All language subtitles for Big.History.S01E05.Megastructures.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-NTb.EN

2100 B.C...

a giant structure rises in Egypt.

2,000 years later...

another takes shape in Mexico.

A remarkable secret...

connects two of civilization's
most mysterious mega-structures.

A secret only revealed
by Big History.

We think of history as a timeline.

A series of events stretching
a few thousands years into the past.

It's time to think bigger.

Instead of a line, imagine
a web of infinite connections...

interacting over billions of years...

linked together to create
everything we've ever known-

our universe...

our planet and us.

When we consider our most epic moments
through the lens of science...

we unleash a revolutionary new idea.

The movement of atoms
steer the movements of men...

civilizations, galaxies.

History as we know it
is about to get big.

Once-mighty ancient civilizations...

leave their mark around the world.

Traditional history looks for clues
about how the ancients lived.

But Big History reveals
a strange pattern in the ruins.

From Egypt to Mesopotamia...

to India, China...

to Cambodia, Indonesia,
to Central America.

Man's earliest mega-structures
are pyramids.

isn't it extraordinary
if you're looking as a big historian...

how the very large structures
created by these civilizations...

are pyramidal in shape
in different ways?

It's a profound mystery.

How do civilizations
with no direct contact...

separated by oceans and continents,
and often thousands of years...

create almost identical structures?

And Why?

Unlike roads and aqueducts...

giant pyramids
seem like a colossal waste...

taking tens of thousands of workers
decades of blood and toil.

The mystery is so baffling...

that some believe
the only explanation is supernatural.

But is there a secret trait
linking all humans together...

causing people around the world
to build these mega-structures?

Big History connects
this ancient mystery...

to our beginnings
in the animal kingdom.

The peacock's tail is what
scientists call a “costly signal.”

A costly signal is something
that on its face seems useless.

Look at the peacock feather.
It's a literal pain in the butt.

It gets in the way. it's huge.
It doesn't help you fly.

But on the other hand, if you are
gaudy enough and beautiful enough...

you're gonna get the female,
and so your genes are gonna move on.

Everywhere we look, animals
use costly signals to attract mates.

And the human animal is no exception.

With humans today,
you need a flashy car...

you need a nice suit,
you need a healthy bank balance.

There's all sorts of signals
that go on. Nothing changes.

Humans are programmed
to respond to costly signals...

not only for sex,
but also for something else.

Big History connects our common
evolution to our common engineering.

And returns to Ancient Egypt...

where the first pyramids
appear 4,500 years ago-

enormous structures that
are man-made costly signals.

The question is,
what was the pharaoh trying to signal?

The answer is in the timing.

When you start taking
a big history point of view...

what you start seeing is
the really big mega-structures...

come right at the beginning
of the state.

For the first time,
an all-powerful pharaoh...

has millions of people
organized under his iron rule.

Until recently, his subjects
had a lot more freedom...

and the pharaoh is afraid
they might want that freedom back.

There must have been a sense
of giving something up...

to work under a leader.

There was a price to pay
in terms of freedom.

The pharaoh needs to signal his power...

to prove to his subjects
that it is futile...

or even dangerous
to rebel against him.

A monumental mega-structure
might be just the signal he needs.

“Look at how we can coerce
so much labor, so many resources...

and build this enormous thing.”

In many ways, these buildings
might be ultimately useless...

but they show,
“Look what I can do.

Look how powerful
we have become.”

So pyramids were one way
for the earliest leaders...

to maintain absolute power.

The timing is key
to unlocking a global pattern.

Giant structures
appear at the moment...

when humans first begin living
in large, permanent civilizations...

under one powerful ruler.

But early mega-structures
have something else in common.

They're not just big, they're tall.

Height is key.

From a big history perspective...

in every society, the biggest and
the most awe-inspiring structures...

tend to be the tallest.

What is it about building high
versus massively horizontal...

that is a theme throughout
history in construction?

Big History connects this
basic instinct to our origins in nature.

An animal is attacked and rears up
to seem as tall as possible.

In nature, height signals dominance.

Animals assess each other
based on an instinctive respect...

for anything that towers over them.

In humans,
the process starts early.

A child looks up at his parents
and instinctively obeys.

That respect for height lasts a lifetime.

We even use the language of height
when we talk about raising people up.

We put them on a pedestal.

We worship those on high.

Respect for height
becomes imprinted in our behavior.

One of the things
we want to know about in Big History

is what makes us human.

What do all humans do
in any society, anywhere?

And one of the things we see
is a desire to be awed.

Psychologists call awe a social emotion.

It happens in the face
of towering things...

that make us feel small,
insignificant and submissive.

Height inspires awe.

It gives us a feeling of something
so much bigger than we are...

something that we can't control.

“This thing is bigger than me.
I'm impressed by it.

It somehow must be more powerful
or dominant than I am.”

So ancient leaders will try
to awe and intimidate their subjects...

by building their mega-structures
as tall as possible.

You don't realize this until you get
a Big History point of view.

When you zoom out and
look at the entire human race...

you see the same processes at work...

and you realize
this is more than just culture.

This is humanity.

But there's still a mystery to solve.

Why are the earliest mega-structures
the same shape?

What does the pyramid reveal
about the secrets of the universe...

and the awesome,
destructive power of nature?

Big History reveals the link...

between man's instinct
to build mega-structures...

and our origins in the animal world...

where height awes
and intimidates challengers.

Behavior that connects to how early
rulers used massive engineering...

to cement their godlike power.

But a key question remains.

Why were our very earliest
mega-structures the same basic shape:

the pyramid?

Big History travels back.

Egypt’s pharaoh demands
a tomb that soars to the skies.

His young civilization has never
attempted anything quite like it...

But nature has.

Like all early peoples...

the Egyptians notice
that the tallest things on earth...

are actually natural pyramids.

You look at the shape of a mountain...

regardless of how it was formed,
by plate tectonics or a volcano.

this very stable, wide base...

that tapers to something at the top.

That would have been a logical place
to start if you want to build tall.

To build big and tall,
like the Earth's mountains...

ancient engineers had to unlock
the secrets of the universal force...

that causes the planets to orbit...

holds the Earth together...

and threatens to topple
anything tall:

Gravity.

That's the number one thing
that you have to overcome...

especially in very, very tall structures...

and if you're unsuccessful, collapse.

Gravity shapes mountains.

On a mountainside...

gravity is pulling objects both straight
down towards the center of the mountain...

and also on an angle, down the slope.

When slopes are too steep, the forces
pulling things down the mountainside...

are greater than the force
holding things steady.

So gravity rips those parts away.

Eventually, the angle becomes so gentle
that the gravity holding things in place...

outweighs the gravity
pulling down the slope...

leaving a broad base
and a thin, tapering top.

So for early man,
natures lesson is clear.

If you want to defy gravity
and build something tall...

and you don't have centuries
of experience to fall back on...

build a mountain.

But humans soon realize
that pyramids have a drawback.

They're solid,
with almost no interior space.

So over generations,
people begin experimenting...

with better ways to defy gravity-

the dome...

the double vaulted ceiling,
the pointed arch-

that transfer stress into the ground...

creating open spaces
within enormous structures...

transforming what it means to build big.

To build something
like a great medieval cathedral...

you're going to need
a heck of a lot more expertise...

the kind of expertise
that will only have come...

through thousands of years
of collective learning.

Eventually, we develop
new materials like concrete and steel.

But to get to today's
massive mega-structures...

even they are not enough.

So man looks to nature again...

and notices a key difference
between insects and dinosaurs.

[ Roars I

Our earliest buildings carry their weight
like the external skeleton of an insect...

on outside walls.

80 there's a limit to how big
these buildings can grow”

before gravity pulls them down.

But nature reveals
the secret to gaining size.

An insect's exoskeleton
is 60% of its body weight...

compared to about 15%
for creatures with internal skeletons.

This external weight is so great
that it keeps insects small.

That same problem limits the height
of buildings with external skeletons.

Bu! steel lets builders mimic
a design on a much larger scale.

The structure of nature's
mega beasts, like dinosaurs.

When you look at a dinosaur
with an internal skeleton...

their size could increase greatly.

And that's the parallel
with modern skyscrapers.

Technologically, it took the switch
from these very massive external walls...

to an internal steel skeleton
for that to happen.

Big History reveals
that nature is the ultimate engineer.

Its designs are the hidden blueprints...

for mankind's biggest structures...

from pyramids to skyscrapers.

But could they contain the secret code
that built the entire universe?

Big History
links our desire to build big...

to a powerful human instinct...

that pushes us to defy gravity.

And decodes the hidden pattern
of mega-structures across the world...

and through time.

Now, Big History
reveals a deeper connection...

that links mankind's mega-structures...

to the mysterious
engineering of the universe.

In the ancient world, and even today...

mega-structures
are magnets of activity.

They rise up in great population centers...

and attract even more people
around them, and within them.

Even if they were built
for awe-inspiring reasons...

they become a place
where people come together.

They become a hub for society
within a town or a city.

These hubs become places...

where the energy flows
of the human race meet...

and out of this come often
unexpected and wonderful results.

It's a pattern we see across all scales...

from cells clustering together
to form creatures...

To human mega-structures that
pull people together into great cities.

It all connects to something
even more gigantic...

hubs of energy in the cosmos.

As the early universe cools,
its first mega-structures appear...

stars, solar systems
and galaxies.

Most of the universe is just empty space...

or not very much activity.

Where you get the interesting things,
you get the hubs...

where you get a lot of matter
concentrated into one particular zone...

where you get stars,
you get planets circling it.

Then you get a bunch
of interesting things going on.

On Earth, man's mega-structures...

echo this universal law.

Things happen where complexity exists.

So we can look at it from the perspective
of a city or a mega-structure...

or even from a much bigger, broader
perspective, really, of the universe.

Big History tries to connect events...

that are occurring
on the scale of the universe...

with events that are occurring
on the scale of the planet...

the biosphere, if you like, and humans.

And one of these key themes that seems
to run through all those processes...

from all those perspectives,
is evolving complexity.

The evolution of more complex
structures biologically...

of more complex structures
in the universe.

Clearly the appearance of mega
engineering, or monumental architecture...

is another example that humans have
crossed another threshold of complexity.

Big History shows us...

that although humans
have always built giant structures...

to inspire awe...

cement social power...

and mimic nature-

It also connects us to a profound mystery-

how humans build civilizations...

that echo the very structure
of the cosmos.

But the story of mega-structures
is just the beginning.

There is a much bigger
puzzle hidden in Big History.

Each episode unlocks a clue.

Everyday things like beef ..

Weapons...

and water hold the key.

Watch them all and you'll see
this grand mystery revealed-

the Big History of time, of space...

the Big History of us.