Maps of Time attempts to assemble a coherent and accessible account of origins, a modern creation myth. — David Christian Copy Share Image
“defines domestication as “the human creation of a new form of plant or animal—one that is identifiably different from its wild ancestors… — David Christian Domestication Copy Share Image
I had this feeling that, somehow, we ought to be teaching not just the history of particular nations or particular regions, but… — David Christian Copy Share Image
Big History studies the history of everything, offering a way of making sense of our world and our role within it. — David Christian Copy Share Image
We inhabit an obscure planet, in an obscure galaxy, around an obscure sun, but on the other hand, modern human society represents… — David Christian Community Copy Share Image
“what we can see may constitute no more than 10 percent, and perhaps as little as 1 percent, of the matter in the universe.” — David Christian Copy Share Image
“There were African slaves in China from at least the seventh century CE, and, Wolf reports, “by 1119 most of the wealthy… — David Christian Slaves Copy Share Image
“John McNeill suggests that “we have probably deployed more energy since 1900 than in all of human history before 1900” — David Christian Energy Copy Share Image
“Trying to look at the whole of the past is, it seems to me, like using a map of the world. No… — David Christian Historians Copy Share Image
“Human knowledge, by its nature, has limits, so some questions must remain mysteries. Some religions treat such mysteries as secrets that the… — David Christian Buddhism Copy Share Image
“contain into new, durable configurations, which can handle huge energy flows without disintegrating. This, we will see, is the characteristic pattern of… — David Christian Copy Share Image
An egg is a beautiful, sophisticated thing that can create even more sophisticated things, such as chickens. And we know in our… — David Christian Beautiful Copy Share Image
“The modern world is ruled by larger and more impersonal forces, from faceless bureaucracies to abstractions such as “inflation,” or “the rule… — David Christian Modern world Copy Share Image
Modern scientific knowledge appeared piecemeal. Historians wrote about human history; physicists tackled the material world; and biologists studied the world of living… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“All knowledge systems, from modern science to those embedded in the most ancient of creation myths, can be thought of as maps… — David Christian Knowledge Copy Share Image
“there are several distinct types of networks of exchange, each with its own typical range and characteristics. The main types that they… — David Christian Networks Copy Share Image
“Thomas Malthus, was one of the first to analyze the relations between population growth and available resources. At the end of the… — David Christian Compound interest Copy Share Image
“For the first time there appeared on earth kings, dictators, high priests, emperors, prime ministers, presidents, governors, mayors, generals, admirals, police chiefs,… — David Christian Concentration camp Copy Share Image
“Earth, for example, is made up of oxygen (almost 50 percent) and smaller amounts of iron (19 percent), silicon (14 percent), magnesium (12.5 percent),” — David Christian Earth Copy Share Image
“So, as networks expand in size, their potential intellectual synergy increases much faster: “larger and denser populations equal faster technological advance.” — David Christian Technology Copy Share Image
“The efficiency of information exchanges reflects, above all, the nature and regularity of contacts and exchanges between different communities.” — David Christian Exchanges Copy Share Image
Our goal is to see Big History become a normal part of high school curricula. I'd love to see it being taught… — David Christian Copy Share Image
I think what I was after was a unifying story that could bring everything together, that could give me a sense of… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“new forms of contraception, new methods of child rearing, and new forms of education and public welfare have provoked a fundamental renegotiation… — David Christian Children Copy Share Image
“Moses Finley has argued, with only slight exaggeration, that “what passed for economic growth in antiquity was always achieved only by external… — David Christian Economic growth Copy Share Image
“In mechanical terms, humans are quite efficient converters of food into energy, so human slaves were often more valuable than animal slaves,… — David Christian Fossil fuel Copy Share Image
“Choices whose outcomes matter even though they are neither deterministic nor completely random surround us all the time. So it is not… — David Christian Predictions Copy Share Image
“Stars form durable structures because they are the result of a negotiated compromise between gravity, which crushes matter together, and the explosive… — David Christian Astronomy Copy Share Image
“the universe may, in fact, be bigger than this, because the notion of inflation suggests that in the first second of its… — David Christian Life Copy Share Image
“Innovation ensured that each cycle normally reached a higher level than its predecessor, but innovation was normally too slow to prevent an… — David Christian Innovation Copy Share Image
“though they are on the whole less violent, personal relations in modern urban communities also lack the intimacy and continuity of those… — David Christian Community Copy Share Image
“It was possible to borrow British technology, and increasingly governments began to promote development. By the end of the nineteenth century, governments… — David Christian Change Copy Share Image
“Living organisms are constructed, for the most part, from compounds of carbon and hydrogen. Carbon is critical because of its astonishing flexibility.… — David Christian Biology Copy Share Image
In literature classes, you don't learn about genes; in physics classes you don't learn about human evolution. So you get a fragmented… — David Christian Copy Share Image
You go to the cosmologists and ask how they tell the history of the universe; you go to the geologists, how do… — David Christian Copy Share Image
I have this fantasy that in future negotiations over climate change - instead of going into that room and saying, 'I'm defending… — David Christian Change Copy Share Image
When very large stars die, they create temperatures so high that protons begin to fuse in all sorts of exotic combinations, to… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“About 250 million years ago, most of the continental plates were joined into a supercontinent, which Wegener had christened “Pangaea.” It was… — David Christian Copy Share Image
Humans are remarkable: the first species in almost four billion years of life on earth that dominates the biosphere. This gives us… — David Christian Copy Share Image
“as Joel Mokyr has argued, technological innovation is unlikely to happen quickly where those who work lack wealth, education, and prestige, and… — David Christian Education Copy Share Image
