Mega-Evolution and Big History
* Chapter/Article: Mega-Evolution and Big History. By Akop P. Nazaretyan. In: Evolution: A Big History Perspective 2011 82–100
URL = http://www.socionauki.ru/almanac/issues/evolution_2_en/full_text_nazaretyan.pdf
See: Big History Perspective on Evolution
Abstract
"Big History – an integral conception of the past, from the Big Bang until today – is a relatively new and unique subject of cross-disciplinary interest. The concept was construed in the 1980–90s simultaneously in different countries, after certain basic concepts had matured in the Sciences and the Humanities. Various versions and traditions of Big History are considered in this article. In general, most Western authors emphasize the idea of equilibrium, and thus reduce cosmic, biological and social evolution to mass-energy processes. Furthermore, they view the information parameter, involving mental and spiritual aspects, as mere epiphenomena of increasing complexity – only adjunct to material structures, ones that do not play their own role in evolution. In the Russian tradition of Big History, however, sustainable non-equilibrium patterns are used. This implies attention be paid to pan-material sources and evolution of mental capacities and spiritual culture (as basic anti-entropy instruments) and humans' growing intervention in the material processes on Earth and off of it. The non-equilibrium approach, in the context of modern control and self-organization theories, alters the portrayal of the past, and even more dramatically, the estimation of civilization's potential."
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