origin story a big history of everything

The narrative begins with the undifferentiated universe following the Big Bang and concludes with the emergence of our complex industrial civilization. Drawing on knowledge from a wide array of disciplines, Christian presents an engaging and coherent narrative, but also one that exhibits some conceptual flaws.Ī major theme of Christian’s narrative is the emergence and evolution of complexity. As he points out, his efforts are analogous to the ‘universal’ histories emerging within a variety of intellectual traditions over the past few centuries.

Footnote 1 Christian’s goal is nothing less than to situate humanity within the whole history of the universe, providing readers with an idea of how the universe evolved and their place within the natural world. Prior products include a series of university-level textbooks, a successful Coursera Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), an impressive web-based secondary school curriculum, and that sine qua non of successful public outreach, a widely viewed TED talk. Christian titles this effort ‘Big History’. Sweeping in scope, finely focused in its minute detail, this riveting account of the known world, from the inception of space-time to the prospects of global warming, lays the groundwork for world history-and Big History-true as never before to its name.Aimed at a general audience, this well-written and interesting book is part of an ambitious effort to develop the naturalistic equivalent of a creation-origin myth for the human species. It surveys the development of human society from the Paleolithic era through the transition to agriculture, the emergence of cities and states, and the birth of the modern, industrial period right up to intimations of possible futures. Cosmology, geology, archeology, and population and environmental studies-all figure in David Christian's account, which is an ambitious overview of the emerging field of ''Big History.'' Maps of Time opens with the origins of the universe, the stars and the galaxies, the sun and the solar system, including the earth, and conducts readers through the evolution of the planet before human habitation. Beginning with the Big Bang, David Christian views the interaction of the natural world with the more recent arrivals in flora and fauna, including human beings. 'An introduction to a new way of looking at history, from a perspective that stretches from the beginning of time to the present day, Maps of Time is world history on an unprecedented scale.

Origin story a big history of everything