Following is the second of a series on TED talks that will change the way you view the world. The talks selected are drawn from the more than 150 that I've listened to this year.
David Christian: The history of our world in 18 minutes
You
can cast aside those old world history textbooks – historian David Christian
covers it all in 18 minutes, guiding us through the history of our planet, and
the elements that led us to where we are today.
Key
Christian quotes:
· “. . . what makes
humans different is human language. We are blessed with a language, a system of
communication, so powerful and so precise that we can share what we've learned
with such precision that it can accumulate in the collective memory. And that
means it can outlast the individuals who learned that information, and it can
accumulate from generation to generation. And that's why, as a species, we're
so creative and so powerful, and that's why we have a history. We seem to be
the only species in four billion years to have this gift. I call this ability
collective learning. It's what makes us different.”
· “. . . fossil fuels and collective learning
together explain the staggering complexity we see around us.”
· “What we see
around us is staggering complexity. Eric Beinhocker estimates that in New York
City alone, there are some 10 billion SKUs, or distinct commodities, being
traded.”
· “Collective learning is a very, very powerful
force, and it's not clear that we humans are in charge of it.”
· “What can big
history do? How can it help us? “. . . [B]ig history can . . . show us the
nature of our complexity and fragility and the dangers that face us, but it can
also show us our power with collective learning.”
Christian,
credited with coining the term “Big History,” has developed the Big History
Project, a free online course funded by Bill Gates. Christian was born in New
York and grew up in both Nigeria and England. His TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history
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