More Big History
09/20/2009 16:59
Maps of Time, continued
Did I mention before, that the discussion of these scientific ideas are tied up with the story of their discoverers/elaborators? These are two different things, though. Somehow, Bryson seems to do a more engaging job of this, because he introduces them as personalities, and gives them part of the narrative.
So, there’s Bryson, there are more detailed studies of parts of the big picture, by the appropriate specialists…what’s the selling point of the single-volume integration? It’s gotta be, the filters the author applies. What Christian calls the creation of a new myth.
To some degree, anyone who writes a book featuring cosmology and human evolution is still fighting against the enemies of Darwin. To what degree is this an issue, in Big History? To what extent is Christian positioning history OUTSIDE the grasp of religion and its nonsense accounts of creation? This IS still an ongoing battle, in a lot of places (a fact grad students at a place like UMass might easily forget). Creationism is being forced into public schools.
Christian’s main metaphor in the part of the book dealing with what we normally recognize as history, is a sort of Cisco communication model. Hubs and centers of gravity. Informational throughput, leading to innovation, mixing of cultures and ideas, etc. China is a center of awesome gravity, but it falls behind because it isn’t central enough. On the other hand, it powers the entire system, by being a sink for silver and driving the Eurasian exchange network. Is there a similar pattern at work in the Americas? How does Michigan copper get to Central America?
Did I mention before, that the discussion of these scientific ideas are tied up with the story of their discoverers/elaborators? These are two different things, though. Somehow, Bryson seems to do a more engaging job of this, because he introduces them as personalities, and gives them part of the narrative.
So, there’s Bryson, there are more detailed studies of parts of the big picture, by the appropriate specialists…what’s the selling point of the single-volume integration? It’s gotta be, the filters the author applies. What Christian calls the creation of a new myth.
To some degree, anyone who writes a book featuring cosmology and human evolution is still fighting against the enemies of Darwin. To what degree is this an issue, in Big History? To what extent is Christian positioning history OUTSIDE the grasp of religion and its nonsense accounts of creation? This IS still an ongoing battle, in a lot of places (a fact grad students at a place like UMass might easily forget). Creationism is being forced into public schools.
Christian’s main metaphor in the part of the book dealing with what we normally recognize as history, is a sort of Cisco communication model. Hubs and centers of gravity. Informational throughput, leading to innovation, mixing of cultures and ideas, etc. China is a center of awesome gravity, but it falls behind because it isn’t central enough. On the other hand, it powers the entire system, by being a sink for silver and driving the Eurasian exchange network. Is there a similar pattern at work in the Americas? How does Michigan copper get to Central America?
