Threshold 9: The Future
About this video
Nobody knows what threshold nine will be, but like every threshold it will bring something entirely new. The video explains why astrobiologists think life, and even collective learning, may exist on billions of other planets, and then imagines possible threshold nines: moving to other planets, artificial intelligence surpassing human creativity, or a sustainable balance between humans and the biosphere.
You'll be able to
- explain why some scientists think life may exist on many other planets.
- describe at least two possible ideas for threshold nine.
- explain what each threshold has in common: new forms of complexity with new qualities.
Key words
- Threshold
- A turning point in Big History when something new and more complex appears.
- Astrobiologist
- A scientist who studies the possibility of life beyond Earth.
- Goldilocks conditions
- Conditions that are 'just right' for something new, like life, to appear.
- Collective learning
- The ability to share and build up knowledge over generations.
- Sustainability
- Living in a way that meets our needs without damaging the planet for the future.
- Multicellular
- Made of many cells, like plants and animals.
Transcript
NARRATOR: What new forms of complexity will appear at threshold nine? Of course we don't know. Threshold nine will include some things that have never been seen before, with entirely new qualities just like every other threshold. We know for certain that thresholds one to four have been crossed throughout the universe.
But is it possible that other thresholds may also have been crossed elsewhere? Many astrobiologists argue that life may have been created on billions of other planets. This is because the Goldilocks conditions for threshold five are actually relatively common, particularly on rocky planets orbiting at the right distance from their home stars.
And once life starts evolving, it's a pretty good guess that it will eventually form large, multicellular organisms. Some will probably evolve brains and perhaps even improved forms of language and maybe even the ability to learn collectively. If these speculations are right there may have been billions of planets with creatures capable of collective learning.
And some may have already crossed threshold nine. Let's imagine what this threshold could be. Maybe it involves human's migrating to other planets and star systems. And once we've got there, we might even meet other creatures capable of collective learning. Or perhaps we'll cross threshold nine when artificial intelligence surpasses the creativity of human intelligence.
Or maybe threshold nine will be the threshold of sustainability. It'll be marked by a more balanced and more complex relationship between humans and the biosphere. We may find ways of curing diseases, of extending lifetimes, and improving the quality of life for future generations.
And we could do this while sharing this planet more equitably with the millions of other species that live here too. Imagining what might lie ahead is both fun and important. And who knows, you might even play a role in helping us across the next threshold.
Video © Khan Academy, used under CC BY-NC-SA. Watch on Khan Academy. Puzzicle is not affiliated with Khan Academy.