Big history and the future of humanity
By: Fred Spier
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Chichester, U.K; Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781444334210
Description: ""Big History" places the human past within the history of life, the Earth, and the Universe. In doing so, this emerging field of historical study provides us with an overview of the known past in its entirety, from the beginning of time until the present day. In Big History and the Future of Humanity, Spier presents a simple theoretical approach that not only makes big history accessible, but reveals what the future may hold for humanity." "This original new approach interprets big history as the history of the rise and demise of complexity in all its myriad forms, from the greatest galaxy clusters to the tiniest sub-atomic particles. While focusing on energy flows through matter and the circumstances that produce complexity, the author traces the emergence and decline of all the major forms of complexity that have existed, including human societies and their products. Breathtaking in scope, Big History and the Future of Humanity offers provocative new insights into the origins and development of life and serves as an invitation to ponder humans' place in the cosmos in a fascinating new way."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction to big history; title: General approach; title: Cosmic evolution :  the emergence of simple forms of complexity; title: Our cosmic neighborhood : the emergence of greater complexity; title: Life on the Earth : the widening range of complexity; title: Early human history : the emergence of the greatest known complexity; title: Recent human history : the development of the greatest known complexity; title: Facing the future.