Big History

Posted by DJL on Oct 29, 2014 in Science | 1 comment

I love David Christian’s concept of teaching “big history.” And by big, he means, really, really big. In this TED Talk, he narrates the history of the universe in 18 minutes. Why? To invite us to place our lives, dreams, hopes, setbacks, and struggles into the largest context possible. The outcome? Well, you’ll have to watch to see. But in the meantime I’ll suggest two: first, it all can serve to make some of the things we worry about – and maybe even ourselves – seem rather small. At the same time, and particularly when you consider how incredibly unlikely we – humans and our civilization – are, and how long it took to get here…well, then it can have the opposite effect, making us feel incredibly fortunate, even special, and certainly responsible for making the most of our time and role on the stage of history.

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