Cosmic Education and Big History宇宙教和大历史.ppt

Sexual reproduction was another major advance in the ability of living things to adapt to their environment and extract energy efficiently. * Now we enter the phanerozoic eon, named for our ability to see living organisms with the naked eye because they are now multi-celled and larger than microscopic. The specialization of cells to perform various functions in keeping the whole organism alive is a matter of coded activation of different parts of the DNA strands that are identical in all the cells. The Cambrian Era was what we call the beginnings of the Paleozoic Era. * The first one was the lamprey. Higher level of complexity requires coordination through a nervous system. We’re now into the mesozoic era? * The Cenozoic era. * The Quaternary era. * The development of agriculture and the modern revolution are important enough developments to call them a new threhhold. * * This is a philosophical discussion rather than a strictly historical discussion, but an important one to have at this point. * This is a philosophical discussion rather than a strictly historical discussion, but an important one to have at this point. * This is a philosophical discussion rather than a strictly historical discussion, but an important one to have at this point. * This is Chtistian’s main explanation of the unique nature of humans. The Rosetta stone represents some of man’s earliest attempts at writing to communicate. * Today, the internet connects us with the whole world, but even in the stone age, humans were teaching each other important things they had learned over time. * See Guns, Germs and Steel of Jared Diamond for discussion of how geography affects the rapidity of advancing civilizations. * * * * * * James Lovelock - The Vanishing Face of Gaia * That stability is represented here by the double strand helix of DNA. * * Upper level complexity increases at the expense of the rest of the universe. Local energy gradients allow for complex entities to appear. * Chaisson teaches