http://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history.html
Talks about the history of the universe, from the big bang to the beginning of life, through evolution and our current role in the universe.
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
Talks about the different growth rates of countries and compares them to measures of health, like child mortality. Talks about wealth, growth, health, population, trends of the world and revealing true statistics which are likely to contradict our current beliefs.
http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html
Talks about the possibility of aliens, space, time and the future of the world.
I like the history of the universe video (read the transcript since no video access right now), since the main themes are 1) emergence and 2) self-organization, which are ideas from complex systems. It seems that there are three large forces driving all changes in the universe; in order: physical, biological, social. Now the main driver is technological (although I'm not sure if this is a new force or a subset of "social").
ReplyDeleteTying it to the Hawking video, the reason we deviate significantly from initial conditions is because the universe is dominated by positive feedback loops (rather than negative feedback loops) that push us away from "equilibrium" (if equilibrium exists). Gravity is the feedback loop of the physical force (bigger objects create even bigger objects), Darwinian evolution is the biological one, information sharing through language, oral history and literature is the social one. Every once in a while you have a "correction" like in the mkts: the biological analogue of a "correction" was the obsession of the Malthusians in the 18th century. Like David Christian mentioned, we'll probably have an environmental "correction" in the future.
Didn't see the stats video yet but gonna save it for later; thanks George!