Big History Project Unit 1 and 2

1. How is Big History different from other origin stories?

• Big History is a nationalist origin story and doesn’t consider global perspectives.

• Big History is a modern origin story based on scientific information from multiple disciplines.

• Big History bases its story on mythology, ancient narratives, and oral history.

• Big History focuses on the origin story of humans as the major agents of change.

Why are complex things more fragile than simple things?

• Complex things are very precisely arranged and usually require more energy to maintain, which makes them more fragile than simple things.

• Complex things are rare and only exist in certain parts of the Universe.

• Complex things require far less energy than simple things.

• Complex things only exist for very short periods of time.

Big History switches between different perspectives of time and space in order to tell the history of the Universe. What term is used to describe these perspectives?

• Cosmology

• Scale

• Parallax

• Astrophysics

What is an origin story?

• An attempt to explain the beginning of humanity and the Universe.

• A scientific explanation for how atoms formed

• A theory as to why the Universe is expanding

• The use of spoken language to pass down a people’s history

What are the three qualities that David Christian identifies that make some things more complex than others?

• Electrons, neutrons, and protons

• The Universe, stars, and planets

• Diverse ingredients, precise arrangement, and emergent properties

• Diverse ingredients, random arrangement, and convergent properties

Why is the Big Bang a good starting point for the history of the Universe?

• It’s when life began.

• It’s when the Earth was created.

• It’s when space and time (spacetime) were created.

• It's when humans originated.

In the history of the Universe, there are moments when specific ingredients under the right Goldilocks Conditions transform into something entirely new and more complex. What do we call these moments?

• Scale

• Collective learning

• Claim testers

• Thresholds of increasing complexity

What are Goldilocks conditions?

• The ability to look at things from different perspectives of time and space.

• The “just right” conditions that, when combined with the necessary ingredients, can lead to new complexity.

• The specific and diverse ingredients needed for new complexity to emerge.

• The human ability to create complex, symbolic language.

How many thresholds does Big History Project cover?

• 10

• 6

• 8

• 4

According to modern scientific evidence, about how many years ago did our Universe begin to form?

• 13.8 trillion years ago

• 13.8 million years ago

• 13.8 billion years ago

• 13.8 thousand years ago