Complexity & the Future
Driving Question: How might complexity increase in the future?
You’ve trekked across the Universe and traveled billions of years into the past. Now, it’s time to look back on what you’ve learned in order to see the future.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how complexity increased from the Big Bang to the present.
- Investigate how complexity might increase in the future.
Vocab Terms:
- AI (artificial intelligence)
- climate change
- complexity
- future
- technology
The Universe has gotten a lot more complex since Unit 1—and so have you! Let’s look back at how we got here.
Could AI be the next threshold? Check out this community conversation about Yuval Noah Harari’s thoughts on the future of AI.
You can’t predict the future without knowing a little something about the past. In this article and activity, you’ll squint your eyes and try to see what’s coming next.
Students will decide what they think the next threshold might be. Help them come up with potential ingredients and Goldilocks Conditions by reviewing this slideshow from Unit 1.
If there is—or there ever was—life on Mars, it doesn’t look like the little green men imagined in science fiction. But life could exist there and elsewhere in the Universe. Peer into the final threshold: the future!
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- Why do some astrobiologists think that there might be life on billions of other planets in the Universe?
- What could a possible future threshold be?
After you watch
Respond to this question: What role do you think you’ll play in the next threshold?
Have students use the deep zoom feature (the + button in the magnifying glass in the top-left corner) to zoom in on the Big History timeline. You can also download a printable timeline.
You’ve got 13.8 billion years of knowledge locked away in your mind. What were the highlights?
