Big Ideas

Cameron Gibelyou is a faculty member at the University of Michigan, where he develops and teaches original, innovative multidisciplinary courses, including "Popular Science," "Predicting the Future," and "Tours of the Past." He has taught Big History at both the high-school and college levels and serves as science advisor and teacher consultant for the Big History Project. His PhD is in physics, with a specialization in astrophysics and cosmology.Douglas Northrop is Professor of History and Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan, where he teaches world/global and Big History, Central Asian studies, and the history of empire, environment, and culture. His other books include An Imperial World: Empires and Colonies Since 1750 (Pearson, 2013), A Companion to World History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), and the prize-winning Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2004). He is now working on a study of natural disasters along theEurasian frontier.

How do you write histories of all of time? How do you handle Time itself, or the moment of Creation? Or Evolution, or Causation and Contingency, or the spooky power of mathematical reasoning? And what is Entropy? In nine beautifully written chapters, Cameron Gibelyou and Douglas Northrop explore the perils and delights of writing, reading, and interpreting Big History.

• Acknowledgments Preface About the Authors Chapter 1. Introduction OverviewA Brief History of Histories of EverythingInformation and InterpretationThemesOrganization and LayoutPoints and PurposesCreationA Quick Tour of Ideas About CreationCreation Myths and Universal HistoriesDisciplineThe Challenges of Integrating Different DisciplinesExample: What Counts as an Explanation? Simplicity vs. ComplexityIntegrating the Humanities and Sciences: The Interpretive LevelScaleSide note: Powers of TenSpace and Time Tell a StorySide note: We Are Intermediate-ScaledValue, Significance, and Scale: Small Matters Too Chapter 2. Universe UniverseThe Size of the UniverseThe Centrality of the EarthThe Moral Meaning of the UniverseDefining the UniverseBig BangThe StoryThe EvidenceSide note: The Lithium ProblemLevels of ConfidenceGravity Gravity in the History of the Universe: Galaxies, Stars, Elements, PlanetsIdeas About GravityObservational Challenges: Dark Matter and Dark EnergySide note: Unseen Matter and Gravity Gravity as a MetaphorEntropyWhat Is Entropy?Entropy, Order, and ComplexityEntropy in an Expanding Universe, Past and FutureMathematicsLaws of PhysicsLimitations of LawsLaws and DisciplineWhy the Unreasonable Effectiveness?Physical Laws and the Nature of Explanations in PhysicsFine-Tuning Chapter 3. Earth EarthForming the EarthEarth as a PlanetEarth as a Set of SystemsEarth as AlivePlate Tectonics The Idea and the EvidencePlate Tectonics and the Earth's InteriorSide note: Does Plate Tectonics Itself Have a History? Shifting the Conceptual GroundTo Ponder: Plate Tectonics as a Metaphor Deep Time A Brief History of EarthHow Do We Know?Side note: How Did the Moon Form? Telling the Story of Deep TimeTo Ponder: The Anthropocene Ordering by Separating Accretion and DifferentiationSedimentation and Isotope FractionationOrdering by Separating, Past and PresentReductionism What Is Reductionism?Scale and (Anti-)Reductionism in Universal HistoriesContextual EmergenceTo Ponder: Wholes and Parts Discipline, Reductionism, and the Overall Shape of Knowledge Chapter 4. Life Life Life and Levels of Biological OrganizationLife: Discipline and Reductionism Side note: Scales of Life Side note: The Same Entity Can Be Treated at Multiple Levels Evolution The History of Evolution: Darwin's Time and BeforeNatural SelectionModern Evolutionary SynthesisExtended side note: Evidence for Evolution Evolution as Information, Evolution as InterpretationEvolution, Progress, and the Value of AnimalsEvolution, Progress, and the Value of Human BeingsSurvival, Struggle, and the Nature of NatureEvolution: Interpret With CareBiosphere The Beginnings of the Biosphere: 3+ Billion Years AgoA World of Microbes: 3 to 1.5 Billion Years AgoA World of Microbes . . . Plus Other Stuff: 1.5 Billion Years Ago to the PresentHow Historians Can Help ScientistsSide note: Stromatolites and Hunter-Gatherers The Place of Humans in Life's HistoryBiochemistry The Beginnings of Life: How, Where, Why?Life's History--A Biochemical Story?What Is Life?Science Science Is PhilosophicalSide note: How the Philosophy of Statistics Influences Cosmology Science Is SocialTo Ponder: Crackpots Science Has Limits Chapter 5. Humanity HumanityHuman AncestryThe Search for Human Origins and the Anthropologist's Proxies for HumanityTo Ponder: What Does It Mean to Be Human?CultureBiology and CultureSide note: Cultural EvolutionBiology and Culture as Interpretive FramingTechnologyStone ToolsHunting and Extinction of the MegafaunaAgricultureProgress Narratives and the Interpretation of Prehistoric TechnologiesLanguageSome Basic Properties of Language Origins of Language: When, How, Why?Side note: Language and ThinkingMindMind, Consciousness, PhysicalismExtended sidebar: Other Minds Side note: Other Minds Integrating the Human Sciences: Human Beings and Being Human Chapter 6. History HistoryUniversal Histories in the Context of History-WritingTo Ponder: A History of YouEvidence, Deep Time, and World HistoryTo Ponder: Southeast Asian InscriptionsInformation and Interpretation in World HistorySide note: Following Up on "A History of You"Large Scales and the IndividualContingencyContingency in HistoryContingency in the History of LifeChance, Laws, and Contingency in Historical ExplanationSide note: CounterfactualsContextA Brief History of the World in Three PartsSide note: Evolutionary Psychology Side note: Social Constructs The Multiple Contexts of Universal HistoriesPopulationPopulation Dynamics in the Era of Foragers, the Agrarian Era, and the Modern EraMalthusian Thinking About Population DynamicsSide note: State Formation in SumerExtended side note: Easter IslandBiological Reductionism in Universal HistoriesTo Ponder: Population and Culture in Other AnimalsCausationMulticausal HistoryDeterminisms, Free Will, and the Writing of HistoryRelationships Between Causation, Context, and Contingency Chapter 7. Modernity ModernityModern Changes: As Seen From the Informational LevelSide note: SociologyModernity as Interpretation and StorytellingConnectionConnection Goes Far BackGlobal ConnectionsThe Limitations of ConnectionSystemsThe Idea of a System, and How It Structures Universal HistoriesAdvantages and Limitations of "Systems Thinking"StatisticsStatistics, the Social Sciences, and Modern ConceptsSide note: Eugenics and Theoretical StatisticsProjecting Numerical Information Wherever We LookPurposeSide note: Philosophy in ModernityA Brief History of Purpose in (Western) PhilosophyPurpose in BiologyThe Advantages and Disadvantages of Including PurposePurpose, the Universe, and Emergence Chapter 8. Future FutureWhat Makes Something Predictable?Side note: FuturologistsCausality and ScaleAn Example of Short-Term Prediction: Climate ChangeMedium-Term FuturesLong-Term FuturesWildcards and Interactions Between TrendsInterpreting the FutureProgressProblems With ProgressThe Future as a Site for Discussing Present Moral StandardsSustainabilityUniversal History as Context for the AnthropoceneSustainability in the AnthropoceneEnvironmental Sustainability as a Matter of Social Organization and InfrastructureSide note: The Aral SeaEnvironmental Tradeoffs and the FutureTranshumanismTechnology and the Future of Human EvolutionTechnologies and Technical Limits of Human ModificationUniversal Histories and TranshumanismCriticisms of TranshumanismTimeTo Ponder: To Experience a Radically Extended Life SpanPhilosophy, Physics, and TimeTime in Other Disciplines Chapter 9. Interpretation InterpretationWhat Is Interpretation? Interpretation and the Integration of Disciplines, Worldviews, and PeopleInterpretation and Universal HistoriesComplexityMeasuring ComplexityComplexity in the Physical, Biological, and Social WorldsEvaluating ComplexityReligionNaturalism as One Worldview Among SeveralReligious Worldviews and the Foundations of Universal HistoryThe Reasonability of Religious WorldviewsIncorporating Religion in Universal HistoryNarrativeThe Atheist and the Orthodox Jew: Visions of RealityMetanarrativeA Many-Branched Stream Appendix Index