Big History
Contextual Quote
"In the Big Historical narrative what connects the unimaginably inhuman scales of subatomic, super-galactic space, and everything in between, is the progressive evolution of complex structure in our local region (Aunger 2007a, 2007b). The cosmic evolutionary understanding refers to this complex structure as the materialist hierarchy of interconnected forms (Smart 2008). Thus, in this framework what unites the ‘micro-macro’ worlds of the physical universe to the ‘middle’ world of the human symbolic orders is the ‘evolution of complexity’ in terms of diverse parts (elements) capable of connecting (relating) in higher coherent wholes. These wholes in turn exhibit structural forms with novel properties, from macromolecular chemical communities to the technological global human community. Consequently, the concrete theoretical interpretation of the Big History story relies on the structure of complexity science."
- Cadell Last [1]
Description
Cadell Last:
1.
"Big history is the study of the human past in relationship to the history of the universe (see Christian 2004; Spier 2011). This endeavor attempts to utilize the entire collective body of human knowledge in order to construct a deeper understanding of all natural processes(e.g. Aunger 2007a, b; Chaisson 2011a, b) from ‘‘Big Bang to Global Civilization’’ (e.g. Rodrigue et al. 2012). In contrast with the traditional attempt in physics to construct a ‘grand unified theory’ of the universe, big historians see the subject as providing the beginnings of a working ‘‘grand unified story’’ of the universe (Christian 2004, p. 4). From my perspective this goal should not be to eventually develop ‘one unchanging objective story’, but rather to develop the empirical framework for a story of our collective history that everyone can in turn relate to and utilize on a personal level. Thus big history has the opportunity to become simultaneously one story of our shared world as well as an infinite number of stories of how individuals can relate to that world. The usefulness of such a common origin story is that it can always be re-symbolized depending on contemporary sociopolitical context and scientific understanding. Consequently, big history offers humanity a deeper perspective and an opportunity for cosmic reflection in relation to the meaning of human life from an exploration of the processes that culminated in our existence."
2.
"Big History is a subject that formally emerged to meet and potentially satisfy a general desire for a symbolic space capable of holistically integrating fragmented scientific disciplines from cosmology to biology to human history (Christian 2017). Consequently, the ultimate goal of the study of Big History is to create a common language for all academic research so that seemingly disparate phenomena can be understood in an integrated framework (Spier 2017). From this perspective all disciplines, irrespective of their object of analysis on the various scales of reality, are all a part of the Big Historical narrative from ‘Big Bang to Global Civilization’ (Rodrigue et al. 2012). In this way, as Big History pioneer David Christian conjectures, the aim of Big History is to conceive of a ‘grand unified story’ capable of reclaiming the human desire for a total vision of reality (Christian 2004: 4). This desire has not been satisfied by the hyper-fragmented structure of the 20th century knowledge. Thus, Big History at its most fundamental ground seeks to construct a symbolic order in the form of a temporal narrative (past-present-future) that can reconcile a totalizing understanding of substance (Big Bang to global civilization)."
History
History of Big History
Cadell Last:
"The study of big history as an intellectual tradition can be understood as both old and new. The subject is old because we have evidence of humans constructing complex physical and metaphysical narratives, and thinking about natural and supernatural explanations for the ‘totality’ of human existence in the world, for as long as we have evidence of writing. In fact, this narrative tradition may have been manifest in the human species from the dawn of complex material culture (North 2008), as all modern human groups develop cosmic cultural worldview structures (Blainey 2010), regardless of ecological organization. Consequently, the origin of our symbolic ‘totalizing’ behaviour is hypothesized to have emerged in concert with the emergence of full linguistic capabilities (Dunbar 2009), as the formation of human worldviews is deeply interconnected with the formation of the linguistic domain itself (Underhill 2009). The ramifications of this speculation suggests that ‘big history’ as a symbolic activity could in some form represent a cultural archetype of human worldviews that is at least as old as the emergence of modern humans (*150 to 200thousand years ago) (e.g. White et al. 2003; McDougall et al. 2005).However the early origins of academic big history in the modern Western tradition can be found in the construction of empirically based cosmic narratives. These types of histories from various scientific and philosophical perspectives started to emerge in the nineteenth century (e.g. Chambers 1844; Humboldt 1845; Fiske 1874; Spencer 1896) with the early development of modern evolutionary thinking (e.g. Darwin 1794; Lamarck 1809;Darwin 1859, 1871; Wallace 1871; Butler 1887). Early big history narratives—like many of the narratives constructed by religious, spiritual, and philosophical perspectives in pre-modern cultures—were always concerned with the human relationship to life and the cosmos as a whole. In these works central questions regarding the origins of the universe, life, and mind were often presented and explored, but the lack of a firm empirical grounding in the knowledge and theory of many subjects prevented the coherence of any testable scientific model. Thus the early study of big history, as well as the formulation of cosmic evolution, failed to mature or gain widespread academic credibility in the nineteenth century (Dick 2009b). Even throughout the early twentieth century there were only a few works that can be seen as important precursors to the contemporary subject (e.g .Bergson 1911; Wells 1920; Shapley 1930).The last half of the twentieth century was characterized by a noticeable increase in large-scale interdisciplinary big history work than ever before. In retrospect, the discovery of the big bang in 1964 appears fundamental and crucial to the development of big history as we know it today. The big bang allowed for a real beginning to a cosmological narrative, as well as an empirical way to understand the connections between the worlds of cosmology, physics, and astronomy, and the worlds of chemistry, geology, biology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, cybernetics, economics, and history (e.g. McGill 1972;Sagan 1977; Cloud 1978; Jantsch 1980; Chaisson 1981; Poundstone 1985; Reeves 1985;Christian 1991). Also important were the first NASA images of the Earth from space [e.g. ‘‘Earthrise’’ (1968) and ‘‘Blue Marble’’ (1972)], which allowed humanity to see the whole planet for the first time, and reflect on our place within the cosmos with ‘new eyes’. In this historical intellectual environment astronomer Carl Sagan’s introduction of ‘‘The Cosmic Calendar’’ (1977, p. 8) marks an important symbolic moment; as this metaphor captured a clear pattern marked with a connected, directional, and accelerating set of cosmic ‘events’ from ‘particles to people’. The modern form of big history, in its attempt to become a rigorous academic discipline, is formulating a common conceptual framework that can be used to understand the whole of nature. Although no common framework currently exists contemporary researchers have tended to place particular emphasis on energy flow as a necessary component of physical change and structural complexity (Niele 2005; Spier 2005; Chaisson2011a, b), information processing as a source of functional variation and organizing complexity (Smith and Szathmary 1995; Corning 2005; Lloyd 2006), and complexity, which can be understood as a measure of the relationships between distinct but connected parts interacting within an integrated whole (Heylighen 2000; Davies 2013).In this big historical system energy, and specifically the rate of energy flow utilized for internal work, is seen as important in enabling higher associative interactions. This essentially means that material complexity typically comes at an energy cost, and measuring the density of energy flow that can be maintained by a physical object or living subject, gives us an approximate understanding of its structural complexity. Information also plays a dominant role in big history by allowing us to understand changing patterns in all physical processes and the functional ability of information processors to reduce uncertainty by increasing knowledge of their environment. From this perspective the emergence of information processors: entities that develop a subject-object relation, or input–output function, remain fundamental to understanding how functional organizations emerge to purposefully maintain and direct energy flows with greater autonomy from physical and chemical processes devoid of subjects. Consequently, there is a clear break or divide in the history of the universe between living systems (or autopoietic self-maintaining/organizing systems) and physical systems. Living systems have an internalized subjective relationship (self) to the larger object (environment) within which they exist, making their behaviour a process of goal and value formation emerging from that subject-object interaction/tension. Big historians also need to focus on the general evolution of all processes in the local universe. In this attempt there is a conceptual emphasis on a general systems framework, which understands the universe as a nested and hierarchical metasystem of organizations from the microscopic level (e.g. subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, etc.) to the macroscopic level (e.g. organisms, ecosystems, civilizations, etc.). In this general systems approach it is not the substrate that matters but rather the organization of substrates, i.e. the functional (cybernetic) process of the substrate to maintain organization, and the (evolutionary) mechanisms of its change over time. To understand the evolution of complexity within these systems emphasis is placed on differentiation as a property of subsystem variation within a larger metasystem (Heylighen 2000; Stewart 2000, 2014), as well as integration as a property of subsystem interconnection within a larger metasystem (Turchin1977; Smith and Szathmary 1995).
The evolutionary-cybernetic properties of differentiation and integration are necessary to understand the growth of complexity. This is because networked patterns of interconnected distinctions inherently characterize increasingly complex systems, irrespective of material substrate. These increasingly complex networks enable multi-level adaptive capabilities (i.e. higher organism-environment relations) exhibiting emergent properties that are completely absent at lower levels of organization. Thus by studying the way differentiation and integration have progressed via new forms of cooperation big historians can identify commonality in the evolutionary processes that enabled continuous local development of hierarchical ordered levels. From this conceptual framework we can start to build a comprehensive view of the local universe as a region of ever-complexifying relationships, which produce new levels of organization facilitated by higher levels of awareness, and consequently, new living system goals and values in relation to the cosmic object. In elucidating the complexifying connections between all historical processes we may be able to provide a foundation for understanding both our contemporary world and our potential future."
Discussion
Complexity Thresholds and Complexity Transitions
Cadell Last: