Collective Learning
The greatest power humankind has ever wielded is not the engine or the atom but collective learning, the capacity to share and build on one another’s knowledge. Dig into the “big history” of collective learning, from collaboration among early humans to the exchange of scientific knowledge between diverse modern cultures.
Featured Materials
Collective Learning
Collective learning allows us to share, store, and pass on information. Its development was a transformational episode in human history, and still affects us today.
"Collective Learning" (Part 1)
Early Evidence of Collective Learning
Standing on the Shoulders of Invisible Giants
The history of science is a history of our collective learning. Historians piece together different conversations to tell a story that crosses centuries and continents.
The Missing Link?: The Maragha Observatory
From Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, thinkers have debated what the Universe looked like for centuries. Ultimately, scholars moved from an Earth-centered model to a Sun-centered model. How did we get there?
Threshold 6: Humans and Collective Learning
Collective Learning Snap Judgment
Culture and Collective Learning Debate
Lion of the Sea: Ahmad Ibn Mājid
Being a great sailor requires a lot of knowledge, and the greatest among them relied heavily on the collective learning that made crossing the vast Indian Ocean possible.