1. Maps of Space, Time, and History
Introduction
Getting Our Bearings
Maps of Space, Time, and History
This PowerPoint presentation accompanies
Landscape Teaching Unit 0.1

2. Different scales and why they matter
What is this unit about?
Different scales and why they matter
Scales of space, time, and complexity
Seeing different things in history at different scales
When am I?
Where am I?
Who am I?

3. History is about understanding our place . . .
in space
and time.
To understand who we are, we must understand how our world was created, and how we fit into it.

4. Maps can help us understand our place in the scheme of things
Maps can help us understand our place in the scheme of things. We need maps of our place in:
Space
Time
History

5. Part One: Maps of Space
Different scales show us different things. They show us that we are members of many different communities.
Street
The street map shows us that we belong to a neighborhood
The national map shows us that we belong to a country
What can the world map tell us?
National
Where am I?
World

6. The Street Map
I live here!
Who else shares
this map with me?

7. The City Map
I live here!
Who else shares
this map with me?

8. The Continental Map
I live here!
Who else shares
this map with me?

9. World Map (from North & South Poles)
I live here!
Are these maps shared by all humans and other organisms?

10. Are there even larger scales?
What’s beyond the world map?

11. The Solar System
I live here somewhere!

12. Our Galaxy
I live here, near our Sun!
the Sun

13. Our Galactic Neighborhood I live somewhere in here!
Milky Way Galaxy
I live somewhere in here!

14. Our Virgo Supercluster I’m not sure where I live!

15. And beyond the map of the Universe?
The Universe has no edge, and no center, so everywhere has the same address!
Me,
My Galaxy,
Somewhere in the Universe
Return to
Sender
“SOMEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE”

16. Part Two: Maps of Time Can you make maps of time as well as of space?
When am I?
Can you make maps of time as well as of space?
Of course!
Maps of space tell you where you are in space.
Maps of time tell you where you are in time.

17. A “map of time” might look like this.
Origins of Earth
Agriculture
Hominids
First large organisms
Homo Sapiens
When am I?
Asteroid impact
Origin of Universe
Modern Industrial Society
Agrarian Civilization

18. But it would be easier to understand maps of time if we put things in order by . . .
Making timelines!
In time, as in space, different scales show different things. Here’s a group of timelines that cover 13 billion year. Each has its own main theme.

19. Here’s a single 13-billion-year timeline!
It pretends that everything took place in just 13 years. This timeline should make it easier to see the strange proportions of the
modern map of time.

20. If the Universe began 13 years ago, then, at this moment
I live here!
The earth would have existed for about five years.
Large organisms with many cells would have been around for 7 months
The Asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs would have occurred 3 weeks ago.
Hominids would have existed for 3 days.
Our own species, Homo sapiens, would have been here for 53 minutes.
Agricultural societies would have existed for 5 minutes.
The entire recorded history of civilization would have been in the last 3 minutes.
The modern industrial world today would have existed for 6 seconds!

21. To get a feeling for the very large scales, let’s zoom in a bit . . .
. . . to just the last 500 million years!
This “map of time” shows how the surface of our Earth has changed over the last 500 million years.

22. First large organisms appear.
540 Million Years Ago
First large organisms appear.
North
America
Rodinia?
From Cesare Emiliani, Scientific Companion (New York: Wiley, 1988), 190

23. First bony fishes and trees
420 Million years Ago
First bony fishes and trees
North America

24. First reptiles, formation of fossil fuels
300 Million years Ago
First reptiles, formation of fossil fuels
North America
Europe
S. America
Africa
Australia

25. 180 Million years Ago: Pangaea a new super-continent
Dinosaurs, first birds
North
America

26. 120 Million years Ago (Pangaea starts to break up)
First flowering plants and marsupials
North
America
Laurasia
Gondwanaland
Where are Africa and South America?

27. Asteroid strikes earth, dinosaurs vanish, mammals flourish
60 Million years Ago
Asteroid strikes earth, dinosaurs vanish, mammals flourish
North
America
Asteroid impact wipes
out dinosaurs.
Watch
India!

28. Present era: Ice age sea levels
Humans flourish
North
America
I live here!

29. Part Three: Maps of History
Who am I?
If you know your place in the whole of space and time, it’s easier to understand your place in history.
Maps of history tell you
Who you are.
How you fit into space and time.

30. What’s my place in the Universe? How big is the Universe?
If you flew in a Boeing 747 across the USA, it would take you . . .
If you flew to the Sun, it would take you . . .
If you flew to the nearest star, it would take you . . .
5 hours
20 years
5 million years!
And there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy,
and 100 billion galaxies in the Universe!

31. This universe is so big, I can’t find where I am!
Help!
This universe is so big, I can’t find where I am!

32. What’s my place in the Universe?
That answer makes me feel pretty unimportant!
Q. How old is the Universe?
A. 13 billion years!
Q. How long have you been alive?
A. ______ years.
Q. How many of your lifetimes would fit into the lifetime of the Universe?
A. ______ lifetimes. (Can you do the arithmetic?)

33. But are humans really unimportant? Humans seem pretty important to me!

34. Here’s another map: a map of “complexity”
It shows how complicated things are.
STARS 1)
Animals 2)
Human Society 3)
Which of these is the most complicated?

35. What’s so complicated about us?
Answer:
Us! Human Societies!
What’s so complicated about us?

36. What does “Complicated” mean anyway?
The more complicated something is
The more energy it uses (weight for weight).
The more difficult it is to create.
The more rare it is in the Universe.
Now THAT’S complicated!
You’ve just been fooling around with the 2nd Law of Thermo Dynamics!

37. All living things are complex.
Flies are more “complicated” than stars.
Weight for weight, they use more energy than stars.
Unlike stars, they can “adapt,” that is, change over time to get better at finding new ways of extracting energy.
That allows them slowly to get more complex.
Energy Complexity  Adaptation  Energy  Complexity  Adaptation 
Adaptation
and change to find new ways of extracting
More Complexity
More Energy

38. But human societies are the most complex of all!
They are better at adapting to changing environments.
So, over time they can extract more and more energy from their environment.
Therefore, they can support more and more complex ways of living.

39. Not much has changed here!
Average Energy that Chimpanzees Use (1,000 calories per individual per day) 50
100
150
200
250
100,000 yrs ago
10,000 yrs ago
1,000 yrs ago
100 yrs ago
Today
Not much has changed here!

40. Average Human Energy Use (1,000 calories per person per day)50
100
150
200
250
Paleolithic
Early Farmers
Later Farmers
Early Ind. Society
Mod. Ind. Society
Notice the difference?
Which is more complicated? Chimp societies
or human societies?

41. Human Societies are among the most complex things in this Universe!
Which means that we humans are pretty important!
But how did human societies get so complicated?

42. Because of “Collective Learning”
LANGUAGE is the key:
Language means that humans can share ideas.
Therefore, they can store new ideas.
And they can accumulate new ideas, generation by generation.
That helps them find more and more ways of extracting energy from the environment.
Collective learning is what distinguishes the history of humans from the histories of all other animals.

43. Collective Learning is
What makes our species unique.
What World History is all about.
All the teaching units in this curriculum are about what humans did with their unique ability to SHARE IDEAS.

44. Now, do you know who you are?
Do you know your place in space?
Do you know your place in time?
Do you know what it means to be a human being?
Do you know how important you are?
So keep sharing your ideas!
Goodbye!