Threshold 1 – Big Bang Theory (How the world began)
13.8 – 13.4 billion years ago
Threshold at a glance
In an instant you heard, “Bang!” something. That’s
how our universe began. Big bang is that tiny object
expanding at an unimaginable speed (10-32 sec). Quarks,
electrons and other particles were formed (10-6 sec)
afterward. A rapidly cooling universe was allowed energy
and matter to appear. All these events in only one second!
Still too hot to form into atoms, charged electrons and
 The Eternal inflation Model – posits that inflation
protons prevent light from shining; the universe remains a
superhot mist for three minutes. Then, electrons combine
with protons and neutrons to form atoms – mostly
hydrogen and helium. Our world then began to light up.
Something unimaginably complex emerged from
something originally simple.
Origin Story Models
The main purpose of introducing Big History is to
disturb their “mental comfort,” questioning why they
believe what they believe. This allows the students to leave
the familiar and tread the unfamiliar.
The creation model states that there was a
beginning to the universe, and by cause-and-effect
correlation, a beginning necessitates an ultimate cause.
The primary things we are discovering through
science in general that relate to religion have to do with
two main themes:
1. The universe had a beginning, therefore, there had to
be a cause
2. The universe displays a vastly intricate design that
supports complex life, strongly suggesting that there is
some creative intelligence behind it all.
The logical sequences found in nature, the Judeo-
Christians believe, are not random happenings or
surprising mutations, but skillfully managed actions created
by a greater omniscient and omnipresent intelligence with
a precise plan.
Scientists now think that there is an intrinsic logic to
out reality, that there are absolutes, laws of nature. Much
remains a mystery, and as one question is answered, many
others arose.
 The Steady State Model – says that the universe always
existed, so there was no need to explain a beginning. In
the 1940s Fred Hoyle and others developed an
alternative mathematical model of the universe that
did not start in a massive expansion. They said that
matter is a continuously created at a rate that keeps
the average density of the universe the same as it
expands steady state theorists’ ideas are largely
discredited today.
It was Hoyle who coined the term big bang in an
attempt to put down the idea that the universe had a
beginning Steven Hawking, a proponent of Steady
State Theory, claimed that the existence of physical
laws such as gravity. He argued further that God
couldn’t have created the universe because there was
no time which God could have done so: You can’t get
to a time before the big bang. The universe had always
looked much the same as it does today.
(exploding of the universe) never stops. Paul
Steinhardt, and later Vilenkin showed that new
inflationary models are generically eternal, also suggest
that the universe we experience is just one of many.
In the “multiverse” model, different universes would
co-exist with each other like bubbles lying side by side.
In that first big push of inflation, different parts of
space-time grew at different rates. This could have
carved off different sections – different universes –
with potentially different laws of physics.
Big Bang Cosmology
The Big Bang Model (a phrase coined, incidentally,
by the English astronomer Fred Hoyle during 1949 radio
broadcast as a derisive description of a theory he disagreed
with) is currently considered by most scientist as by far
most likely scenario for the birth of universe.
It is a grand narrative because it brings together
strands of historical explanation in different disciplines
such as cosmology, paleontology, anthropology, biology,
history, economics, and indeed philosophy.
It assembles accounts of the past from many
different disciplines into a single, coherent account of the
whole of the finite time in the past.
Nothing existed. No then; no before. Then, Big
Bang! After it, something new existed: our Universe! The
Big Bang or the primordial singularity provided the raw
materials for everything around us. A massive blast allowed
all the universe’s known matter and energy – even space
and time – to spring from some ancient and unknown type
of energy.
10 seconds after the big bang, the universe had
expanded enough that the atomic forces and gravity and
electromagnetism that we know today were already in
charge.
One of the physicists who took seriously the idea of
tan expanding universe, and hence the idea of a cosmic
origin, was the Belgian priest Father George Lemaitre. An
early relativity, Lemaitre suggested that the universe began
with what he called cosmic atom. In his cosmic
evolutionary scenario, this super atom then broke apart,
gradually formally forming all the atoms and particles that
make up the universe today.
When expansion stopped, reheating occurred until
the universe obtained the temperatures required for the
production of quark-gluon plasma as well as all other
elementary particles Quark-gluon plasma is a soup made of
matter’s fundamental gravity in halos of dark matter. This
clustering matter heats as it collapses together and nuclear
fusion fires are ignited.
1. The Big Bang did not occur as an explosion in the usual
way one think about such things, despite one might
gather from its name.
2. The Big Bang was neither Big (in the beginning the
universe was incomparably smaller than the size of a
single proton) nor a Bang (it was more of a snap or a
sudden inflation).
Big bang is not an explosion in space, but it is a
explosion of space.
Threshold of Complexity

Our infant universe is infused with two largest The appearance of the universe due to the Big
components of the universe – dark matter and dark Bang or inflation is the first threshold of increasing
energy. They are dark in two senses: they cannot be complexity. First subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, &
detected directly because they do not emit light, and that electrons.
they remain hidden from our understanding.
Just Right: Not Too Much, Not Too Less
o Dark Matter produces an attractive force (gravity),
Threshold 1; Big Bang
while dark energy produces a repulsive force 9anti-
gravity). Together, they make up 96% of the universe – Ingredients Structure Goldilocks Co. Emergent Pr.
both remaining mysterious to us. Acts purely to slow Energy, Energy and Uncertain; Potential to
down the expansion of the universe and accounts for matter, matter possibly create
the gravity that holds the universe together. space, time within a fluctuations everything
o Dark Energy, which also goes by the names of the rapidly within the around us
cosmological constant or quintessence, is the ‘force’ space-time multiverse
that causes the universe to accelerate its expansion. scale
Timeline of the Universe
According to the latest estimates, dark energy
makes up 73% of the universe and dark matter accounts 10 to the power of -43 seconds after the Big Bang:
for another 23%, leaving ordinary matter and energy with a “Planck time”, the universe is smaller than a “Planck
distinctly minority role of only 4%. The impact of the dark length”
energy is 5.5 times stronger on the acceleration of the 10 to the power of -33 to -32 seconds after the Big
expansion. bang: Inflation where the universe expands faster than
the speed of the light from much smaller than an atom
As the inflationary (expansion) period ends, the to a much larger size, by the end of the process cooling
universe consists mostly of energy in the form of photon – to need absolute zero before energy fields decay and
the fundamental particles of visible light – and those heat the Universe up again as it expands relatively
particles which exits cannot bind into larger stable particles more slowly.
because of enormous energy density. 10 to the power of -10 to -6 seconds after the Big
bang: Quarks and anti-quarks are created and
Quarks – are the tiniest indivisible particles all over the annihilate each other; surviving quarks form the basis
universe – usually found clinging together to make up the for protons and neutrons.
neutron and protons inside atoms. 1-10 seconds after the Big Bang: Electron-positron
pairs form and annihilate.
3 minutes after the Big bang: The universe cools down
enough to allow hydrogen and helium to form protons
and neutrons.
380,000 years after the Big Bang: The universe cools
to 3000 atomic nuclei are able to capture electrons,
forming full above (mostly hydrogen and helium),
becomes electrical neutral, matter and radiation
separate, and radiation is released a huge ‘flash’ that is
now detectable everywhere in the universe as Cosmic
Dispelling Misconceptions about Big Bang
Background Radiation.
 200 million Years after the Big Bang: Formation of the
stars and galaxies, followed by the death of the first
stars. The creation of the 92 naturally occurring
elements on the Periodic Table.
From Nothing to Something
Doctrine of Creation:
1. Creation Ex Nihilo (creation out of nothing) – stands for
the radical accidental existence of all that exists. The
complete dependence of all existing beings on a
transcendent God.
St. Thomas Aquinas, a medieval philosopher, argues
that philosophy could demonstrate the contingency of
the world and its creation at a finite time in the past.
2. Creatio Continua (continuing creation) – sustains the
world now and in the future.
John Haught, think that God’s creative act is
continuous. In his The New Cosmic Story, argues that
the story of the universe remains unfinished drama – a
story that is still unfolding.
Together, form complementary modes of interpreting the
central theological insight that God is both transcendent to
and immanent in all of creation.
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Krauss (1012) challenged this enduring philosophical
question, stating that something and nothing is scientific
inquiry rather than a theological or philosophical one.
Nothing is relative; no thing.
“If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly
understand who we are and where we came from,” Carl
Sagan wrote in his timeless treatise on science and
spirituality, “we will have failed.”
Claim Testers
i. Perception – it refers to sense knowledge or the
reports of our senses. Ex. The earth is round. The sun is
hot. Illusion – seeing something as something else.
Hallucination – seeing something when there’s nothing
at all.
ii. Introspection – a statement of how we feel or what we
are thinking or wondering about. This refers to the
things you find within you when you search your soul.
Also, it refers to the knowledge of one’s own mental
state. Ex. I feel lonely, cold etc.
iii. Memory – process of recalling the past. The speed of
forgetting depends on the number of factors such as
the difficulty of the learned material (e.g. how
meaningful it is), its representation (see: mnemonic),
and physiological factors such as stress and sleep.
iv. Faith (Latin; fidere, to trust) – an assent of the intellect
to a truth which is beyond comprehension but which it
accepts under the influence of the will moved by grace.
v. Reason – refers to the laws of thought. Our ability to
infer one claim from another, to synthesize
information to generate new claims.
vi. Intuition – a process of “knowing” not through seeing,
hearing or anything of the vision sensory channels but
through sudden conviction that turns to be right. It is
personal spiritual experience.
vii. Authority – it is taking the work of another.it must be
truth-teller, one who understands rightly, has no
motive to deceive, or one who is well-informed in the
matter about which he bears testimony.
viii. Evidence – the most fundamental and all-
encompassing claim tester.
Threshold 2- Stars Light Up
Ingredients:
 Hydrogen and Helium
 Gravity
Goldilocks Conditions:
 Tiny variations in the density of matter
throughout the universe
 Temperatures > 10 million degrees celius
New Complexity:
 Hot spots
 New structures
Threshold at a Glance
The heat of creation smashed atoms together with
enough force to break them up to dense plasma, an
opaque soup of protons, neutrons, and electrons that
scattered light. Clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the
first stars and galaxies, whose energetic ultraviolet light
ionized and destroyed most of the neutral hydrogen.
Molecules are built from atoms, atoms from
electrons and nuclei, and nuclei from protons and
neutrons.
During the first three minutes after Big Bang,
protons and neutrons fused together to form the nuclei of
the lightest element in the periodic table: hydrogen,
deuterium (heavy hydrogen), tritium, helium, and lithium.

A Star is born

“Let there be light” isn’t just a biblical; it’s science.

As the universe expanded, it got colder and darker.
Astronomers called these ages of the universe the Dark
Ages.

The space at night looks empty, but in fact it is not

empty; space is full of gas and dust called nebula.

Nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space

where new stars are beginning to form. Some nebulae are
called “star nurseries.” Nebulae exist in the space between
the stars.
Hot stars are blue. Smaller stars are less bright. The bigger
Helix Nebula is the closest known to nebula to
stars actually have shorter life span.
Earth. It is the remnant of a dying star – possibly one like
the Sun. It is approximately 700 light years away from Threshold of Complexity
Earth.
First is the existence of gravity. The universe
As all molecules exert gravitational pulls hydrogen consisted most of hydrogen and helium atoms. If star had
and helium particles began to attract each other. The lived for long enough, eventually it’s burnt out. It fused all
contracting cloud is called “protostar.” the protons in the center to create helium nuclei.

The stars turn on and become a main sequence Now the temperatures are so high at the center
star, powered by hydrogen fusion. It fuses hydrogen atoms that helium nuclei can start fusing to form other elements,
to form. such as carbon and nitrogen and oxygen.

The Reign of a Star Red Dwarf: Long-Living Stars

Brown Dwarfs - are often referred to a “failed star”
because they do not sustain hydrogen fusion in the cores.
This intense heat and pressure creates other nuclear
reaction, producing new heavier elements – carbon, silicon,
oxygen, and others, until creates iron.
The closest Star to the Sun is the Proxima Centauri,
is a red dwarf. 20 out of the 30 stars nearest to earth are
red dwarfs; none of them can be seen with the naked eye.
A Life of a Star

Red Dwarfs – the smallest stars. They are by far Stars of less mass expand, cool and glow into red;
the most numerous stars in the universe and have lifespans they eventually become red giant. It begins to manufacture
of tens of billions of years. carbon atoms by fusing helium atoms.

Mass of A Star After a low or medium mass or star has become a

3 possible birth weights of a star: low mass star has
0.5 – 2 solar masses; medium mass star has 2 – 8 solar
masses, and high mass star has 8 solar masses or bigger.
red giant, the outer parts grow bigger and drift into space,
forming a cloud of gas called planetary nebula.
The Blue-white hot core of the star that is left
behind cools and becomes a white dwarf. The white dwarf
eventually runs out of fuel and dies as black dwarf.

The long lifetime of red dwarf means that even

those formed shortly after the Big Bang still exist today.
 Stars of greater mass expand, cool, and turn red;
they eventually become super red giant.
The Star at its Brightest
In the early 20th century, astronomers realized that
the mass of a star is related to its luminosity, or how much
light it produces. The mass and luminosity of a star also
related to its color. More massive stars are hotter and
bluer, while less massive are cooler and have reddish
appearance.
End of the Star’s Radiance
 Red Dwarf – may have extended lifetime because there
are low mass stars but eventually they, like all other
stars, it burn through their supply of fuel. When they
do, they’ll become..
 White Dwarf – dead stars that no longer undergo
fusion at the core. These are intrinsically very faint
because they are small and, lacking a source of energy
production but still fiercely hot. They will radiate away
all of their heat and become..
 Black Dwarf – are only theoretical; the universe is not
old enough for the first white dwarfs to sufficiently
cool and make the transition.
that dies in a supernova explosion. A smaller star becomes
dense neutron stars, which are not massive enough to trap
light.
The term black hole was coined in to Princeton
physicist-astronomer John Wheeler, and the form was
discovered in 1971.
Star’s End, New Elements’ Beginning
Supernovae generated the highest temperatures of
all.
As David Christian says, some stars will glow like
for hundreds of billions of years but slowly inexorably, emit
cluster of galaxies will turn into vast mostly empty
graveyard. It seems like we live in a young Universe that
still has plenty of energy to build increasingly complex
things.
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (more than 25 y/o)
 NASA’s failure and a national embarrassment
CHARLIE PENNELIN – director
 Named after EDWIN HUBBLE (universe is

expanding) 13m long, 12 tons

 Electric clothes dryer – source of power
 LYMAN SPITZER – propose the space
Orion is the brightest and most beautiful of the winter constellations. Some of its telescope (1940) 1960 NASA planned
stars, including Betelguese and Rigel are among the brightest stars.  PERKIN ELMER – Contador
Black Holes

The most massive stars become black when they

die. A black hole is an space so massive and dense.
Most black holes form from the renewal of a massive star
 Exploding of the stars, sending out the material to
make more planets

Isotopes – atoms of an element that has differenty

number of neutrons but a constant atomic #. More Life!
ATOM has two properties

1. Atomic number – number of protons HOW STARS PRODUCE NEW ELEMENTS?

2. Atomic mass – number of protons + neutrons
 PRE EXPLOSION – burning of H and ending once
MOLECULE – smallest of a compound : substance the core produces Fe.
made from 2 or more atoms.  EXPLOSION ITSELF
1) Shock wave generated
1 – 92 : occur naturally on earth 2) Heats the various layers of the star
3) Modifying ashes
92 < : non natural
4) Produces actinides
101 > : trans fermium elements (100 – fermium,
DMITRI MENDELEEV – periodic table / 1869
“beyond fermium”
 A comprehensive system for classifying
2 Fundamental Processes of Involved In Created In
chemical elements
Created New Chemical Elements
IUPAC – International Union of Pure and Applied
1. FUSION – small nuclei are forced together to
form a nucleus (H+H= He)
Chemistry
2. FISSION – large nucleus is broken down into 1890 – Noble gasses were detected
smaller pieces to make lighter elements
(Uranium = strontium and krypton)

 After the big bang, the universe was still too hot for TIMELINE OF THE DISCOVERY OF CHEMICAL
electrons to join with nuclei. It was only after ELEMENTS
several thousand more years that the universe (116 known, 90 occur naturally)
was cool enough to allow electrically neutral atoms
to form.
1) STELLAR SYNTHESIS
Formed in the cores of stars
Stars fuse elemental hydrogen into helium
Account for star’s 85% energy; 15% (Be & Li)

For Massive Stars

NUCLEAR BURNING – formed O – Fe

2) SUPERNOVA NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
Star releases very large amounts of energy as
well as neutrons, which allows elements
heavier than iron, such as uranium and gold to
be produced

Stars are continually forming and aging

Converts more H and He into heavier elements

 1669 1680 1789 Sun is the Center of the Solar System (Nicolaus
Phosphorus Phosphorus Antoine Lavoisier Copernicus)
Henning Brand Robert Boyle Group 33 elements
into gases, metals,
non-metals ACCRETION model – stellar objects grow in size
1803 1809 1863 through the collision and sticking together of particles
Dalton’s Law 47 elements had John Newlands
relationship been discovered organized the 5b
between the elements into 2 Sun’s left over materials + face of gravity
components (of) in separate groups = planets, moons, meteors, meteorites and other
a mixture of gases
1869 1886 1886
heavenly bodies
Dmitri Mendeleev Radio Activity Radium and
used John Antoine Becquerel polonium
Newland’s grouping Ernest Rutherford Beta Particles are (- Solar Wind blasts away lighter elements (H & He)
and organized a 3 types of R A )
periodic table Pierre and Marie
away from the sun leaving only solid and rocky
Curie materials that created terrestrial planets like earth.
1894 1897 1897
NOBLE GASES ELECTONS were John Townsend and FROST LINE – temperature are cooler and hydrogen
William Ramsey small negatively Robert A. Milikan
and Lord Rayleigh charged J.J further investigated compounds can condense and solidify
Thompson electrons: exact
JOVIAN into ice.
charge and mass – Region where water, ammonia, and
1898 1898 1900
Polonium - #84 #10 on P.T. is on Source of methane begin to freeze
Radium - #88 inert gas – William radioactivity as – From Jupiter, largest Roman King,
Marie Curie Ramsay decaying atoms
Ernest Rutherford Jupiter/Jove
1890 (1900) 1903 1911
Electrons = beta Radioactivity is what (E.K. at Hans
particles causes atom to Geiger) Terrestrial Jovian
Antoine Becquerel broke down Electrons moved
around the nucleus Close To The Sun Syempre, FAR
of the cell’s atom
1913 1914 1914 Closely Spaced Orbits Widely
Niels Bohr Ernest Rutherford Henry Moseley
discovery about discovered (+) in labeled the
Small Radii Large Radii
electrons’ orbit the nucleus elements
Rocky Predominantly Gaseous
1932 1932
James Chadwick J.D. Cockroft & Solid Surface No Solid Surface
discovered neutrons Ernest Walton
and identified worked in splitting High Density Low
isotopes the atom
1944 1945 2006 Slower rotation Faster
UC – B discovered Lanthanides and 117 different
curium, Today we Actinides elements Weak Magnetic Fields Strong Magnetic
discovered 118 Glenn Seaborg
knowns, 92 formed Few Moons Many Moons
in nature
No Rings Many Rings

SOLAR SYSTEM FACTS

 Fragments of dead stars crashed together
under grants  99.86% (Sun’s Mass)
 Stars, moons and planets – most visible 00.14% (Planet’s Mass)
heavenly bodies = 100% Solar System
 Moon: nearest heavenly body & and its  Terrestrial Planets are composed of ROCK +
distance from the sun cause the rising of METAL
ocean  Jupiter + Saturn, composed of Hydrogen and
GEOCENTRIC THEORY Helium (innermost)
Earth is the center of the universe (Ptolemy)  Uranus + Neptune, composed of ices (water,
HELIOCENTRIC THEORY ammonia + methane) also referred as “ice glints”
 Dwarf Planets: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake,
Eris
SUN FACTS
 Center: 15cmoC
 Color: Mixed together, white
 Composed of H (70%) and He (28%)
 Main sequence E2V star/Yellow Dwarf
 4.6b y/o
 109 wider and 330k massive than Earth
 Sun is an almost perfect sphere. 10km difference
in the Sun’s polar diameter compared to its
equational diameter
 Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth
 Sun travels 220 km/second
 ASTROMICAL UNIT – distance between Earth
and Sun
 The Sun has a very strong magnetic field
 The Sun generates solar wind
OBSERVATIONAL TOOLS
Land-based telescopes
 Placed in isolated and elevated locations
 Captures light that has travelled through air
 Cannot take very sharp images from space
because of atmospheric distortion
Unmanned Spacecraft
i. Voyager 1 & 2 – launched in Sept. 1977 for the
jovian planets
ii. Mariner 9 – first spacecraft to orbit another
planet – Mars
MOONS!!
 Planetoid, crashed
 Little pits of hot rock splashed and orbited
 Joined together, cooled off, and formed moon
 After 45m years, the moon formed
 Moon orbits earth
 Earth’s only natural satellite
 ¼ size of the Earth
Buzz Aldrin & Neil Armstrong & Michael Collins
(Apollo II)
FACTS:
a. Dark side of the moon is a myth
b. Rise and fall tides – caused by the moon
c. Moon is drifting away – 3.8cm every year
d. Weigh much less on the moon – weaker
gravity, less mass
e. Only been walked by 12 American male (Neil
Armstrong (Apollo II; Gene Cernan (Apollo 17)
f. No atmosphere
g. Luna 1 (1959) – 1st spacecraft
h. 5th largest natural satellite in the Solar System
i. It will be visited by man in ‘19
TIMELINE OF THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
1st – 4.57b years ago, Gas cloud condenses,
contracts, and increases, rotation to form
protoplanetary dusk
2nd – 4.5682b years ago, oldest grains in the Solar
System form
3rd - + 10m years, Gas giants formed
4th - >+ 10m years, Solar wind clears out much of the
gas disk, ending growth by gas accretion
5th – 4.5b years ago, Jupiter migrates inward
REPEAT.
EARTH!!
 Bombarded by materials from outer space
 Space debris crashes on earth which added to
the size and mass of the planet
 Moon’s formation caused the earth to tilt 2.35o
 Nickel and Iron melted in the inner core
(produced magnetic field that protects earth
from harmful cosmic rays radiation from the
sun)
 Gasses bubbled from volcanoes (produced
atmosphere) or brought by comets
PANGAEA – Alfred Wegener – single supercontinent
cause by plate tectonics
EARTH FACTS
 Densest planet in the solar system
 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds
 GEOID
 32.1(Fe); 30.1(O); 15.1(Si); 13.9(Mg)
 365.2564 leap years!!
 3753 Cruithne, 2002AA29 – co orbitals
 66o tilts / 3% Fresh (2% frozen, ice and glaciers;
1% lakes and rivers) 97% Salted
 ASIA – 30% Land, 60% World’s Population
 1 Septillion of snow crystals that drop
 – molecule that contains genetic information of an
organism that is passed to an offspring
– contains instructions how an organism needs to
develop, live, and reproduce

= New complexity
Metabolism - maintains and fuels themselves
Homeostasis – adjust to changes around them

Reproduction – copy them selves

MUTATION
Adaptation – gain new characteristics over time i. Strand is split in the middle
 Life appeared on earth about 3.8b years ago ii. Each strand collects molecules from
 600 million years ago, multi-cellular organisms environment
emerged : plants, fungi, reptiles, dinosaurs, iii. Duplication starts
mammals
MINI THRESHOLDS OF LIFE
M – organisms use energy from environments by 1. Primitive Prokaryotes
converting food to energy – Evolved in deep in the ocean
R – reproduce themselves in great #s. (sexually and – First mini threshold of life: photosynthesis
asexually) – 3.8 million years ago
A – organisms become fitted to their environments – Changed the atmosphere from one rich in
such as adjusting to changing temperatures or carbon dioxide to one richer in oxygen (led to
metabolism the formation of ozone l.)
2. Eukaryotes
 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION (Aristotelian) – 2.5b years old
- “life just spontaneously emerged from non- – DNA is lacked up in a nucleus
life” – Contains organelle, which enabled them to
- LOUIS PASTEUR – rejected “no organism process oxygen
can emerge in a sterilized environment like – Eukaryotes/ic cells – human body is made up
in a flask where no microorganism can 3. Multi-cellular Organisms
contaminate” – Eukaryotes from together
 PANSPERMIA – With networks of specialized cells and
- “life did not originate on our planet” cooperation, they were able to respond to
- Asteroids, comets, and other space debris changes in the environment
carry prebiotic molecules which can survive 4. Brain
space travel – Can send and respond to electric signals
 ABIOGENESIS coordinated in all the processes going on
- “life originated from gradual increase of inside them
molecular complexity” of chemicals 5. Migration Of Some Organisms From Water To
abundant in early atmosphere Land
UNICELLULAR – bacteria – 475m years ago
MULTICELLULAR – mammals, plants – Develop special skins to avoid drying out,
special rays to breathe out of water, new was
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to reproduce
6. Mammals • We are the other lineage of that ancestor
– First: modern lungfish, amphibians, reptiles which is why we have almost 98% similarity
– Warm blooded, furry, and don’t lay eggs of DNA with the apes.

THEORY OF EVOLUTION Paleolithic period/OLD STONE AGE

 Stone tools
1) Individual within species are similar enough to
 Creating more sophisticated tools enabled
breed
them to survive & prosper
2) Within species slight variations occur
3) Variations within species can be inherited UPPER PALEOLITHIC PERIOD
4) Environmental factors select some variations,
gather more food, produce more offspring  More complex pattern of social interactions
5) Traits of successful individuals are passed to their  Collective hunting
offspring  Organized fishing
 Social stratification
3 APPROACHES IN DARWIN’S THEORY  Ceremonial events
 Supernatural & religious rituals
Conflict – “evolution by natural selection can never
reconciled w/ belief” CREATIONIST AND Prehistoric Tools
PROPONENTS OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Stone tools & artifacts
Contrast – “people should simply acknowledge that
sacred scriptures are not science and that Darwin’s  technology
science has nothing to do with faith.”  dexterity
 mental skills
Convergence – “if theology was able to adjust to  innovation
heliocentric universe, so it can now adjust to evolution”
...how early humans made things, how they lived,
interacted with their surroundings & evolved over
Threshold 6 - Collective learning time…

Ingredients: Fossil Evidence

• Powerful Brains • Snapshot of human evolution

• Precise and versatile symbolic language • Gradual change on anatomy of species
Goldilocks Conditions: – Walking
• Interaction between individuals and between – Diet
communities
– Brain development
New Complexity:
– Physiology  language
• A new species, Homo sapiens, that uses
collective learning What makes humans unique?

• Larger brain

TRUE ABOUT US AND MONKEYS • Distinctly human traits

• We only share the same ancestor • Collective learning

(Hominine/Hominids) to that of the APES –
gibbons, gorillas, chimpanzees, and Language
orangutans, and not monkeys.
 • Improvement in the structure of throat & o Farming
brain
o Planting
- Lowering of larynx
o Livestock
- development of the hyoid bone
o Crops
• Broca’s areas
o Source of Living
– Speech production & ability to
articulate o Fishery

• FOXP2 (gene) o Food

– speech & language What is Agriculture?

Complex speech  can communicate larger • Agriculture is the science, art and practice of
volume of information more precisely farming which includes, but not limited to:

– Soil cultivation

COLLECTIVE learning... – Crop production

• Enables humans to transfer, store & – Animal or livestock rearing

accumulate knowledge
– Marketing of resulting products
• Precise info – WHY IS AGRICULTURE NEEDED?
Individual  individual HOW DID IT EMERGE?

generation  generation What is Agriculture according to BIG HISTORY?

• Allowed humans to innovate & learn rapidly; Agriculture for BIG HISTORY is adapt the
rapid way of adapting by sharing ideas environment to them rather than adapting to the
environment

Threshold 7 – AGRICULTURE
Ingredients:
 Increasingly dense human communities
 Knowledge about the environment
Goldilocks Conditions:
 Warmer Climates after the last ice age
 Increasing competition for resources
New Complexity:
 Domestication of plants and animals
 Villages, cities, and agrarian civilizations
Agriculture
Emergence of Agriculture
- Extensification
– “discovering of new sources of energy from new
environments”
– constant migration for hunter-gatherers
- Intensification
– “looking for ways to extract sources of energy in a
given place”
– maximizing benefits in a given space (ex.
Agriculture)
Neolithic Revolution
• Holocene epoch: increase in rainfall which led
to thick vegetation
• Agriculture as maximization of Sun’s energy
• self-sufficiency amidst growing population
• Collective learning and knowledge
• The period when our ancestors have
 • started to shift from hunting and
• gathering and foraging to agriculture.
As our ancestors relied on agriculture as a
way of life, they have learned:
1. how to manipulate the environment
2. develop more skills
Rise of Civilizations
– Increasing Population In Certain Areas
– Sedentary Living
– Creation of communities and societies
– Agrarian Civilizations and first states
... a way of life where humans find
themselves living in one place for a long time.
 Cuneiform - the oldest known writing system
 Hieroglyphics - Egyptians’ own form of writing
system
Belief Systems And Faith
They developed ideas on how to explain the
conditions of their environment, thus the
establishment of religions.
Power and Gender
 Top-Down Theory
 Coercive Power
 May involve violence
 Bottom-Up Theory
 Power based on CONSENT
 Social Contract Theory
• Role and status of men and women are
clearly defined
• WOMEN at the forefront
(Neolithic Revolution)
– Women as first agriculturists
– Women as homemakers
Threshold 8 - Modern Revolution
Ingredients:
 Increasingly large exchange networks
 New energy sources
Goldilocks Conditions:
 Globalization
New Complexity:
 A globally connected human society
 INNOVATION - process of making
changes and introducing new ways
to improve something, or even to
create or make something new
Drivers of Innovation:
 Increased Exchange Network: the
denser the population, the more
exchanges happened
 Improvement in Transportation
And Communication:
 Increased Incentives to Innovate:
there is an interest in innovating
new things either from copying or
trading with the other places and
groups
Arnold Toynbee
- British economic historian who popularized
the Industrial Revolution
Ingredients of a Successful Industrial
Revolution (Brown, Christian, Benjamin)
1. Large quantities for extra capital
2. Lots of cheap labor
3. New markets for goods
4. New inventions
5. New source of power
6. New raw materials
7. Improved transportation system
 The First Industrial Revolution energy from
windmills to energy from coal and fossil fuels.
 James Watt – one of the first to design an engine
in which burning coal produced steam; From
simply extracting coal, it also extracted other
natural resources.
 The steam engine eventually evolved into more powerful brains capable of creating
complex machines, one of which is the steam and destroying... Time is ticking;
locomotive. reminding us to pause, reflect and
rethink. Remember how we are
Consequences of the Industrial Revolution considered as a tiny speck of dust
• Labor Issues: in comparison to the unimaginable
a.) Child Labor universe. Our creative hands may
b.) Unhealthy/unsafe working conditions fail but the immense creativity of the
• Dirty Housing Conditions Almighty can never falter...it is
• Gender Inequality precise, it builds, it renews, it
• Environmental issues provides...
What factors led to the Industrial Do we really need all these?
Revolution?
• Population Boom
• Agricultural Innovation PAPASA TAYO!!!!
• Commerce
• Presence of Coal

The Third Industrial Revolution

• The Anthropocene – the geological epoch that
defines the Earth as heavily “human-
manipulated”
• The Internet and World Wide Web
• Globalization

Threats to Humanity after the Industrial

Revolution:
• 5.) Extreme Global Climate Change
• 4.) Pandemic
• 3.) Population
• 2.) Unknown Unknowns
• 1.) Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)

REFLECTION
We possess powerful hands,