Brief History Of Everything
I was wondering about how everything we know came
together to be the way it is right now and what will
happen to us as a species.
The story of everything started 15 billion years
ago.
The universe, as we know it, was created by an enormous
explosion of matter to create space-time. A fiery,
dense universe started to inflate.
For three billion years, optically dense matter/energy
decoupled and created an invisible universe.
It took another billion years for clusters of matter
to form. As heavier nuclei synthesized they formed
protogalaxies.
After more than 5 billion years after the big bang,
galaxies formed. Later, new galaxies, more like our
own, with heavier nuclei came into being.
Around the 10 billion year-mark, our solar system,
with orbiting planets formed.
A billion years later, in the primordial oceans
of earth, atoms combined to form macromolecules capable
of self-reproduction and self-assembly. This was
DNA, the basis of all life.
DNA is the alphabet of life. Two strands of a double
helix are linked by pairs of bases. There are four
bases: adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. All
living organisms are formed by these four bases.
DNA resembles a spiral staircase and the order of
how the bases are arranged in it create a particular
organism. This DNA assembles an organism around it
and copies itself. This copying is not always accurate.
In most cases, the new mutations result in those
organisms dying out. In some cases, however, it increases
the chances of the DNA surviving and becomes biological
adaptation.
Around 3 million years ago, our first ancestors
inhabited the earth. They became increasingly more
sophisticated. From the first hominid to 8,000 B.C.
was the Old Stone Age; from 8,000 B.C. to 6,000 B.C.
was the Stone Age, and from 6,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.
was the New Stone Age. From 3,000 B.C. to 2, 000
B.C. was the Bronze Age. And from 2,000 B.C. to the
time the Christian calendar begins was the Iron Age.
The last millennium covered the Middle Ages to the
Modern Age. The most critical stages came after the
fall of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages; the pestilence
that spread from Asia all the way to Africa, the
Black Death; and the two world wars, which has resulted
in the new threat of nuclear proliferation.
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Where will we go now?
The next 100 years will be the most critical. It
is at this stage where the pressure of new changes
will force themselves on us. Besides the obvious
political and economic problems, there are new problems
that threaten our survival as a species: nuclear
proliferation, environmental disasters, the population
explosion, and epidemics and famines.
One solution may be the creation of a world government
because the problems will be too much for any one
nation. Assuming that by sharing of resources, peace
and stability is established and most of our critical
problems are solved, there will still be an evolutionary
thrust to push us to build civilizations under the
sea and move towards space.
The reason for this is that the world population
will be around 36 billion people at the end of the
century if it continues at its current rate of 1.9
percent, which means that it doubles every 40 years.
This will result in the creation of a new species
of human beings to cope with building and inhabiting
the new environments. Failure to do this will mean
that by the year 2600, people will be standing shoulder
to shoulder and the earth will literally be red-hot
because of electrical consumption.
Over the past 10,000 years, there has been no significant
change in human DNA, but it may all change dramatically
over the next 1000 years as genetic engineering works
on creating improved human beings. It will probably
start with plants and animals, with many restrictions
against it being used on human beings, but someone
will break the taboo and start creating human beings
outside the womb. These human beings will not be
restricted by the size of the birth canal and will
grow bigger brains. Our current brains are 3 pounds.
Future brains may be around 5 pounds. They will also
probably be bigger and stronger than we are now.
Overall, the entire thrust of everything, from our
perspective, has been the evolution of matter from
nothing, then life forms from apparent random permutations,
and then the evolution of one particular species
until it took over the entire planet.
It's an amazing story.
Of course there are many missing links to it--
What happened before the big bang? What banged?
How did the atoms necessary for life sort themselves
out to create the macromolecule that defined all
life? How did one creature create a superior brain
and nervous system?
One thing is for sure: the future is not going to
be anything like the past. The prevailing wisdom
that there is nothing new under the sun is in for
a shock.
by Saleem Rana
