic field that Will one day...
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protect us from deadly radiation...
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and keep our atmosphere
from blowing away.
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But since most heavy metals sank
to the core...
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Earth's surface is devoid
of the vital materials-
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the iron, tin, lead and gold-
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that We Will one day need.
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That is until Jupiter and Saturn
step in to help.
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Millions of miles away...
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these massive planets shift in their orbits...
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sending billions of metal-rich asteroids
through space...
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showering Earth...
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and replenishing our supply.
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Then another lucky break.
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Jupiter's orbit stabilizes...
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and its massive gravity begins to vacuum up
most of the remaining rocks...
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keeping our future home safe.
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Without a giant neighbor like Jupiter...
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Earth Would still be under
constant asteroid attack.
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If just a single one of these things
had not happened in precisely the right Way...
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our story Would unfold differently...
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or not begin at all.
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Earth Would not have
the minerals and metals...
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the stability...
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the seasons...
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to support the amazing saga
that is to come.
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In this special presentation,
We 'Il see that everything is connected.
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You can't look at this as tiny, little,
remote events.
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That these are huge, coupled aspects-
events-
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that themselves
are part of a larger history.
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They are big history.
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[Narrator]
We think of history as a timeline...
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a series of events stretching
a few thousand years into the past.
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It's time to think bigger.
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Instead of a line,
imagine a Web of infinite connections...
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interacting over billions of years...
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linked together to create everything
We've ever known-
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our universe...
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our planet and us.
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History as We know it
is about to get big.
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[ Man ] Big history takes events all over
the cosmos, all over the solar system...
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all over our planet, and connects them
together into a seamless whole.
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And then connects those events
in human history...
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into the context of the planet,
the solar system and the universe.
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[Narrator]
The story we just saw-
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the series of lucky breaks
that led to the formation of the Earth-
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is What big history calls
a threshold moment.
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[ Man ] The idea is basically that
the early universe, in all sorts of ways...
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was really quite simple.
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No stars, no life, no planets.
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And then gradually, over 13 billion years,
new things appear.
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And that idea provides
a great shape and structure...
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and a sort of plot line.
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We focus on a number of moments
when something critical appeared...
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and that's what we mean
by threshold moments.
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[Narrator]
In the story of big history...
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there are a total
of eight threshold moments.
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Moments When the universe
crosses a line...
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and can never turn back.
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The creation of the Earth
is the fourth threshold.
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We 'Il re veal them all...
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and uncover the surprising secret
that links them together.
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But to do that,
We have to go back to the beginning-
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the first threshold moment...
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nearly 14 billion years ago.
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A moment that had only a split second
to unfold precisely as it did...
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or the entire universe might have ended
shortly after it began.
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It is the quietest quiet
there has ever been.
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And then suddenly, out of nothing,
everything begins.
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[ Explosion ]
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It is big history's first threshold.
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The big bang.
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In a fraction of a second,
all the energy that Will ever exist...
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appears in an inconceivable flash.
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[ Benjamin ] Everything begins,
as far as we know, at this moment...
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and from the moment it appears...
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physicists can offer a very coherent account
of everything that happens since.
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[Narrator]
Before the first second has passed...
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the fundamental forces appear
that will go vern all existence forever.
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One is the gravity
that holds us to the Earth...
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and that We Will need to overcome
in order to fly.
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Another- the electromagnetism
that lets you make a cellphone call.
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[ Beeping ]
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The big bang is the creation event
that lays the ground rules.
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It lays the ground rules
of the fundamental forces-
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the strength of gravity, the speed of light...
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all of the things that Will shape
the rest of the history of the universe.
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[Narrator]And in these first few seconds,
a lot could have gone Wrong.
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If gravity had been just a tiny bit stronger...
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all of existence Would have
collapsed in on itself.
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A bit Weaker...
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and stars Would never be able to form.
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But the big bang occurred
at just the right force...
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to set our entire history in motion.
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Which is Why it's the first
of eight thresholds.
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We Will see that they are all
mysteriously connected.
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Eight thresholds that explain everything.
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Eight portals that lead to us-
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[ Heart Beating ]
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including the next one...
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the moment When the immense heat,
darkness and chaos of the early universe...
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suddenly explodes
into a trillion trillion points of light.
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[Narrator]
Big history has begun to reveal...
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the eight biggest turning points
in the story of our universe.
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Eight threshold moments...
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that Will mysteriously lead to us.
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[ Heart Beating ]
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The first-
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the big bang-
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[ Explosion ]
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exploding in just the right Way
to create forces like gravity.
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But it's still too hot to form atoms.
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All that is about to change.
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We are about to reveal
the second threshold moment.
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[ Markley ]
Only at the point of about 380,000 years...
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have things cooled enough that we can
finally get matter as we recognize it.
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Without a cooling universe,
there's no way that we or anything else...
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that has real structure would exist.
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[Narrator] The first atoms to appear
are hydrogen and helium...
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the two most basic elements.
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But their formation
is not the second threshold.
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Hydrogen and helium are just
the building blocks of the portal yet to come.
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Since all matter exerts a gravitational pull...
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giant clouds of these atoms
begin to clump together...
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into forms We recognize today.
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[ Filippenko ]
Gravity is the sculptor of the universe.
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And small variations in the density
of the universe at early times...
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led to the formation
of these gigantic structures-
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00:14:08,516 --> 00:14:12,686
galaxies and clusters of galaxies
and super clusters of galaxies...
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separated by enormous voids.
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This is mega engineering
on the largest scales.
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[Narrator]
NoW, Within these mega structures...
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trillions of smaller clouds of hydrogen
and helium begin to condense and spin.
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So gravity is working on these clouds-
crushing, condensing, compressing.
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Inside them, temperatures are increasing,
pressure is heating up.
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And eventually, once a certain temperature
is reached inside these vast clouds-
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roughly 10 million degrees Celsius-
nuclear fusion will take place.
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[Narrator]
Once these conditions are met...
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and the critical amount of atoms,
temperature and pressure come together...
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We reach another turning point-
big history's second great threshold.
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Stars light up.
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[ Markley ]
There was no light immediately before this...
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because there was nothing in the universe
to create light.
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And we hit a very significant threshold
in the history of the universe.
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"Let there be light."
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[Narrator]
From this point onward...
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the universe crosses through a portal
from Which there Will be no turning back.
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Before stars, all the energy in the universe
emanated from one source-
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the big bang.
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NoW there are sites scattered
throughout the universe...
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hot spots of energy, Warmth, density.
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The first generation of stars
light up the universe.
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But their fuel begins to run low.
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They start to burn out.
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It is With the death
of this first generation of stars-
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- [ Explosions ]
- that We cross another portal in our epic story.
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Big history's third great threshold-
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the creation of complex elements.
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Within the dying cores of stars...
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simple elements fuse into larger
and more complex atoms.
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For the first time, hydrogen and helium
create brand-new elements...
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that Will make the modern universe possible.
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[ Benjamin ]
As stars begin to run out of hydrogen...
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they heat to higher
and higher temperatures.
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They start converting helium
to more complex elements...
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and this whole process continues
right up the periodic table.
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[Narrator]As it dies,
each star becomes an element factory...
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creating just the right conditions
to form the elements.
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And once they're formed,
the universe Will never be the same.
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A star uses the ashes
of one set of nuclear reactions...
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as the fuel for the next set.
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Hydrogen to helium,
helium to carbon and oxygen...
193
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carbon and oxygen to neon and magnesium,
then silicon and sulfur...
194
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and then iron.
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[Narrator]
So more than 12 billion years ago...
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stars are creating the element...
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that Will make possible everything
from the Iron Age to the ironclads.
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[ Explosion ]
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But these dying stars don't have enough energy
to create anything heavier than iron...
200
00:18:23,937 --> 00:18:26,940
until they explode as supernovas-
201
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[ Explosion ]
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00:18:29,193 --> 00:18:32,780
the biggest blasts since the big bang.
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The intense heat and pressure
produces elements heavier than iron.
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But even these mega blasts are not enough
to create the heaviest elements...
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00:18:51,423 --> 00:18:56,178
like the gold that Will draw Europeans
across the Atlantic...
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00:18:56,261 --> 00:19:00,474
and cause millions to flood into California.
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00:19:00,557 --> 00:19:05,854
For that, you need the biggest blast of all-
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the collision between the ruins
of two supernovas...
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00:19:09,942 --> 00:19:12,319
known as neutron stars.
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00:19:15,989 --> 00:19:22,079
These new elements billow out into space,
forming new clouds...
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00:19:22,162 --> 00:19:26,124
that come together in new,
second-generation stars.
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Each time the process repeats,
more elements are created.
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00:19:34,967 --> 00:19:38,929
[ Markley ]
As you head further up that periodic table...
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00:19:39,012 --> 00:19:44,434
you are basically seeing the order of creation
and the difficulty of creation...
215
00:19:44,518 --> 00:19:47,938
and how much energy is required
to create them.
216
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[ Explosion ]
217
00:19:49,940 --> 00:19:54,945
[Narrator]
Some elements Will be abundant, others rare.
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00:19:55,028 --> 00:19:59,449
Their proportions Will have profound effects
on all of history to come.
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00:20:01,952 --> 00:20:06,290
For example, there is more silver
in the universe than there is gold...
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00:20:06,373 --> 00:20:08,542
because it requires more energy...
221
00:20:08,625 --> 00:20:13,255
and is more rare to get those events
where gold can be created.
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00:20:15,465 --> 00:20:18,886
[Narrator] But that is all Waiting
for a distant future.
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00:20:21,013 --> 00:20:26,268
It Will take eons before dying stars
create enough of the raw materials...
224
00:20:26,351 --> 00:20:32,816
like iron, nickel and calcium
to form rocky planets like Earth.
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00:20:34,484 --> 00:20:40,949
So during the first few generations of stars,
Earth-like planets can't exist...
226
00:20:41,033 --> 00:20:43,660
and neither can life.
227
00:20:46,955 --> 00:20:53,921
But billions of years after the big bang,
a newer generation of stars appears...
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00:20:54,004 --> 00:20:56,965
including our sun.
229
00:20:58,258 --> 00:21:04,014
This time there are enough new minerals
and metals to create rocky planets as Well.
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00:21:06,016 --> 00:21:09,269
[ Markley ]
It is truly mind-blowing when you realize...
231
00:21:09,353 --> 00:21:13,148
that the elements that are present
on our Earth and in our sun...
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00:21:13,231 --> 00:21:19,780
cannot exist unless there has been at least
two generations of star systems before us...
233
00:21:19,863 --> 00:21:22,074
that have lived and died.
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00:21:22,157 --> 00:21:24,326
Can you imagine?
The elements in our body...
235
00:21:24,409 --> 00:21:26,995
have to have been through this event
twice before...
236
00:21:27,079 --> 00:21:29,289
before you can get a creature like us.
237
00:21:32,250 --> 00:21:36,046
[Narrator] Early thresholds reveal
that the first atoms in the universe...
238
00:21:36,129 --> 00:21:40,634
are reincarnated throughout billions of years...
239
00:21:40,717 --> 00:21:44,054
from one element to another.
240
00:21:44,137 --> 00:21:47,307
From star to exploding star.
241
00:21:47,391 --> 00:21:50,644
From isolated early atoms...
242
00:21:50,727 --> 00:21:53,480
to the elements
that form everything around us.
243
00:21:54,898 --> 00:22:00,028
Some of the atoms in our bodies
are more than 13 billion years old.
244
00:22:01,405 --> 00:22:06,159
These are the building blocks
that will lead us to the next threshold...
245
00:22:06,243 --> 00:22:11,039
and the most mysterious turning point
in the big history of the universe-
246
00:22:12,082 --> 00:22:16,503
the one that Will finally lead to us.
247
00:22:25,929 --> 00:22:30,100
[Narrator]
Big history is a new story of mankind...
248
00:22:30,183 --> 00:22:34,771
that traces our origins
through eight pivotal moments.
249
00:22:38,942 --> 00:22:42,863
The first three-
the big bang, the birth of stars...
250
00:22:42,946 --> 00:22:45,741
the creation of complex elements-
251
00:22:45,824 --> 00:22:48,952
transform everything in the universe...
252
00:22:52,622 --> 00:22:57,544
and lead us to the fourth
monumental turning point in our big history-
253
00:22:59,629 --> 00:23:02,632
the formation of Earth.
254
00:23:06,845 --> 00:23:12,059
This is our galaxy more than
four and a half billion years ago.
255
00:23:14,102 --> 00:23:17,397
An ancient star collapses and explodes-
256
00:23:17,481 --> 00:23:19,274
[ Explosion ]
257
00:23:24,821 --> 00:23:30,077
launching a massive shock Wave
into a nearby cloud of gas and dust.
258
00:23:32,496 --> 00:23:35,749
Its force causes the cloud to spin.
259
00:23:40,045 --> 00:23:42,964
Gravity crushes and compresses it...
260
00:23:44,925 --> 00:23:49,679
sculpting the cloud and heating it up
to 10, 000 degrees.
261
00:23:52,516 --> 00:23:56,144
And from the remains
of an ancient star...
262
00:23:56,228 --> 00:23:58,563
a new one bursts into light.
263
00:24:01,817 --> 00:24:07,322
Our sun illuminates eight young planets
forming around it.
264
00:24:12,536 --> 00:24:17,791
As we've seen, a series
of improbable events noW line up...
265
00:24:17,874 --> 00:24:21,002
to push us across the fourth threshold...
266
00:24:25,590 --> 00:24:32,222
like pieces of a grand and infinite puzzle
leading to an Earth capable of sustaining life.
267
00:24:39,896 --> 00:24:42,941
First, a massive collision.
268
00:24:44,484 --> 00:24:47,404
[ Explosion ]
269
00:24:50,448 --> 00:24:55,579
It created a huge molten disk of rock
around the Earth...
270
00:24:55,662 --> 00:25:00,333
which rapidly, um, coalesced to form the moon.
271
00:25:02,169 --> 00:25:08,258
[Narrator] By a stroke of luck, our moon
is one of the largest in the solar system...
272
00:25:08,341 --> 00:25:13,471
so its gravity is powerful enough
to affect how the Earth behaves...
273
00:25:13,555 --> 00:25:17,559
giving us a steady climate
and predictable seasons.
274
00:25:19,895 --> 00:25:22,480
If it hadn't been
for the presence of the moon...
275
00:25:22,564 --> 00:25:25,775
Earth's axis of rotation would undergo...
276
00:25:25,859 --> 00:25:29,696
chaotic, giant changes in tilt.
277
00:25:29,779 --> 00:25:33,867
And this would lead
to huge disruptions in climate.
278
00:25:33,950 --> 00:25:39,039
And it's unlikely that advanced, complex
creatures such as ourselves could have evolved.
279
00:25:46,463 --> 00:25:50,300
[Narrator] But even With the stability
created by the moon...
280
00:25:50,383 --> 00:25:53,929
this young planet isn't ready
to become a home.
281
00:25:55,096 --> 00:25:59,559
Big history can't move to the next threshold
Without Water.
282
00:26:01,436 --> 00:26:06,691
And most of it was just blown away
by the heat of the moon-forming impact.
283
00:26:10,111 --> 00:26:14,407
But the chaotic early solar system
comes to the rescue.
284
00:26:16,743 --> 00:26:19,788
[ Filippenko ]
Meteoroids and asteroids rich in water...
285
00:26:19,871 --> 00:26:23,458
come from the outer parts
of the asteroid belt...
286
00:26:23,541 --> 00:26:25,961
and are thought to have brought
a lot of the water to the Earth.
287
00:26:30,298 --> 00:26:35,637
[ Christian ] You turn on a tap,
and you may well be drinking stuff...
288
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,640
that was delivered to you personally
by an asteroid...
289
00:26:38,723 --> 00:26:42,686
about four and a half billion years ago.
290
00:26:47,857 --> 00:26:49,985
[Narrator]
And noW deep in the ocean Waters...
291
00:26:50,068 --> 00:26:53,113
carried to Earth by comets and asteroids...
292
00:26:56,366 --> 00:27:03,123
We are about to Witness the fifth and most
mysterious of the big history thresholds.
293
00:27:07,377 --> 00:27:09,713
Life.
294
00:27:13,425 --> 00:27:16,011
How exactly does life emerge?
295
00:27:17,887 --> 00:27:20,849
It's one of our most profound questions.
296
00:27:25,562 --> 00:27:30,650
Some believe that life may have crash-landed
on Earth in meteors or comets.
297
00:27:32,569 --> 00:27:36,573
But most believe that life on Earth starts
With a chemical reaction...
298
00:27:38,908 --> 00:27:41,911
down in the deepest depths of the ocean...
299
00:27:46,207 --> 00:27:52,464
Where heat rising from the planet's molten core
tears apart the seafloor.
300
00:27:55,550 --> 00:27:59,637
Superheated gas and lava
vent through the cracks...
301
00:27:59,721 --> 00:28:02,223
and ignite a revolution.
302
00:28:06,895 --> 00:28:11,441
In this broiling soup,
a new kind of chemistry emerges...
303
00:28:13,443 --> 00:28:18,281
a biological blueprint for every living thing
that Will ever exist-
304
00:28:22,243 --> 00:28:26,081
a secret code called D. N.A.
305
00:28:26,164 --> 00:28:31,461
Just four chemicals
Will combine in millions of Ways...
306
00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:38,134
to instruct every cell
on how to do everything...
307
00:28:41,388 --> 00:28:45,183
beginning With bacteria...
308
00:28:45,266 --> 00:28:49,229
the simplest and oldest form of life.
309
00:28:49,312 --> 00:28:52,357
[ Benjamin ] Here's where early forms
of bacteria appeared...
310
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,569
feeding off the energy and the heat that was
coming out of these volcanic eruptions.
311
00:28:56,653 --> 00:29:00,615
Here, we think,
the first life on Earth appeared...
312
00:29:00,698 --> 00:29:03,993
beside these great undersea mountain ranges.
313
00:29:09,082 --> 00:29:15,088
[Narrator] Life is the only thing in the universe
that can store and pass along information...
314
00:29:15,171 --> 00:29:19,259
reproduce itself and evolve.
315
00:29:19,342 --> 00:29:22,804
But how does a simple
microscopic organism...
316
00:29:22,887 --> 00:29:26,516
evolve into something
as complex as a human?
317
00:29:27,684 --> 00:29:33,022
The path from bacteria to man
is a mysterious series of transformations...
318
00:29:34,691 --> 00:29:37,360
With an infinite number
of possible outcomes...
319
00:29:39,195 --> 00:29:42,282
but only one that leads to us.
320
00:29:45,201 --> 00:29:49,664
The seeds of everything
that Will happen on the future Earth...
321
00:29:49,747 --> 00:29:52,750
are all descended
from these simple beginnings.
322
00:30:00,133 --> 00:30:05,013
Earth- 542 million years ago...
323
00:30:05,096 --> 00:30:08,892
three billion years after life first appears.
324
00:30:10,435 --> 00:30:15,940
In a geological instant, the seas explode
With complex plants and animals.
325
00:30:18,568 --> 00:30:22,322
All the basic body types that Will ever exist-
326
00:30:22,405 --> 00:30:26,326
heads, mouths, eyes...
327
00:30:26,409 --> 00:30:29,078
fins that Will evolve into limbs...
328
00:30:29,162 --> 00:30:32,248
jaws and teeth-
329
00:30:32,332 --> 00:30:36,127
all of them suddenly appear.
330
00:30:41,257 --> 00:30:46,638
475 million years ago,
plants begin to spread across the land...
331
00:30:48,765 --> 00:30:52,435
transforming the Earth
into a World of lush forests...
332
00:30:52,519 --> 00:30:55,438
With abundant food and shelter.
333
00:30:55,939 --> 00:30:58,233
[ Birds Chirping ]
334
00:31:00,443 --> 00:31:06,616
Some plants evolve into trees that,
along With metals brought by meteors...
335
00:31:10,078 --> 00:31:14,123
Will become key building blocks of civilization.
336
00:31:17,961 --> 00:31:20,129
To escape the carnage in the seas...
337
00:31:21,130 --> 00:31:25,301
some creatures crawl onto land as Well.
338
00:31:27,804 --> 00:31:32,058
At first they're forced to return
to the salty seas to reproduce.
339
00:31:34,477 --> 00:31:38,064
But then they discover a Way
to bring a bit of the ocean With them.
340
00:31:41,818 --> 00:31:43,653
The egg.
341
00:31:44,988 --> 00:31:48,241
[ Man ]
When we started crawling onto the land...
342
00:31:48,324 --> 00:31:53,079
certain creatures figured out-
birds, reptiles- that they could lay eggs...
343
00:31:53,162 --> 00:31:58,293
that have a nice hard shell that kind of
keeps the salt water contained...
344
00:31:58,376 --> 00:32:00,795
in a small space for them.
345
00:32:03,923 --> 00:32:06,467
[Narrator]
The egg is a critical development.
346
00:32:07,635 --> 00:32:11,347
It allows animals
to move permanently onto land-
347
00:32:12,682 --> 00:32:16,436
animals that Will continue to evolve
and grow more complex.
348
00:32:22,609 --> 00:32:28,281
But noW big history reveals a fundamental
secret that governs all life on the planet.
349
00:32:29,365 --> 00:32:34,037
The more complex you are,
the more fragile you become.
350
00:32:36,372 --> 00:32:40,251
Some simple bacteria
can survive being frozen...
351
00:32:40,335 --> 00:32:43,713
boiled, crushed or dried out.
352
00:32:44,505 --> 00:32:48,259
Complicated animals like us cannot.
353
00:32:48,343 --> 00:32:52,639
So When the Earth is shaken
by a drastic change in climate...
354
00:32:52,722 --> 00:32:55,475
or volcanoes poison the air...
355
00:32:55,558 --> 00:32:57,810
or a giant meteor strikes...
356
00:32:57,894 --> 00:33:01,814
life faces the ultimate threat-
357
00:33:01,898 --> 00:33:03,941
extinction.
358
00:33:09,405 --> 00:33:12,742
Five times
since complex animals appear...
359
00:33:12,825 --> 00:33:16,663
more than 50 percent of all life
is Wiped away.
360
00:33:18,581 --> 00:33:24,253
But these catastrophes clean the slate
for new creatures to evolve and fill the void.
361
00:33:25,838 --> 00:33:30,760
Without them, big history's
future thresholds could never occur.
362
00:33:34,013 --> 00:33:38,601
A good way to put it is that every extinction
does reshuffle the deck.
363
00:33:38,685 --> 00:33:41,729
You just take all of the playing cards,
put 'em back, mix it up...
364
00:33:41,813 --> 00:33:44,399
and deal yourself a new hand.
365
00:33:44,482 --> 00:33:47,110
[ Squeaking ]
366
00:33:47,193 --> 00:33:49,278
[Narrator]
One catastrophic reshuffling...
367
00:33:49,362 --> 00:33:53,991
ends the 165-million-year reign
of the dinosaurs...
368
00:33:56,577 --> 00:34:03,126
When a huge asteroid plunges into Earth
65 million years ago.
369
00:34:12,635 --> 00:34:14,804
Temperatures plunge, plants don't grow.
370
00:34:19,851 --> 00:34:24,313
[Narrator]A great era in Earth's history
has come to a fiery end-
371
00:34:26,649 --> 00:34:28,484
[ Chittering ]
372
00:34:29,402 --> 00:34:32,530
clearing the Way for the age of mammals.
373
00:34:34,490 --> 00:34:37,785
The age of us.
374
00:34:40,663 --> 00:34:42,790
But What most people don't know...
375
00:34:47,086 --> 00:34:50,173
is that it almost...
376
00:34:50,256 --> 00:34:52,341
didn't happen.
377
00:35:03,436 --> 00:35:09,984
[Narrator] Big history reveals how a series
of rare and unlikely connections...
378
00:35:10,067 --> 00:35:13,112
across three billion years...
379
00:35:16,574 --> 00:35:19,285
make Earth a thriving planet.
380
00:35:22,622 --> 00:35:26,542
But What does it take for the planet
to make us?
381
00:35:28,628 --> 00:35:32,215
And What exactly does it mean
to be human?
382
00:35:35,635 --> 00:35:40,848
It all starts With a lucky break
that kills the dinosaurs-
383
00:35:40,932 --> 00:35:42,892
[ Explosion ]
384
00:35:45,228 --> 00:35:50,149
and clears the Way
for the ultimate rise of mankind.
385
00:35:51,943 --> 00:35:55,947
[ Chittering ]
386
00:35:56,030 --> 00:36:00,993
With the dinosaurs gone,
tiny mammals begin to take their place.
387
00:36:03,454 --> 00:36:07,834
[ Benjamin ] Humans are ultimately evolved,
descended from these mammals.
388
00:36:07,917 --> 00:36:12,338
If there had been no asteroid collision
65 million years ago...
389
00:36:12,421 --> 00:36:14,173
would the human species even exist?
390
00:36:14,257 --> 00:36:16,676
Probably not.
391
00:36:18,678 --> 00:36:22,598
[Narrator]
But as we've seen With so much big history...
392
00:36:22,682 --> 00:36:25,560
things could have been very different.
393
00:36:29,105 --> 00:36:31,315
[ Christian ] If that asteroid
would have been on a trajectory...
394
00:36:31,399 --> 00:36:37,363
five minutes earlier or five minutes later,
it would have missed the Earth...
395
00:36:37,446 --> 00:36:41,367
and the dinosaurs would probably
still rule the Earth.
396
00:36:41,450 --> 00:36:43,870
- [ Roaring ]
- [ Screeching ]
397
00:36:43,953 --> 00:36:47,707
[Narrator]
Instead, life begins a new chapter.
398
00:36:50,167 --> 00:36:55,131
Fifty million years ago,
the spread of a new plant-
399
00:36:55,214 --> 00:36:58,843
grass- draws mammals out of the forest.
400
00:37:00,428 --> 00:37:03,139
Over the next 45 million years...
401
00:37:03,222 --> 00:37:07,560
the ancestors of horses grow larger,
stronger and faster.
402
00:37:07,643 --> 00:37:09,562
[ Whinnies ]
403
00:37:09,645 --> 00:37:14,150
Sheep, goats and aurochs-
404
00:37:14,233 --> 00:37:17,236
the ancestors of cows- evolve.
405
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:18,988
[ Bellows ]
406
00:37:21,157 --> 00:37:24,994
Mankind Will use them for food and power...
407
00:37:25,077 --> 00:37:27,288
to build civilizations.
408
00:37:32,793 --> 00:37:38,090
But first, on the savannas of Africa,
more than four million years ago...
409
00:37:40,176 --> 00:37:45,056
some primates take the first steps
toward becoming human.
410
00:37:47,642 --> 00:37:51,395
[ Valle ] We left the trees,
and the grass was really tall.
411
00:37:51,479 --> 00:37:54,482
We had to see over it.
412
00:37:54,565 --> 00:37:59,236
And walking on our hind feet
allowed us to hold babies and tools...
413
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,948
and hunt and free up our hands
and our opposable thumbs.
414
00:38:06,243 --> 00:38:11,123
[Narrator] Since We no longer need to Walk
using our knuckles, or swing from trees...
415
00:38:11,207 --> 00:38:16,379
our shoulders and Wrists evolve
to do something unique in nature-
416
00:38:17,922 --> 00:38:21,175
throw accurately-
417
00:38:23,302 --> 00:38:29,684
making it easier to hunt and kill for meat.
418
00:38:31,644 --> 00:38:35,815
[ Markley ] Look at the natural world.
How do you kill something?
419
00:38:35,898 --> 00:38:39,735
Almost always you kill something
by getting up close and personal.
420
00:38:41,028 --> 00:38:44,490
You do it with your claws.
You do it with your teeth.
421
00:38:44,573 --> 00:38:48,244
Now look at your claws.
Look at your teeth.
422
00:38:49,370 --> 00:38:53,249
Do you really want to get up close
and personal and try to kill something...
423
00:38:53,332 --> 00:38:56,252
with these pathetic teeth, these pathetic claws?
424
00:38:56,335 --> 00:38:59,005
- I don't think so.
- [ Shouting ]
425
00:39:02,258 --> 00:39:07,263
[Narrator] This change in our arms
leads to an arms race...
426
00:39:07,346 --> 00:39:10,433
that Will define human history.
427
00:39:16,022 --> 00:39:19,567
[ Man ]
We can cause death at a distance...
428
00:39:19,650 --> 00:39:21,777
in ways that no other species can.
429
00:39:28,325 --> 00:39:32,371
[Narrator] There are thousands of species
on Earth that eat meat...
430
00:39:32,455 --> 00:39:35,791
but only one that cooks it.
431
00:39:35,875 --> 00:39:42,381
Early man uses fire and tools
to make meat easier to digest...
432
00:39:42,465 --> 00:39:46,218
a behavior that changes our biology.
433
00:39:46,302 --> 00:39:50,097
If you eat meat,
you get highly concentrated energy...
434
00:39:50,181 --> 00:39:52,892
but it's hard to digest and chew.
435
00:39:52,975 --> 00:39:57,480
Now if you cook it,
that's like predigesting it.
436
00:39:59,190 --> 00:40:02,109
That would mean that the gut can get smaller.
437
00:40:02,193 --> 00:40:07,698
If the gut gets smaller, there's energy
available for another organ to grow...
438
00:40:07,782 --> 00:40:10,159
such as the brain.
439
00:40:10,242 --> 00:40:16,290
So this may be a very neat explanation
for the very rapid growth in brains.
440
00:40:19,752 --> 00:40:22,713
[Narrator]
The human brain is not the largest on Earth...
441
00:40:22,797 --> 00:40:26,008
but pound for pound, it's the most powerful...
442
00:40:27,676 --> 00:40:33,182
able to process one quadrillion pieces
of information in a lifetime-
443
00:40:33,265 --> 00:40:35,935
more than any other living creature.
444
00:40:38,145 --> 00:40:39,438
[ Bird Calls ]
445
00:40:39,522 --> 00:40:44,443
So life on the African savanna
transforms our bodies and our brains...
446
00:40:46,904 --> 00:40:50,199
and its legacy is still imprinted in our minds.
447
00:40:55,204 --> 00:40:59,333
In need of Water, We constantly search...
448
00:40:59,416 --> 00:41:03,838
for the shiny sparkle of sunlight
on rivers and streams...
449
00:41:06,382 --> 00:41:11,512
one reason Why today We are attracted
to shiny substances like gold.
450
00:41:16,559 --> 00:41:20,646
After 350, 000 years of evolution in Africa...
451
00:41:20,729 --> 00:41:25,734
our ancestors have separated themselves
from every other species on Earth.
452
00:41:27,695 --> 00:41:32,825
We have crossed a threshold
that makes us uniquely human.
453
00:41:32,908 --> 00:41:36,078
But What is it?
What sets us apart?
454
00:41:37,288 --> 00:41:41,000
It's the key that unlocks
the sixth big history threshold...
455
00:41:42,668 --> 00:41:46,505
and it begins When one person makes
a disco very-
456
00:41:46,589 --> 00:41:50,342
like a new Way to kindle fire
or a new kind of tool-
457
00:41:50,426 --> 00:41:53,804
and shares it With his clan.
458
00:41:53,888 --> 00:41:59,435
The idea spreads through the population,
then across generations.
459
00:42:01,270 --> 00:42:05,107
Humans begin to build
a database of knowledge...
460
00:42:05,191 --> 00:42:08,861
built on millennia of shared experience.
461
00:42:09,945 --> 00:42:14,909
What starts With changes like cooking meat
and growing larger brains...
462
00:42:14,992 --> 00:42:19,872
propels us across the next great threshold
in big history...
463
00:42:19,955 --> 00:42:24,126
a threshold as important for humanity...
464
00:42:24,210 --> 00:42:27,046
as the formation of Earth...
465
00:42:27,129 --> 00:42:29,632
or the birth of life.
466
00:42:30,299 --> 00:42:34,220
Big history calls it collective learning.
467
00:42:36,722 --> 00:42:41,268
[ Christian ] Here now we have the first species
in the history of our planet...
468
00:42:41,352 --> 00:42:45,773
in which information can accumulate
from generation to generation.
469
00:42:45,856 --> 00:42:51,904
And that, I think, tells us everything
about what makes humans different.
470
00:43:01,038 --> 00:43:04,416
[Narrator]
60, 000 years ago.
471
00:43:04,500 --> 00:43:09,255
The planet has molded our ancestors
into modern humans...
472
00:43:09,338 --> 00:43:13,425
With brains and skeletons identical
to our own.
473
00:43:14,426 --> 00:43:20,933
Collective learning has given us the tools
and skills We need to dominate the planet.
474
00:43:26,021 --> 00:43:31,402
But despite all our advances,
the human story could have ended here...
475
00:43:33,362 --> 00:43:35,864
isolated in Africa.
476
00:43:35,948 --> 00:43:41,870
Species that are confined to only one continent
can easily go extinct.
477
00:43:46,667 --> 00:43:52,131
But big history reveals how the Earth shifts
in a Way that Will spread man...
478
00:43:52,214 --> 00:43:56,719
and all the things he's learning,
all around the planet.
479
00:43:59,221 --> 00:44:04,476
The Ice Age lowers the sea level
between Africa and Arabia...
480
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,148
creating a gateway to an otherwise
unpopulated World.
481
00:44:09,231 --> 00:44:12,651
A tiny group, perhaps just a few hundred...
482
00:44:12,735 --> 00:44:16,905
get on a handful of rafts
and cross these narrow straits.
483
00:44:18,365 --> 00:44:21,994
This African exodus only happens once.
484
00:44:24,913 --> 00:44:31,754
In the future, all humans outside Africa
Will be descended from this one tiny clan.
485
00:44:37,176 --> 00:44:43,182
In these new lands, the Ice Age Will test
the limits of collective human learning.
486
00:44:45,768 --> 00:44:49,063
Faced With extreme cold, people innovate.
487
00:44:50,105 --> 00:44:54,568
They cover themselves in a new invention-
488
00:44:55,277 --> 00:44:57,237
head-to-toe clothes...
489
00:44:58,530 --> 00:45:01,784
tailored With needles and thread.
490
00:45:03,994 --> 00:45:08,207
Their dark skin
gets almost no direct sunlight...
491
00:45:08,290 --> 00:45:11,085
Which is critical in creating vitamin D.
492
00:45:14,004 --> 00:45:18,634
[ Shea ] One way of dealing with that
was to evolve lighter skin...
493
00:45:18,717 --> 00:45:20,636
that didn't block the rays of the sun as much.
494
00:45:24,390 --> 00:45:29,812
[Narrator] This change begins to create
the fundamental divisions We think of today...
495
00:45:29,895 --> 00:45:31,647
as race.
496
00:45:35,609 --> 00:45:42,491
Instead of being slowed by the Ice Age,
humans adapt and spread.
497
00:45:42,574 --> 00:45:48,956
One group makes it to Siberia and crosses
a bridge of land to North America.
498
00:45:55,838 --> 00:46:01,468
10, 000 B. C., glaciers start to melt.
499
00:46:01,552 --> 00:46:05,097
Seas rise.
500
00:46:05,180 --> 00:46:08,600
The bridge to Siberia is submerged.
501
00:46:08,684 --> 00:46:11,937
The Americas are cut off.
502
00:46:12,020 --> 00:46:15,357
Suddenly, water enters the Bering Straits...
503
00:46:15,441 --> 00:46:20,821
so populations now get sort of locked in
to the regions they've migrated to.
504
00:46:22,197 --> 00:46:25,951
[Narrator]
From noW on, for thousands of years...
505
00:46:26,034 --> 00:46:29,872
it Will be as if humanity lives
on different planets.
506
00:46:31,081 --> 00:46:35,169
But that separation Will ultimately prove
our similarities...
507
00:46:35,252 --> 00:46:38,672
as humans everywhere
do remarkably similar things-
508
00:46:40,924 --> 00:46:45,012
launch empires, build pyramids...
509
00:46:45,095 --> 00:46:50,476
master new technologies,
cross new thresholds...
510
00:46:50,559 --> 00:46:56,356
and begin big history's fateful march
to the modern World.
511
00:47:06,033 --> 00:47:07,868
[Narrator]
Big history reveals...
512
00:47:10,412 --> 00:47:16,043
how collective learning-
threshold number six in big history-
513
00:47:16,126 --> 00:47:20,297
gives man the tools We need
to survive the Ice Age.
514
00:47:24,301 --> 00:47:26,970
NoW as the glaciers retreat...
515
00:47:28,013 --> 00:47:34,186
the very success that allows humanity
to spread to the farthest reaches of the planet...
516
00:47:34,269 --> 00:47:36,772
might also be our downfall.
517
00:47:38,774 --> 00:47:43,362
There's too many people on planet Earth
and not enough food.
518
00:47:48,617 --> 00:47:52,454
The solution is the seventh threshold
of big history.
519
00:47:54,581 --> 00:48:00,587
It might be hard to imagine how it fits in
With such epic events as the big bang-
520
00:48:00,671 --> 00:48:01,922
[ Explosion ]
521
00:48:02,005 --> 00:48:04,716
and the origins of life...
522
00:48:07,636 --> 00:48:12,558
but for mankind, it Will change everything...
523
00:48:12,641 --> 00:48:17,437
a true turning point
that revolutionizes how We live.
524
00:48:18,814 --> 00:48:21,316
For the first time, We stop moving...
525
00:48:22,818 --> 00:48:25,237
and settle down.
526
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:31,451
It's a step toward building the civilizations
that Will dominate the entire planet.
527
00:48:34,246 --> 00:48:36,290
Threshold number seven.
528
00:48:38,667 --> 00:48:41,086
The farming revolution.
529
00:48:48,677 --> 00:48:52,472
This is arguably the most important
revolution in all of human history...
530
00:48:52,556 --> 00:48:55,392
perhaps even in the history of our planet.
531
00:49:02,232 --> 00:49:05,235
[Narrator]
Beginning 10, 000 years ago...
532
00:49:05,319 --> 00:49:10,782
the changeover from hunting
and gathering food to farming...
533
00:49:10,866 --> 00:49:14,745
is a triumph of collective learning.
534
00:49:14,828 --> 00:49:22,210
We seize control of evolution by breeding
wild grasses into our most important foods...
535
00:49:22,294 --> 00:49:25,714
like corn, Wheat...
536
00:49:25,797 --> 00:49:28,383
barley and rice.
537
00:49:30,218 --> 00:49:32,304
[ Christian ] Of course,
they didn't understand about genes...
538
00:49:32,387 --> 00:49:35,182
they didn't understand the science
of what they were doing...
539
00:49:35,265 --> 00:49:40,062
but once humans start really concentrating
on a particular species...
540
00:49:40,145 --> 00:49:44,816
and looking after it, then you can find
very quickly, within just a few generations...
541
00:49:44,900 --> 00:49:47,361
the species itself starts changing.
542
00:49:48,904 --> 00:49:52,199
[Narrator]
The natural World becomes our laboratory.
543
00:49:55,702 --> 00:50:00,749
Wild beasts are no longer just enemies
to be feared or hunted.
544
00:50:03,752 --> 00:50:09,383
They are creatures to be tamed and bred,
turned into vital allies.
545
00:50:10,842 --> 00:50:15,514
We domesticate Wild Wolves into dogs...
546
00:50:15,597 --> 00:50:18,433
Wild pheasants into chickens...
547
00:50:18,517 --> 00:50:21,561
Wild boars into pigs...
548
00:50:21,645 --> 00:50:26,316
the fierce aurochs into the modern cow.
549
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:28,485
[ Lows ]
550
00:50:30,195 --> 00:50:36,451
All modern cows- more than
one billion animals, 250 different breeds...
551
00:50:36,535 --> 00:50:41,915
providing all of the 130 billion pounds
of beef that we eat every year-
552
00:50:41,998 --> 00:50:46,294
descend from a herd of just 80 aurochs...
553
00:50:46,378 --> 00:50:50,090
that our ancestors domesticate
10, 000 years ago.
554
00:50:50,173 --> 00:50:52,634
[ Bellows ]
555
00:50:53,635 --> 00:50:58,640
This revolution also gives us
our most powerful animal ally-
556
00:51:00,767 --> 00:51:02,102
the horse-
557
00:51:02,185 --> 00:51:04,396
[Horse Whinnies]
558
00:51:06,773 --> 00:51:11,945
Which today has a huge
and surprising impact on how We speak.
559
00:51:15,615 --> 00:51:19,244
The horse is first tamed by Asian tribes...
560
00:51:19,327 --> 00:51:23,039
that speak an ancient language
called Proto-Indo-European.
561
00:51:23,123 --> 00:51:24,332
[ Nickers ]
562
00:51:26,668 --> 00:51:29,504
With this radical new Way of getting around...
563
00:51:30,672 --> 00:51:35,218
they fan out,
spreading their language far and Wide.
564
00:51:37,429 --> 00:51:42,309
Over time, it branches
into hundreds of languages...
565
00:51:42,392 --> 00:51:44,936
spoken by almost half the World.
566
00:51:48,774 --> 00:51:52,277
[ Benjamin ] We wouldn't be having
this conversation- at least not in English-
567
00:51:53,195 --> 00:51:57,532
if it was not for the role of the horse
in spreading language, culture and humans.
568
00:52:00,702 --> 00:52:04,414
[Narrator] The farming revolution
also depends on chemistry...
569
00:52:07,042 --> 00:52:10,378
and the superpower of salt.
570
00:52:13,381 --> 00:52:19,554
To survive as a farmer, the food you harvest
in the fall has to last all year.
571
00:52:21,056 --> 00:52:26,603
Salt pulls moisture out of food,
Which kills off microbes...
572
00:52:26,686 --> 00:52:29,606
and keeps it from rotting.
573
00:52:29,689 --> 00:52:32,651
One of the great problems
for agricultural societies...
574
00:52:32,734 --> 00:52:35,570
is how to preserve things,
and salt is the answer.
575
00:52:37,739 --> 00:52:41,409
[Narrator] Preservation turns farming
from a lifestyle change...
576
00:52:41,493 --> 00:52:43,662
into a revolution.
577
00:52:45,747 --> 00:52:49,334
For thousands of years,
the only jobs that existed...
578
00:52:49,417 --> 00:52:52,087
involved hunting or gathering food.
579
00:52:54,130 --> 00:52:59,761
NoW, With the ability to store food
and build up a stockpile for the future...
580
00:52:59,845 --> 00:53:04,182
for the first time in history,
people can devote their energy...
581
00:53:04,266 --> 00:53:07,018
to something more than survival.
582
00:53:07,102 --> 00:53:11,273
It is the beginning of mankind’s
first job market.
583
00:53:14,025 --> 00:53:16,611
[ Christian ]
You start getting a division of labor.
584
00:53:16,695 --> 00:53:19,114
Some people specialize as soldiers...
585
00:53:19,197 --> 00:53:23,577
some as priests,
some as, uh, metalworkers...
586
00:53:23,660 --> 00:53:25,287
and eventually some as rulers.
587
00:53:29,291 --> 00:53:33,503
[Narrator]And What makes the farming
revolution even more momentous...
588
00:53:33,587 --> 00:53:39,134
is that by planting seeds,
We begin to put down roots...
589
00:53:40,635 --> 00:53:42,971
causing much more than just food to grow.
590
00:53:47,100 --> 00:53:49,185
Villages become towns...
591
00:53:49,978 --> 00:53:52,480
towns become cities...
592
00:53:52,564 --> 00:53:54,816
and cities become civilizations...
593
00:53:57,402 --> 00:54:01,489
ushering in an age of all-powerful rulers.
594
00:54:06,995 --> 00:54:11,750
One of those rulers, an Akkadian king
called Sargon the Great...
595
00:54:11,833 --> 00:54:16,838
raises a huge army,
conquers his neighbors...
596
00:54:16,922 --> 00:54:20,383
and creates something entirely new-
597
00:54:20,467 --> 00:54:24,804
Where one king rules
over many different cities and peoples.
598
00:54:24,888 --> 00:54:28,975
It is the World's first empire.
599
00:54:30,143 --> 00:54:34,272
It's a pattern We see
across the ancient World.
600
00:54:34,356 --> 00:54:38,568
Where cities rise, empires follow.
601
00:54:40,612 --> 00:54:45,617
[ Benjamin ] This impetus to construct empires
appears to get deeply embedded...
602
00:54:45,700 --> 00:54:48,954
in the cultural D.N.A. of all these civilizations.
603
00:54:53,375 --> 00:54:59,547
[Narrator] Empires depend on loyalty
from thousands of subjects over vast territories.
604
00:54:59,631 --> 00:55:05,887
So early rulers build giant mega structures
to signal their awe-inspiring power.
605
00:55:07,681 --> 00:55:11,351
Thousands of common laborers
pile giant stones...
606
00:55:11,434 --> 00:55:15,480
into enormous artificial mountains-
607
00:55:15,563 --> 00:55:20,151
ancient pyramids that rise around the World...
608
00:55:20,235 --> 00:55:24,990
a pattern that links human civilizations
across the globe.
609
00:55:30,078 --> 00:55:33,039
As civilizations grow and connect...
610
00:55:33,123 --> 00:55:36,251
our Wealth of collective learning expands...
611
00:55:37,085 --> 00:55:42,173
and We soon need a Way
to record and share knowledge.
612
00:55:42,257 --> 00:55:46,344
[ Shea ] All of the world's major civilizations
at some point confronted...
613
00:55:46,428 --> 00:55:49,389
the problem of there being too much
information to keep it in your head...
614
00:55:50,765 --> 00:55:55,020
that they had to develop permanent ways
of recording information.
615
00:55:55,103 --> 00:56:00,692
[Narrator] So We begin making marks
on clay, stone, papyrus and bamboo...
616
00:56:00,775 --> 00:56:03,778
to help us remember things.
617
00:56:04,946 --> 00:56:09,617
Writing is a breakthrough that allows us
to pass on our experiences...
618
00:56:09,701 --> 00:56:12,370
directly to future generations.
619
00:56:18,460 --> 00:56:22,422
From Writing to pyramids...
620
00:56:22,505 --> 00:56:25,050
to the rise of the modern metropolis.
621
00:56:25,133 --> 00:56:28,219
Everything We call civilization...
622
00:56:28,303 --> 00:56:32,640
can trace its origins
back to the farming revolution...
623
00:56:32,724 --> 00:56:37,771
a big history threshold
that transforms the Way We live.
624
00:56:41,983 --> 00:56:46,279
But although common human traits unite us...
625
00:56:46,362 --> 00:56:51,409
the natural World of climate and geography
Will divide us...
626
00:56:53,828 --> 00:56:56,790
and plunge the World into an epic clash...
627
00:56:56,873 --> 00:57:01,836
that threatens to bring entire civilizations
crashing down.
628
00:57:12,055 --> 00:57:15,600
[Narrator] Big history is an epic new Way
to look at the World...
629
00:57:18,478 --> 00:57:23,399
connecting the traditional history
of empires and civilizations...
630
00:57:23,483 --> 00:57:27,153
to the geology of mountain ranges...
631
00:57:27,237 --> 00:57:30,365
the evolution of animals...
632
00:57:30,448 --> 00:57:34,285
even the Earth's tilt and climate.
633
00:57:40,083 --> 00:57:44,212
Cities and civilizations take hold
in Warmer climates...
634
00:57:45,964 --> 00:57:48,466
places Where it's easier to grow food.
635
00:57:50,844 --> 00:57:55,306
In the north, Where it's too cold for most crops...
636
00:57:55,390 --> 00:57:59,811
grass is one of the few plants
that can survive.
637
00:57:59,894 --> 00:58:08,987
Herd animals thrive on it, so people here
saddle up instead of settling down...
638
00:58:09,070 --> 00:58:12,073
and become expert herders and raiders.
639
00:58:14,492 --> 00:58:17,829
[ Markley ]
Horse-based warrior cultures...
640
00:58:17,912 --> 00:58:21,166
are going to be the optimal mode of existence.
641
00:58:24,502 --> 00:58:27,839
[Narrator]
So climate divides the Old World...
642
00:58:27,922 --> 00:58:31,176
and gives us different destinies.
643
00:58:31,259 --> 00:58:36,764
Where it's Warm- permanent,
prosperous settlements built on farming.
644
00:58:39,350 --> 00:58:44,647
Where it's colder-
roving bands of nomads...
645
00:58:44,731 --> 00:58:49,319
Who sometimes loot and pillage riches
from the south...
646
00:58:49,402 --> 00:58:53,114
and even bring entire civilizations
crashing down.
647
00:58:56,951 --> 00:59:00,288
From the tribes that swarm
over China's Great Wall...
648
00:59:00,371 --> 00:59:06,377
to the Huns, Goths and Vandals
Who destroy the Roman Empire...
649
00:59:06,461 --> 00:59:09,589
to the Mongols Who conquer
most of the known World...
650
00:59:09,672 --> 00:59:14,469
it's an epic conflict that lasts 5, 000 years.
651
00:59:19,641 --> 00:59:25,063
But climate is not the only force
With a profound impact on big history.
652
00:59:26,064 --> 00:59:28,399
Geology-
653
00:59:28,483 --> 00:59:32,403
the shape and movement of continents...
654
00:59:32,487 --> 00:59:36,866
and the location
of formidable mountain barriers...
655
00:59:36,950 --> 00:59:39,244
plays a vital role.
656
00:59:43,164 --> 00:59:49,003
In Europe and Asia, civilizations grow faster
and more massively...
657
00:59:50,004 --> 00:59:54,509
than their counterparts in the Americas.
658
00:59:54,592 --> 00:59:58,846
So What does the Old World have
that the New World doesn't?
659
01:00:03,059 --> 01:00:06,688
The Earth reveals
that in the eastern hemisphere...
660
01:00:06,771 --> 01:00:10,942
plate tectonics aligns the land
from east to West...
661
01:00:11,025 --> 01:00:17,115
and a single mountain system, the Alpide Belt,
stretches across two continents...
662
01:00:17,198 --> 01:00:22,203
from the Alps to the Himalayas
and beyond.
663
01:00:25,540 --> 01:00:30,169
Because the Old World and its mountains
are oriented from east to West...
664
01:00:30,253 --> 01:00:35,717
people can migrate easily alongside them
for thousands of miles...
665
01:00:35,800 --> 01:00:40,054
bringing their crops, animals and ideas.
666
01:00:41,180 --> 01:00:44,475
[ Markley ]
Human migration tends to run east-west...
667
01:00:44,559 --> 01:00:46,644
because the length of the days
remains the same...
668
01:00:46,728 --> 01:00:49,230
the temperature tends to remain
about the same...
669
01:00:49,314 --> 01:00:51,691
the rainfall tends to be pretty consistent.
670
01:00:51,774 --> 01:00:55,320
That means that whatever you were growing
in one place will probably transfer.
671
01:00:57,488 --> 01:01:00,658
[Narrator] Here, the busiest
land trade routes in history...
672
01:01:00,742 --> 01:01:04,662
carry new technology
from one place to another...
673
01:01:04,746 --> 01:01:09,667
connecting everyone in a vast Web
that enriches civilizations...
674
01:01:09,751 --> 01:01:11,878
from China to Europe.
675
01:01:15,173 --> 01:01:16,883
On the other side of the World...
676
01:01:16,966 --> 01:01:21,095
the American continents are oriented
in a north-south direction...
677
01:01:21,179 --> 01:01:23,181
so crops grown in North America...
678
01:01:23,264 --> 01:01:27,185
rarely survive in the different climates
of the south.
679
01:01:28,770 --> 01:01:31,898
And North America's
great mountain systems-
680
01:01:31,981 --> 01:01:35,360
the Appalachians in the east...
681
01:01:35,443 --> 01:01:39,197
and the Rockies and Sierras in the West-
682
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:45,536
split the continent With north-south barriers
that obstruct migration and trade.
683
01:01:48,039 --> 01:01:50,208
By looking to geology...
684
01:01:50,291 --> 01:01:56,130
big history reveals Why it's harder for
civilizations in the Americas to exchange ideas.
685
01:01:57,090 --> 01:02:02,136
But there's another obstacle that sets
the New World apart from the old.
686
01:02:03,471 --> 01:02:08,643
There are no large animals to domesticate
for food or transportation.
687
01:02:08,726 --> 01:02:15,233
A small thing like the lack of horses
can have a big impact on civilization.
688
01:02:15,316 --> 01:02:19,737
[ Christian ]
Most transportation is still by human porters.
689
01:02:19,821 --> 01:02:23,157
That may have limited the possibilities...
690
01:02:23,241 --> 01:02:26,160
for commerce, trade and exchange
in those areas.
691
01:02:27,453 --> 01:02:29,956
[ Man ] On a horse,
you can get from point "A" to point "B"-
692
01:02:30,039 --> 01:02:32,417
and they're a hundred miles apart-
relatively easily.
693
01:02:32,500 --> 01:02:34,585
That's not a huge deal.
694
01:02:34,669 --> 01:02:37,839
For people, you know, running,
that's a very, very big deal.
695
01:02:41,092 --> 01:02:43,970
[Narrator] So by connecting
traditional history to science...
696
01:02:44,053 --> 01:02:50,435
big history reveals Why New World empires
lagged behind those across the Atlantic...
697
01:02:50,518 --> 01:02:52,854
in size and technology.
698
01:02:54,856 --> 01:02:58,943
The Old World alignment
of continents and mountains...
699
01:02:59,026 --> 01:03:02,196
and access to animals
like horses and camels...
700
01:03:02,280 --> 01:03:05,867
create conditions that are just right.
701
01:03:06,909 --> 01:03:10,288
They link us across thousands of miles...
702
01:03:10,371 --> 01:03:14,876
like synapses in a vast interconnected brain
of human knowledge...
703
01:03:18,713 --> 01:03:24,469
amplifying the uniquely human skill
of accumulating and sharing information-
704
01:03:24,552 --> 01:03:28,473
the big history threshold
called collective learning.
705
01:03:28,556 --> 01:03:32,810
So an idea that starts
in one small part of the globe...
706
01:03:32,894 --> 01:03:37,023
has the chance to change the World.
707
01:03:38,983 --> 01:03:42,361
Some new ideas can be explosive.
708
01:03:42,445 --> 01:03:43,821
850 A. D.
709
01:03:43,905 --> 01:03:48,910
The Chinese unlock the chemistry
of Gunpowder...
710
01:03:49,911 --> 01:03:51,704
[ Explosion ]
711
01:03:51,787 --> 01:03:58,336
and it spreads across the continent
all the Way to Europe in just 300 years.
712
01:04:02,507 --> 01:04:07,011
And in 1450, When a German blacksmith
named Johannes Gutenberg...
713
01:04:07,094 --> 01:04:12,517
develops a radically improved method
of mechanical printing...
714
01:04:12,600 --> 01:04:15,478
it becomes the greatest boost
to collective learning...
715
01:04:15,561 --> 01:04:18,689
since the invention of Writing
5, 000 years before.
716
01:04:21,526 --> 01:04:25,321
[ Christian ]
Printing encouraged mass education.
717
01:04:25,404 --> 01:04:29,867
Mass education encouraged
more exchanges of ideas...
718
01:04:29,951 --> 01:04:34,330
and made the development
of new technological innovations...
719
01:04:34,413 --> 01:04:37,792
perhaps slightly easier in Europe
than in other parts of the world.
720
01:04:40,419 --> 01:04:43,839
[Narrator]
Technology tears down barriers.
721
01:04:43,923 --> 01:04:47,969
So after millennia of discovery and invention...
722
01:04:48,052 --> 01:04:52,557
We 're finally ready to conquer
Earth's greatest divide-
723
01:04:52,640 --> 01:04:54,350
the oceans.
724
01:05:00,314 --> 01:05:06,654
For 15, 000 years, the oceans separate
humanity into isolated zones-
725
01:05:07,530 --> 01:05:09,240
the Americas...
726
01:05:09,323 --> 01:05:11,367
Africa and Eurasia...
727
01:05:11,450 --> 01:05:13,077
Australia-
728
01:05:13,160 --> 01:05:18,291
Where We develop in different Worlds,
each unaware of the others.
729
01:05:21,752 --> 01:05:27,091
But technology ushers in a new age
Where nature's most formidable barrier...
730
01:05:27,174 --> 01:05:30,595
becomes a highway.
731
01:05:30,678 --> 01:05:34,599
Europeans cross the Atlantic
for the first time...
732
01:05:36,017 --> 01:05:39,854
equipped With a series
of big history's lucky breaks.
733
01:05:39,937 --> 01:05:43,774
They Will dominate the Americas
using horses...
734
01:05:43,858 --> 01:05:46,277
guns...
735
01:05:46,360 --> 01:05:49,030
and a terrible secret Weapon-
736
01:05:50,906 --> 01:05:52,700
disease.
737
01:05:56,245 --> 01:06:02,793
The Europeans bring microbes
to Which the Americans have no immunity.
738
01:06:02,877 --> 01:06:08,549
Within a hundred years of Columbus,
up to 90% of them Will die.
739
01:06:09,884 --> 01:06:12,178
It's a definitive conquest.
740
01:06:14,930 --> 01:06:20,478
But by mastering the ocean,
European explorers unite the World.
741
01:06:20,561 --> 01:06:26,859
Mankind trades new crops, animals
and resources like gold and silver...
742
01:06:26,942 --> 01:06:29,779
in an unprecedented global exchange.
743
01:06:31,280 --> 01:06:33,908
[ Christian ]
The last time in the planet's history...
744
01:06:33,991 --> 01:06:38,162
when there was a biological exchange
over the whole globe...
745
01:06:38,245 --> 01:06:40,790
was 250 million years ago...
746
01:06:40,873 --> 01:06:45,336
when all the continents were gathered
together in Pangaea.
747
01:06:45,419 --> 01:06:50,216
But this time it's caused not by geology
but by human beings.
748
01:06:50,299 --> 01:06:54,095
By one particular species
that's moved goods all around the world.
749
01:06:58,015 --> 01:07:02,353
[Narrator] Our epic story has taken us
around the globe through seven thresholds.
750
01:07:04,438 --> 01:07:08,776
But What is the eighth
and final threshold in big history?
751
01:07:09,610 --> 01:07:12,780
And What secret connects them all?
752
01:07:12,863 --> 01:07:15,282
[ Heart Beating ]
753
01:07:21,956 --> 01:07:24,208
[Narrator]
By the year 1500...
754
01:07:26,794 --> 01:07:29,922
mankind is breaking the ocean barrier.
755
01:07:32,508 --> 01:07:38,639
And these new liquid highways amplify
the very thing that makes man so special-
756
01:07:39,974 --> 01:07:42,935
the sharing and spreading of knowledge.
757
01:07:44,979 --> 01:07:49,817
What big historians call collective learning.
758
01:07:49,900 --> 01:07:53,154
[ Christian ]
I think globalization from 1500...
759
01:07:53,237 --> 01:07:56,407
is a sort of gear shift
in the speed of collective learning.
760
01:08:04,749 --> 01:08:09,003
[Narrator]
This is the first World Wide Web.
761
01:08:13,340 --> 01:08:15,843
But the network is slow.
762
01:08:17,011 --> 01:08:20,681
Information, ideas, inventions...
763
01:08:21,807 --> 01:08:25,853
can only spread as fast as a horse can run...
764
01:08:26,937 --> 01:08:28,773
or a ship can sail.
765
01:08:31,358 --> 01:08:35,654
To circle the globe takes over a year.
766
01:08:41,202 --> 01:08:44,288
But soon it all begins to change.
767
01:08:48,751 --> 01:08:52,713
By revealing connections
across space and time...
768
01:08:54,757 --> 01:08:59,136
big history shows how mankind
Will cross another portal...
769
01:09:01,388 --> 01:09:03,891
thanks to a revolutionary machine.
770
01:09:07,561 --> 01:09:13,317
To create this machine, big history
connects metals brought by meteors...
771
01:09:17,738 --> 01:09:21,367
ancient plants reincarnated as coal...
772
01:09:27,122 --> 01:09:33,420
and the almost magical property of Water
as it shape-shifts into a new form.
773
01:09:38,717 --> 01:09:42,012
That revolutionary machine?
774
01:09:42,096 --> 01:09:44,723
The steam engine.
775
01:09:44,807 --> 01:09:48,185
[ Benjamin ] By heating water,
you create this steam pressure.
776
01:09:48,269 --> 01:09:51,230
It can force a piston, for example,
to start moving up and down.
777
01:09:51,313 --> 01:09:56,193
Machines to drive spinning machines
that will create textiles much, much faster.
778
01:09:58,445 --> 01:10:00,906
[ Train Whistle Blows ]
779
01:10:02,616 --> 01:10:04,994
And then you can put it onto a platform
with wheels...
780
01:10:05,077 --> 01:10:08,497
and lay iron rails across the landscape.
781
01:10:08,581 --> 01:10:13,252
All of this is a product of utilizing this
extraordinary property of heated water again.
782
01:10:16,255 --> 01:10:19,550
[Narrator] The steam engine leads
to the gasoline engine...
783
01:10:21,552 --> 01:10:25,389
and ignites a new threshold in big history-
784
01:10:27,725 --> 01:10:30,102
the modern revolution.
785
01:10:33,480 --> 01:10:35,149
[ Chattering ]
786
01:10:35,232 --> 01:10:38,736
For all of history,
We have been limited almost completely...
787
01:10:38,819 --> 01:10:42,239
to power from human and animal muscles-
788
01:10:42,323 --> 01:10:44,074
[ Camels Grumbling ]
789
01:10:44,158 --> 01:10:46,994
Wind and flowing Water.
790
01:10:50,205 --> 01:10:52,958
NoW mechanical engines...
791
01:10:53,042 --> 01:10:56,420
fueled by the power of the sun
captured in ancient plants...
792
01:10:56,503 --> 01:11:00,049
make us far more productive and powerful.
793
01:11:03,886 --> 01:11:10,351
By 1900, the World's steam engines
Will equal the power of five billion men.
794
01:11:13,354 --> 01:11:16,690
The modern revolution
accelerates everything-
795
01:11:16,774 --> 01:11:20,611
how We produce and grow things...
796
01:11:22,196 --> 01:11:26,033
- how We travel and communicate.
- [ Tapping Morse Code ]
797
01:11:30,079 --> 01:11:33,999
And it elevates man to a unique status
in the story of our planet.
798
01:11:37,086 --> 01:11:42,841
[ Christian ] A single species
for the first time in almost four billion years...
799
01:11:42,925 --> 01:11:48,013
has become so powerful
that it dominates the biosphere.
800
01:11:50,057 --> 01:11:54,687
And that's a fantastically interesting period
in history, and we're living in it right now.
801
01:12:05,197 --> 01:12:08,659
[Narrator]
It is an era unlike any before.
802
01:12:10,327 --> 01:12:14,498
But power is not the only key
to open this portal.
803
01:12:15,457 --> 01:12:18,711
The other is information.
804
01:12:27,261 --> 01:12:29,847
Iceberg straight ahead1
.
805
01:12:29,930 --> 01:12:33,851
Throughout all previous history,
We Were tethered to our voices...
806
01:12:33,934 --> 01:12:38,188
Which could only travel as far
as a sound Wave could carry them-
807
01:12:38,272 --> 01:12:41,275
a maximum of600 feet.
808
01:12:44,403 --> 01:12:49,033
But noW our voices and ideas
can ride on radio Waves...
809
01:12:49,116 --> 01:12:53,912
made possible by the electromagnetic force
born in the big bang.
810
01:12:59,460 --> 01:13:04,048
Today, there are seven billion cellphones
in the World-
811
01:13:08,177 --> 01:13:10,888
one for every person on Earth.
812
01:13:12,848 --> 01:13:15,726
We are each connected to a global network...
813
01:13:17,478 --> 01:13:21,774
that transmits information
at the speed of light.
814
01:13:23,650 --> 01:13:28,781
I mean, short of teleportation, I really can't think
of anything more magical than that.
815
01:13:31,075 --> 01:13:36,121
[Narrator] In our modern era,
the pace of progress explodes...
816
01:13:36,205 --> 01:13:39,583
leading to a staggering fact.
817
01:13:39,666 --> 01:13:42,252
During the era of the steam engine...
818
01:13:42,336 --> 01:13:47,424
it took 150 years
for man's collective knowledge to double.
819
01:13:48,592 --> 01:13:51,261
Today, it takes two years.
820
01:13:53,889 --> 01:13:57,851
By2020, it Will take 72 hours.
821
01:14:06,485 --> 01:14:10,197
Big history brings us from the big bang...
822
01:14:10,280 --> 01:14:13,826
through a series of amazing thresholds...
823
01:14:16,787 --> 01:14:19,373
to the World around us today.
824
01:14:21,875 --> 01:14:26,547
But can it foresee mankind's
next momentous turning points?
825
01:14:27,756 --> 01:14:30,467
And do they promise even faster progress...
826
01:14:32,052 --> 01:14:34,221
or the end of everything?
827
01:14:43,188 --> 01:14:46,650
[Narrator]
Big history tells the story of everything...
828
01:14:46,733 --> 01:14:49,778
from the beginning of the universe...
829
01:14:49,862 --> 01:14:53,323
to the World around us today...
830
01:14:53,407 --> 01:14:58,245
in What big historians call
threshold moments.
831
01:14:59,913 --> 01:15:04,960
But What is the secret key,
the fundamental mystery...
832
01:15:05,043 --> 01:15:07,254
that links them all together?
833
01:15:16,597 --> 01:15:18,682
To reveal that secret...
834
01:15:18,765 --> 01:15:23,937
We first have to understand a basic law
that governs everything in the universe.
835
01:15:26,440 --> 01:15:31,904
The natural tendency of all things
is to move from order...
836
01:15:31,987 --> 01:15:34,239
to disorder.
837
01:15:36,825 --> 01:15:41,121
From structure to disintegration.
838
01:15:42,164 --> 01:15:45,626
From the complex to the simple.
839
01:15:47,377 --> 01:15:50,047
An egg can break...
840
01:15:50,130 --> 01:15:53,425
but its pieces can't form a new egg.
841
01:15:54,301 --> 01:15:57,221
A newspaper can burn to ashes...
842
01:15:57,304 --> 01:16:00,557
but the ashes can't become a newspaper.
843
01:16:02,643 --> 01:16:05,854
Scientists call it the law of entropy.
844
01:16:11,235 --> 01:16:17,324
Throughout all time and space,
the universe has been ruled by this law.
845
01:16:20,535 --> 01:16:25,582
But When We consider
the nearly 14 billion years of big history...
846
01:16:25,666 --> 01:16:30,003
We discover What appear to be rare
and remarkable exceptions.
847
01:16:31,421 --> 01:16:35,801
Moments When everything lines up
in just the right Way...
848
01:16:37,344 --> 01:16:41,139
and seems to defy
this natural law of entropy.
849
01:16:44,810 --> 01:16:49,314
To go from the massive explosion
of the big bang...
850
01:16:49,398 --> 01:16:51,650
to the structure of a star.
851
01:16:53,360 --> 01:16:57,823
From the swirl of chemicals
in ancient seas...
852
01:16:57,906 --> 01:17:00,492
to a strand of living D. N.A.
853
01:17:02,411 --> 01:17:06,999
From a simple universe to a complex World.
854
01:17:13,547 --> 01:17:18,677
For big history, that is the secret
hidden in the heart of every threshold...
855
01:17:20,554 --> 01:17:24,850
a pattern that links us
through all of time and space.
856
01:17:25,892 --> 01:17:31,398
Eight moments When the universe
seems to defy its most basic law...
857
01:17:31,481 --> 01:17:36,737
and instead moves from the simple
to the complex.
858
01:17:38,071 --> 01:17:41,825
Eight moments when we move from chaos...
859
01:17:42,909 --> 01:17:44,619
to order.
860
01:17:55,505 --> 01:17:57,924
But a mystery remains.
861
01:17:59,259 --> 01:18:03,347
How and Why in these instances...
862
01:18:04,848 --> 01:18:08,769
did the universe seemingly defy
its own law of chaos?
863
01:18:12,689 --> 01:18:17,652
The answer lies in a cosmic force
that emerged from the big bang-
864
01:18:20,614 --> 01:18:22,366
gravity.
865
01:18:23,784 --> 01:18:28,413
Because of gravity,
our universe is not evenly distributed.
866
01:18:30,123 --> 01:18:34,378
Instead, there are hubs, galaxies...
867
01:18:34,461 --> 01:18:36,630
stars and solar systems...
868
01:18:38,632 --> 01:18:40,967
divided by massive voids.
869
01:18:43,136 --> 01:18:48,392
In those hubs,
energy and matter converge.
870
01:18:48,475 --> 01:18:51,520
Trillions of interactions occur...
871
01:18:51,603 --> 01:18:57,109
and in a swarming hub,
the improbable becomes possible.
872
01:18:58,693 --> 01:19:01,488
[ Filippenko ] Gravity can form stars
that form energy...
873
01:19:01,571 --> 01:19:04,324
that bathes the planets surrounding them...
874
01:19:04,408 --> 01:19:07,119
which gives rise to life...
875
01:19:07,202 --> 01:19:10,539
and life itself then
has all these interactions...
876
01:19:10,622 --> 01:19:12,833
that lead to increasing complexity.
877
01:19:13,834 --> 01:19:16,420
[ Christian ]
Most of the universe is still very simple.
878
01:19:16,503 --> 01:19:20,590
So things get complex only in particular
pockets of the universe...
879
01:19:20,674 --> 01:19:24,177
where we have the Goldilocks conditions
where conditions are just perfect.
880
01:19:30,392 --> 01:19:33,770
[Narrator] These hubs appear
throughout space and time...
881
01:19:33,854 --> 01:19:36,273
in stars that forge elements...
882
01:19:38,191 --> 01:19:40,735
ancient seas that produce life...
883
01:19:42,779 --> 01:19:45,198
and even in cities on Earth.
884
01:19:49,286 --> 01:19:53,707
[ Filippenko ] Giant cities form
with huge amounts of activity.
885
01:19:53,790 --> 01:19:57,377
And then there are of course
these great expanses and not much activity.
886
01:19:58,920 --> 01:20:02,632
All these things come about as a result...
887
01:20:02,716 --> 01:20:07,220
of just repeated interactions of particles
obeying the laws of physics.
888
01:20:07,304 --> 01:20:10,265
And there's just a few laws of physics.
889
01:20:15,896 --> 01:20:18,732
[Narrator]
So What is the next threshold?
890
01:20:21,902 --> 01:20:28,033
Will life, complexity and thresholds
go on forever?
891
01:20:31,661 --> 01:20:35,248
Or does big history foresee new moments...
892
01:20:35,332 --> 01:20:39,002
Where mankind, life itself...
893
01:20:39,085 --> 01:20:42,297
even the entire universe...
894
01:20:42,380 --> 01:20:44,007
come to an end?
895
01:20:55,727 --> 01:21:00,357
[Narrator] Big history has revealed
how a series of eight giant thresholds...
896
01:21:02,943 --> 01:21:07,906
ultimately lead to the advanced civilization
that surrounds us today.
897
01:21:10,075 --> 01:21:13,370
But What thresholds lie in the future?
898
01:21:17,666 --> 01:21:24,047
To be considered a threshold in big history,
an event has to alter things fundamentally...
899
01:21:24,130 --> 01:21:27,133
irreversibly changing our modern World.
900
01:21:28,635 --> 01:21:32,097
So What thresholds lie ahead?
901
01:21:32,180 --> 01:21:34,933
What Will the ninth be?
902
01:21:37,477 --> 01:21:39,604
[ Rumbling ]
903
01:21:39,688 --> 01:21:41,898
One possible candidate-
904
01:21:44,317 --> 01:21:48,572
the point When humans begin to live
on other planets like Mars.
905
01:21:57,414 --> 01:22:04,504
Another possibility- the moment
our own technology overtakes us.
906
01:22:09,593 --> 01:22:11,678
Still, another possible threshold...
907
01:22:11,761 --> 01:22:15,724
Would be discovering intelligent creatures
from other planets...
908
01:22:19,269 --> 01:22:22,314
or being discovered by them.
909
01:22:27,444 --> 01:22:33,199
But we've also seen that threshold moments
can occur in the aftermath of catastrophe.
910
01:22:36,119 --> 01:22:38,538
Like a cosmic collision.
911
01:22:40,123 --> 01:22:45,128
There are still sort of rogue asteroids
wandering around our Earth.
912
01:22:47,547 --> 01:22:52,302
[Narrator] Scientists calculate
that an asteroid six miles Wide...
913
01:22:52,385 --> 01:22:54,638
could Wipe out humanity...
914
01:22:56,056 --> 01:23:02,687
just as a similar impact Wiped out
the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
915
01:23:09,736 --> 01:23:13,031
- The explosion of a nearby star-
- [ Explosion ]
916
01:23:13,114 --> 01:23:16,701
could also cause a planet Wide cataclysm.
917
01:23:18,119 --> 01:23:21,247
But disaster doesn't only come from space.
918
01:23:24,751 --> 01:23:30,507
Here on Earth, the next threshold
might follow a Worldwide natural disaster.
919
01:23:33,259 --> 01:23:36,429
Like the dawn of a new Ice Age.
920
01:23:38,515 --> 01:23:42,185
Or the toxic blast
of a super-massive volcano.
921
01:23:43,436 --> 01:23:46,231
And even a cataclysm of our own invention-
922
01:23:48,149 --> 01:23:50,276
from thermonuclear War...
923
01:23:53,405 --> 01:23:56,032
to environmental destruction.
924
01:24:00,286 --> 01:24:02,580
[ Christian ]
But on the other hand...
925
01:24:02,664 --> 01:24:05,750
the story of human innovation...
926
01:24:06,793 --> 01:24:08,378
is fantastically creative.
927
01:24:08,461 --> 01:24:11,715
I mean, we are staggeringly creative.
928
01:24:11,798 --> 01:24:16,136
We are so clever
as a result of collective learning...
929
01:24:16,219 --> 01:24:21,766
that if our species can't solve
these problems...
930
01:24:21,850 --> 01:24:24,519
I have no idea who can.
931
01:24:29,149 --> 01:24:32,902
[Narrator] Big history
is about looking at our World...
932
01:24:32,986 --> 01:24:36,197
and our future in different Ways.
933
01:24:38,825 --> 01:24:43,621
On an astronomical scale
across billions of years...
934
01:24:43,705 --> 01:24:46,082
our fate is much more clear.
935
01:24:48,001 --> 01:24:55,175
Our story of moving from simplicity
to complexity is only temporary.
936
01:25:01,139 --> 01:25:07,729
Billions of years from noW,
the sun Will expand and sterilize the Earth.
937
01:25:10,523 --> 01:25:13,777
[ Benjamin ]
All the seas will boil away...
938
01:25:13,860 --> 01:25:18,281
and the sun will shrink and contract
and then end up as a white dwarf...
939
01:25:18,364 --> 01:25:22,827
and then a black dwarf- no energy,
just this dead lifeless object floating in space.
940
01:25:28,917 --> 01:25:32,504
[Narrator]
Out in the universe already today...
941
01:25:32,587 --> 01:25:37,008
90% of the material
to make new stars has been used up...
942
01:25:38,968 --> 01:25:41,012
so fewer Will be formed.
943
01:25:42,889 --> 01:25:45,558
The story of the universe...
944
01:25:45,642 --> 01:25:49,479
this series of thresholds
that led to our World today...
945
01:25:54,359 --> 01:25:56,402
Will begin to reverse.
946
01:25:57,862 --> 01:26:03,284
Instead of becoming more complex,
things Will become more simple.
947
01:26:05,745 --> 01:26:10,500
Stars will stop forming.
They will stop creating new elements.
948
01:26:12,418 --> 01:26:16,214
[ Filippenko ] Eventually,
if the universe expands forever...
949
01:26:16,297 --> 01:26:20,176
it'll cool down to essentially absolute zero
everywhere.
950
01:26:26,099 --> 01:26:30,103
[Narrator]
The story of big history Will come to an end...
951
01:26:30,186 --> 01:26:33,606
in a darkened cosmos
Where nothing Will be created.
952
01:26:38,945 --> 01:26:41,281
[ Christian ]
And in the far distant future...
953
01:26:41,364 --> 01:26:44,367
the universe is going to be
extraordinarily simple again...
954
01:26:44,450 --> 01:26:48,371
and it will cease to be able
to create complex things.
955
01:26:49,247 --> 01:26:53,042
So that means something quite magical
about the time we live in.
956
01:26:53,126 --> 01:26:58,214
We live in the springtime of our universe.
957
01:26:58,298 --> 01:27:04,137
That's a time when our universe
was capable of creating beautiful things...
958
01:27:04,220 --> 01:27:09,559
like hummingbirds or redwoods
or you and me.
959
01:27:09,642 --> 01:27:12,478
[ Heart Beating ]
960
01:27:14,355 --> 01:27:18,943
[Narrator]And it's also the time
When mankind undertakes a profound quest...
961
01:27:21,279 --> 01:27:23,823
to understand the big picture...
962
01:27:26,326 --> 01:27:30,330
to find our place
in the grand continuum of time.
963
01:27:33,583 --> 01:27:37,420
Our infinite link to the brilliant beginnings...
964
01:27:39,672 --> 01:27:42,675
the quiet end...
965
01:27:42,759 --> 01:27:47,096
and the transformative power
of this mysterious universe.
966
01:27:53,353 --> 01:27:57,857
The story We call big history.
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