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(dramatic instrumental music)
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Many of the world's greatest stories begin
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with a journey.
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A quest to answer life's most intimate questions.
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Where do we come from?
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Why are we here?
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From the dawn of time, all cultures have created stories
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to help explain the ultimate nature of things.
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And perhaps a new story is emerging in our time.
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One grounded in contemporary science,
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and yet nourished by the ancient religious wisdom
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of our planet.
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What if the universe, even the Earth itself,
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has its own unique story to tell.
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One in which we play a profound role.
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(orchestral music)
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We're on the Greek island of Samos,
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just a mile off the coast of Turkey.
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We could tell the story of the universe anywhere.
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Each place would offer its own unique possibilities
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for the telling.
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But we chose Samos because it's one
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of the great crossroads of human history.
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Europeans, Asian and Africans have all made their way here.
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And by telling the story on an island,
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surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea,
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we will be reminded that we live on this shining planet,
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sailing through the great ocean of the universe.
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And there's another reason we have come to Samos.
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And that is because 2,600 years ago,
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Pythagoras was born here.
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Pythagoras, a mathematician and philosopher,
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was one of the first humans to realize
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that the harmonies and relationships in the universe
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could be given expression using numbers.
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The kind of foundations he generated led eventually
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to all of modern mathematical science.
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He was also a great teacher.
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In fact, legend has it that he invented
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the word philosophy, a love of wisdom.
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We'll spend a day here on Samos.
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Before the clock strikes midnight,
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we will have recounted the great events
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of our 14 billion year cosmic evolution.
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Our immense journey told in a single day
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on one of Earth's magical islands.
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How did it all start?
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An awesome question, certainly.
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But it appears there really was a beginning.
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Some scientists refer to this as the Big Bang.
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I like to call it the great flaring forth.
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Imagine the universe beginning like this.
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(match strike)
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14 billion years ago, everything in the universe,
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all the bright matter of the stars and galaxies,
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as well as all the dark matter no one has ever seen.
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All of it existed in a single point
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so energetic it was trillions of degrees hot.
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Instantly this micro-universal rushed apart
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even faster than the speed of light.
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The discovery that the universe has expanded
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and is still expanding is one of the greatest
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of human history.
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The common understanding had been
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that the universe is simply a vast space.
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A vast space in which things existed.
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Large things like galaxies and small things like atoms.
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Scientists knew that matter changed form in the universe,
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but everyone assumed that the universe
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as a whole was not changing.
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But no, the universe is changing,
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and has changed dramatically.
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The universe has a story.
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A beginning, a middle where we are now,
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and perhaps in some far distant future, an end.
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In the 1920s, the cosmologist Edwin Hubble
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trained his 100-inch at the night sky.
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He was trying to determine if our Milky Way
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was the only galaxy in the universe.
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Not only did he discover the universe
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was filled with galaxies,
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he also determined that all of them are rushing
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away from each other.
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With Hubble's work, humanity learned
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that the universe began with a massive explosion
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that has been carrying the galaxies apart
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for billions of years.
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(rhythmic drums)
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Another special quality about the universe
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is the rate of expansion.
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If the rate of expansion had been slower,
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even slightly slower,
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even a millionth of a percent slower,
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the universe would have re-collapsed immediately.
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That would've been it.
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After a million years, the universe would have
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imploded upon itself and formed a massive black hole.
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On the other hand, if the universe
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had expanded a little more quickly,
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even slightly more quickly,
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even calculations show one millionth
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of one percent more quickly,
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the universe would have expanded too quickly
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for structures to form.
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It would have simply exploded.
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There would have been no galaxies,
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no structure, no life,
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nothing but dust for all time.
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So what we've discovered is that we're living in a universe
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that is expanding at exactly the rate necessary
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for life and structure to come forth.
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It could be then, that even though we can't
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call the early universe alive,
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we can understand it as life generating.
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One of the physicists who was reflecting on this
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is the celebrated Freeman Dyson.
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And he, he mused that the more he reflected
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on the structures of the early universe,
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the more he became convinced that in some sense
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the universe must've known from the very beginning
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that life was coming.
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The light from the beginning of time
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has been traveling for 14 billion years.
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Meanwhile, life has been evolving.
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With the recent emergence of advanced technology,
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we're at last able to see the story these photons tell
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about the birth of the universe
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and where we ultimately come from.
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Morning on a Greek island is like the first day of creation.
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And wandering around here, you feel like the first person.
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Inevitably, humans would ask,
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what gave birth to all of this beauty?
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What was the form of creativity
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that brought this forth?
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(flowing instrumental music)
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Consider galaxies.
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What brought the galaxies forth?
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You know, even a century ago,
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this was hard to imagine.
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We didn't know if there were two galaxies
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in the entire universe.
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That was the main focus of tension among scientists.
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Now were know there are 100 billion,
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maybe even a trillion galaxies.
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What is the creativity that brought forth
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a trillion galaxies?
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Let's consider our own Milky Way galaxy.
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It's a galaxy with huge spiral arms.
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When we first began to discover galaxies,
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we thought maybe these spiral arms
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were composed of physical matter.
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But actually, it's much more interesting.
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The arms are actually waves that are
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passing through the galaxy.
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They're called density waves.
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And as they pass through clouds of hydrogen and helium,
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they ignite star birth.
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That's the way to picture the Milky Way galaxy.
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Not so much as a thing,
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but rather as an activity.
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It's an ongoing activity of bringing forth stars.
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We live in the midst of this intense creativity.
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Come into this little church.
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I want to show you something.
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The ceiling, as you can see,
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is filled with stars.
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The same is true of most of the churches
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on the island of Samos.
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The ancient Greeks, like Pythagoras,
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thought the stars were alive, even divine.
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Throughout history every culture has been stunned
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by the presence of stars in the vastness of the night sky.
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♫ Hallelujah
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♫ Hallelujah ♫
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So deeply moved by the majesty emanating
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from the brilliance of the stars,
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we have built our lives around them.
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We've even organized entire civilizations
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upon their beauty and order.
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♫ Hallelujah ♫
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Here's the essence of the universe story.
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The stars are our ancestors.
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Out of them everything comes forth.
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Stars are dynamic entities.
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They're born.
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They develop.
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They even die.
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Star birth occurs when gravity squeezes
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together a cloud of atoms so tight
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that nuclear fusion ignites in the center.
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In the process, hydrogen fuses in the helium.
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This nuclear energy expands outwards
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and opposes gravity.
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So stars represent an amazingly creative balance
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between the powers of gravitational collapse
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and nuclear explosion.
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And once a star's nuclear fuel is spent,
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there's nothing left to prevent gravity
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from collapsing inwards, causing the death spiral to begin.
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This super-concentrated dot of matter,
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which we call a supernova, explodes outward
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with the power of 100 billion stars.
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And as it expands, it creates all of the elements,
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phosphorous, oxygen, carbon, gold.
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These are spewed out into the Milky Way galaxy,
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and then the whole process starts again.
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They drift as a cloud and then they collapse,
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give birth to a star, the Earth.
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It's by stupendous process that we can say
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the stars are our ancestors.
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(Greek music)
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It's just such an amazing discovery.
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The carbon atoms of this beet, and of the lettuce
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and of you know, our brains, our skin,
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all of it passed through an intense explosion of a star.
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In pondering the source of the Sun's power,
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we can now reflect on something
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no earlier humans could know.
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The Sun is converting four millions tons
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of its mass into energy every second.
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All of life feeds on the roaring energy of the Sun.
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Our solar system then is a self-energizing
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womb of creativity.
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And all of this had its start in a cloud of dust.
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(Greek music)
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It was really difficult for humans to realize
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that we live on a planet circling a star.
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I mean we were here for hundreds of thousands of years
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before Aristarchus, 2,000 years ago,
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right here on Samos realized we are spinning
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around the Sun.
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That was such an amazing insight
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that it vanished actually.
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And it wasn't until Copernicus discovered it again
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in the 16th century that humans really
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began to absorb the fact that we are
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on this planet.
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Let me use these vegetables to explain our solar system.
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So here we have the Sun, this cabbage as the Sun.
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Now actually, if this were to be in scale,
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this cabbage would have to be a million times
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the size of this pepper.
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Budgetary considerations made that impossible.
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So you just have to use your imagination.
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Now what we've learned in the 20th century
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is about the composition of the planets.
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First we have the large planets.
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So we have Jupiter here,
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and we have Saturn and Uranus, and Neptune.
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These are large enough to hold on
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to all the lighter elements so that
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they actually are gaseous.
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Too small to be a star,
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but yet too large to be solid.
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The other kind then, we have indicated here
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with these rocks.
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So we have Mercury.
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Then we have Venus.
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Jump over to Mars.
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These are the rocky planets, most of which are solid.
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But there's one special rocky planet.
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One that's not too small and not too big.
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One that's not too hot and not too cold.
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One that's not exactly solid,
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but not exactly liquid.
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We call it home.
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Earth is very much like an egg.
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The core of the Earth is like the yolk.
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The mantle of the Earth is like the egg white.
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And the crust of the Earth is like like the eggshell.
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What happens is that early on
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when the Earth is in a molten state,
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all of the really heavy elements like iron and nickel
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sink into the core.
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And then the elements like magnesium
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form this outer layer around the core, the mantle.
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The crust is only 10 to 50 miles thick,
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and that's the only solid part of Earth.
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All the rest is in motion.
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Plumes of molten rock will rise up from the mantle
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and harden into plates that form the crust.
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As these plates slide around the surface of Earth,
283
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they collide and crumple into majestic mountain ranges.
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Or they're forced back down,
285
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or they melt and sink toward the center of Earth.
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This discovery, which originated with Alfred Wegener,
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is called plate tectonics and is one
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of the greatest of history.
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Earth became encircled by great tidal oceans
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and held by a thin layer of atmosphere.
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A churning volcanic Earth could now
292
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bring forth the next wonder of existence,
293
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the living cell.
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(waves crashing)
295
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How are we gonna tell the story of life?
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How did it all begin?
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What theory shall we offer to explain this?
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The simple truth is that no one knows
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with full certainty.
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But even though the detailed explanation still eludes us,
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scientists have began to approach
302
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the whole question of life from a radical new perspective,
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that of self-organization.
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You see during the modern period,
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we thought of the world as machine-like,
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and that life was an accident.
307
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But now, with the work of a number of chemists,
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notably Ilya Prigogine who won a Nobel Prize for this work,
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we are beginning to discover the act of patterning
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in matter itself.
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It's intrinsic to matter.
312
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From this new perspective,
313
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life is not an accident.
314
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Life is inevitable.
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A planet weeks in a certain complexity of its matter,
316
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and then life at last comes forth quite naturally.
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Consider whirlpools.
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This spiral swirling action can appear anywhere
319
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so long as there is a body of liquid moving water.
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It is not the water itself that endures as a spiral,
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because the water molecules are constantly
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flowing in and out of the whirlpool.
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It is rather the emergent dynamic structure that endures.
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Such is the nature of life.
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The universe began as a great outpouring
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of cosmic breath, cosmic energy,
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but then swirled and twisted and complexified
328
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until it could burst forth into flowers and animals
329
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and fish and all of these elegant explosions of energy.
330
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But it's not just energy.
331
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And it's not just living energy.
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This is energy that is aware.
333
00:19:08,068 --> 00:19:10,868
By awareness or sentience we mean something
334
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that is more than what takes place
335
00:19:12,936 --> 00:19:14,538
in the realm of elementary particles.
336
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And yet, less than full human consciousness.
337
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So where do does such awareness arise?
338
00:19:22,278 --> 00:19:24,347
Some biologists are beginning to speculate
339
00:19:24,347 --> 00:19:27,451
that awareness has its foundation
340
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in the very self-organizing dynamics of the universe.
341
00:19:32,322 --> 00:19:34,524
For cell biologist Ursula Goodenough,
342
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this awareness is a kind of primitive discernment,
343
00:19:38,162 --> 00:19:39,963
and it reveals itself especially
344
00:19:39,963 --> 00:19:42,633
in the membrane of each cell.
345
00:19:42,633 --> 00:19:46,953
That thin skin-like layer that covers every cell.
346
00:19:48,772 --> 00:19:51,791
(waves crashing)
347
00:19:57,113 --> 00:19:59,216
If we had microscope for eyes,
348
00:19:59,216 --> 00:20:00,750
we could see it all happening right here
349
00:20:00,750 --> 00:20:02,752
in these tide pools
350
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where millions of cells are swarming about,
351
00:20:05,289 --> 00:20:08,592
and they're encountering molecules over and over again.
352
00:20:08,592 --> 00:20:11,895
And with every encounter, discernment emerges.
353
00:20:11,895 --> 00:20:15,032
Why? Because a decision has to be made,
354
00:20:15,032 --> 00:20:17,600
an intelligent decision.
355
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,436
Up in the cliff over here there's an ancient castle
356
00:20:20,436 --> 00:20:23,824
that will help me explain.
357
00:20:25,342 --> 00:20:27,578
This church, which is called Metamorphosis,
358
00:20:27,578 --> 00:20:29,813
is nearly 1,000 years old.
359
00:20:29,813 --> 00:20:32,449
Above it is a castle that once guarded entrance
360
00:20:32,449 --> 00:20:35,084
into the magical Ptolemy Valley.
361
00:20:35,084 --> 00:20:37,720
The castle is built to do what membranes do.
362
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,841
Let your friends in, keep your enemies out.
363
00:20:47,431 --> 00:20:50,233
The ongoing creativity of the universe is seen
364
00:20:50,233 --> 00:20:53,436
in the complex development of life itself.
365
00:20:53,436 --> 00:20:57,640
(gentle piano music)
366
00:20:57,640 --> 00:20:59,876
After it had circled the Sun for hundreds
367
00:20:59,876 --> 00:21:03,513
of millions of years, Earth's most primitive organisms
368
00:21:03,513 --> 00:21:07,900
developed molecules that would resonate with the Sun.
369
00:21:09,015 --> 00:21:13,289
How are we to picture this process involving Earth and Sun
370
00:21:13,289 --> 00:21:15,726
bringing forth photosynthesis?
371
00:21:15,726 --> 00:21:17,995
As an engineering project?
372
00:21:17,995 --> 00:21:21,898
I guess, but try a new metaphor.
373
00:21:21,898 --> 00:21:25,001
Imagine two lovers longing for each other.
374
00:21:25,001 --> 00:21:28,254
What is it they truly desire?
375
00:21:30,574 --> 00:21:34,678
The relationship is charged with energy and promise.
376
00:21:34,678 --> 00:21:39,230
There is the Sun exploding with brilliance.
377
00:21:39,230 --> 00:21:43,570
There is the Earth basking in the Sun's rays.
378
00:21:45,322 --> 00:21:48,091
But Earth is not passive.
379
00:21:48,091 --> 00:21:51,195
Earth's systems attune to the Sun
380
00:21:51,195 --> 00:21:53,397
changing their molecular structures
381
00:21:53,397 --> 00:21:57,817
in order to draw in light and convert it to food.
382
00:22:00,904 --> 00:22:04,274
As the complexity of life deepens,
383
00:22:04,274 --> 00:22:07,611
entwinement itself also deepens.
384
00:22:07,611 --> 00:22:11,731
(majestic instrumental music)
385
00:22:16,786 --> 00:22:21,014
How are we going to tell the story of the living Earth?
386
00:22:21,014 --> 00:22:23,727
In particular, how are we going to tell the story
387
00:22:23,727 --> 00:22:28,098
of Earth to our children?
388
00:22:28,098 --> 00:22:30,333
This is especially important because
389
00:22:30,333 --> 00:22:32,469
in the last couple of centuries,
390
00:22:32,469 --> 00:22:34,370
we have learned more about the Earth
391
00:22:34,370 --> 00:22:37,940
than in perhaps the previous 100,000 years.
392
00:22:37,940 --> 00:22:41,078
So the question is, how are we going to convey that,
393
00:22:41,078 --> 00:22:45,182
the essence of that to the next generation?
394
00:22:45,182 --> 00:22:48,418
One thing is completely clear.
395
00:22:48,418 --> 00:22:52,423
The Earth is very different than what we thought.
396
00:22:52,423 --> 00:22:54,816
The Earth is not a platform.
397
00:22:54,816 --> 00:22:56,676
(flowing instrumental music)
398
00:22:56,676 --> 00:22:59,545
It's not a background.
399
00:23:01,832 --> 00:23:06,003
In fact, the great discovery is this,
400
00:23:06,003 --> 00:23:09,539
life doesn't exist on top of the Earth.
401
00:23:09,539 --> 00:23:12,809
Life is a partner to the oceans
402
00:23:12,809 --> 00:23:17,079
to the atmosphere, to the land.
403
00:23:17,079 --> 00:23:19,616
For instance, if we look at the atmosphere
404
00:23:19,616 --> 00:23:22,786
it is 21% oxygen.
405
00:23:22,786 --> 00:23:27,724
This makes us unique among all the known planets.
406
00:23:27,724 --> 00:23:30,727
The only reason we have oxygen in our atmosphere
407
00:23:30,727 --> 00:23:34,164
is that life is pouring it forth each day.
408
00:23:34,164 --> 00:23:36,499
So the very composition of our air
409
00:23:36,499 --> 00:23:41,471
reflects the fact that life is here.
410
00:23:41,471 --> 00:23:45,891
In that sense, life is woven into the atmosphere.
411
00:23:47,210 --> 00:23:49,913
But an even more radical hypothesis is beginning
412
00:23:49,913 --> 00:23:54,851
to emerge in the minds of some scientists.
413
00:23:54,851 --> 00:23:59,056
Perhaps Earth is not only an integrated system.
414
00:23:59,056 --> 00:24:02,158
Perhaps Earth somehow maintains itself
415
00:24:02,158 --> 00:24:06,372
so that life can flourish.
416
00:24:06,372 --> 00:24:08,184
Consider temperature.
417
00:24:08,184 --> 00:24:12,302
Life only exists in a very narrow band of temperature.
418
00:24:12,302 --> 00:24:14,637
So something like this temperature has been true
419
00:24:14,637 --> 00:24:19,009
of Earth for four billion years.
420
00:24:19,009 --> 00:24:20,844
Now, scientists originally thought
421
00:24:20,844 --> 00:24:22,512
this was because the Earth just happened
422
00:24:22,512 --> 00:24:26,349
to be 93 million miles away from the Sun.
423
00:24:26,349 --> 00:24:28,852
But during the 1950s, we learned about
424
00:24:28,852 --> 00:24:32,588
the fusion processes taking place in stars.
425
00:24:32,588 --> 00:24:34,457
And so now we know the Sun's temperature
426
00:24:34,457 --> 00:24:37,186
has increased by over 25%
427
00:24:37,186 --> 00:24:40,226
over the last four billion years.
428
00:24:43,656 --> 00:24:47,980
Which means somehow Earth has had to adapt itself
429
00:24:47,980 --> 00:24:52,476
to maintain that stable narrow band of temperature.
430
00:24:52,476 --> 00:24:54,077
How?
431
00:24:54,077 --> 00:24:56,146
We know some of the details.
432
00:24:56,146 --> 00:24:58,748
Early Earth had 1,000 times the carbon dioxide
433
00:24:58,748 --> 00:24:59,983
as present-day Earth.
434
00:24:59,983 --> 00:25:03,219
So during that time, the Earth's system
435
00:25:03,219 --> 00:25:07,423
has drawn the carbon dioxide out of the atmostphere
436
00:25:07,423 --> 00:25:10,459
forming for instance the shells of marine algae.
437
00:25:10,459 --> 00:25:11,795
And then when the marine algae die,
438
00:25:11,795 --> 00:25:13,897
the shells go to the bottom of the ocean.
439
00:25:13,897 --> 00:25:15,265
So more and more carbon dioxide
440
00:25:15,265 --> 00:25:17,233
is taken out of the atmosphere
441
00:25:17,233 --> 00:25:19,736
which enables the Earth to cool down
442
00:25:19,736 --> 00:25:23,506
while the Sun heats up.
443
00:25:23,506 --> 00:25:26,209
But the question returns, is all of this
444
00:25:26,209 --> 00:25:29,112
being organized by the Earth as a whole
445
00:25:29,112 --> 00:25:32,649
so that life could flourish?
446
00:25:32,649 --> 00:25:35,352
If that's the case, then the atmosphere
447
00:25:35,352 --> 00:25:37,053
is not just stuff.
448
00:25:37,053 --> 00:25:41,023
It's something like a membrane.
449
00:25:41,023 --> 00:25:42,959
And we are not living on an Earth,
450
00:25:42,959 --> 00:25:47,597
we are actually participants in a vast intricate system
451
00:25:47,597 --> 00:25:50,813
that is something like a living cell.
452
00:25:50,813 --> 00:25:54,466
(flowing instrumental music)
453
00:25:54,466 --> 00:25:58,841
A living cell has the power to learn through time.
454
00:25:58,841 --> 00:26:01,477
This is what distinguishes the first cells
455
00:26:01,477 --> 00:26:03,946
from all the other beings that existed prior
456
00:26:03,946 --> 00:26:07,017
to life's emergence.
457
00:26:07,017 --> 00:26:09,886
A star for instance, has the power to organize itself
458
00:26:09,886 --> 00:26:11,588
for billions of years.
459
00:26:11,588 --> 00:26:13,423
But throughout that time, it never needs
460
00:26:13,423 --> 00:26:16,609
to learn anything new.
461
00:26:18,595 --> 00:26:20,597
Life learns
462
00:26:20,597 --> 00:26:23,726
for life can adapt itself to new situations
463
00:26:23,726 --> 00:26:28,641
by changing its form and by remembering these changes.
464
00:26:28,641 --> 00:26:31,608
Life remembers the past by storing information
465
00:26:31,608 --> 00:26:35,378
in its DNA molecules.
466
00:26:35,378 --> 00:26:39,348
It is this power of memory, encased in each living cell,
467
00:26:39,348 --> 00:26:43,540
that enables life to learn and thus evolve.
468
00:26:46,857 --> 00:26:48,925
One of the ways in which understand the nature
469
00:26:48,925 --> 00:26:52,028
of life's memory is by using the ideas
470
00:26:52,028 --> 00:26:56,518
of the mathematician/philosopher Pythagoras.
471
00:26:56,518 --> 00:27:00,670
You know a number of Pythagoras' ideas were revolutionary.
472
00:27:00,670 --> 00:27:02,839
And like a lot of revolutionary ideas,
473
00:27:02,839 --> 00:27:04,307
they weren't that popular.
474
00:27:04,307 --> 00:27:06,242
In fact, Pythagoras had to hide
475
00:27:06,242 --> 00:27:08,311
from the tyrant Polycrates who was
476
00:27:08,311 --> 00:27:10,546
in charge of Samos.
477
00:27:10,546 --> 00:27:14,084
And tradition has it this is where he hid right here,
478
00:27:14,084 --> 00:27:18,488
halfway up the mountain in a cave there.
479
00:27:19,958 --> 00:27:22,858
One of Pythagoras' central convictions
480
00:27:22,858 --> 00:27:25,795
was that the essence of life is not air,
481
00:27:25,795 --> 00:27:29,065
or water or fire as the other Greek philosophers taught.
482
00:27:29,065 --> 00:27:31,133
Rather, the essence of life
483
00:27:31,133 --> 00:27:34,687
is number, pattern.
484
00:27:34,687 --> 00:27:36,172
It seems such an odd idea.
485
00:27:36,172 --> 00:27:38,442
I mean, life is so sensuous.
486
00:27:38,442 --> 00:27:41,344
It's so complex, so rich.
487
00:27:41,344 --> 00:27:44,080
How can the essence of that be something abstract
488
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,485
like number or pattern?
489
00:27:48,485 --> 00:27:50,286
It is precisely this deep connection
490
00:27:50,286 --> 00:27:53,122
between life and pattern that enables life
491
00:27:53,122 --> 00:27:56,025
to remember its crucial achievements.
492
00:27:56,025 --> 00:27:57,860
That's what DNA does.
493
00:27:57,860 --> 00:28:00,630
In the precise sequence of the nucleotides,
494
00:28:00,630 --> 00:28:04,935
DNA holds the essence of life.
495
00:28:04,935 --> 00:28:08,338
Life did not hand down the actual molecules to my body.
496
00:28:08,338 --> 00:28:11,474
Instead, life handed their essence
497
00:28:11,474 --> 00:28:14,143
in the form of genetic information.
498
00:28:14,143 --> 00:28:16,746
Because of this, our bodies can come alive
499
00:28:16,746 --> 00:28:20,884
1,000 different ways each day.
500
00:28:20,884 --> 00:28:23,553
Life has learned to learn.
501
00:28:23,553 --> 00:28:26,639
(gentle instrumental music)
502
00:28:34,030 --> 00:28:35,464
One of the central ways of learning
503
00:28:35,464 --> 00:28:38,033
for our species involves seeing.
504
00:28:38,033 --> 00:28:41,204
Life has invented so many different ways of seeing.
505
00:28:41,204 --> 00:28:45,208
The amazing thing is, this process is not yet over.
506
00:28:45,208 --> 00:28:48,378
Come with me into Pythagoras' cave.
507
00:28:48,378 --> 00:28:51,397
(dramatic instrumental music)
508
00:29:11,567 --> 00:29:13,703
Begetting billions of years ago,
509
00:29:13,703 --> 00:29:17,540
the earliest cells began to develop a sensitivity to light.
510
00:29:17,540 --> 00:29:20,010
They can sense it and move toward it.
511
00:29:20,010 --> 00:29:22,712
And it was this capacity that led eventually
512
00:29:22,712 --> 00:29:24,980
to the development of the eye.
513
00:29:24,980 --> 00:29:27,917
And the first eye which we have any fossil evidence
514
00:29:27,917 --> 00:29:31,721
is that of the trilobite 500 million years ago.
515
00:29:31,721 --> 00:29:35,825
The trilobite, intent upon piercing through the darkness,
516
00:29:35,825 --> 00:29:39,933
invented an eye using calcite, a mineral.
517
00:29:41,823 --> 00:29:43,600
The trilobite was able to see only
518
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:46,436
in the direction of these rods.
519
00:29:46,436 --> 00:29:49,806
A primal form of seeing that proved so successful,
520
00:29:49,806 --> 00:29:52,642
we find it even now in the compound eyes
521
00:29:52,642 --> 00:29:55,928
of flies and lobsters.
522
00:29:58,080 --> 00:29:59,982
An entirely different form of seeing
523
00:29:59,982 --> 00:30:02,151
was invented by the worms
524
00:30:02,151 --> 00:30:05,621
and carried forward by the fish.
525
00:30:05,621 --> 00:30:08,391
The type of eye is the one we know best
526
00:30:08,391 --> 00:30:13,012
for it's the one we inherited, the water-based eye.
527
00:30:16,632 --> 00:30:19,202
Even after 500 million years,
528
00:30:19,202 --> 00:30:22,272
eyesight continues to evolve.
529
00:30:22,272 --> 00:30:25,775
In humans, the power of seeing deepens
530
00:30:25,775 --> 00:30:29,679
with a new kind of sight, insight.
531
00:30:29,679 --> 00:30:32,885
We see on the inner screen of our imaginations.
532
00:30:32,885 --> 00:30:36,652
Life has learned yet another way of seeing.
533
00:30:36,652 --> 00:30:40,940
One with the power to transform everything.
534
00:30:43,559 --> 00:30:45,228
With this new way of seeing,
535
00:30:45,228 --> 00:30:47,864
we find ourselves blinking in a thrilling
536
00:30:47,864 --> 00:30:51,267
and yet unsettling light.
537
00:30:51,267 --> 00:30:53,736
Rooted in the center of immensities,
538
00:30:53,736 --> 00:30:56,806
we open our eyes and see each thing anew.
539
00:30:56,806 --> 00:30:59,909
Each thing ablaze with the cosmic creativity millions
540
00:30:59,909 --> 00:31:01,844
of years old.
541
00:31:01,844 --> 00:31:05,531
(flowing instrumental music)
542
00:31:10,653 --> 00:31:12,789
With the insights made possible
543
00:31:12,789 --> 00:31:14,590
with conscious self-awareness,
544
00:31:14,590 --> 00:31:16,960
our vision now extends back through billions
545
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,462
of years of evolution.
546
00:31:20,462 --> 00:31:23,299
We see not only the scurrying spider,
547
00:31:23,299 --> 00:31:25,668
but the entire cosmic journey layered
548
00:31:25,668 --> 00:31:28,982
into the spider's body including
549
00:31:28,982 --> 00:31:33,042
even a distant star out of whose explosions
550
00:31:33,042 --> 00:31:36,829
its molecules were constructed.
551
00:31:42,452 --> 00:31:46,089
And this capacity to see into the depths of time
552
00:31:46,089 --> 00:31:48,458
gives new meaning to death.
553
00:31:48,458 --> 00:31:52,322
(dramatic instrumental music)
554
00:31:52,322 --> 00:31:54,697
The universe throughout space and time
555
00:31:54,697 --> 00:31:58,934
is filled with violence and chaos.
556
00:31:58,934 --> 00:32:02,188
Millions of galaxies have been destroyed.
557
00:32:04,768 --> 00:32:08,427
Trillions of animals have been killed.
558
00:32:09,379 --> 00:32:11,781
Death and suffering are woven
559
00:32:11,781 --> 00:32:16,051
into the very heart of the universe.
560
00:32:16,051 --> 00:32:19,856
Usually such destruction is massive and senseless.
561
00:32:19,856 --> 00:32:22,258
A volcano erupts and kills every living being
562
00:32:22,258 --> 00:32:24,544
in its vicinity.
563
00:32:30,966 --> 00:32:33,636
But it can also happen that dealing with death
564
00:32:33,636 --> 00:32:37,748
leads to more complex coevolutionary relationships.
565
00:32:38,908 --> 00:32:43,036
For a rabbit, an eagle wears the face of destruction.
566
00:32:44,146 --> 00:32:46,716
But in this relationship, the eagle develops
567
00:32:46,716 --> 00:32:49,585
more acute eyesight, and the rabbit develops
568
00:32:49,585 --> 00:32:52,238
greater speed for escape.
569
00:32:57,026 --> 00:33:01,670
Interdependent communities arise out of suffering and death.
570
00:33:03,065 --> 00:33:07,286
The ultimate meaning of this escapes easy explanation.
571
00:33:09,038 --> 00:33:12,008
We are confronted with a fundamental mystery
572
00:33:12,008 --> 00:33:14,877
in which the small self of the individual
573
00:33:14,877 --> 00:33:19,098
dives into and nourishes the whole communtity.
574
00:33:21,917 --> 00:33:25,888
But living beings are not just linked together by food.
575
00:33:29,988 --> 00:33:33,796
Passion, our urge to merge.
576
00:33:33,796 --> 00:33:37,633
What could be more intimate to our souls?
577
00:33:37,633 --> 00:33:40,769
Our passions determine so much of our lives.
578
00:33:40,769 --> 00:33:44,617
They are the wild explosive energies
579
00:33:44,617 --> 00:33:48,277
of all of love and creativity.
580
00:33:48,277 --> 00:33:52,331
And such desire resides at the very center of life.
581
00:33:55,451 --> 00:33:58,054
With fish, the female deposits her eggs
582
00:33:58,054 --> 00:34:00,856
and the male later fertilizes them.
583
00:34:00,856 --> 00:34:04,176
There's no contact between them.
584
00:34:07,229 --> 00:34:10,465
100,000 million years later, when the lizards have evolved
585
00:34:10,465 --> 00:34:14,170
out of their fish and amphibian ancestors,
586
00:34:14,170 --> 00:34:18,023
the passion to merge has deepened considerably.
587
00:34:19,809 --> 00:34:22,612
With mammals and birds, passions reach
588
00:34:22,612 --> 00:34:26,048
yet a new crescendo.
589
00:34:26,048 --> 00:34:30,519
Not only are they able to co-mingle as one body,
590
00:34:30,519 --> 00:34:33,089
they can become so profoundly bonded,
591
00:34:33,089 --> 00:34:36,993
they remain in a relationship their entire lives.
592
00:34:36,993 --> 00:34:39,878
(majestic instrumental music)
593
00:34:41,297 --> 00:34:43,699
We are not just similar to animals,
594
00:34:43,699 --> 00:34:46,369
we have been shaped by them.
595
00:34:46,369 --> 00:34:50,839
Our passions come from vertebrate evolution.
596
00:34:50,839 --> 00:34:53,175
Even our compassion can be understood
597
00:34:53,175 --> 00:34:55,245
as an expansion of what took place
598
00:34:55,245 --> 00:34:58,247
hundreds of millions of years ago in the ocean
599
00:34:58,247 --> 00:35:01,467
with the early fish.
600
00:35:03,019 --> 00:35:05,120
Biologists speculate that mutations
601
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:07,323
led to a mother fish who scared
602
00:35:07,323 --> 00:35:10,659
away predators from her babies.
603
00:35:10,659 --> 00:35:13,095
This behavior was new at that time.
604
00:35:13,095 --> 00:35:14,831
What was more common among fish back then
605
00:35:14,831 --> 00:35:18,668
was a mother who ate her young.
606
00:35:18,668 --> 00:35:20,970
With the emergence of the fishes' descendants,
607
00:35:20,970 --> 00:35:25,274
mammals and birds, maternal care broadened.
608
00:35:25,274 --> 00:35:28,410
Now the offspring were not just protected from predators,
609
00:35:28,410 --> 00:35:32,631
but were nourished directly by their mother.
610
00:35:34,416 --> 00:35:36,485
This care even included transmission
611
00:35:36,485 --> 00:35:40,123
of survival information of their group.
612
00:35:40,123 --> 00:35:44,009
And in some cases, this required years of training.
613
00:35:46,162 --> 00:35:49,131
We see them, the caring behavior among vertebrates
614
00:35:49,131 --> 00:35:52,301
expanding for 500 million years before
615
00:35:52,301 --> 00:35:56,321
the emergence of home sapiens.
616
00:35:58,540 --> 00:36:02,445
Earlier humans intuited this deepening compassion
617
00:36:02,445 --> 00:36:06,549
and celebrated it with images of the divine feminine.
618
00:36:06,549 --> 00:36:09,801
(gentle instrumental music)
619
00:36:17,527 --> 00:36:20,229
As we enter into evening here on Samos,
620
00:36:20,229 --> 00:36:22,565
we approach one of the deep mysteries
621
00:36:22,565 --> 00:36:26,635
at the center of every traditional cosmic story,
622
00:36:26,635 --> 00:36:31,056
the nature and ultimate meaning of the human.
623
00:36:33,977 --> 00:36:35,845
We humans have our origin in the birth
624
00:36:35,845 --> 00:36:39,783
of the universe 14 billion years ago.
625
00:36:39,783 --> 00:36:42,151
And thus, we are composed of the same energy
626
00:36:42,151 --> 00:36:44,853
and quanta as that which composes everything
627
00:36:44,853 --> 00:36:47,256
in the universe.
628
00:36:47,256 --> 00:36:49,591
And we followed from the first cell
629
00:36:49,591 --> 00:36:52,762
emerging four billion years ago.
630
00:36:52,762 --> 00:36:57,383
So we're genetic cousins to every living being.
631
00:36:58,534 --> 00:37:01,403
So what is distinct about us?
632
00:37:01,403 --> 00:37:04,490
What is uniquely human?
633
00:37:12,214 --> 00:37:14,116
Our current best evidence suggests
634
00:37:14,116 --> 00:37:16,418
that something took place between six
635
00:37:16,418 --> 00:37:19,388
and seven million years ago in Africa.
636
00:37:19,388 --> 00:37:22,091
Something happened to ignite the human lineage
637
00:37:22,091 --> 00:37:23,960
in the primate world.
638
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:26,061
A new line of energetic apes emerged
639
00:37:26,061 --> 00:37:28,364
that would over several million years
640
00:37:28,364 --> 00:37:30,866
bring forth massive brains and learn
641
00:37:30,866 --> 00:37:34,503
to dwell in a world saturated with dreams.
642
00:37:34,503 --> 00:37:38,141
Nothing like them had ever existed before.
643
00:37:38,141 --> 00:37:41,177
So, what gave rise to us?
644
00:37:41,177 --> 00:37:42,712
We don't really know.
645
00:37:42,712 --> 00:37:44,213
We don't have the detailed knowledge
646
00:37:44,213 --> 00:37:46,115
of that transformation yet.
647
00:37:46,115 --> 00:37:48,884
But forces speculate on the data
648
00:37:48,884 --> 00:37:52,988
and perhaps that's entirely appropriate here in the night.
649
00:37:52,988 --> 00:37:55,691
To be forced to dream about the origins
650
00:37:55,691 --> 00:37:58,327
of this dream-making animal.
651
00:37:58,327 --> 00:38:00,262
One theory offered by the scientists
652
00:38:00,262 --> 00:38:01,997
is particularly fascinating.
653
00:38:01,997 --> 00:38:05,000
It suggests that humanity had its origin
654
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,836
in the prolongation of childhood.
655
00:38:07,836 --> 00:38:09,279
(lighthearted instrumental music)
656
00:38:09,279 --> 00:38:10,239
(children playing)
657
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,941
The idea is that mutations took place
658
00:38:12,941 --> 00:38:16,078
which slowed down our development.
659
00:38:16,078 --> 00:38:17,779
Humans went through the same phases
660
00:38:17,779 --> 00:38:20,316
as say the chimpanzees, but they remained
661
00:38:20,316 --> 00:38:24,086
in each stage for a longer period of time.
662
00:38:24,086 --> 00:38:26,588
In particular, this meant that the humans
663
00:38:26,588 --> 00:38:31,110
were childlike for more of their lives than other mammals.
664
00:38:33,664 --> 00:38:37,600
So, to understand what makes a human human,
665
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,754
we can study the children of any mammalian species.
666
00:38:42,671 --> 00:38:44,941
They jump to play.
667
00:38:44,941 --> 00:38:47,776
They explore the world with their eyes.
668
00:38:47,776 --> 00:38:50,946
And they taste the world with their mouths.
669
00:38:50,946 --> 00:38:54,399
Simple existence thrills them.
670
00:38:56,118 --> 00:38:59,872
Their actions are in some sense free.
671
00:39:02,191 --> 00:39:04,326
So after nearly four billion years
672
00:39:04,326 --> 00:39:07,095
an animal emerged that could remain free,
673
00:39:07,095 --> 00:39:10,566
spontaneous, curious, flexible,
674
00:39:10,566 --> 00:39:14,470
open, impelled to try everything.
675
00:39:14,470 --> 00:39:17,173
So what was going to happen now?
676
00:39:17,173 --> 00:39:18,857
(gentle instrumental music)
677
00:39:18,857 --> 00:39:22,709
Early humans awoke to an incandescent consciousness.
678
00:39:24,009 --> 00:39:26,982
But where other animals were controlled by instincts,
679
00:39:26,982 --> 00:39:31,003
humans were liberated from such set reactions.
680
00:39:32,054 --> 00:39:34,390
Captivated by the thrill of movement,
681
00:39:34,390 --> 00:39:37,092
we could make dance,
682
00:39:37,092 --> 00:39:40,512
or sports central to our lives.
683
00:39:42,598 --> 00:39:44,366
Astonished by the sounds of Earth,
684
00:39:44,366 --> 00:39:46,334
we could dedicate ourselves to the joy
685
00:39:46,334 --> 00:39:47,936
of making music.
686
00:39:47,936 --> 00:39:51,056
(dramatic instrumental music)
687
00:39:53,643 --> 00:39:56,362
Or making love.
688
00:40:05,854 --> 00:40:08,256
The greatest creation in human history
689
00:40:08,256 --> 00:40:11,027
was what enabled humans to plunge into
690
00:40:11,027 --> 00:40:15,247
and to share their superabundant consciousness.
691
00:40:16,031 --> 00:40:20,402
This new invention was language.
692
00:40:20,402 --> 00:40:23,989
More simply, the symbol.
693
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:29,345
The symbols of language and art and mathematics
694
00:40:29,345 --> 00:40:32,314
opened up new depths of consciousness.
695
00:40:32,314 --> 00:40:37,119
Each human began to carry an entire universe within.
696
00:40:37,119 --> 00:40:41,290
This new form of consciousness called symbolic consciousness
697
00:40:41,290 --> 00:40:44,609
would soon change everything.
698
00:40:45,494 --> 00:40:49,231
(bell ringing)
699
00:40:49,231 --> 00:40:51,867
A crucial step in the process of becoming human
700
00:40:51,867 --> 00:40:54,670
was learning to externalize consciousness.
701
00:40:54,670 --> 00:40:56,338
To represent in the physical world
702
00:40:56,338 --> 00:40:59,007
what we had experienced within.
703
00:40:59,007 --> 00:41:02,111
This is the Archaeological Museum on the island of Samos.
704
00:41:02,111 --> 00:41:05,230
Come and have a look.
705
00:41:06,815 --> 00:41:09,918
By creating marks on bone or on wet clay,
706
00:41:09,918 --> 00:41:11,786
humans invented a way to fix their knowledge
707
00:41:11,786 --> 00:41:15,892
into an enduring form outside of themselves.
708
00:41:15,892 --> 00:41:18,260
The coding processes life were bursting
709
00:41:18,260 --> 00:41:21,230
beyond the DNA molecule.
710
00:41:21,230 --> 00:41:24,266
So with human culture, experience itself
711
00:41:24,266 --> 00:41:26,334
can be remembered and passed down
712
00:41:26,334 --> 00:41:29,372
for thousands of years.
713
00:41:29,372 --> 00:41:31,841
Not just successful mutations.
714
00:41:31,841 --> 00:41:33,576
Any valuable understanding,
715
00:41:33,576 --> 00:41:36,646
even if experienced by a single human being
716
00:41:36,646 --> 00:41:40,031
can become part of the enduring legacy.
717
00:41:41,750 --> 00:41:44,286
Works of the mind and spirit float into Samos
718
00:41:44,286 --> 00:41:46,988
from every direction of the ancient world.
719
00:41:46,988 --> 00:41:48,957
From Athens and Mesopotamia,
720
00:41:48,957 --> 00:41:53,688
as well as Spain, Egypt, Persia.
721
00:41:53,688 --> 00:41:55,063
You know in the early universe,
722
00:41:55,063 --> 00:41:58,367
concentrations of matter led to the emergence of galaxies.
723
00:41:58,367 --> 00:42:01,269
And something similar was going on here.
724
00:42:01,269 --> 00:42:04,573
In Samos and in other cities, we find a concentration
725
00:42:04,573 --> 00:42:08,327
of symbolic constructions.
726
00:42:08,327 --> 00:42:10,546
What does this mean really?
727
00:42:10,546 --> 00:42:14,349
It means that rare insights and deep feelings
728
00:42:14,349 --> 00:42:17,619
from around the planet and from different eras of time
729
00:42:17,619 --> 00:42:20,856
are all folded together here.
730
00:42:20,856 --> 00:42:24,034
Out of this powerful alchemical mixing,
731
00:42:24,034 --> 00:42:27,863
human consciousness complexified into new forms.
732
00:42:27,863 --> 00:42:31,282
(triumphant instrumental music)
733
00:42:35,504 --> 00:42:37,072
Just think of it.
734
00:42:37,072 --> 00:42:41,544
For billions of years, rocks were just rocks.
735
00:42:41,544 --> 00:42:43,979
And then, in a geological instant,
736
00:42:43,979 --> 00:42:46,415
all of the planet that began to appear
737
00:42:46,415 --> 00:42:49,551
with these scratchings on them.
738
00:42:49,551 --> 00:42:52,288
Even more amazing, these little marks
739
00:42:52,288 --> 00:42:56,392
were organizing entire civilizations.
740
00:42:56,392 --> 00:42:58,460
With the appearance of the human,
741
00:42:58,460 --> 00:43:02,998
the coding process of life burst beyond the DNA molecule
742
00:43:02,998 --> 00:43:06,869
and began carving its information into stone.
743
00:43:11,659 --> 00:43:13,542
Symbols not only enabled humans
744
00:43:13,542 --> 00:43:16,178
to accumulate knowledge through millennia,
745
00:43:16,178 --> 00:43:19,181
they also offered a final and explosive possibility
746
00:43:19,181 --> 00:43:21,250
for human emergence.
747
00:43:21,250 --> 00:43:24,519
Symbols enabled humans to concentrate their consciousness
748
00:43:24,519 --> 00:43:27,756
upon consciousness.
749
00:43:27,756 --> 00:43:30,558
This was a development with magnificent
750
00:43:30,558 --> 00:43:33,429
and yet unexpected consequences.
751
00:43:33,429 --> 00:43:36,198
Like a magnifying glass focusing the sunlight
752
00:43:36,198 --> 00:43:37,866
upon a leaf.
753
00:43:37,866 --> 00:43:40,536
Symbols set fire to human possibility
754
00:43:40,536 --> 00:43:44,072
that had slumbered for 100,000 years.
755
00:43:47,722 --> 00:43:49,811
Look at this colossal form.
756
00:43:49,811 --> 00:43:52,114
It's almost 15 feet high.
757
00:43:52,114 --> 00:43:55,151
Now imagine dozens of such statues.
758
00:43:55,151 --> 00:43:57,753
As the Greeks moved and lived among them,
759
00:43:57,753 --> 00:44:00,722
their self-conceptions would be changed.
760
00:44:00,722 --> 00:44:03,726
They would begin to imagine they were godlike,
761
00:44:03,726 --> 00:44:05,527
capable of anything.
762
00:44:05,527 --> 00:44:09,765
Such systems we call in science self-amplifying loops.
763
00:44:09,765 --> 00:44:12,035
Consciousness giving birth to symbols
764
00:44:12,035 --> 00:44:14,737
which then magnify consciousness.
765
00:44:14,737 --> 00:44:17,906
In this way, humans were not simply evolving.
766
00:44:17,906 --> 00:44:20,108
They were consciously participating
767
00:44:20,108 --> 00:44:22,511
in giving birth to themselves.
768
00:44:22,511 --> 00:44:26,548
And what was coming forth was a planet-altering species.
769
00:44:26,548 --> 00:44:29,785
For this activity was taking place not simply here
770
00:44:29,785 --> 00:44:31,420
on the ancient island of Samos,
771
00:44:31,420 --> 00:44:33,289
but actually throughout the planet
772
00:44:33,289 --> 00:44:36,191
in every civilization.
773
00:44:36,191 --> 00:44:38,528
Supercharged with confidence,
774
00:44:38,528 --> 00:44:41,730
coming from the reverberation of such symbols.
775
00:44:41,730 --> 00:44:44,600
Human presence burst forth and altered
776
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:48,186
the very face of the planet.
777
00:44:49,972 --> 00:44:53,341
Pyramids rose up from the African desert.
778
00:44:53,341 --> 00:44:56,811
Ancient rivers were diverted.
779
00:44:56,811 --> 00:44:58,847
Land as large as the eye could see
780
00:44:58,847 --> 00:45:02,651
was watered by irrigation systems.
781
00:45:02,651 --> 00:45:05,053
Even the forest scattered across the oceans
782
00:45:05,053 --> 00:45:09,324
in the form of sailing vessels.
783
00:45:09,324 --> 00:45:11,693
For the first time in Earth's history,
784
00:45:11,693 --> 00:45:14,963
seeds were not subject to the vagaries of climate
785
00:45:14,963 --> 00:45:17,532
but received their watery nourishment
786
00:45:17,532 --> 00:45:22,086
with the precision and inevitability of logical thought.
787
00:45:23,873 --> 00:45:26,575
Soon, even the inner order of the seeds
788
00:45:26,575 --> 00:45:30,328
was captured by the science of genetics.
789
00:45:32,247 --> 00:45:34,450
What does it mean when even the seeds
790
00:45:34,450 --> 00:45:37,119
began to live not just in the Earth,
791
00:45:37,119 --> 00:45:41,540
but in an Earth shaped by human consciousness.
792
00:45:43,858 --> 00:45:46,375
(gentle instrumental music)
793
00:45:46,375 --> 00:45:48,863
With their equations and their measurements,
794
00:45:48,863 --> 00:45:51,467
the early scientists discovered truths
795
00:45:51,467 --> 00:45:54,676
none of the classical scholars had known
796
00:45:54,676 --> 00:45:59,675
in astronomy, chemistry, physiology.
797
00:45:59,675 --> 00:46:01,877
Humans began to understand the world
798
00:46:01,877 --> 00:46:05,430
with their numbers and patterns.
799
00:46:10,051 --> 00:46:12,621
The defining characteristic of this new modern
800
00:46:12,621 --> 00:46:15,190
form of consciousness was the decision
801
00:46:15,190 --> 00:46:17,726
to employ our science and technology
802
00:46:17,726 --> 00:46:21,146
to control nature for our own use.
803
00:46:21,146 --> 00:46:24,585
(dramatic instrumental music)
804
00:46:27,175 --> 00:46:29,839
The widespread conviction of the industrial world
805
00:46:29,839 --> 00:46:34,476
was that nature was inferior to us.
806
00:46:34,476 --> 00:46:36,978
Such a world-view, in which only humans
807
00:46:36,978 --> 00:46:40,548
have sentient feelings, allowed all of nature
808
00:46:40,548 --> 00:46:43,084
to become nothing more than a resource
809
00:46:43,084 --> 00:46:46,772
we could exploit in anyway we wished.
810
00:46:49,825 --> 00:46:51,560
Even Rene Descartes,
811
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:55,063
the most significant philosopher of the modern age,
812
00:46:55,063 --> 00:46:58,199
believed that when animals made crying sounds,
813
00:46:58,199 --> 00:47:00,135
they were not suffering.
814
00:47:00,135 --> 00:47:04,157
They were simply malfunctioning machines.
815
00:47:06,542 --> 00:47:09,177
Humans were gaining control of Earth's processes
816
00:47:09,177 --> 00:47:10,746
into what purpose?
817
00:47:10,746 --> 00:47:12,214
To create a better world.
818
00:47:12,214 --> 00:47:15,116
To eliminate hunger, to provide for our children.
819
00:47:15,116 --> 00:47:17,786
To have fun, and to fulfill this dream
820
00:47:17,786 --> 00:47:19,722
we poured forth all of our energies,
821
00:47:19,722 --> 00:47:21,422
all of our technologies,
822
00:47:21,422 --> 00:47:23,625
and with stupendous results.
823
00:47:23,625 --> 00:47:27,596
In the blink of an eye, we exploded to seven billion humans.
824
00:47:27,596 --> 00:47:31,016
(gentle instrumental music)
825
00:47:33,336 --> 00:47:35,371
The irony of it all,
826
00:47:35,371 --> 00:47:36,972
housing and feeding this many humans
827
00:47:36,972 --> 00:47:40,241
has already gutted our oceans and forests.
828
00:47:40,241 --> 00:47:41,643
We've ended up achieving something like
829
00:47:41,643 --> 00:47:44,246
the opposite of what we dreamt of.
830
00:47:44,246 --> 00:47:47,049
It's not just that we're using up all the energies of Earth.
831
00:47:47,049 --> 00:47:48,784
It's much deeper than that.
832
00:47:48,784 --> 00:47:51,287
We're changing life's dynamics,
833
00:47:51,287 --> 00:47:54,506
and in an irreversible way.
834
00:47:58,526 --> 00:48:00,429
We're just beginning to realize
835
00:48:00,429 --> 00:48:02,330
that over the last few decades,
836
00:48:02,330 --> 00:48:04,199
we have profoundly altered
837
00:48:04,199 --> 00:48:08,877
the evolutionary dynamics of Earth,
838
00:48:08,877 --> 00:48:11,870
the air,
839
00:48:11,870 --> 00:48:15,727
the climate, the rivers,
840
00:48:17,512 --> 00:48:20,983
the oceans,
841
00:48:20,983 --> 00:48:24,286
even the DNA.
842
00:48:24,286 --> 00:48:26,454
We live on a different planet now.
843
00:48:26,454 --> 00:48:29,491
A planet where not biology but symbolic consciousness
844
00:48:29,491 --> 00:48:32,493
is the determining factor for evolution.
845
00:48:32,493 --> 00:48:35,297
This great reversal has taken place.
846
00:48:35,297 --> 00:48:36,665
In the far distant past,
847
00:48:36,665 --> 00:48:40,302
life drew forth a symbolic consciousness.
848
00:48:40,302 --> 00:48:42,070
But now symbolic consciousness
849
00:48:42,070 --> 00:48:45,573
has seized control of life.
850
00:48:45,573 --> 00:48:47,775
With our languages and our machines,
851
00:48:47,775 --> 00:48:51,897
we have become as powerful as the planet itself.
852
00:48:53,582 --> 00:48:57,468
Because of us icecaps are melting.
853
00:49:03,158 --> 00:49:05,594
Because of us coral reefs the size of mountains
854
00:49:05,594 --> 00:49:09,510
are bleaching white.
855
00:49:09,510 --> 00:49:12,334
But nothing shows this disaster more clearly
856
00:49:12,334 --> 00:49:15,370
than life itself.
857
00:49:15,370 --> 00:49:17,439
Because of us, thousands of species
858
00:49:17,439 --> 00:49:21,325
are going extinct each year.
859
00:49:22,811 --> 00:49:25,747
Nothing this devastating has taken place on Earth
860
00:49:25,747 --> 00:49:30,701
since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
861
00:49:33,222 --> 00:49:35,223
We are faced with a collective challenge
862
00:49:35,223 --> 00:49:38,961
no previous generation even contemplated.
863
00:49:38,961 --> 00:49:42,714
(dramatic instrumental music)
864
00:49:52,273 --> 00:49:55,760
(gentle instrumental music)
865
00:49:58,747 --> 00:50:02,284
How are we to use this symbolic consciousness
866
00:50:02,284 --> 00:50:04,786
to create a human presence that will enhance
867
00:50:04,786 --> 00:50:08,973
the well-being of the Earth community?
868
00:50:22,871 --> 00:50:26,041
We are beginning to understand the profound powers
869
00:50:26,041 --> 00:50:29,077
of the universe.
870
00:50:29,077 --> 00:50:32,113
And just as these powers have brought forth galaxies,
871
00:50:32,113 --> 00:50:36,150
stars and life itself, perhaps the universe
872
00:50:36,150 --> 00:50:40,505
is now unfolding towards some new destiny.
873
00:50:42,325 --> 00:50:45,260
What if our ultimate destiny is to experience
874
00:50:45,260 --> 00:50:47,762
the universe so deeply we come to realize
875
00:50:47,762 --> 00:50:50,898
that we are, in some sense, the mind and heart
876
00:50:50,898 --> 00:50:54,286
of the universe?
877
00:50:56,772 --> 00:51:00,742
Our deepest yearning is for a whole-hearted participation
878
00:51:00,742 --> 00:51:05,313
in this flourishing.
879
00:51:05,313 --> 00:51:10,251
As we float in the midst of such mysterious immensities,
880
00:51:10,251 --> 00:51:12,987
is there any deep wisdom that might
881
00:51:12,987 --> 00:51:15,590
help us align our consciousness
882
00:51:15,590 --> 00:51:19,477
with the grain of cosmic evolution?
883
00:51:21,730 --> 00:51:24,165
Wonder will guide us.
884
00:51:24,165 --> 00:51:25,967
The human species has a genius when
885
00:51:25,967 --> 00:51:29,470
becoming astounded by almost anything in the universe.
886
00:51:29,470 --> 00:51:32,524
What can this mean?
887
00:51:34,743 --> 00:51:39,097
The body of the universe gave birth to our bodies.
888
00:51:41,016 --> 00:51:43,318
The self-organizing dynamics of the universe
889
00:51:43,318 --> 00:51:46,904
gave birth to our minds.
890
00:51:48,256 --> 00:51:51,259
We belong here.
891
00:51:51,259 --> 00:51:54,806
We've always belonged here.
892
00:51:56,197 --> 00:51:57,732
These deep discoveries of science
893
00:51:57,732 --> 00:52:01,269
are leading to a new story of the universe.
894
00:52:01,269 --> 00:52:05,239
It's a story that can be summarized in a single sentence.
895
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:07,842
Over the course of 14 billion years,
896
00:52:07,842 --> 00:52:10,345
hydrogen gas transformed itself
897
00:52:10,345 --> 00:52:15,345
into mountains, butterflies,
898
00:52:15,450 --> 00:52:19,871
the music of Bach, and you and me.
899
00:52:22,123 --> 00:52:25,476
And these energies coursing through us
900
00:52:25,476 --> 00:52:30,047
may indeed renew the face of the Earth.
901
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:39,224
(gentle instrumental music)
902
00:52:49,551 --> 00:52:52,837
(flowing instrumental music)
69256
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