A Brief History of Knowledge 200,000 years of human history

Big History

Big History is an academic discipline that examines history from the Big Bang to the present. It places humankind and human history in the broader context of the universe’s history.

Historian David Christian has been credited with coining the term “Big History” in 1989 while teaching one of the first such courses at Macquarie University.

Bill Gates and David Christian co-founded the Big History Project in 2011 to enable the subject’s global teaching. Check out the free Big History course, a series of short videos if you want to learn more.

Unfortunately, our educational systems overemphasize teaching national histories, which tends to fragment us and reinforce nationalism.

Big History’s expanded perspective is important, as it provides a potential foundation for drawing our different human societies and cultures closer together. Its study is imperative.

Brief History of Knowledge

Here is a brief overview of the key knowledge revolutions that have shaped humanity.

Below is a timeline highlighting some pivotal events since the Big Bang, accompanied by brief descriptions and links to further reading, often from Wikipedia. This list is not exhaustive, and I will continue to add significant events and additional details over time.

The Big Bang (13.8 billion BP)

The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation of how the universe began some 13.8 billion years ago.

Formation of Solar System (4.57 billion BP)

The solar system formed some 4.57 billion years ago.

First life (4.1 billion BP)

The Earth’s age is about 4.54 billion years. The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates from at least 3.5 billion years ago, though other evidence suggests life began as early as 4.5 billion years ago.

First primates (65 million BP)

The emergence of the first primates dates back around 55 to 65 million years ago, during the Paleocene epoch. These early primates evolved from small, tree-dwelling mammals, developing traits like grasping hands and forward-facing eyes, which helped them adapt to arboreal life and diversify into the primate lineage we see today.

First hominids (6 million BP)

The first hominids appeared around 6 to 7 million years ago in Africa. They evolved from earlier primates, developing traits like bipedalism, which allowed for upright walking, and changes in skull structure, which accommodated larger brains. These adaptations marked a significant shift towards the lineage, eventually leading to modern humans.

Homo Sapiens (200,000 – 300,000 BP)

The species that we humans all belong to is Homo sapiens.

We evolved in Africa from our hominid ancestors between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago.

We were nomadic hunter-gatherers – we hunted and gathered food.

Our knowledge was encoded in our genes or was gained through experience in our lifetime. Little knowledge was passed down from generation to generation other than genetically.

Cultural Big Bang (60,000-70,000BP)

The Cultural Big Bang or Great Leap Forward (called the Cognitive Revolution by Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens) occurred 60 to 70 thousand years ago.

Before the cultural big bang, human anatomy and human behavior evolved slowly. Then, in a relatively short period, anatomical evolution ceased, and cumulative cultural evolution accelerated dramatically.

With the big bang came three vastly improved human abilities:

1. our ability to communicate through language
2. our ability to build social bonds through gossip
3. our ability to discuss abstract concepts such as love, beauty, or God

With these newfound abilities, we started to learn from each other through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social transmission.

Now, we could start to pass down knowledge from generation to generation culturally. Suddenly we came much smarter.

The Neolithic Revolution (12,000 BP)

The Neolithic Revolution, or the first Agricultural Revolution, began approximately 12,000 years ago at the end of the last glacial period when we transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farming and settlement.

This change made larger populations possible and changed how we lived, ate, and interacted, paving the way for our modern civilization.

Increasingly, we passed down knowledge of farming and animal husbandry from generation to generation through cultural transmission.

First Cities (9,500 BP)

The first cities developed in Mesopotamia around 7500 BCE. They included Çatalhöyük, Eridu, Uruk, and Ur.

The earliest known city was Çatalhöyük, with a population of around 10,000 people that existed from circa 7100 BCE to 5700 BCE.

With the development of cities, we started living in far larger groups. Ur, for example, is estimated to have had some 65,000 inhabitants.

First Civilization (6,100 BP)

Sumer, the first known civilization, developed in Mesopotamia circa 4,100 BCE.

Written language (5,500 BP)

The first written language was probably invented in Sumer in Mesopotamia circa 3500 – 3000 BCE.

This early writing was called cuneiform and consisted of making marks in wet clay with a reed implement.

The development of writing systems was another giant leap forward in our ability to pass down knowledge from generation to generation. It permitted the growth and supervision of large, complex societies and enabled academic learning and the exchange of information.

We moved from an era of prehistory to an age of history. For the first time, history could also be recorded.

First library (2,700 BP)

The first known library was the Library of Ashurbanipal, a collection of thousands of clay tablets and fragments containing texts from 700 BCE.

Yet another tremendous advance in our ability to manage knowledge.

Axial Age (2,600 BP)

The Axial Age, which lasted from about 600 to 300 BCE, saw the emergence of significant systems of religious, spiritual, and philosophical thought and ideas.

During this age, many of the early world religions emerged, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, and Judaism.

Furthermore, many thinkers who are still influential today, such as Socrates, Pythagoras, Mahavira, Confucius, Lao Tse, and the Hebrew prophets, lived during this time period.

Although controversy exists about the precise nature of the Axial Age and when it took place, it played a foundational role in the development of human religious and philosophical thought and culture.

Renaissance (600 – 400 BP)

The Renaissance was a period of European cultural, artistic, political, and economic “rebirth” that occurred between the 15th and 16th centuries.

Gutenberg Printing Press (500 BP)

The refinement of the printing press in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg in 1436 had a massive impact on the world.

Not only did it lead to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, but also the Protestant Reformation that, in turn, led to the Thirty Years’ War, considered one of the most destructive wars in European history.

The Gutenberg Bible was printed in about 1455.

Protestant Reformation (450 BP)

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century religious, political, intellectual, and religious movement that aimed to reform the Roman Catholic Church and led to Protestantism. It is considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517.

Copernican Revolution (400 BP)

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (“On the revolution of heavenly spheres”), which led to the Copernican Revolution. In his book, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the Universe that placed the Sun at the center, with the Earth and the other planets orbiting around it.

Scientific Revolution (400 BP)

The Scientific Revolution occurred in Europe between roughly 1550 – 1700 CE and marked the emergence of the scientific method and modern science.

Galileo observers the night sky
through a telescope (340 BP)

In 1609, Galileo was the first to observe the night sky through a telescope, which had been invented the previous year in the Netherlands.

Galileo discovered, amongst other things, the craters of the Moon, the rings of Saturn, sunspots, and four of Jupiter’s moons. He also accepted Copernicus‘s belief that the solar system was heliocentric.

In doing so, he changed our view of the universe and our place in it forever.

Enlightenment (350 BP)

The Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries. Central to Enlightenment philosophy was the idea that rational change could improve humanity.

First Industrial Revolution
(c. 1760 – 1840)

The First Industrial Revolution, also known as the Industrial Revolution, lasted between 1760 and 1840. It started in Britain and spread to other parts of the world.

An agrarian and handicraft economy was transformed into an industrial one using new materials, energy sources, and machines to manufacture goods in mass quantities in factories.

Some significant innovations were the spinning jenny used to manufacture textiles, the steam engine, and gaslighting.

You will find more information in this article on the Industrial Revolution in Britannica.

Second Industrial Revolution
(c. 1870 – 1914)

The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, occurred between 1870 and 1914.

Some significant innovations were the telephone, the electric light, the typewriter, and the assembly line.

You will find more information in this article on the Industrial Revolution in Britannica.

The Trinity Test (1945)

Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear device. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project.

Some people favor this as the start date of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which humans have significantly impacted the Earth’s ecosystem.

Third Industrial Revolution
(c. 1945 – present day)

The Third Industrial Revolution, or the Information or Digital Revolution, began in 1945 and continues today (2024).

• Computer (1945)
• Email (1960s)
• Internet (1969)
• Apple Computer (1976)
• IBM PC (1981)
• Mobile Phone (1990s)
• SMS (1992)
• World Wide Web (1989)
• Social Media (2000s)
• Apple iPhone (2007)

Fourth Industrial Revolution
(c. 2015 – present day)

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, started in about 2015.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution refers to technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, voice-activated assistants, and digital healthcare sensors.

Earth will become uninhabitable
(2.8 billion years time)

Humankind and the Earth have an interesting future ahead. Much we cannot predict, but some things we can.

In about 1.1. billion years, rising temperatures as our sun turns into a Red Giant will lead to the loss of the Earth’s oceans.

By 2.8 billion years from now, the Earth’s surface temperature will have reached 149 °C and will no longer be able to support life—at least as we know it.