1 00:00:00,384 --> 00:00:03,737 (dramatic instrumental music) 2 00:00:05,524 --> 00:00:07,972 Many of the world's greatest stories begin 3 00:00:07,972 --> 00:00:10,295 with a journey. 4 00:00:10,295 --> 00:00:14,766 A quest to answer life's most intimate questions. 5 00:00:14,766 --> 00:00:17,168 Where do we come from? 6 00:00:17,168 --> 00:00:21,305 Why are we here? 7 00:00:21,305 --> 00:00:24,342 From the dawn of time, all cultures have created stories 8 00:00:24,342 --> 00:00:28,413 to help explain the ultimate nature of things. 9 00:00:28,413 --> 00:00:32,116 And perhaps a new story is emerging in our time. 10 00:00:32,116 --> 00:00:34,485 One grounded in contemporary science, 11 00:00:34,485 --> 00:00:37,588 and yet nourished by the ancient religious wisdom 12 00:00:37,588 --> 00:00:40,159 of our planet. 13 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,962 What if the universe, even the Earth itself, 14 00:00:43,962 --> 00:00:47,732 has its own unique story to tell. 15 00:00:47,732 --> 00:00:51,035 One in which we play a profound role. 16 00:00:54,815 --> 00:00:58,126 (orchestral music) 17 00:01:20,331 --> 00:01:22,300 We're on the Greek island of Samos, 18 00:01:22,300 --> 00:01:24,802 just a mile off the coast of Turkey. 19 00:01:24,802 --> 00:01:27,204 We could tell the story of the universe anywhere. 20 00:01:27,204 --> 00:01:29,741 Each place would offer its own unique possibilities 21 00:01:29,741 --> 00:01:31,376 for the telling. 22 00:01:31,376 --> 00:01:32,844 But we chose Samos because it's one 23 00:01:32,844 --> 00:01:35,947 of the great crossroads of human history. 24 00:01:35,947 --> 00:01:40,217 Europeans, Asian and Africans have all made their way here. 25 00:01:40,217 --> 00:01:42,253 And by telling the story on an island, 26 00:01:42,253 --> 00:01:44,656 surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, 27 00:01:44,656 --> 00:01:48,760 we will be reminded that we live on this shining planet, 28 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,846 sailing through the great ocean of the universe. 29 00:01:56,568 --> 00:01:58,636 And there's another reason we have come to Samos. 30 00:01:58,636 --> 00:02:01,106 And that is because 2,600 years ago, 31 00:02:01,106 --> 00:02:04,142 Pythagoras was born here. 32 00:02:04,142 --> 00:02:06,644 Pythagoras, a mathematician and philosopher, 33 00:02:06,644 --> 00:02:08,913 was one of the first humans to realize 34 00:02:08,913 --> 00:02:11,649 that the harmonies and relationships in the universe 35 00:02:11,649 --> 00:02:15,536 could be given expression using numbers. 36 00:02:16,554 --> 00:02:18,956 The kind of foundations he generated led eventually 37 00:02:18,956 --> 00:02:23,211 to all of modern mathematical science. 38 00:02:24,596 --> 00:02:26,631 He was also a great teacher. 39 00:02:26,631 --> 00:02:29,301 In fact, legend has it that he invented 40 00:02:29,301 --> 00:02:33,354 the word philosophy, a love of wisdom. 41 00:02:40,110 --> 00:02:42,614 We'll spend a day here on Samos. 42 00:02:42,614 --> 00:02:44,983 Before the clock strikes midnight, 43 00:02:44,983 --> 00:02:47,018 we will have recounted the great events 44 00:02:47,018 --> 00:02:51,109 of our 14 billion year cosmic evolution. 45 00:02:51,109 --> 00:02:54,459 Our immense journey told in a single day 46 00:02:54,459 --> 00:02:58,179 on one of Earth's magical islands. 47 00:03:00,798 --> 00:03:02,733 How did it all start? 48 00:03:02,733 --> 00:03:05,269 An awesome question, certainly. 49 00:03:05,269 --> 00:03:08,373 But it appears there really was a beginning. 50 00:03:08,373 --> 00:03:11,442 Some scientists refer to this as the Big Bang. 51 00:03:11,442 --> 00:03:14,845 I like to call it the great flaring forth. 52 00:03:14,845 --> 00:03:18,315 Imagine the universe beginning like this. 53 00:03:18,315 --> 00:03:21,169 (match strike) 54 00:03:23,087 --> 00:03:26,958 14 billion years ago, everything in the universe, 55 00:03:26,958 --> 00:03:29,627 all the bright matter of the stars and galaxies, 56 00:03:29,627 --> 00:03:33,497 as well as all the dark matter no one has ever seen. 57 00:03:33,497 --> 00:03:36,033 All of it existed in a single point 58 00:03:36,033 --> 00:03:40,354 so energetic it was trillions of degrees hot. 59 00:03:42,473 --> 00:03:45,977 Instantly this micro-universal rushed apart 60 00:03:45,977 --> 00:03:49,530 even faster than the speed of light. 61 00:03:52,784 --> 00:03:55,286 The discovery that the universe has expanded 62 00:03:55,286 --> 00:03:57,388 and is still expanding is one of the greatest 63 00:03:57,388 --> 00:03:59,223 of human history. 64 00:03:59,223 --> 00:04:00,691 The common understanding had been 65 00:04:00,691 --> 00:04:03,427 that the universe is simply a vast space. 66 00:04:03,427 --> 00:04:05,830 A vast space in which things existed. 67 00:04:05,830 --> 00:04:09,567 Large things like galaxies and small things like atoms. 68 00:04:09,567 --> 00:04:12,570 Scientists knew that matter changed form in the universe, 69 00:04:12,570 --> 00:04:14,138 but everyone assumed that the universe 70 00:04:14,138 --> 00:04:16,941 as a whole was not changing. 71 00:04:16,941 --> 00:04:20,811 But no, the universe is changing, 72 00:04:20,811 --> 00:04:23,681 and has changed dramatically. 73 00:04:23,681 --> 00:04:26,785 The universe has a story. 74 00:04:26,785 --> 00:04:30,388 A beginning, a middle where we are now, 75 00:04:30,388 --> 00:04:34,708 and perhaps in some far distant future, an end. 76 00:04:40,965 --> 00:04:44,135 In the 1920s, the cosmologist Edwin Hubble 77 00:04:44,135 --> 00:04:48,439 trained his 100-inch at the night sky. 78 00:04:48,439 --> 00:04:50,708 He was trying to determine if our Milky Way 79 00:04:50,708 --> 00:04:55,081 was the only galaxy in the universe. 80 00:04:55,081 --> 00:04:56,815 Not only did he discover the universe 81 00:04:56,815 --> 00:04:58,916 was filled with galaxies, 82 00:04:58,916 --> 00:05:01,252 he also determined that all of them are rushing 83 00:05:01,252 --> 00:05:04,321 away from each other. 84 00:05:04,321 --> 00:05:06,557 With Hubble's work, humanity learned 85 00:05:06,557 --> 00:05:09,961 that the universe began with a massive explosion 86 00:05:09,961 --> 00:05:12,497 that has been carrying the galaxies apart 87 00:05:12,497 --> 00:05:15,950 for billions of years. 88 00:05:17,001 --> 00:05:20,087 (rhythmic drums) 89 00:05:22,706 --> 00:05:24,442 Another special quality about the universe 90 00:05:24,442 --> 00:05:26,210 is the rate of expansion. 91 00:05:26,210 --> 00:05:30,987 If the rate of expansion had been slower, 92 00:05:30,987 --> 00:05:34,385 even slightly slower, 93 00:05:34,385 --> 00:05:39,090 even a millionth of a percent slower, 94 00:05:39,090 --> 00:05:43,443 the universe would have re-collapsed immediately. 95 00:05:43,443 --> 00:05:44,762 That would've been it. 96 00:05:44,762 --> 00:05:47,331 After a million years, the universe would have 97 00:05:47,331 --> 00:05:52,169 imploded upon itself and formed a massive black hole. 98 00:05:52,169 --> 00:05:53,571 On the other hand, if the universe 99 00:05:53,571 --> 00:05:57,575 had expanded a little more quickly, 100 00:05:57,575 --> 00:06:01,879 even slightly more quickly, 101 00:06:01,879 --> 00:06:04,915 even calculations show one millionth 102 00:06:04,915 --> 00:06:09,287 of one percent more quickly, 103 00:06:09,287 --> 00:06:12,023 the universe would have expanded too quickly 104 00:06:12,023 --> 00:06:13,357 for structures to form. 105 00:06:13,357 --> 00:06:16,594 It would have simply exploded. 106 00:06:16,594 --> 00:06:18,529 There would have been no galaxies, 107 00:06:18,529 --> 00:06:20,798 no structure, no life, 108 00:06:20,798 --> 00:06:24,435 nothing but dust for all time. 109 00:06:24,435 --> 00:06:27,204 So what we've discovered is that we're living in a universe 110 00:06:27,204 --> 00:06:30,274 that is expanding at exactly the rate necessary 111 00:06:30,274 --> 00:06:34,111 for life and structure to come forth. 112 00:06:34,111 --> 00:06:37,595 It could be then, that even though we can't 113 00:06:37,595 --> 00:06:40,051 call the early universe alive, 114 00:06:40,051 --> 00:06:44,306 we can understand it as life generating. 115 00:06:45,756 --> 00:06:48,126 One of the physicists who was reflecting on this 116 00:06:48,126 --> 00:06:50,895 is the celebrated Freeman Dyson. 117 00:06:50,895 --> 00:06:55,332 And he, he mused that the more he reflected 118 00:06:55,332 --> 00:06:58,302 on the structures of the early universe, 119 00:06:58,302 --> 00:07:01,705 the more he became convinced that in some sense 120 00:07:01,705 --> 00:07:04,542 the universe must've known from the very beginning 121 00:07:04,542 --> 00:07:07,929 that life was coming. 122 00:07:10,014 --> 00:07:12,583 The light from the beginning of time 123 00:07:12,583 --> 00:07:17,104 has been traveling for 14 billion years. 124 00:07:18,589 --> 00:07:22,560 Meanwhile, life has been evolving. 125 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,797 With the recent emergence of advanced technology, 126 00:07:25,797 --> 00:07:29,633 we're at last able to see the story these photons tell 127 00:07:29,633 --> 00:07:31,836 about the birth of the universe 128 00:07:31,836 --> 00:07:36,423 and where we ultimately come from. 129 00:07:39,343 --> 00:07:43,915 Morning on a Greek island is like the first day of creation. 130 00:07:43,915 --> 00:07:48,519 And wandering around here, you feel like the first person. 131 00:07:48,519 --> 00:07:50,722 Inevitably, humans would ask, 132 00:07:50,722 --> 00:07:53,824 what gave birth to all of this beauty? 133 00:07:53,824 --> 00:07:55,693 What was the form of creativity 134 00:07:55,693 --> 00:07:57,912 that brought this forth? 135 00:07:57,912 --> 00:08:00,898 (flowing instrumental music) 136 00:08:00,898 --> 00:08:03,134 Consider galaxies. 137 00:08:03,134 --> 00:08:04,501 What brought the galaxies forth? 138 00:08:04,501 --> 00:08:06,703 You know, even a century ago, 139 00:08:06,703 --> 00:08:08,438 this was hard to imagine. 140 00:08:08,438 --> 00:08:09,907 We didn't know if there were two galaxies 141 00:08:09,907 --> 00:08:11,375 in the entire universe. 142 00:08:11,375 --> 00:08:14,645 That was the main focus of tension among scientists. 143 00:08:14,645 --> 00:08:17,014 Now were know there are 100 billion, 144 00:08:17,014 --> 00:08:20,417 maybe even a trillion galaxies. 145 00:08:20,417 --> 00:08:23,120 What is the creativity that brought forth 146 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:26,173 a trillion galaxies? 147 00:08:30,294 --> 00:08:33,631 Let's consider our own Milky Way galaxy. 148 00:08:33,631 --> 00:08:37,094 It's a galaxy with huge spiral arms. 149 00:08:37,094 --> 00:08:40,371 When we first began to discover galaxies, 150 00:08:40,371 --> 00:08:42,739 we thought maybe these spiral arms 151 00:08:42,739 --> 00:08:44,876 were composed of physical matter. 152 00:08:44,876 --> 00:08:47,044 But actually, it's much more interesting. 153 00:08:47,044 --> 00:08:49,180 The arms are actually waves that are 154 00:08:49,180 --> 00:08:51,282 passing through the galaxy. 155 00:08:51,282 --> 00:08:52,850 They're called density waves. 156 00:08:52,850 --> 00:08:55,753 And as they pass through clouds of hydrogen and helium, 157 00:08:55,753 --> 00:08:59,005 they ignite star birth. 158 00:09:00,390 --> 00:09:02,860 That's the way to picture the Milky Way galaxy. 159 00:09:02,860 --> 00:09:05,029 Not so much as a thing, 160 00:09:05,029 --> 00:09:07,131 but rather as an activity. 161 00:09:07,131 --> 00:09:10,934 It's an ongoing activity of bringing forth stars. 162 00:09:10,934 --> 00:09:15,122 We live in the midst of this intense creativity. 163 00:09:21,712 --> 00:09:22,713 Come into this little church. 164 00:09:22,713 --> 00:09:25,766 I want to show you something. 165 00:09:29,820 --> 00:09:31,555 The ceiling, as you can see, 166 00:09:31,555 --> 00:09:33,891 is filled with stars. 167 00:09:33,891 --> 00:09:35,626 The same is true of most of the churches 168 00:09:35,626 --> 00:09:37,628 on the island of Samos. 169 00:09:37,628 --> 00:09:39,797 The ancient Greeks, like Pythagoras, 170 00:09:39,797 --> 00:09:43,367 thought the stars were alive, even divine. 171 00:09:43,367 --> 00:09:45,869 Throughout history every culture has been stunned 172 00:09:45,869 --> 00:09:50,207 by the presence of stars in the vastness of the night sky. 173 00:09:50,207 --> 00:09:53,410 ♫ Hallelujah 174 00:09:53,410 --> 00:09:57,581 ♫ Hallelujah ♫ 175 00:09:57,581 --> 00:10:00,284 So deeply moved by the majesty emanating 176 00:10:00,284 --> 00:10:02,186 from the brilliance of the stars, 177 00:10:02,186 --> 00:10:04,254 we have built our lives around them. 178 00:10:04,254 --> 00:10:06,790 We've even organized entire civilizations 179 00:10:06,790 --> 00:10:08,859 upon their beauty and order. 180 00:10:08,859 --> 00:10:12,663 ♫ Hallelujah ♫ 181 00:10:12,663 --> 00:10:14,832 Here's the essence of the universe story. 182 00:10:14,832 --> 00:10:18,402 The stars are our ancestors. 183 00:10:18,402 --> 00:10:22,952 Out of them everything comes forth. 184 00:10:22,952 --> 00:10:25,042 Stars are dynamic entities. 185 00:10:25,042 --> 00:10:26,043 They're born. 186 00:10:26,043 --> 00:10:27,144 They develop. 187 00:10:27,144 --> 00:10:29,646 They even die. 188 00:10:29,646 --> 00:10:31,949 Star birth occurs when gravity squeezes 189 00:10:31,949 --> 00:10:34,451 together a cloud of atoms so tight 190 00:10:34,451 --> 00:10:38,322 that nuclear fusion ignites in the center. 191 00:10:38,322 --> 00:10:42,923 In the process, hydrogen fuses in the helium. 192 00:10:42,923 --> 00:10:45,829 This nuclear energy expands outwards 193 00:10:45,829 --> 00:10:48,365 and opposes gravity. 194 00:10:48,365 --> 00:10:51,802 So stars represent an amazingly creative balance 195 00:10:51,802 --> 00:10:55,006 between the powers of gravitational collapse 196 00:10:55,006 --> 00:10:59,443 and nuclear explosion. 197 00:10:59,443 --> 00:11:01,979 And once a star's nuclear fuel is spent, 198 00:11:01,979 --> 00:11:04,114 there's nothing left to prevent gravity 199 00:11:04,114 --> 00:11:08,902 from collapsing inwards, causing the death spiral to begin. 200 00:11:10,253 --> 00:11:12,857 This super-concentrated dot of matter, 201 00:11:12,857 --> 00:11:15,559 which we call a supernova, explodes outward 202 00:11:15,559 --> 00:11:19,480 with the power of 100 billion stars. 203 00:11:20,931 --> 00:11:23,934 And as it expands, it creates all of the elements, 204 00:11:23,934 --> 00:11:28,705 phosphorous, oxygen, carbon, gold. 205 00:11:28,705 --> 00:11:31,943 These are spewed out into the Milky Way galaxy, 206 00:11:31,943 --> 00:11:34,879 and then the whole process starts again. 207 00:11:34,879 --> 00:11:37,815 They drift as a cloud and then they collapse, 208 00:11:37,815 --> 00:11:41,585 give birth to a star, the Earth. 209 00:11:41,585 --> 00:11:44,971 It's by stupendous process that we can say 210 00:11:44,971 --> 00:11:48,693 the stars are our ancestors. 211 00:11:48,693 --> 00:11:52,312 (Greek music) 212 00:12:06,844 --> 00:12:09,880 It's just such an amazing discovery. 213 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:13,016 The carbon atoms of this beet, and of the lettuce 214 00:12:13,016 --> 00:12:17,021 and of you know, our brains, our skin, 215 00:12:17,021 --> 00:12:21,442 all of it passed through an intense explosion of a star. 216 00:12:24,295 --> 00:12:27,297 In pondering the source of the Sun's power, 217 00:12:27,297 --> 00:12:28,699 we can now reflect on something 218 00:12:28,699 --> 00:12:31,401 no earlier humans could know. 219 00:12:31,401 --> 00:12:33,803 The Sun is converting four millions tons 220 00:12:33,803 --> 00:12:37,791 of its mass into energy every second. 221 00:12:39,843 --> 00:12:44,311 All of life feeds on the roaring energy of the Sun. 222 00:12:44,311 --> 00:12:46,984 Our solar system then is a self-energizing 223 00:12:46,984 --> 00:12:49,753 womb of creativity. 224 00:12:49,753 --> 00:12:53,357 And all of this had its start in a cloud of dust. 225 00:12:53,357 --> 00:12:57,177 (Greek music) 226 00:13:23,387 --> 00:13:26,457 It was really difficult for humans to realize 227 00:13:26,457 --> 00:13:29,560 that we live on a planet circling a star. 228 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:32,263 I mean we were here for hundreds of thousands of years 229 00:13:32,263 --> 00:13:35,232 before Aristarchus, 2,000 years ago, 230 00:13:35,232 --> 00:13:39,036 right here on Samos realized we are spinning 231 00:13:39,036 --> 00:13:40,605 around the Sun. 232 00:13:40,605 --> 00:13:43,774 That was such an amazing insight 233 00:13:43,774 --> 00:13:46,276 that it vanished actually. 234 00:13:46,276 --> 00:13:49,046 And it wasn't until Copernicus discovered it again 235 00:13:49,046 --> 00:13:51,849 in the 16th century that humans really 236 00:13:51,849 --> 00:13:54,385 began to absorb the fact that we are 237 00:13:54,385 --> 00:13:57,504 on this planet. 238 00:13:59,690 --> 00:14:03,394 Let me use these vegetables to explain our solar system. 239 00:14:03,394 --> 00:14:06,663 So here we have the Sun, this cabbage as the Sun. 240 00:14:06,663 --> 00:14:10,567 Now actually, if this were to be in scale, 241 00:14:10,567 --> 00:14:12,703 this cabbage would have to be a million times 242 00:14:12,703 --> 00:14:14,672 the size of this pepper. 243 00:14:14,672 --> 00:14:17,141 Budgetary considerations made that impossible. 244 00:14:17,141 --> 00:14:19,644 So you just have to use your imagination. 245 00:14:19,644 --> 00:14:21,465 Now what we've learned in the 20th century 246 00:14:21,465 --> 00:14:24,415 is about the composition of the planets. 247 00:14:24,415 --> 00:14:27,250 First we have the large planets. 248 00:14:27,250 --> 00:14:29,186 So we have Jupiter here, 249 00:14:29,186 --> 00:14:33,439 and we have Saturn and Uranus, and Neptune. 250 00:14:34,725 --> 00:14:37,995 These are large enough to hold on 251 00:14:37,995 --> 00:14:40,370 to all the lighter elements so that 252 00:14:40,370 --> 00:14:43,267 they actually are gaseous. 253 00:14:43,267 --> 00:14:44,534 Too small to be a star, 254 00:14:44,534 --> 00:14:49,172 but yet too large to be solid. 255 00:14:49,172 --> 00:14:51,124 The other kind then, we have indicated here 256 00:14:51,124 --> 00:14:52,609 with these rocks. 257 00:14:52,609 --> 00:14:53,710 So we have Mercury. 258 00:14:53,710 --> 00:14:56,113 Then we have Venus. 259 00:14:56,113 --> 00:14:59,983 Jump over to Mars. 260 00:14:59,983 --> 00:15:04,054 These are the rocky planets, most of which are solid. 261 00:15:04,054 --> 00:15:07,457 But there's one special rocky planet. 262 00:15:07,457 --> 00:15:11,061 One that's not too small and not too big. 263 00:15:11,061 --> 00:15:14,498 One that's not too hot and not too cold. 264 00:15:14,498 --> 00:15:17,101 One that's not exactly solid, 265 00:15:17,101 --> 00:15:19,236 but not exactly liquid. 266 00:15:19,236 --> 00:15:22,622 We call it home. 267 00:15:27,278 --> 00:15:29,245 Earth is very much like an egg. 268 00:15:29,245 --> 00:15:31,582 The core of the Earth is like the yolk. 269 00:15:31,582 --> 00:15:34,551 The mantle of the Earth is like the egg white. 270 00:15:34,551 --> 00:15:37,822 And the crust of the Earth is like like the eggshell. 271 00:15:37,822 --> 00:15:40,257 What happens is that early on 272 00:15:40,257 --> 00:15:42,126 when the Earth is in a molten state, 273 00:15:42,126 --> 00:15:45,329 all of the really heavy elements like iron and nickel 274 00:15:45,329 --> 00:15:47,197 sink into the core. 275 00:15:47,197 --> 00:15:49,199 And then the elements like magnesium 276 00:15:49,199 --> 00:15:53,603 form this outer layer around the core, the mantle. 277 00:15:53,603 --> 00:15:56,974 The crust is only 10 to 50 miles thick, 278 00:15:56,974 --> 00:15:59,576 and that's the only solid part of Earth. 279 00:15:59,576 --> 00:16:02,972 All the rest is in motion. 280 00:16:05,752 --> 00:16:08,485 Plumes of molten rock will rise up from the mantle 281 00:16:08,485 --> 00:16:12,590 and harden into plates that form the crust. 282 00:16:12,590 --> 00:16:15,225 As these plates slide around the surface of Earth, 283 00:16:15,225 --> 00:16:18,962 they collide and crumple into majestic mountain ranges. 284 00:16:18,962 --> 00:16:20,564 Or they're forced back down, 285 00:16:20,564 --> 00:16:24,251 or they melt and sink toward the center of Earth. 286 00:16:25,936 --> 00:16:28,939 This discovery, which originated with Alfred Wegener, 287 00:16:28,939 --> 00:16:31,141 is called plate tectonics and is one 288 00:16:31,141 --> 00:16:34,678 of the greatest of history. 289 00:16:34,678 --> 00:16:37,815 Earth became encircled by great tidal oceans 290 00:16:37,815 --> 00:16:42,218 and held by a thin layer of atmosphere. 291 00:16:42,218 --> 00:16:44,989 A churning volcanic Earth could now 292 00:16:44,989 --> 00:16:49,660 bring forth the next wonder of existence, 293 00:16:49,660 --> 00:16:52,279 the living cell. 294 00:16:54,698 --> 00:16:57,650 (waves crashing) 295 00:17:05,843 --> 00:17:08,278 How are we gonna tell the story of life? 296 00:17:08,278 --> 00:17:10,113 How did it all begin? 297 00:17:10,113 --> 00:17:13,984 What theory shall we offer to explain this? 298 00:17:13,984 --> 00:17:16,119 The simple truth is that no one knows 299 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:18,122 with full certainty. 300 00:17:18,122 --> 00:17:21,592 But even though the detailed explanation still eludes us, 301 00:17:21,592 --> 00:17:23,193 scientists have began to approach 302 00:17:23,193 --> 00:17:26,697 the whole question of life from a radical new perspective, 303 00:17:26,697 --> 00:17:29,566 that of self-organization. 304 00:17:29,566 --> 00:17:30,900 You see during the modern period, 305 00:17:30,900 --> 00:17:33,002 we thought of the world as machine-like, 306 00:17:33,002 --> 00:17:35,673 and that life was an accident. 307 00:17:35,673 --> 00:17:38,208 But now, with the work of a number of chemists, 308 00:17:38,208 --> 00:17:42,279 notably Ilya Prigogine who won a Nobel Prize for this work, 309 00:17:42,279 --> 00:17:45,782 we are beginning to discover the act of patterning 310 00:17:45,782 --> 00:17:47,317 in matter itself. 311 00:17:47,317 --> 00:17:50,537 It's intrinsic to matter. 312 00:17:52,023 --> 00:17:53,857 From this new perspective, 313 00:17:53,857 --> 00:17:55,525 life is not an accident. 314 00:17:55,525 --> 00:17:57,694 Life is inevitable. 315 00:17:57,694 --> 00:18:00,230 A planet weeks in a certain complexity of its matter, 316 00:18:00,230 --> 00:18:04,384 and then life at last comes forth quite naturally. 317 00:18:07,004 --> 00:18:09,405 Consider whirlpools. 318 00:18:09,405 --> 00:18:12,776 This spiral swirling action can appear anywhere 319 00:18:12,776 --> 00:18:17,214 so long as there is a body of liquid moving water. 320 00:18:17,214 --> 00:18:20,450 It is not the water itself that endures as a spiral, 321 00:18:20,450 --> 00:18:22,318 because the water molecules are constantly 322 00:18:22,318 --> 00:18:25,688 flowing in and out of the whirlpool. 323 00:18:25,688 --> 00:18:30,444 It is rather the emergent dynamic structure that endures. 324 00:18:39,235 --> 00:18:42,238 Such is the nature of life. 325 00:18:42,238 --> 00:18:44,208 The universe began as a great outpouring 326 00:18:44,208 --> 00:18:46,777 of cosmic breath, cosmic energy, 327 00:18:46,777 --> 00:18:49,346 but then swirled and twisted and complexified 328 00:18:49,346 --> 00:18:53,316 until it could burst forth into flowers and animals 329 00:18:53,316 --> 00:18:58,316 and fish and all of these elegant explosions of energy. 330 00:18:58,354 --> 00:19:00,590 But it's not just energy. 331 00:19:00,590 --> 00:19:02,459 And it's not just living energy. 332 00:19:02,459 --> 00:19:06,110 This is energy that is aware. 333 00:19:08,068 --> 00:19:10,868 By awareness or sentience we mean something 334 00:19:10,868 --> 00:19:12,936 that is more than what takes place 335 00:19:12,936 --> 00:19:14,538 in the realm of elementary particles. 336 00:19:14,538 --> 00:19:18,508 And yet, less than full human consciousness. 337 00:19:18,508 --> 00:19:22,278 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 00:19:27,451 --> 00:19:31,404 in the very self-organizing dynamics of the universe. 341 00:19:32,322 --> 00:19:34,524 For cell biologist Ursula Goodenough, 342 00:19:34,524 --> 00:19:38,162 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 00:20:02,752 --> 00:20:05,289 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)