This is a magnificent book which gives a glorious overview of everything starting from the Big Bang to the present. The journey which the author takes the reader through is awe-inspiring and humbling at the same time. The book should adorn the library of every school in the world.
The author starts with the arrow of time primarily defined by the second law of thermodynamics. This law is how the universe works at its most fundamental level- things move from high order (or organization) to a low order (or disorganization). High order is a low entropy state and low order is a high entropy state. This rule saying that nature always moves from low entropy to high entropy is undoubtedly a fundamental building block of nature.
However, at various points of increasing disorder, local areas of low entropy – islands of high order -occur, and at these places new and complex structures evolve. The inviolable second law of thermodynamics does not disallow complexity to form, but there is always an entropy tax. A local island of order-the outcome of so called ‘Goldilocks conditions’- is always accompanied by increase of entropy in the surrounding environment.
There have various threshold moments involving such complexity starting from the Big Bang moment to the present moment in history. This includes the formation of atoms and molecules, formation of stars and galaxies, creation of planets by exploding stars, start of life, and then the development of complex multi-cellular organisms finally leading to us. We now look back at the universe and wonder how this all comes about. The threshold moments involve high complexities of low entropy, but the important warning is that complex systems are very fragile.
As the entropy decreases in the system, it is also increasingly vulnerable to extinction, because Nature tends to dislike complexity and is always trying to make it simple. This is the overwhelming message of the book to humans which represents the maximum complexity as we know presently. We are in the threat of annihilation and extinction from a thousand sources, the most important and dangerous being humans themselves. Our evolution of brains and intelligence puts us on a pedestal but that has given the two most important problems of Earth- a shrinking biodiversity and huge climate changes as a direct result of human activity.
Threshold 1: Big bang origin of our universe 13.8 billion years back.
Well, there can be no two arguments about the first threshold moment, which is the beginning of the universe. Space and time started at the time of Big bang about 14 billion years ago, and a question of what was before the Big-bang meets a studied silence. Physics is asking the question now; and mainstream physics accepts the question a little valid. Whether the Big bang is a single one-off result of a quantum fluctuation in vacuum, or just another event in a multiverse where universes are forming all the time, we do not know.
We tend to think of space as a passive arena where all the action takes place. Physics however shows that space is anything but that. It is an active element playing a significant role in the interactions of matter in the universe. It can bend or distort by gravity; and the so called ‘vacuum’ of space be a source of limitless energy. Space started at the Big Bang moment and has been expanding ever since.
Now, we have the speculation of multiverse theory where our universe is one of the infinites of the universes which has certain parameters allowing life. There is nothing special about the constants of physical matter of our universe. All values are possible. We are just in one of the universes which has those parameters; and which has supported life and intelligence to the extent that we can ask the question of why the universe is the way it is. The problem with multiverse theory is that it is untestable with our present energies and equipment. Mathematical string theory, the latest and the most controversial child of physics, predicts 10500 of universes like ours!
After the origin of space and time, there was another equally stupendous event called ‘Inflation’. According to this beautiful theory, a few milliseconds after the Big Bang, the universe expanded by an order of millions in the briefest of milliseconds. The orders of size are like an atom blowing up to the size of the solar system in a billionth of a second! Of course, the next question of why this happened meets silence. The Big Bang along with inflation is the explanation of the entire universe we see around. There are unresolved questions and alternative arguments, of course. For now, from the very beginning of the Big Bang to the present time, most observable events in the universe have found a fit explanation by invoking these two theories. The universe is remarkably flat and uniform and the reason for this is again ‘Inflation’. Alan Guth, a great physicist, first proposed this revolutionary theory of ‘Inflation’ occurring incredibly early in the origin of the universe. So there, we are off to a flying start.
Threshold 2: The first stars begin to glow 13.2 billion years back
The first 38,000 years after the bang saw a uniformly dense plasma filled universe without atoms and without light. Then the first atoms formed, light photons started travelling and the universe became transparent. For 600 million years, nothing exciting happened towards complexity. Energy is of two forms-structured (or free energy) and unstructured (or heat energy). The former in the right conditions helps in creating complexity. Threshold 2 was a consequence of Goldilocks conditions where free energy interacted with simple matter created in Big bang and gravity to form the first stars and galaxies.
The cosmic wave background radiation show that early universe showed little structure at large scales. Hydrogen and helium floating in a warm bath of dark matter permeated with photons of light was all that was to it. Temperature was nearly uniform in the entire universe which disallowed any temperature driven gradients of energy. Here gravitational effects became important. Gravity turned the smooth particle mist of the early universe into a messier and clumpier place filled with stars and galaxies.
Gravity clumps matter, which in turn increases gravity, which in turn clumps and brings more matter. In such a positive feedback chain started by gravity, increasing mass finally led to the first development of the stars and galaxies. In the cores of these stars, hot temperatures and densities led to the fusion of protons (or hydrogen) into helium, a process known as fusion. Fusion releases huge amount of energy. As the core temperatures of the stars crossed ten-million degrees, trillions of protons start fusing into helium, creating a furnace releasing extraordinary amounts of energy.
The stars organized slowly into the galaxies and the gross structure of the universe evolved. There are at least a hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe; and there are at the least hundred billion stars in each galaxy. Gravity kickstarted the full process and gave the activation energy for fusion, star formation, and everything else which followed.
The universe and Nature have an inviolable law in the second law of thermodynamics. The entropy of a system always increases. The local areas of complexity are low entropy, but the flows of energy that sustain complex things finally increase entropy by slowly breaking down all forms of structure and order. The total entropy of the system always increases despite local areas of high order and low entropy. This is the basic paradigm of complexity. Short order complexity always breaks down eventually. Arguably, we are the most complex at present; and we may be just fighting the strongest principle of nature.
Threshold 3: New elements forged in the dying stars. Continuously from threshold 2 to present day
The stars after their formation live for billions of years and then end in some interesting manner depending on their mass. Our Sun is typical of most stars in the solar system. As they age, the routes of demise for the star vary. The larger stars are the cooler stars as they have used most of the protons in their nuclear furnace. They are fuelling their cores by fusing larger nuclei. The surface temperature is lower because they have expanded to a large size-200 times our Sun; however, the total amount of light emitted is huge.
At some late point in their age, the stars run out of fuel produced in their furnaces and then gravity takes over. Stars literally collapse under their own mass. This gravity mediated collapse raises the temperatures in the core again, however to keep the balance, the outer layers expand and cool. The cool outer layers look red to us, hence termed the red giants.
If red giant has enough mass, gravity at the core generates enough energy to fuse the protons into heavier elements. The initial universe and stars are mainly hydrogen, helium, and a sprinkling of atomic numbers 3 and 4-lithium and beryllium, respectively. The heavier nuclei such as carbon (atomic number 6) and oxygen (atomic number 8) start forming now. Carbon and oxygen atoms combine to form elements like magnesium, silicon, and finally iron Beyond iron, the star loses the ability to further sustain and they lose the outer layers. A white dwarf forms which is a huge ball of iron with no furnace at their core. These are extremely dense- the size of Earth with the mass of Sun. A teaspoon of white dwarf would weigh a ton!
It is what happens to some of these white dwarfs that makes things interesting. Some die spectacularly by a supernova (called Type 1a) explosion; an event so magnificent and so luminous that the naked eye sometimes can see them. The light generated by the exploding supernova is the same for all, and they become standard candle sticks in astronomy to measure distances using the luminosity as seen by us. A faint supernova is distinctly further from us than a brighter one.
Some stars explode by another manner called core-collapse supernova, typically those who are more than seven times the size of our sun. Some supergiants collapse into extremely dense neutron stars, where the protons and electrons squash together into neutrons and the emptiness of the atom nearly vanishes. A neutron star is an extremely dense objects; a twenty-kilometer-wide neutron star would weigh twice that of the sun. Some of the heavier elements of the periodic table form during the violent mergers of neutron stars.
The supernova 1a explosions, the core-collapse supernovas, and the merging neutron stars liberate energies which allow the fusion of protons beyond iron leading to the elements of the rest of the periodic table. This sets the stage for the next threshold of forming molecules and planetary systems. Our life is literally stardust. We are the stars.
Black holes are the result of the collapse of some stars, the densest known to us with a gravity not allowing even light to escape. These black holes are an area of intense study and many of its properties are unknown to us. The laws of physics break down at two places- the Big bang and the center of these black holes.
Threshold 4: Our sun and the solar system forms 4.5 billion years ago
Now begins the era of chemistry playing a crucial role. The next level of complexity is the formation of molecules. Atoms by themselves are not interesting, but they have very flirtatious electrons which help in uniting atoms to form molecules. Molecules are far more interesting allowing more complexity. The most important molecule on Earth, of course water, is a combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. At the level of the atoms and molecules, gravity is not important. The electromagnetic forces play a more significant role here.
The formation of planetary systems is a messy and chaotic process, a by-product of star formation in chemically enriched regions of the space. Billions of years after the big bang, space filled up with clouds of matter made of many chemical elements. Hydrogen and helium still constituted 98%, however the remaining 2% made all the difference. Gravity again helps to play a role in making this cloud clumpier. The stardust generated by blowing up of supernova and other mechanisms aggregate because of gravity and slowly condense into suns and planets.
The sun formed in our region of a local supernova explosion because of these interactions which gobbled up 99.9% of matter in its dust cloud. The 0.1% of matter, broken into smaller pieces, in the dust cloud rotating around the central Sun eventually form the planets. The planets hold around the sun by gravity and rotate by centrifugal forces. About 4.5 billion years ago, the planetary system formed around our Sun. The third planet of the solar system from the Sun became the most important part of the story of life. At least our life.
Planets are chemically far more interesting than the stars. Stars are simple in terms of the chemical composition. The correct conditions of temperature, availability, pressure, and so on allows chemistry to take its full play in the planets.
Two processes turned a spinning disc of matter into planets, moons, and asteroids. One was a type of chemical sorting, where the composition of the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus is simple like that of the early universe, mainly hydrogen and helium. The inner rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars lost hydrogen and helium and had a rare chemical diversity. Oxygen, silicon, aluminium, and iron make over 80% of Earth’s crust, with elements like calcium, carbon, and phosphorus playing lesser roles.
The second process was accretion of matter around the sun in different orbits with violent smashing of asteroids and meteors at various times to the evolving planets. These violent interactions of the early solar system formed the planets, its moons, and the rings around some of the stars like Saturn.
The young Earth heated up and melted by accretion, violent collisions, radioactive materials, and increasing pressure as it grew. The heavier elements like iron, nickel, and some silicon sank through the hot sludge to form the Earth’s metallic core. This created a magnetic field around the Earth. Lighter rocks like basalts formed the second layer, a three-thousand-kilometre-deep region of semi-molten rock mixed with gas and water-the mantle. The lava from the volcanoes come from this layer. The lightest rocks floated on the surface and cooled to solidify into the third layer-the eggshell layer known as the crust. The oceans and continents are the crust of the Earth. In the floor of the oceans, the crust is 5 kilometers thick; but in the continents, it is about 50 kilometers. Complex chemical interactions involving the crust and the mantle formed a bubbly mixture of gases around the Earth- the atmosphere. The molecules of increasing complexity finally laid the foundation of life, the next threshold.
Threshold 5: Earliest life on Earth 3.8 billion years ago
The most important event is the origin of life on Earth. Despite all the scientific advancements, the curious conversion of chemistry to biology amazes and stays a mystery even today, even for established scientists.
Inside the individual cell, it is a huge pandemonium of chemistry in a wild form; and it is indeed a mystery how the whole comes out so organized from the individual elements. Despite all which is known today, we still do not know what exactly life is. We know its properties, of course.
1. Living organisms consist of cells enclosed by semipermeable membranes.
2. They have a metabolism, meaning mechanisms to tap the free energy from the surroundings and use it to rearrange atoms and molecules inside to make the complex, dynamic structures survive.
3. They can adjust to changing environments by homeostatic mechanisms; which is using information about external and internal environments to make the necessary adaptations in the form and function.
4. They can reproduce by using genetic information to make copies of themselves.
5. The genetic copying and its errors finally pave the way for evolution and diversity.
At the extremely basic level, life consists of only two features: to survive and to reproduce. So, what were the Goldilocks conditions for producing life from the inorganic soup?
1. Our solar system is in the right place of the Milky Way galaxy, about two-thirds of the way from the center of the galaxy to the outer edge.
2. The temperature at lower scales allows chemistry to work well. Atoms could become molecules.
3. Presence of liquids allows solutions, and which turn allows interesting chemistry. The presence of water on Earth is the most important chemical ingredient for life to evolve.
4. Chemical diversity is another important Goldilocks condition. Hydrogen and helium make up 98% of all known elements. The chemically rich areas are the inner rocky planets like our Earth and Mars. Just the right distance from the sun allowed most of the hydrogen and helium to evaporate, leaving a higher concentrate of the other elements of the periodic table.
The chemically rich ingredients combined in an extremely favourable conditions of light, temperature, pressure, atmosphere to produce the first live organism capable of metabolism and procreation. We do not know how exactly the first life formed. LUCA is an acronym for the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Luca is a hypothetical creature, a sort of composite picture of the first living organism, a bit like a police sketch of a criminal on the run, says the author.
The first organism strangely made their presence felt quite soon after the formation of Earth. In 0.7 billion years, there is evidence of life on earth. There is speculation on how the first forms of life evolved, but the picture of future evolution is clearer. Could it come from alien sources by way of smashing meteorites and asteroids? In which case, we are all aliens!
All living organisms classify into three great domains: Archaea and Eubacteria which consist of single celled prokaryotes; and Eukarya, which are the complex unicellular or the multicellular organisms. Prokaryotes are minute unicellular organisms without a nucleus or specialized organelles. Invisible to the naked eye, they dominate our biosphere. In fact, 90% of our human body DNA is prokaryotic. We are 10% human, in fact, in terms of DNA content!
The development of photosynthesis was an energy bonanza and a revolution of some sorts. This happened about 3.5 billion years back. The sun energy directly converted into energy. Oxygen released from the cyanobacteria created an oxygen rich atmosphere which killed most prokaryotes who were mainly living on anaerobic or non-oxygen mechanisms. From an oxygen poor world, there was a transformation into an oxygen rich world. This allowed more complexity to generate. Glacial movements blocking photosynthesis, heat and carbon dioxide from the volcanic vents, plate tectonics of the Earth played complex roles in oxygen and temperature thermostats.
As the Earth was fluctuating between extreme cold and extreme warmth, Eukaryotes evolved by way of resetting the Earth’s thermostats. Eukaryotes developed by an important mechanism called ‘endosymbiosis’ which allowed the mitochondria to integrate with another cell. Eukaryotes thus might have been the symbiotic effort of two prokaryotes. As Lynn Marguilis says, it is not always about competition in evolution. The mitochondria allowed oxygen trapping from the atmosphere and use it for generating energy. Respiration is the reverse of photosynthesis. Respiration was a huge energy bonanza for living organisms. The first Eukaryotes or the multicellular organisms evolved about 1.8 to 2 billion years ago. Eukaryotes are many times larger than prokaryotes, sometimes of thousand orders of size. Membranes enclose the cell and its internal organelle to create very specialized compartments inside the cells.
Eukaryotes have the DNA enclosed in the powerful vault called the nucleus. Eukaryotes evolved one of the most important drivers of complexity and diversity: sex. The sexual reproduction was a huge evolutionary event which allowed complexity, however, at the cost of mortality. Carl Sagan calls this the hardest bargain of nature.
Little life ruled the biosphere for 3.5 billion years and still rules it. Big life started from changing architectural relationships between cells. Specialized and interdependent cells developed which went to create the complexity of big animals about 600 million years ago. In the same family of genetically identical cells, a few cells specialized to various functions due to selective functioning of genetic switches and the tool-kit genes. These tool kit genes are remarkably similar across various animal species. Selective activation of the same tool kits allowed individual organs to develop in the body of an animal. Amazingly, the same tool kit genes in some other animals allowed diversity to develop. The wings in birds derive from the primitive limbs by these tool kit genes.
635-540 million years ago-the Ediacaran period-saw for the first time three familiar groups of large organisms in the biosphere: fungi scavenging the decomposing organic matter, plants depending on photosynthesis, and animals alert and mobile depending on oxygen, plants, and other animals.
Cambrian explosion or the big bang of animal evolution is a remarkable period of only 10 million (a blip in evolutionary time frames) years period starting 530 million years back. A huge complexity and diversity developed in the animal kingdom. An amazing number of species developed in the vertebrate and the arthropod kingdom. Tool kit genes played a key role in this diversity.
In a complex play of the environment from volcanoes to asteroids with the biological organisms, there were evolutionary upheavals, new speciation, and mass extinctions too. In this complicated interplay, the larger trend was increasing the oxygenation and greening of land. In the living world, the trend was for larger bodies and larger brains despite the intermittent extinctions.
Finally, mammals burst on to the scene after fluctuations in atmosphere, mass extinctions, and evolutionary experiments. Mammals are the warm-blooded animals like us with a neocortex in the brain allowing calculations and hence enhancing survival. They have fur and nourish their young with the help of mammary glands. The mammals with increased information processing capability started dominating the biosphere as they moved up in the food chain.
The dinosaurs lived from 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago in a most dominating manner. Most mammals of that world were living in an obscure shadow of the mighty dinosaurs. They were mostly small sized like our rodents. Humans were nowhere around.
A mighty event occurred 65 million years which was an asteroid impact- the evidence is the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico. The post-impact era termed the Cenozoic era is the past 65 million years of the Earth’s history. This caused the extinction of the mighty dinosaurs and allowed the next group of mammals to evolve and survive. And that includes us. Over the next millions of years, evolutionary trends allowed complexity to evolve with bigger brains and larger bodies. We share 90% of our DNA with other mammals.
The human species or the hominins separated from the chimpanzee lineage about 7 million years ago. There were many types of hominins perhaps in series or in parallel. The Homo erectus, a broad group of human ancestors with erect spines made their presence felt about 2 million years ago. The last in the line were the Homo sapiens and our nearest cousins, the Neanderthals. There is some evidence of some co-breeding in the two species, though some deny it.
200,000 years ago, it was only Homo sapiens, us, who survived by eliminating presumably the Neanderthals. And that began the next threshold in the chapter of Earth’s history.
Threshold 6: Homo sapiens make their presence felt 200,000 years back
Homo sapiens are indeed a big deal since they are transforming the biosphere like no other. The most important aspect of humans is collective sharing and learning which allows them to manipulate the environment to its advantage. We belong to the huge group of animals called Primates which includes lemurs, monkeys, and great apes. Primates are exceptionally brainy with unusually large brains compared to the size of the body. The front part of the brain-the neocortex is the game changer. In monkeys the cortex accounts for more than 50 percent of the brain in contrast to most mammals which has only 10 percent to 40 percent. In humans, the cortex forms an astounding 80 percent of the brain. Big brains are useful indeed, but they are not necessarily an evolutionary advantage, because the brains are guzzlers of energy, something like our SUVs!
Sociability, cooperation, and brainpower evolved together. The earliest humans or the hominins split from the chimps about seven million years ago. Many species of hominins evolved till we-the Homo sapiens burst on the scene about 200,000 years ago. Bipedalism, the ability to walk on two feet; larger brains and evolution of the hands by way of an opposable thumb were key evolutionary strong points. An opposable thumb allowed dexterity in making weapons and holding objects with a firm grip. Our brains measure 1350 cubic centimetres, huge when compared to the chimpanzee size of 350 to 400 cubic centimetres only. EQ is Encephalization Quotient which is the extent of deviation from the expected brain size for a given body weight within a group of animals. Chimps have an EQ of about 2, and modern humans have an EQ of 5.8.
What makes us radically different is our ability for collective learning and sharing. We not only gather information but seem to cultivate and domesticate it to our advantage. Weapons, poisons, collective hunting, detecting seasonal patterns helped things our way to dominate the world in a gradual manner.
Information management of a large scale as seen in the past or today is not the achievement of individuals. It depends on the sharing of millions of individual insights over many generations. This is termed noosphere– a single global realm of mind, of culture, of shared thoughts and ideas- by Russian geologist Vladimir Vernadsky. Social or cultural transmission works on time scales many orders of size faster than organic evolution along the regular lines. This ‘cumulative cultural revolution’ is unique to our species.
Much of the information is linguistic; and language development, an accident of evolution perhaps, allowed humans to take control of its environment like none before. Language allowed accumulation of information within communities and across generations. This goldmine of information unleashed knowledge about plants, animals, soil, fire, chemicals, weather patterns, art, religion, and literature. Information accumulated at an exponential rate allowing humans increasing access to flows of energy.
Hence, shared memory and collective learning, a non-biological mode of adaptation, acted in parallel with biological evolution to transmit knowledge across generations. All human accomplishments, from antiquity to modern times, are products of a shared memory accumulated over centuries.
We went almost extinct 70,000 years due to a huge volcanic eruption. Only a few tens of thousands of people were alive, just enough to fill a moderate sized sports stadium. They were our proverbial Adam and Eve. We made a glorious comeback however. One hundred thousand years ago, almost all humans lived in Africa, and from there migrations took place to all over the world. The Earth was undergoing periods of cooling and warming. Humans gathered into communities. 150 people are the largest group size that human brains can normally cope with, and that may be the maximum size of the communities. These Palaeolithic communities had the universal human knack of accumulating innovative ideas, insights, and knowledge like modern humans. They had the same cultural and technological dynamism as modern communities, though on a smaller scale.
The hunter-foragers started having an impact on the bio-sphere. In Australia, Siberia, and North America, the megafauna vanished soon after the arrival of humans! As humans spread across Africa, Eurasia, Australasia, and the Americas, populations increased across the planet, so that thirty thousand years ago, we were 500,000 in number. Just at the beginning of the Holocene or 10,000 years ago, our number might be 5 to 6 million. 10,000 years ago, the last ice age ended; and a warm period started with stable global temperatures. This was an epochal period in our history where farming began. Humans suddenly gained access to much larger flows of energy; and this in turn allowed a quantum leap in the complexity, diversity, size, and intricacy of human societies.
Threshold 7: Beginning of agriculture 10,000 years back
Agriculture was a definite threshold moment in the history of humans. It was an energy and resource grab allowing access to increasing information to exploit the environment. Farmers gained huge energy from the lands, rivers, and forests surrounding them. A symbiotic relationship developed between plants, animals, and the center-piece humans. Domesticated animals survived and flourished in the protection offered by humans. So much so that in the year 2000, the total biomass of all wild land animals was about one-twenty-fourth that of domesticated land mammals. It pays to be friends with humans.
Farming transformed human lifeways within few generations as collective learning enabled humans to collaborate and live together for better exploitation of the surrounding environment. Technological, social, and cultural innovations took place at a faster rate on the back of farming communities. Farming seemed to have started in the Afro-Eurasian world and spread to other parts of the world in fits and bursts. However, it may have started independently at various places too as the evidence shows. The thriving early civilizations were undoubtedly on the great rivers like Nile, Yellow River, and Indus. The Fertile Crescent on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean was a thriving farming area.
Two phenomenon helped humans settle into farming. First, the climates began to get warmer and wetter around the globe; and second, foragers occupied so much of the Earth that some regions felt the pressure of overpopulation. These factors might have nudged the foragers into farming about 10,000 years back. Our climate has been remarkably stable for the last ten thousand years which is a crucial Goldilocks condition for farming. The reserve knowledge accumulated by foragers over many millennia supplied the start-up technologies for the first farmers. The positive feedbacks then took over in an exponential manner.
Farming essentially brought in a change of attitude in humans. Foragers normally thought of themselves as embedded in the biosphere; however, the farmers saw the environment as something to manage, cultivate, exploit, improve, and conquer. So much so for our Marxists who blame the industrialists for exploitation and imbalances in society. The agrarian mode of living was perhaps the first in exploitation and creating imbalances!
Agrarian societies held more than 150 people together and this led to a hierarchy and concept of leadership. The constant access to vast amounts of energy, irrespective of the climate, organised the first villages and might have even led to wars too. Law, leadership, societal rules, ranks based on lineage or ability slowly evolved from the agrarian civilizations. More free time generated the arts and literature, the first of course being in the oral form.
With more people, collective learning became more powerful and some innovations brought significant changes, particularly domestication of large animals and the emergence of large-scale irrigation. Populations rose fast as farming methods improved. It had taken one hundred thousand years for humans to reach five million at the end of the last ice age. By five thousand years ago, humans quadrupled, rising to twenty million. By two thousand years ago, humans became two hundred million!
However, agrarian civilizations had its downside too. Catastrophes interrupted everywhere in the form of famines, disease, war, and death. Villages accumulated waste and attracted disease bearing animals and microbes. Hence, diseases would have spread fast.
Despite the ills, there was no looking back as the agrarian civilization organized into the bigger level of towns and cities. Gradually, concept of a country might have developed with a ruler at the center offering protection against war in return of taxes. Governments may have thus evolved in this manner. Agrarian civilizations finally led to surpluses, hierarchies, and a division of labour based on lineage and ability. Warriors, priest-intellectuals, farmers-traders, and labourers was the organic outcome of such societal organizations. Specialization increased the inequality too. The earliest agrarian communities may have been egalitarian; however, as size and prosperity increased, wealthy minorities entered the picture.
Complex and small-scale societies saw the emergence of hierarchies and anthropologists have detected that slavery and forced labour were common in agrarian civilizations. The key to inequality, exploitation, and imbalance is not hence agrarian or modern industry. It is the human mind at the end of the day with its ideas of power and control. There is huge evidence of extortionate methods in all agrarian civilizations to keep order and to extract labor and resources.
The villages organized at higher levels into towns, cities, states, countries, and empires. States used new flows of labor, produce, and energy to pay for the armies, bureaucracies, and palaces. Wealth finally consists of control over the energy flows that make, move, mine, and transform things. Wealth does not actually mean the possessing of the thing itself. The first governments arose as a larger need and perhaps as a natural consequence.
The author quotes Arthashastra in the need of governments:
Government looks to acquire what is not, to safeguard what it acquires, to augment the safeguarded property, and to bestow the augmented on worthy recipients. On it depends the proper operation of the world. What supplies enterprise and security is punishment. Punishment is the foundation of statehood.
Coercion was fundamental to mobilization in all agrarian civilizations which helps explain the importance of warfare and the pervasiveness of physical punishments in societies, households, and families.
Technologies helped in the spread of states and their interactions. Collective learning took a massive swing upwards as road building and writing came to the fore. It shaped educational, philosophical, and scientific thought on a global basis. In this collective learning lay the rich theologies and origin stories of the major state religions.
In the period from 10,000 to 2000 years ago, human populations increased by about forty times. Such rapid population growth was possible by huge increases in the energy consumption by our species. Humans were consuming seventy times the amount of energy they consumed at the end of the last ice age; and this was possible by the energy bonanza of farming. This colossal energy bonanza paid for population growth, taxes paid for infrastructure and wars, and for improving the lives of the elite. There is evidence that the slow rise of life expectancy confined to the rich and the powerful. Energy bonanza from farming improved the lives of no more than a tenth of all human beings unfortunately. There is evidence that though people enjoyed occasional luxuries, most of the time, most of them lived close to the subsistence level throughout the agrarian era. As late as 1900, in most European countries, 1% of the population owned 50% of the national wealth. Agrarian civilizations were not egalitarian, by any stretch of imagination.
Anyway, the stage was set for the greatest energy bonanza creating a new world- Fossil fuels.
Threshold 8: Fossil-fuels revolution begins 200 years back
By 1400 CE, the world human population was five hundred million, a hundred times as many at the end of the last ice age. Most humans were farmers with an agrarian mode of living. The pressure to find new land, added resources, and new sources of wealth stimulated men to start long voyages and colonial occupations. The ocean membranes slowly melted as explorers undertook increasingly daring missions. New routes to Indian sub-continent and the Americas set up a new chapter of expansion and benefit, though not necessarily mutual. The author is careful not to harp on the brutalities of colonial and religious expansions as he wants to avoid these tricky issues in the big history of humans.
Changes occurred fast in a globalized world. It took a few centuries where humans united within a single global sphere of thought: the noosphere. In the four-billion-year history of the Earth, this was indeed a momentous event. It also set the stage for a great disruption of the biosphere and the atmosphere.
Economic activities increased with the introduction of stable naval routes. Buying at low prices and selling at higher rates based on supply and demand set the course for capitalistic societies in a proper mode. Information also flowed along economic gradients. The printing press was a valuable contribution in consolidating and transmitting information in a recorded permanent form.
Information transfer led to the development of science and technology at various places; the world rapidly globalized due to the established networks. New flows of wealth, information, and scientific knowledge stimulated innovation in agriculture, mining, shipbuilding, navigation, canal construction, and many areas, particularly in Western Europe. There was a heady mix of governments and entrepreneurs.
The author is truly kind to the European history and severely underplays its tragic colonial history all over the world. He does not mention the combination of educational and religious heads in motivating and justifying the colonial conquests. Maybe, he wants to avoid controversy and be neutral. Similarly, the story of other civilizations, like the Indus valley, is highly condensed and suffers from a lack of information on his part. The technological and scientific understanding of the non-European world hardly get a mention in the book, and these are the only criticisms I can offer to the otherwise wonderful book. He places Europe with increasing wealth, entrepreneurial dynamism, and informational richness as the center of transformative power. Maybe it is true, but that came at the cost of some major disruptions in the world order, the impact of which is still evident in many parts of the world. The story of loot and plunder could have a more honest narration, if only to warn the young population on the dangers of greed and ambition.
Anyway, this set the stage for the next major revolution, a mega-innovation of some sort-the fossil fuels. Coal became an alternative to wood, opening vast amounts of energy. Technological breakthroughs like the steam engine helped in harnessing this energy for industrial work and transport. In many feedback loops, coal stimulated industries, weapon making, railways and bigger steamships. Large scale electricity generation became possible in the 1860s.
Electricity, as an offshoot of coal energy, stimulated other technologies like the telegraph. Instant communication at the speed of light began in a truly global world. Cheap energy was a huge stimulus for innovation and investment in many parts of the world. In 1861, oil guzzled out of a well in Pennsylvania by the efforts of a man called Edwin Drake, who ironically died in poverty. And the next chapter of runaway progress started in the history of humans.
There was no looking back after oil and gas. The world changed rapidly in ever increasing loops of feedback as energy became hugely available for use. The Earth entered a period of ‘Anthropocene’, the era of humans truly in the center of the scheme. Information gathering, dissemination, energy utilisation, means of transport, telecommunications, instant messaging, breakthroughs in science, air travel, travel to the moon, health revolutions, hospitals, computers, world wars, atom bombs, weapons of mass destruction, the list of breath-taking innovations and incidents is endless. Human life changed in many ways in a brief period of just 200 years as a direct result of this energy source tapping. Ironically, inequalities have stayed the same. It is one of the strangest phenomena of humans that we are always trying to dominate nature and our own kind too after defining ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Wars and weapons scared the people many times. We almost went on the path of extinction as the leaders came close to press the nuclear button. However, as some scientists like Steve Pinker argue, despite the threat of war, the world has become less violent. But peace is at the cost of huge expenditure in the form of supporting defenses and the fear of total annihilation in case of war. One madman at the control of the buttons can take down entire humanity, and that is indeed scary. Slavery was respectable in most of the world as late as the eighteenth century; and corporal punishments were normal in many schools and educational institutes. Personal violence is common, but compared to the number of people, it is much rarer than it used to be. Ethical and moral norms seem to have suffused the society on a general level, though far from perfect.
The major effect of this period has been the growth of a global middle class and a demographic transition to a period of low fertility and low mortality. Many countries in the world are now struggling with an ageing population and its consequences on the economy of the state. One of the characteristics of the new world today is that nobody can lose their way anywhere in the world and nobody ever complains of boredom with a digital machine in the hand!
There is a downside too, and a big one. Since the industrial revolution, the total emissions amount to about 400 thousand megatons of carbon dioxide. Ten thousand megatons of carbon dioxide release each year into the atmosphere as a direct result of human actions. We almost destroyed the ozone layer but took some early precautions. Nothing of that sort seem to be happening with our dealing of the greenhouse gases. Global warming is a real issue.
Animal extinction is continuing at an abnormal rate. Normally, one species goes extinct every 1000 years. Humans have accelerated this to one species every 100 years. Most species of animals and plants not of immediate value to humans are declining in numbers. We are seeing the initial stages of another mass-extinction, even as we look towards the planets and outer stars for possible colonization.
Human activities in the form of mining, road building, spread of cities, plastic use is changing the bio-sphere in many complex ways. An awareness has surely built up and voices of sanity are warning us. It is how we handle ourselves in the next few decades and centuries that will decide our fate. The fossil fuels are at the end of their reserves and we are now desperately seeking other sources of energy. Solar energy and nuclear energy promise to be the energy of the future. It is surprising that fuels created after million of years of pressure and heat in the interiors of the Earth could burn up in a few centuries.
The highly accelerated science and technology of the second half of the twentieth century has divided this Anthropocene into two forms-the Good and the Bad. The ‘Good Anthropocene’ has improved the lived of billions of ordinary humans, for the first time in the history. Violence has come down and people are having access to opportunities in an unprecedented scale. The ‘Bad’ however is upsetting the apple-cart. It has generated huge inequalities, despite experimenting with all forms and philosophies of governance. Slavery is abolished officially; however, there are still 45 million slaves living in the world. A most shameful statistic. Poverty is still a stark reality for millions across the world. The Bad threatens to decrease biodiversity and created an atmospheric disaster by way of pollution. The final problem of course is the threat of mass annihilation and wars ever hanging on our heads. It would be nice if the violence had come down along with decrease in defence spending. Unfortunately, science and technology are progressing the most in the field of weapons and warfare.
Threshold 9: The future in hundreds, thousands, and gazillions of years when the universe fades to darkness.
Billions of years from now, the story is clear as the Earth, solar system, and the universe fades into complete emptiness with entropy winning. We cannot predict the next hundred years unfortunately. As the world is on the brink of disaster, at least for humans, mainly because of humans themselves, we must evolve into a ‘Mature Anthropocene’, says the author.
An increasing population and increased longevity might finally make us a two-planet species; we are looking at Mars as a first step. If we survive billions of years in the future, human brain will surely take us to the farthest realms of the galaxy by way of faster travel or even bodiless consciousness transfer across space. Fiction and speculation are slowly converting to serious science by the efforts of armies of scientists across the world.
What are the goals of human quest now? The first is to avoid a crash. The second is to ensure the benefits of the Good Anthropocene to all and to ensure the biosphere continues to thrive. If the biosphere fails, no quest can succeed. The efforts have thankfully begun.
In 2015, the UN document ‘Transforming the World’, proclaimed:
All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We resolve to free humanity from the tyranny of poverty and want to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps urgently needed to shift the world on a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will stay behind.
The statement continues to end poverty and hunger and aim for equality in human beings; to protect the planet from degradation through sustainable consumption and production; and finally, prosperous and fulfilling lives to human lives by ensuring that economic, social, and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature. 17 sustainable-development goals and 169 specific targets for the next fifteen years follow the opening statements.
Soon after, the Paris Accord on Climate Change declared its aims of holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius and in making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.
There is scope for cynicism and scepticism in the above statements, but the optimism is important here. At least we have recognized the dangers of the Bad Anthropocene and want to do something about it. We should collectively strive for a Mature Anthropocene; however, it is exceedingly difficult to construct the view of such a world now. Unlimited growth or a stationary state with only mental, moral, and social progress? Some have argued for trying the ‘best state of human nature where no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward’. Well, that may require new brains.
What would a Mature Anthropocene look like? Population growths would stabilise. Poverty would go with checks on the accumulation of extreme wealth. Individuals would value quality of life and leisure over increased income. Education and science will become more important as knowledge begins to replace material good as a source of wealth. The dependence of fossil-fuels would wean off. Solar energy would step forward for energy, with some role of nuclear power.Biodiversity, wetlands, and fragile regions would be highly protected.
At this crucial point of history, we are bang in the center for survival of the biosphere. We have this huge responsibility to go cautiously. Gazillions of years from now, the universe will dissolve. If we survive these turbulent times, in the next hundred years, new planets may start being colonised by humans. Solar energy may well be the key to the future. Human greed and ambition are our deterrents now.
A world without geographical boundaries, a world without religious strife, a world without economic inequality, a world without hunger, a world without wars or weapons is a necessary pre-condition to go beyond Earth. Will our politicians, religious heads, business people, and entrepreneurs allow that to happen? It has been a remarkable journey for humans from the beginning of the universe till now with an unbelievable number of accidents and coincidences. The author makes a strong statement in the end that we should not end this journey by acts of stupidity. We are the most complex of living species, and unfortunately, that makes us most fragile too. Let us take care of ourselves and the world.
The book is an amazing roller-coaster ride and I repeat that this should be in the library of every school in the world. The children need teaching of this kind of history, and the author must be congratulated for taking such an initiative. Do not think twice before buying this book. And no-I am not getting a commission.
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