Think about the following questions as you watch the video

1. 00:51 What is Big History’s first threshold, and what did it come from?
2. 02:19 What fundamental force appears after the Big Bang that is part of the forces that govern all existence forever?
3. 02:41 What could have gone wrong in the first few seconds of the Universe?
4. 02:56 Why is the Big Bang the first of eight thresholds?

00:00: Nearly 14 billion years ago,
00:04: a moment that had only a split second to unfold
00:08: precisely as it did, or the entire universe
00:12: might have ended shortly after it began.
00:21: It is the quietest quiet
00:25: there has ever been.
00:29: And then suddenly, out of nothing,
00:33: everything begins.
00:41: It is Big History's first threshold--
00:45: the Big Bang.
00:53: In a fraction of a second, all the energy
00:57: that will ever exist appears in an inconceivable flash.
01:05: Everything begins,
01:09: as far as we know, at this moment. And from
01:13: the moment it appears, physicists can offer a very coherent account
01:17: of everything that happens since.
01:21: Before the first second has passed, the fundamental forces
01:26: appear that will govern all existence forever.
01:30: One is the gravity that
01:34: holds us to the Earth,
01:38: and that we will need to overcome in order to fly.
01:46: Another, the electromagnetism
01:50: that lets you make a cell phone call.
01:54: The Big Bang is the creation event that lays
01:58: the ground rules. It lays the ground rules of the fundamental forces:
02:02: the strength of gravity, the speed of light, all of the things
02:06: that will shape the rest of the history of the universe.
02:14: And in these first few seconds,
02:18: a lot could have gone wrong.
02:22: If gravity had been just a tiny bit stronger,
02:27: all of existence would have collapsed in on itself.
02:31: A bit weaker,
02:35: and stars would never be able to form.
02:39: But the Big Bang occurred at
02:43: just the right force to set our entire
02:47: history in motion,
02:51: which is why it's the first of eight thresholds.
02:55: We will see that they are all mysteriously connected.
02:59: Eight thresholds that explain everything.
03:03: Eight portals that lead
03:07: to us. (heart beating)
03:11: Including the next one...
03:15: (thunder rumbling) the moment when the immense heat,
03:19: darkness, and chaos of the early universe