Hey everyone, it's time for another
reaction video. Today we're going to do
something a little bit different. You
all know that typically when I do
reaction videos, I'm reacting to science
deniers or idiots of some variety, be
they flat-earthers or creationists or
anti-vaxers or quantum mysticism woo
peddlers or things of that nature. So,
I'm always reacting to content that
sucks.
Uh but then I thought, wouldn't it be
neat if I reacted to something that's
good instead? And uh I could kind of
chime in and and add my two cents about
whatever science is being discussed. So,
I started to think about what's
something that I'm aware of uh that that
would be a suitable candidate for this.
And then I remembered a video by Bill
Wurtz. So,
Bill Wurtz, if you don't know, I'm
actually not sure how much content he's
still making. I just remember remember
this video from a while ago. And the
video is called History of the entire
world, I guess.
Uh very unassuming, all all lowercase,
um much like the channel name, Bill
Wurtz. And uh it's an extremely popular
video. So, many of you will have seen
this video or whether you know it by
heart or you will remember it once we
start. But it was it was released 9
years ago. It's got 183
million views. 183 million views, that's
bananas. That's a lot of views. Um
so, this is I think that
again, I'm not sure how many of you will
know this. I bet a lot of you will, but
I'm sure that some of you are not
familiar with this video. Um and it
really is fantastic. So, what it is is
it's just what it sounds like. Or
actually, it's more than that. It's not
just history of the world, it's the
history of the whole universe. So, it's
it really is going through it in just 20
minutes, in just under 20 minutes. It's
going through cosmology and planetary
science and then geology and and and
early by molecular biology and
evolutionary biology getting through uh
you know
anthropology and archaeology and then
you know early societies and then
through world world history human world
history
um
all the way up to present day. And so
there's a couple of things that are
really great about this video. Number
one, it's hilarious. Bill is extremely
funny and this video is extremely funny.
But it's more than that. It's actually
just it's really well done. It's really
well written.
Everything the science and the history
are very accurate. There's not there's
very little in it that would be
considered
inaccurate in any significant way which
is an accomplishment but two or third I
should say it's actually
it's really impressive like it's
difficult to condense information and
explain something accurately and
succinctly. And this video achieves
that. It there are certain parts where
it makes you laugh not just because it's
funny but it's also kind of like wow I
can't believe that you found that
wording to just kind of summarize either
this aspect of science or this period of
world history in a sentence but you did
and it it just it works. Um
So it's a great video.
Unlike all of my other content where
it's like do do not bother watching this
content you're only here for my
commentary. Some of you even skip the
parts where the other people are
talking. This is the opposite. If you if
you haven't seen this you're going to
want to watch this video without me
interrupting it. So you can either do it
first or better yet don't disrupt the
the the the flow for the algorithm and
watch it after the fact. I think after
you get me explaining some of the
additional tidbits or contextualizing at
least some of the scientific information
it'll be a really enjoyable view.
But if you really want to see it before
me doing all the interrupting, you can
totally pause and watch this video. It's
well worth the watch. Um, but I'm going
to jump in here. I figured this would be
something where I could add a little of
extra a little bit of extra information,
especially for all of the science bits,
uh, the cosmology, the planetary
science, the biochemistry and biology,
anthropology, um,
getting into some of the world history.
I definitely can add some context and
and and clarifying uh, statements. Once
it gets really deep into the weeds on on
world history, uh, I'll I'll have less
to say. Um, I am working on world
history content. So, but it but I'm only
through the the middle of the I'm I'm
doing Middle Ages content right now. So,
once you get past that, I I have less to
say. Uh, early civilizations, I have
maybe a few tidbits. But, um, yeah, so
don't get upset. I'm I'm going to be it
this is a video that's so good that I
hope you won't be upset when I uh,
interrupt it as opposed to stuff where
I'm debunking creationists where I am a
breath of fresh air from the garbage
that they're spewing. Uh, this is a
great video. But, um,
>> [clears throat]
>> at any rate,
um,
I think that this is going to be fun.
This is going to be a little bit of a
change of pace. Uh, you can learn
something from the video. You can learn
something from me. Uh, all of it will be
a a wonderful fine and dandy educational
experience. So, uh, whether you've seen
it or not, here we go. This is Bill
Wurtz's History of the Entire World, I
Guess. And let's get started right now.
>> Before we dive into the world of Wurtz,
I wanted to tell you about this really
cool book from Hungry Minds. It's called
The Book, The Ultimate Guide to
Rebuilding Civilization. We're about to
whiz through a bunch of information on
science and history rapid-fire. And
that's kind of what this book is, too.
Check this out. It's a visual journey
through human history. 400 pages, 180
topics, all with this incredible
medieval art style. Making tools,
farming, machinery, all kinds of rare
knowledge. It has everything you need to
build your own civilization from
scratch. Whether you're into engineering
or the arts, this will captivate you. I
want to show you a few pages myself.
Here's a section on how to build
different types of shelters. Could come
in handy in the upcoming apocalypse.
There's even a section that teaches you
how to make your own penicillin. Talk
about do-it-yourself. This is a super
cool book. It's the perfect coffee table
book. You can pick it up, learn about
something for 10 minutes, then put it
back down for later. And it's the
perfect gift for that nerd in your life.
Click the link in the description or use
the QR code you see here. Make sure to
use the promo code Professor Dave 10 and
pick up your copy from Hungry Minds
today.
>> Hi, you're on a rock floating in space.
Pretty cool, huh? Some of it's water.
[\h__\h] it. Actually, most of it's water. I
can't even get from here to there
without buying a boat.
>> So, that's like one of very few
technical inaccuracies, right? Uh the
most of the world is not water. Most of
the world is uh well, you've got an iron
and nickel uh core and then a lot of
rock silicates and stuff. Most of the
surface of the Earth is water. That's
true. About 70-something percent. Uh but
no, most of the Earth is not water. It's
uh rock. But, we'll we'll forgive that.
>> It's sad. I'm sad. I miss you.
>> How did [music] this happen?
>> A long time ago, actually never, and
also now, nothing is nowhere. When?
Never. Make sense, right? Like I said,
it didn't happen. Nothing was never
anywhere. That's why it's been
everywhere. It's
>> The So, this is very interesting.
Nothing was never So,
when you want to and I had to do this
he's setting up to talk about the
beginning, t equals zero, Big Bang
cosmology, how did it all start? Um and
I had to deal with this uh in my
astronomy series, uh I start out after
introduction to astronomy, I start with
cosmology cuz I wanted to do everything
chronological, and I wanted to start
with uh with, you know, t equals zero,
Big Bang. And um
I had to do a little bit, and it was
kind of like this. I think I might have
been influenced by this video because I
I saw this a couple of times a long time
ago.
Uh probably around when I was making
that content like 2017 or something. I
haven't seen this video since then
or at least not in a very very long
time. But it's very difficult to talk
about the t equals zero that it was the
like the the the the genesis of space
and time or you know space time. So
having to talk about what was before the
beginning of the universe kind of
doesn't make sense. Space and time being
created from the initial singularity
there is no space there before the
initial singularity. There's no time
before it. So how do you talk about
this? So he's doing it in kind of a fun
poetic way. So let's let him do it.
>> It's been so everywhere you don't need a
where. You don't even need a when.
That's how every it gets.
Forget this. I want to be something, go
somewhere, do something. I want things
to change. I want to invent time and
space and I know it's possible because
everything is here and it probably
already happened.
>> So okay and it probably already
happened. That's very interesting. So
what we're saying is that all of the
energy that is now present in the
universe was present in the initial
singularity
and so all of the potentiality is there
and it probably already happened. That's
more that's maybe a nod to
a conception of of cyclical cosmology. I
imagine that might be what he's talking
about the idea of of of big bangs and
big crunches which is not really any
longer the model. It looks like more of
a heat death in the in the sense of
because dark energy is
accelerating the expansion of the
universe. It does not seem like uh at
least currently given the the data that
we have access to that that a
compression will occur.
Uh so, but that that is a cosmology that
has been believed by many cultures and
was entertained by physics for for a
while as well um because we understood
that if gravity is is attracting all
matter
um
then it was it was just a it was it was
just had to do with understanding the
density of the universe, the rate of
expansion, and would the mass of
everything in the universe be enough for
a gravitational attraction
uh to to cause it to contract back on
the initial singularity. And then it
could be cyclical. That'd be crazy. But
um
so, yeah, we're just about to get going
here.
>> I just don't know when to start.
And that's exactly where it started.
Oh, I paused it. I think there's a
universe now. What's it made of?
>> Quarks and stuff.
>> Oh, that
>> Right. So, so um
the first first
there's an amount of energy that is is
associated with the initial singularity.
And then due to matter energy
equivalents, the energy uh can congeal
into matter. So, the first matter that
was there, we call it the the
quark-gluon plasma. So, quarks and stuff
um we have a a quark-gluon plasma.
Quarks are um are the components uh that
make up nucleons. And then uh gluons are
the particles that mediate they're the
bosons that mediate the strong nuclear
force. That's going to be able to bring
quarks together to form baryons. So,
that this part is accurate, right? We
have energy and I love love love like go
back and pause those couple of frames
that are meant to represent the first
like
10 to the negative 36 seconds after the
singularity. Because it's like what do
you how how are you going to visually
represent that?
You can't. So, it's just absurd and he
would he did it in a very absurd way. Um
so, go back and look at those frames.
It's very interesting. Okay, so we've
got a quark-gluon plasma. Here we go.
>> That's a thing in a place. Don't like
it? Try a new place at a different time.
Try to stick together because the world
is going to get bigger and emptier. But
it's not empty yet. It's still very full
and about a jillion degrees.
>> So, I like that. So, just
>> [laughter]
>> you everything is so fast, but it's just
there's little dark matter right there.
And so,
we already have mass, so gravity is a
thing and and expansion is occurring.
So, what's what's the next bit, right?
As it expands, the universe is cooling.
It it began 10 to the 50 Kelvin or
something absolutely unthinkable. But as
it cools, new new things can be stable
and so new things are able to form. So,
about no seconds later, it says about no
seconds later. And it is it's about no
seconds later because we're going from
around 10 to the negative 36 seconds all
the way to about 10 to the negative 12
seconds. We're talking about only a
trillionth of a second after the initial
singularity where we begin to see
symmetry breaking, right? That's where
we start to see like the electroweak
epoch take shape. So, so many epochs
occur in that first trillionth of a
second. All of these symmetry breakings
and really really major events happen
that we're already we're we're still
only at about no seconds later. That's
what's crazy about cosmology.
>> Great news. The quarks are now happily
married in groups of three called a
proton or a neutron. And there's
something else flying around too that
wants to join in but can't cuz it's
still too
>> [laughter]
>> It's so hot. Yeah, so so first you have
you have quarks and gluons. There's a
quark gluon plasma. But when it cools
enough,
quarks are able to or are able to
they're able to for it's not just groups
of three. So, groups of three form
baryons and
a quark and an antiquark form
mesons. And so those are so those are
different kinds of hadrons. So hadrons
can form when quarks when when it's cool
enough for quarks to couple, to come
together. And so now we have we most
importantly we have baryons. So we have
stable protons and neutrons. There are
also electrons in this epoch, but it is
still too hot for electrons to couple to
to protons and neutrons. So we can have
nuclei, but we can't have neutral atoms
yet. So you have this different kind of
plasma.
So you have quarks can come together to
form protons and neutrons, but we still
do not do not have neutral atoms. Too
hot for electrons to couple. About 10
minutes later, it says. So this is all
like this is all following accurately
the timeline proposed by cosmologists.
That's what's really cool about this.
It's just so comedic when you do it in
this not not really a matter-of-fact
textbook way, but in this kind of
comedic way it just like amplifies the
absurdity of the timelines that we're
that we're talking about here.
>> Great news, the protons and neutrons are
now happily married to each other. Some
of them even doubled up.
>> So yeah, so that now we're talking about
Big Bang nucleosynthesis. So a certain
duration of time
I forget a certain number of minutes or
hours, still very soon after the initial
singularity, but it's it's still too hot
for electrons to couple to
to to nucleons, but it's hot enough for
nucleons to fuse. So basically the
entire universe at that time is like the
inside of a star today. So inside so
stars are plasma. There it's too hot for
electrons to couple to to nucleons. So
nucleons are whizzing around, but it's
so hot, there's so much gravitational
pressure inwards
that nucleons can fuse.
And during Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the
entire universe was like that. The
entire The entire universe was like the
inside of a star, like the core of a
star. And so, uh from hydrogen, you got
a lot of helium. Uh and then and a
little bit of lithium. You did get a
trace amounts of lithium. So, that's
part of what corroborates Big Bang
cosmology. There's different threads.
There is uh There is the cosmic
microwave background radiation. There is
There is velocities of galaxies. But,
there's also the distribution of
hydrogen and helium. It's about 75%
hydrogen, uh 25% helium. That is
specifically predicted by the model. You
can calculate the temperature
differential from when Big Bang
nucleosynthesis should start and when it
should end. The That duration of time,
however many minutes it was, I don't
remember off top of my head, minutes or
hours, I'm not I'm not sure. But, you
can calculate how much helium should
have been synthesized in that time. And
we look around the universe, and that's
what we see. So, that's a third What
we're talking about three
uh independent threads of evidence where
we're predicting something on the basis
of Big Bang cosmology, then we look out
in the universe and we can confirm
um all of those things. So, that that's,
you know, when people talk about, "Oh,
Big Bang, blah blah blah, so silly."
It's like, "No, like you just don't
understand the evidence that's
supporting it." But, so anyway, we have
uh So, now we have uh various We have
different nuclei, uh hydrogen and helium
and a little bit of lithium nuclei. And
now, it's at 380,000 years later. So,
we're gearing up for the recombination
era. This is when it's finally cool
enough for electrons to couple to uh
atomic nuclei. And once they do so, if
you remember your Bohr model from from
10th grade chemistry, the electron can
inhabit different uh energy levels. And
when it relax When it relaxes down to
the ground state, it emits photons. So,
this is actually the first time, 380,000
years into the history of the universe,
that the universe becomes transparent.
The electromagnetic radiation
um
can travel freely through the universe,
and that is actually what the cosmic
microwave background radiation is. It is
It is what was produced in this instant
where electrons finally could couple to
atomic nuclei and then all relax to the
ground state simultaneously all over the
universe, releasing this radiation that
has been stretched and cooled since that
time to the 1.4 Kelvin or whatever it is
now, uh which is specifically predicted
by the model and corroborated when we
look out into the universe in the 1960s.
That was kind of the main
uh the main datum the the the main
thread of evidence that made us kind of
really have to accept Big Bang cosmology
as undeniably corroborated and
undeniably consistent beyond reasonable
doubt as a model of the development of
the universe. So, here we are. We've got
our nuclei. It's about to do
recombination. Let's do it.
>> Great news, the electrons have now
joined in. Congratulations, [music] the
world is now a bunch of gas in space.
But it's getting closer together.
And it's getting closer together.
>> It's a star.
>> [music]
>> New [\h__\h] just got made.
>> I had to get that last one. So,
okay, we just went through a billion
years, but it's so it's just so funny
that way. I love just like new [\h__\h] just
got made. But that's astrophysics,
right? What we're saying is now we have
neutral hydrogen and helium
mostly. That's mostly what we have, and
that's gas. So, we
hydrogen and helium gas. And that's
pretty much all that there is in the
universe. But because of gravity, that
starts to collect. And then once you
have a region of gas that's becomes
denser and denser and denser, you have a
lot of mass in that cloud, Um, begins to
condense, and then the the the
gravitational pressure inwards becomes
so strong that it triggers that that
nuclear fusion is able to happen, which
then causes the star to glow. So, that's
what a star is, right? You have this gas
this cloud of gas, at least exclusively
hydrogen and helium gas for the first
generation of stars, which made the
first galaxies.
>> [snorts]
>> And once it's so much mass that is
converging, the gravitational pressure
inwards is so immense that the nuclei
whiz around and are able to fuse. And
when they fuse, there's that mass
defect. Some of that mass is converted
to into energy, and that energy goes
outwards. So, you have this battle
between gravitational pressure crushing
inwards and nuclear fusion pushing
outwards. That's what a star is. And
once you have a star
where all these nuclei are fusing in the
core of the star, and that's where you
get everything up to iron.
So, when it says new [\h__\h] just got made,
that's the first time only once stars
formed were we able to get
carbon and nitrogen and oxygen and neon
and every you know, silicon all the way
up to iron. Iron is the limit because it
that has the that has the um
the greatest binding energy per nucleon.
It's the most stable atomic nucleus. In
in other words, it's releasing energy as
you get up to iron, but if you were to
synthesize beyond that, it would require
more energy output more energy input
than would be released. So, it's not
energetically favorable to continuously
synthesize past iron. Something like
that. It might not be exactly right.
But, I go over this in my astronomy
content. The first four or five videos
are um cosmology and then stars and
galaxies and all all all of this stuff
that that we're talking about. So, now
we have our first generation of stars,
and they've been fusing other elements
in their course. So, let's see where we
get now.
>> Some stars burn out and die. Bigger
stars burn out and die with passion and
make some brand new, way crazier [\h__\h]
>> So,
you're right. So, now we're talking
about we have all the stars of different
sizes because the mass of the cloud, the
mass of the the the the gas cloud that
forms them determines the mass of the
star and that determines the fate of the
star. Right below the Chandrasekhar
limit, if it's the core is 1 and 1/2
solar masses where just going by our
sun's mass, which is arbitrary. But, if
it's a smaller star, it's going to form
a white dwarf. But, if it's a larger
star, it can form either a neutron star
as a remnant or a black hole. And in
either case, it's going to die in a
supernova, a glorious supernova, which
is going to spew all of that all of
those new elements out into space.
Um and so, not first of all, not only
what was internal what was synthesized
internally in the core of the star, but
in a supernova event, all of the
elements beyond
iron, at least iron all the way up to
uranium, I believe, is the heaviest. I
think the transuranium are the ones that
are purely synthetic that we make in
particle accelerators. That might not be
exactly right, but it is right around
there, the limit. And so,
these other exotic events like a
supernova are going to form everything
from
everything heavier than iron.
>> [clears throat]
>> But, now all of that is being ejected
into space to form new class. So, that's
space dust. So, when when astronomers
say gas and dust, gas means hydrogen and
helium, dust means
everything else.
Uh so, when you have a cloud of dust, it
means still a lot of hydrogen and
helium, but lots of other elements as
well. So, we've got space dust now.
>> Space dust.
>> Which allows new or more interesting
stars to be made and then die and
explode into
>> Even crazier [music] space dust.
>> So, now stars have cool stuff around
them like rocks, ice, and funny clouds
which can make some very interesting
things.
>> Okay, so now we he just did solar system
development in like 3 seconds. So, the
point is
when all we had when all the universe
had was hydrogen and helium, uh you
could all
you could it when when a proto when a
when a when a star was forming, that's
all you could get was a star. But now we
have all of this dust everywhere. When a
new when there's new dust, it can
collect again by gravity. It's still go
it can it can it's you know, distributed
around. You get a new star, but that
protoplanetary disc, when that
protoplanetary disc forms to get a new
star, all of these other elements are
there. And so now planets can form. So,
planets could not form around the first
generation of stars. Only in later
generations of stars that were the
protoplanetary disc had uh was seeded
with all these other elements, then you
could get actual solar systems. And so,
the bulk of the protoplanetary disc is
going to condense into the central star,
but all of this other material can also
condense at these various orbital radii
from the sun and make planets and then
also moons around the around the
planets. And so, these can have
tremendously varying compositions in in
our system and therefore probably many
other systems, the inner planets tend to
be rockier. Um and so, this is just the
way that elements partition in the
protoplanetary disc, right? Depending on
mass and density, different elements and
different uh different substances will
partition
uh differently. There'll be a gradient
as you move outwards in the
protoplanetary disc, and that informs
the composition of the planets that
form. So, you have these inner rocky
planets, you have the outer gas giants.
That seems to be uh quite likely to be a
trend with solar system formation. It
may not be in every system, but it's I I
think that seems to be the case. So, now
we have solar systems. Um it looks like
we're going to our solar system, which
does skip a little bit uh because we're
talking about the the right the first
generation of stars
uh died out really quickly. Those are
the pop three, I think we would say that
is. Um, and so very quickly we had stars
that that could have that could that
could have planets around them, but our
star um is a pop our star's pop one, I
believe. Um, which means very recent and
So, uh our star came about and our
system came about around 10 billion
years after the initial singularity. So,
we're we're talking about well into the
lifetime of the universe. It's about
13.7 13.8 billion total. So, 10 in. Uh,
so we skipped six or seven billion years
uh in those few seconds. But, now we
have our solar system. So, let's see
where we go here. Like this ball of
flaming rocks for example. Holy [\h__\h] we
just got hit with another ball of
flaming rocks and it kind of made a
mess, which is
>> [music]
>> weather up.
>> Uh, so that event So, in in when solar
systems are forming, it's a very uh
chaotic
uh system. So, it's not like it is now
right billions of years later,
everything has kind of stabilized.
There's very few relatively few bodies
because all these smaller bodies are
constantly colliding and fusing to make
larger bodies, larger planets, and
things. Um, but in the beginning uh as
the solar system is forming, it's a lot
of bodies it's a it's very chaotic.
Everything is perturbing uh
everything else and colliding. And so,
uh Theia the
Theia was a rocky body that collided
with the early Earth.
And so, that did a couple of things.
Number one, the collision explains the
tilt in Earth's rotational axis. So, in
a protoplanetary disk due to
conservation of angular momentum,
everything is going to be orbiting the
same way and everything's going to be
rotating the same way. But, when
collision events occur, that can easily
change. And so, that's why you have some
planets where the rotational axis is
completely uh on the on its side,
perpendicular
>> [snorts]
>> to the plane of the solar system.
Um
Or no, sorry, parallel, rather than
perpendicular, I should say.
Uh and uh so, for Earth, it it got
tilted 20-something degrees because of
that uh impact event with Theia, and
then that collision caused a bunch of
the Earth It just made a gigantic mess,
and a lot of the material that was in
the crust of the Earth uh spread out
around the Earth and and began to orbit
the Earth, and then slowly collected to
form the moon. So, that's why the moon
is actually made of material that was
the crust of the Earth. So, the moon and
the Earth are kind of made of the same
stuff. So, now we have our moon, and
we've got a weather update.
>> Weather update, it's raining rocks from
outer space. Weather update, those rocks
might have had water inside them, and
now there's hot steam in the sky.
Weather update, cooler temperatures
today, and the floor is no longer lava.
Weather update,
it's raining. Severe flooding alert, the
entire world is now an ocean.
>> Okay, so, yeah, so, our oceans came from
impact events as well. Uh a lot of
comets, I believe. And so, it sounds
pretty crazy cuz there's so much water
here uh here, but a comets can be very
big. They can carry a lot of water, and
they can have There were a lot of
collision events. And so,
uh at at first when that happened in the
in the Hadean
uh epoch, um
it [clears throat] was very very very
hot. So, you just had a lot of steam.
But, water can't escape out uh you know,
once it's here, in Earth's atmosphere,
it's here. Um and so, it it cooled down
sufficiently that it was able to
precipitate, and now all of a sudden the
From the Hadean, we're now in the
Archean, and uh we have a lot of water.
It's really uh the Earth is really
really almost entirely covered with
water.
Uh so, what happens next?
>> Volcano alert.
>> [music and singing]
>> There's something in the ocean.
>> What? Something's alive in the ocean.
>> Oh, cool, like a plant or an animal? No,
a microscopic speck. It lives at the
bottom of the ocean and eats chemical
soup, which is being served
>> Okay, so yeah. So, I mean, this is you
can totally he's doing this so fast. So,
we're not going to like do a biogenesis
justice here. Um
he portrayed something that looked like
a bacterium. Obviously, that's not the
first uh thing that was alive, number
one. Uh number two, the hydrothermal
vent uh model seems to probably not be
the most viable candidate for a
biogenesis, much more likely to be
something like a hot spring or or a
tidal pool model. But, you know, we
don't know for sure. So, you know, it
certainly could be a hydrothermal vent.
Uh don't tell James Tour we've got some
chemical soup. I know that he hates
soup. Um
but, of course, soup just means water
with molecules in it. So, we've got
organic molecules that uh well, we
there's there's no way to uh if he had
thrown a biogenesis into the mix and
tried to actually do that justice, this
would have it would have added another 5
minutes to this video. So, anyway, we'll
take the a biogenesis as rendered and
we've we've arrived at simple
microorganisms
uh in the soup, as we like to say.
>> Being served hot and fresh, made from
gnarly space ingredients left over from
when it was raining rocks or whatever.
Oh, yeah, and it can do that.
It has secret instructions written
inside itself telling it how to build
another one of itself. So, that's pretty
nifty, I would say. Tired of living at
the bottom of the ocean?
>> Now you can eat sunlight.
>> Using [music] a revolutionary technique,
you can convert sunlight into food.
Side effect, now there's oxygen
everywhere and the sky's blue. Then the
>> Right, so yeah. So, great. So, you have
all of these microorganisms, and they
and so, you have unicellular there was a
a very long period of time, very long
period of time,
uh
a couple billion years probably, uh at
least a billion. I think a couple
billion, where life was entirely
unicellular. Um and uh
but it began to uh develop these
different uh abilities. And so
photosynthesis was one such ability. Um
so first you had prokaryotic life, but
then you had uh
you had uh endosymbiosis events where
larger prokaryotes were able to
engulf smaller prokaryotes and then kind
of merge and become an individual
organism. So now you have eukaryotic
unicellular life. And depending on
certain abilities that different
prokaryotes were able to develop because
of evolution. So you have different um
mutations that yield different enzymes
that can do different things. Um and so
you have different metabolic uh
behaviors, different metabolic
abilities. Uh and so now all of a sudden
you have eukaryotic unicellular
organisms that are capable of things
like photosynthesis. And so a byproduct
of photosynthesis is is oxygen. So prior
to this
Earth's atmosphere had almost no oxygen.
But then you had this great oxidation
from photosynthetic unicellular
organisms that covered the Earth with
oxygen. And that paved the way for more
complex metabolic behavior. Because
prior to that um
it uh so cellular respiration, the the
three-step process that we know of that
is how
uh you know animals
it's it's a a higher ATP yielding
metabolic process was only possible once
the world was once the atmosphere was
oxygenated because oxygen is is one of
the is the last I think it's the last
electron acceptor in the in the electron
transport chain um in in a cellular
respiration um in aerobic respiration.
And so uh now all of a sudden this is a
huge paradigm shift for the Earth,
right? You have oxygen the atmosphere is
oxygenated. And now there's the
possibility for much more robust energy
production, which means that now you can
have multicellular life that can move
around. And you can have cell
differentiation
and you know, organs and different
things can evolve. So, let's check it
out.
>> And the Earth might have been a snowball
for a while, maybe even a couple of
times.
It's a sponge, it's a plant, it's a worm
and some other types of weird strange
water bugs and strange fish.
>> It's the Cambrian [music] explosion.
>> So, that's pretty accurate, right? I
mean, it's the the first animals were
almost certainly sponges.
That's the choanoflagellate hypothesis
where you have these colonial
unicellular organisms that just
eventually become an individual organism
and there are the collar cells in
sponges very closely resemble these
choanoflagellate colonial
colonies. So, there's a lot of evidence
that suggests that sponges were the
first animals. And then he pretty
accurately showed this progression here.
I mean, he skipped a lot. He has to, but
these organisms that he's showing are
accurately the Ediacaran fauna. This is
the still the Precambrian. So, there
were animals. There were certainly were
animals prior to the Cambrian explosion
and um
and many of them show forms that carried
over across the Cambrian explosion. So,
I don't remember if he how he depicts
the actual Cambrian explosion, but we're
not there yet. These actually I think he
No, I think this is supposed to be the
explosion cuz
that might be a trilobite down there.
But there's and this Is that a
waxy or something? That one with the the
stuff coming off it on the bottom. That
that is the I I don't remember the name,
but I do definitely remember it from
doing the the Stephen Meyer debunk cuz
he's the one who lies about the Cambrian
explosion all day. So, we've got really
cool animals. We're that's where we're
at. All in the water, but really cool
animals.
>> Wow, that's animals and stuff. But we're
still in the ocean. Hey, can we go on
land?
>> No.
>> Why?
>> The sun is a deadly [music] laser.
>> Okay.
>> Not anymore, there's a blanket.
>> Now the animal So, right. So so um
in earlier stages of Earth's atmosphere
uh UV light was very very penetrative,
right? So we don't have we didn't have
the Earth didn't have uh the ozone layer
that that blocked a lot of the UV light.
So um mutation rates would have been
very very very high. And so that could
have served that could have actually
been beneficial d- uh during a for an
abiogenesis event because you needed all
of that genetic diversity um with early
stuff uh and RNA didn't have the the
replicative fidelity of DNA anyway. Um
>> [clears throat]
>> but now that we've got very complex
multicellular life, you can't tinker too
much with the mutation rate. If you go
way too many mutations, you're going to
lose what you have. So um
only once you had this ozone layer
because remember you've got
photosynthetic organisms that are
continuously oxygenating oxygenating the
atmosphere and ozone is an allotrope of
oxygen. It's O3 instead of O2, right?
Molecular oxygen in the atmosphere is
O2, but you also have O3. And so that
once you had sufficient ozone and uh and
that is blocking a good amount of the of
the UV rays, um that that made it such
that uh animal life could get onto land
and live there. So now we're going to
see, I think, the first tetrapods make
their way onto land.
>> Now the animals can go on land. Come on,
animals, let's go on land. Nope, can't
walk yet. And there's no food yet, so I
don't care.
Okay, will you learn to walk if there's
plants up here? Maybe, said some bugs
and fish.
>> I [laughter] like that. So it so uh so I
I That is true that uh that insects
actually came onto land before tetrapods
um and plants as well. Um
I mean plants first. I'm almost certain
right there has there has to be for
animal there has to be plant life for
animals to feed on because plants are
going to be the produce the the the
primary producers. Plants can get on
land without any source of
source of food because they're feeding
from the sun
making their own food from sunlight and
and so then you have insects and then I
love that like that's supposed to be
like
an ancestor of Tiktaalik or something
that's just
cuz you the the the fins
this is this is the development of
Sarcopterygian.
So the lobe-finned fish was a very slow
and gradual process by which fins became
these sort of
these sort of pseudo limbs that could
kind of drag around the
the floor the shallow ocean floor.
And then they just slowly evolved into
actual appendages that would allow them
to kind of crawl onto onto land and
and you know it's it's
you know creationists like to scoff at
that and I always say look at look at
mudskippers, you know what I mean? Like
they do that [\h__\h] today. They kind of
hobble around and and jump around and
walk on
walk on on land in a in a you know in a
in a mediocre way I suppose. So that's
somewhat analogous to what the early
Sarcopterygian would have been like. And
so Tiktaalik and some of these other
Acanthostega I forget some of the the
names of them but there are many many
many many different species that we have
the the the fossil record is is is
fairly robust going from the early
Sarcopterygian to the early land
tetrapods
and so that's going to yield amphibians
first amphibians first and then reptiles
and then mammals. So let's get through
that.
Okay so I can go on land but I have to
go back in the water to have
>> [singing]
>> Learn to use an egg. [clears throat]
>> I was already doing that.
>> Use a stronger egg. Put water in it.
Have a baby on land in an egg. Water.
>> Right, so that's so that's the birth of
of amniotes. Right, so the the amniotic
egg. This is actually an unbelievable
evolutionary uh innovation because all
life needed water, uh lived in water,
and needed to give birth in water. And
so what nature figured out how to do is
to is to have an egg with water in it
that could be laid on land. Uh and so
all of a sudden and it's very
interesting with plant uh with plant
life, too, how the first uh like the
bryophytes and uh you know, mosses and
things also had to be right near water.
And it was the advent of gymnosperms
uh that allowed for uh new strategies,
uh new uh reproductive strategies that
finally allowed plants to be far away
from water.
Um and so that's when forests began to
cover uh cover the land and things like
that. Um
But so the amniotic egg, that's an
incredible uh a step in evolution so
that animals can lay eggs uh you know,
not right it it it doesn't have to be in
the water. Could be somewhere else. So
now we have amniotes. Now we have
reptiles.
>> Water is in the egg. Baby in the egg in
the water in the egg. Works for me.
>> [music]
[singing]
>> And now everything's huge, including
bugs. Want to see a map of the land?
Sure.
Oh, [\h__\h] Now everything's dead. Just
kidding. Here are the survivors. Keep
your eye on this one because it's about
to become the dinosaurs. Here's another
map of the land. Yeah, it broke apart.
Don't worry about it. It does that all
the time. Here comes a meteor.
>> We just went we just covered get to the
dinosaur the entire era of the dinosaurs
in about 4 seconds, but it's good and it
works. It's just it it's accurate and
fun and funny.
Um so yeah, so we had uh that I like
that part about everything's getting
bigger. So at first there was sort of an
evolutionary arms race because of how
heavily oxygenated, I believe, the
atmosphere was. Something about the the
atmosphere of the time that really
allowed
um
animals to get very large, including
insects. That was the era where you had
these dragonflies that were the size of
like a freaking
car or something, or I don't know
remember exactly how big, but they're
just unbelievably huge. Um maybe not
size of car, but just crazy big.
Um and then there were very extinct
extinctions, right? So there was that
that great dying event, the
Permian-Triassic
extinction, I believe it's called. It's
We also know it as the great dying.
That's where something in the ballpark
of 90% of life died. And so I believe
that was what sort of paved the way for
the era of the dinosaurs, which thrived
for a very very very long time.
Uh 150 million years or something like
that. And then we now know pretty firmly
that it was a
an impact asteroid comet, I forget.
An impact event that
that that caused the extinction of the
dinosaurs. So now we'll be
the rise of the mammals. There were
already mammals, but they were very
small. Now with the dinosaurs gone, we
can
us mammals can thrive.
>> It's mammal time. Here come the mammals.
Look at those breasts. Now they're going
to dominate the world, and one of them
just learned how to grab stuff and walk.
No, like walk like that and grab stuff
at the same time and bang rocks together
to make pointed rocks.
>> I like it's just so fast. It's just like
whiplash from this [\h__\h] But it's true,
you had [snorts] small mammals and then
you know, skipping a lot to get to um
you know, something
to [clears throat] get to We're we're
going through all of biological
anthropology or old world monkeys and
then apes. And then we're we're getting
to the lineage where the the last common
ancestor between humans and chimps sort
of branches off and we're going up the
up the hominid branch. And so I I I
actually do like how that was described.
It's so fast and so succinct, but we're
talking about something
we're talking about australopithecines
that are beginning to walk upright, but
they still can maneuver in the trees. So
the these are the morphologies, these
are morphological
I should say anatomical characteristics
that um
that that clue us in to hominid
evolution and how these organisms
certainly were not chimps and were not
humans. They have these intermediary
characteristics where they're bipedal,
but they have their yeah, their arms and
things are very clearly for moving
around in the trees. And so this is all
happening in Africa and the impetus for
this is that um
um yeah, hominids or hominids were
moving around in trees, but then there
there's sort of a climatic shift and and
the biome shifted towards savanna where
you have [snorts] these long sort of
empty stretches in between
tree-filled regions. So they've got
these canopy and there there's a high
premium on being able to climb around in
trees and get around in trees, but they
also have to be able to traverse these
large open sections of savanna where
they are very vulnerable to predators.
So you've got all kinds of different you
know, large cats and
and things like that that can very
easily kill australopithecines. So there
becomes a high premium
also on being able to run really fast.
And so bipedality evolved out of
necessity to be able to traverse safely
the these savanna regions,
but they still needed to be able to
climb around trees. And then as
evolution continued,
it became less tree-centric.
Um
And now we are getting to
the genus Homo. I don't remember I don't
think there are Australopithecines that
were using stone tools. That may or may
not be correct, but I know obviously
that
multiple Homo species
were using tools. So tools tool use
predates Homo sapiens. That absolutely
is known.
And so here we go. Let's now now we're
firmly we're getting into early human
prehistory. We're transitioning from
biological anthropology into
archaeology. We're going to start
getting to the earliest civilizations.
>> Ouch and set things on fire. Youch and
make crazy sounds with their voice
which can mean different things.
>> That's a human [music] person.
>> And now they're everywhere. Almost.
>> Ice age.
>> What? You can walk over here? Cool.
>> Not anymore. [music]
>> Well, I guess we're stuck here now.
Let's review. There's people on the
planet.
And they're chasing their food. [\h__\h] it.
Time to plant some grass. Look at this.
I control the food now. Now everyone
will want to be my friend and live near
me. Let's all build houses except mine
is bigger because I own the food. This
is
>> [laughter]
>> So
>> [snorts]
>> Okay, so we've gotten all the way up to
agriculture. So we've got to to early
civilization. So so early Holocene we're
talking about just past the most recent
ice age.
And so that that
right after the Younger Dryas you have
this global climatic shift. Prior to
that the climate was too unstable to to
very reliably farm anything. But
globally we see agriculture emerge
in the early Holocene all over the world
because of this global climatic shift
and then also because
this information can be shared. People
can migrate merchants merchants can
can bring seeds and stuff. So so So,
have this emergence of agriculture,
uh
and uh that's happening and uh this this
begins to pave the way for large-scale
civilization. Uh and when you have uh
less of a hunter-gatherer focused uh
society, you have uh very localized
civilization. That's when you begin to
see social hierarchy evolve. You begin
to see the emergence of the concept of
the possession of property uh along that
uh marriage, things like that. Um and uh
so, this is a
This is an enormous shift in the way
humans behaved when we start to see
these early civilizations. So, we're
going to start talking about Sumer,
Babylon, uh that kind of stuff.
>> This is great. I wonder if anyone else
is doing this. Tired of using rocks for
everything? Use metal. It's underground.
Better farming was just invented in a
sweet dank valley [music] right in
between these two rivers, and the
animals are helping.
>> Guess what happens next?
>> More food and more people who came to
buy [music] the food. And you need
people to help make the food and keep
track of the sales. And now you need
houses for people to live in and people
to make the houses. And now there's more
people and they invent things, [music]
which makes things better, and more
people come, and there's more farming,
and more people to make more things for
more people. And now there's business,
money, writing, laws, power.
>> Society.
>> It's I mean, it's like it's so funny and
overly reductive, but strangely
accurate, right? It This is what it is,
right? You You have agriculture, you
have the ability to grow much larger
amounts of food that can sustain more
people. So, the people are going to go
to where the food is, and then they need
to be housed, and then the
very complicated social dynamics arise.
So, there has to be uh there has to be
the development of laws if all of these
people are going to live in this small
space, which has never happened before
in human history. We have to have rules
such that we can all coexist in this
space, have access to the the things
like that.
It's it's remarkably complicated, but
then when you zoom out and get really
just
it is that simple, right? Everything is
simple and then you learn more about it
and it gets very, very, very complicated
and then you zoom out even further and
it's kind of simple again. That's the
bizarre thing about in particular human
history. Um but uh it's incredible. So,
yes, we're at we're we're basically
we're at Sumer here, I believe is what
what's being depicted.
>> [snorts]
>> Coming soon to a dank river valley near
you. Meanwhile, out in the middle of
nowhere, the horse is probably being
tamed. Why is all my metal so lame and
lumpy? Tired of using lame, sad metal?
Introducing made with special ingredient
tin from the far lands of Tinland. I
don't know, my dealer won't tell me
where he gets it. Also, guess what?
>> [music]
>> Meanwhile, out in the middle of nowhere,
they figured out how to put wheels on a
horse. Now we're getting somewhere.
And did I mention
>> [music]
>> I love [laughter] it. Like entire
civilizations are just Egypt.
But we're going so fast, right? At each
second is a thousand years. So, that's
where that's how fast we're going. I
mean, not a thousand, but I mean it's
it's really, really moving. Okay,
society count. Let's check it out.
>> The Middle East is getting more
complicated. Maybe because it's in the
middle of the East. Knock knock or clap
clap, it's the people with the horses
and they made an empire and then
everyone else copied their horses.
Oh, look, it must be the Greeks or a
beta version of the Greeks. Let's check
in with the Indus River Valley
civilization. They're gone.
>> Beta version. So, you have like Minoan
and Mycenaean civilizations, which are
Greek, but they predate classical Greece
by a good amount, a thousand or two
thousand years or something. Um and uh
yeah, so that's
uneventful I mean, there's a lot going
on, but not compared to the classical
Greece that that we're familiar with.
And then pivot to Indus Valley really
quickly.
>> They're gone. Guess who's not gone?
New arrivals [music and singing] in
India. Maybe it's those horse people I
was talking about or their cousins
[music] or something.
And they wrote some hymns and mantras
and stuff.
>> You could make a religion out of this.
There's the Bronze Age collapse.
>> Now the Phoenicians can get down to
business.
>> Also, can we switch to a metal that's a
little easier to find? Thanks. Look who
came back to Israel. It's the 12 tribes
of Israel.
>> And they believe [music] in God.
[singing]
>> Just one though. He's got like a 10-step
program. Here's some huge heads. Must
>> It's great. I mean, they just you you're
going from Bronze Age to Iron Age just
by saying iron. And [laughter]
and then the the the uh right now we
have monotheism monotheism is a thing.
Uh okay, now let's check out so the
Olmecs are the earliest uh civilization
in this region.
>> It's the Olmecs. The Phoenicians make
some colonies. The Greeks copy their
idea and make some colonies. The
Phoenicians made a colony so big it
makes colonies. Here comes the Assyrian
Empire. Never mind, it's the Babylonian
Median.
>> It's the Persian Empire.
>> Wow, that's big.
Uh the Buddha was just enlightened.
Who's the Buddha? This guy who sat under
a tree for so long that he figured out
how to ignore the fact that we're all
dying. You can make a religion out of
[music] this.
Oops, China just broke but while it was
breaking Confucius was figuring out how
to have good morals.
Uh the Greeks just had the idea of
thinking about stuff. And right over
here Alexander just had the idea of
conquering the entire Persian Empire.
It's a great
>> We just we did classical Greece in about
a half a second and it was summarized as
the idea of thinking about stuff. It's
just beautiful. It's just perfect. If
you're going to summarize classical
Greece in half a second, that is what
you would say. Um just the the the
headiness of that civilization and that
it was sort of the backbone of of
Western thought for a couple thousand
right Aristotelian logic was the the
paradigm of logic until the Phrygian
revolution like a hundred years ago or
something right as something like that.
Um
that's that's how much of a how much of
a mark classical Greece made on Western
civilization.
Um what was the other thing I was going
to say? I can't remember. It's just
going way too fast.
Alexander the Great, so now we are in
Hellenistic Greece. Um and now it's just
go like
this is kind of the interesting thing
about and this is something that I
noticed when I was doing doing the
uh the antiquity portion of of my world
history content is it when you kind of
zoom out it's just they they conquered
this, they conquered that, they
conquered this, they conquered that. And
it's it's kind of ridiculous like when
you zoom way out and play it on fast
forward you miss all the nuance of all
the different cultures and everything,
but it is just kind of like my land, my
land, my land, my land and human history
was [\h__\h] like that until like a
hundred years ago. And honestly and it's
not over, right? We're still seeing that
in the Middle East. We're still seeing
that type of colonialism at being acted
out in the [\h__\h] 21st century, which
has been bananas, but in that era it was
par for the course. That's just what
everything was is just is just taking
over everything that you can and then
it's someone else's turn when you run
out of steam.
Um
so Alexander the Great obviously did
that a lot. I mean more than more than
almost anybody. I guess maybe Genghis
Khan
but Alexander the Great conquered a very
very impressive
uh kingdom there for for Hellenistic
Greece.
>> It's a great idea. He was great and now
he's dead. Hopefully the rest of the
gang will be able to share the empire
evenly between them. Knock knock it's
Chandra Gupta. He says get the hell out
of here. Will you get the hell out of
here if I give you 500 elephants? Okay,
thanks. Bye.
>> Time [singing] to conquer [music] all of
India
or most of India.
>> [singing]
>> But what about this part? That's the
Tamil Kings. No one conquers the Tamil
Kings. Who are the Tamil Kings?
>> Merchants probably. [music]
>> And they've got spices. Who would like
to buy the spices? Me, said the Arabians
swiftly buying it and selling it to the
rest of the world. Hey, China put itself
back together again with good morals as
their main philosophy. Actually, they
have three main philosophies.
Out here, the horse nomads run wild and
free, and they would like to ransack
your city.
Let's check the Greekification levels of
the Greekified kingdoms. Greekification
overload. Bye, said the Parthians. Bye,
said the Jews. Hi, said the Parthians
taking over the entire place. Hey, said
the Romans eating the entire
Mediterranean for breakfast. Thanks for
invading our homeland, said the Jews who
were starting to get tired of people
invading their homeland. Hi,
everything's great, said some guy who
seems to be getting very popular and is
then arrested and killed for being too
popular, which only makes him more
popular. You can make a religion out of
this. Want silk? Now you can buy it from
China. They just
>> I love you can make a religion out of
this is just the catchphrase every time
he summarizes the development of a new
religion in about a second. It's pretty
great. Um [snorts] okay, Silk Road.
>> They just made a
Or you can get their own water. Sick new
trade route, said India, accidentally
spreading their religion to the entire
Southeast. That's a good place for an
epic trading [music] kingdom. There goes
Buddhism traveling up the Silk Road. I
wonder if it'll reach China before it
collapses again. Remember the Persian
Empire? Yep, said the Persians making a
new one. Axum is getting so powerful
they would like to build a long stick.
Has anyone populated Madagascar yet?
Let's do it together.
>> [music]
>> Still can't cross the Sahara Desert? Try
camels.
said the Ghana Empire selling lots of
gold and slaves. Hi, I live in the Roman
Empire and I was wondering
>> [music and singing]
>> No.
Actually, okay, sure, said Constantine
moving the capital way over here to be
closer to his main rival. [music]
Don't worry about Rome, it won't fall.
>> It's just like my god, like the summary
is just such breakneck speed.
Um right, the persecution of Christians
and then the adoption of Christianity as
the official language for the Roman
Empire, and then the splintering into
Western and Eastern
right, so moving over to to
Constantinople.
Um
uh and having the Byzantine Empire and
and it's just like it's just going so
freaking fast. It's so hard to keep up.
>> [music]
>> There's the Gupta Empire, not Chandra
Gupta, just Gupta. First name Chandra
the first.
Guess who's in Rome?
>> Barbarians. [music]
>> It's a barbarian. Non-Romans, said the
Romans being invaded by non-Romans. RIP
Roman Empire.
>> That's a great like this is one a thing
I like to talk about right just this the
politicization of
so so the non-Romans are barbarians.
Right, kind of like Native Americans are
savages and
this the language of the colonizer. So
it's like in the West we have this
favorable view of the Roman Empire and
and so you know it's you can do the
Monty Python thing. What have the Romans
ever done for us? Oh, you know, roads
and the aqueduct and the and yes, that's
a byproduct of um
of of an empire is that is is
urbanization and there's useful results
there, but it's also just the massacring
of various indigenous peoples
and the political justification of it
right they're barbarians. The Gauls are
barbarians, so we should
you know, take their land you know, it
belongs to us where the where you know,
we're Rome. We should get to rule the
entire world.
And that that mentality is
a lot even well today know that we
will ever see a time where
human beings aren't like that, but it's
not here yet.
>> Actually just half of it. The other half
is just fine, but it's not in Rome
anymore, so let's give it a new name.
The Mayans have figured [music]
out the stars.
Oh, and here's a huge city population
everyone. The Gokturks have taken over
the entire Eurasian step. Great job
Gokturks. How's India? Broken. How's
China?
>> [music]
>> How's those trading kingdoms? Bigger and
[singing] there's more of them. Korea
has three kingdoms. Japan has a kingdom,
it's the sunrise kingdom.
>> [music]
>> Deep in the Arabian desert on the top of
a mountain, the real god whispers in
Muhammad's ear. So, he goes down to the
cube where everyone worships gods and he
tells them their gods are all fake. And
everyone got so mad at him and he had to
leave town and go to a different town.
You can make a religion out of this and
maybe conquer the world as well. The
Roman Empire's long gone, but somehow
the Pope is still the Pope. Plus,
there's
>> [music]
>> I wonder if there's room for more.
Here's all the wisdom in a house. It's
the Baghdad House of Wisdom. Just in
time for the Islamic
>> [music]
>> Let's bring stuff to the coast and sell
it and become the Swahili on the Swahili
coast, said the Swahili on the Swahili
coast. Remember this tiny space you have
to go through to get from here to there?
Someone owns that now. Want to get
enlightened in the middle of nowhere?
[music] The Franks have the biggest
kingdom in Europe and the Pope is so
proud that he invites the king over for
Christmas. Surprise, you're the new
Roman Emperor, said the Pope pretending
to still be part of the Roman Empire.
Then the Franks broke their kingdom and
>> Like the definitely not the Roman
Empire. It this is starting to get very,
very difficult to comment on because
it's just so rapid. It's literally like
a tenth of a second
per kingdom, right? They're just like
here's there are some kingdoms and it's
and it's all accurate and it's actually
very thorough, right? It really is
covering almost everything just a tenth
of a second each, right? Each of those
things could be a 20-minute, a
30-minute, an hour-long video uh history
video um detailing the development of
that particular empire and its relations
with its neighbors and everything. Um
and he's doing it literally in a tenth
of a second, which is the point of the
video. Um it's just it's like it's it's
I mean, it's beautiful,
>> [laughter]
>> but it's crazy to watch.
>> [snorts]
>> kingdom into what will later be called
France and not France. The northerners,
or just Norse if you don't have much
time, are exploring. They go north from
the north to the northern north and they
find some land, two types of land, and
they name them accordingly.
They also invade some other places and
get called many names such as Vikings.
There's the Rus, the Kievan Rus. Are
they Vikings? I think so, said the
Kievan Rus'. Okay, fair enough. The Pope
is ready to make some more emperors of
the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire.
It's actually Germany, but don't worry
about it. New kingdoms.
>> Christianize all the kingdoms.
>> Which brand would you like? Mine's
better. Mine's better. Mine's better.
Time to conquer England, said William.
It's a bird, it's a plane.
>> So many wars, so much strife, and it's
>> [laughter]
>> it's abbreviated as mine's better,
mine's better, mine's better, mine's
better, which is accurate. It's pretty
great.
>> It's [snorts] a plane. It's the Seljuk
Turks. Said the Byzantine Empire, who's
getting so small it almost doesn't exist
anymore. We need help. They need help,
so they call the Pope. Hey Pope, can you
help us get rid of the Seljuks? Maybe
take back the Holy Land on the way. Come
on, I know you want to take back the
Holy Land. Yes, I do actually want to do
that. Let's do a crusade.
>> Crusade.
>> They did many crusades, some of which
almost didn't fail, but at least the
Italians got some sweet trade deals.
Goodbye, Mayans.
>> Hello, [music] Toltecs.
>> Goodbye, Toltecs.
>> Hello, Mississippi. [singing]
>> Look at those mounds. There's the
Pueblo. I always wondered how to build a
town in a cliff. Guess who's here. Come
here. Where? Here. And Pagan is there.
Vietnam unconquered itself. Korea just
[music] became itself. And Japan is so
addicted to art that the military might
have to take over the government. China
just invented bombs and typing. And the
Mongols just invaded most of the
universe. Nice going, Genghis. I bet
that will last a long time. Some of the
Islamic Turks were unaffected by the
Mongol invasions because they were busy
invading India.
Is it Tonga time? I think it's Tonga
time.
I just found out where the Swahili gets
all their gold. Look at this Chad. Means
lake. There's an empire there, right in
the middle of
>> Africa.
>> The king of Mali is so rich he's going
on tour to let everyone know. Wow, that
guy's rich, everyone said. The
Christians are doing a great job
reconquering Iberia, which will soon be
called Spain and not Spain. Please
remain Christian. We will check in later
to see if you're still Christian when
you least expect. Whoops, half of Europe
just died.
China's back, yay. Hey, come here. Time
to share. New kingdoms here and there.
Oh, look who controls all the islands.
It's the Majapahit. Majapahit.
Mapajahit. Mahapajit. Mapajahit.
Majapahit.
Oh, Italy's really rich. Time for them
to care a lot about art and the ancient
classics. It's kind of like a rebirth.
Here's a printer, let's make books. So,
you think you can conquer the Byzantine
Empire? Yep, said the Ottoman Turks.
Nice job, Ottoman Turks. Oops, you
missed a spot. Don't forget to ban
Europe from the Indian spice trade.
What?
>> It's crazy. It's just so fat. And it
just it he puts in the date, right? 14,
whatever it was, when the Ottomans
conquered uh Constantinople. Um it like
it's just like, "Holy [\h__\h] where are
we?" Like we did the Renaissance in a
second. Um what's really interesting
about this, too, though, like obviously
it hits all of the world history that we
know, but there's so much like Tonga
time. What the [\h__\h] is Tonga time? I I
know what Tonga is, but I don't know
anything about like Tonga doing whatever
it did in the South Pacific. I mean,
it's like
to the point where I'm planning out uh
the the uh world history content post
Middle Ages, and it's like I could look
at this to just make a list of what I
need to cover. It gives me zero
information, but I know there whatever
Bill Wurtz references is a thing that
happened in world history and should
[snorts] be covered, right? I mean, it's
like I it's going to be daunting to move
on after the Middle Ages, um but uh it's
just like
holy crap, there's so much happened in
world history. And to see it condensed
like this is crazy. I'm going to have
probably not as much to say for the next
[snorts] couple of minutes. Um
let's let's let's see. Let's see where
we get.
>> What? That's [\h__\h] said Portugal.
Spiceless.
>> Well, I guess we'll have [music] to find
another [singing] way to India.
>> Wait, said Christopher Columbus,
probably smoking crack. If the world is
round, let's go this way to India. No,
don't worry, we already got this, said
Portugal. So, Chris goes to Spain. Hey
Spain, want to hire me to find India by
going around back of the world? No.
Please? No. Please? No. Please? Okay.
So, he sails into the ocean and
discovers more ocean, and then discovers
the Indies and Japan. Let's draw a line
to decide who gets which half of the
world. The Aztec and Inca empires are
off to a great start. I wonder if they
know that Europe just discovered their
continent. The Habsburgs are marrying
into so many royal families they might
have to start marrying each other. Move
over Lithuania, here comes Moscow. Ivan
wants to make Russia great again. Move
over Timurids, maybe go invade India or
something. Persia just made Persia
Persian again. Let's make it the other
kind of Islam, the one where we thought
the first guy should have been the other
guy. Hey Christians, do you sin? Now you
can buy your way out of hell. That's
[\h__\h] This whole thing is [\h__\h]
That's a scam. [\h__\h] the church. Here's
95 reasons why, said Martin Luther in
his new book which might have
accidentally started the Protestant
Reformation. You know what would be
magnificent, said Suleiman wearing an
onion hat? What if the Ottoman Empire
was really big, which it is now? What if
Russia was big, said Ivan trying not to
be terrible. Portugal had a dream that
they controlled the entire [music]
Indian Ocean including the spice trade.
And then that dream was real. And Spain
realized that this is not India, but
they pillaged it anyway. Damn, said
England and France. We got to start
pillaging some stuff. Then the Dutch
revolt and all the hipsters move to
Amsterdam. Damn, said Amsterdam.
We got to start pillaging some stuff.
Question one, can you get to India
[music] through North America? No, but
at least there's beaver. Question two,
steal the spice trade. That's not a
question, but the Dutch did it anyway.
>> [music]
>> Guess where all the sugar's made? In
Brazil. Stolen in the Caribbean. And
it's so goddamn profitable you might
forget to not do slavery. [music] The
next thing on Russia's to do list is to
get bigger. Britain and France are
having a friendly discussion about who
should control the entire world, more
specifically Ohio. Then it escalates
into a seven-year discussion giving
Prussia a chance to show Austria who's
boss. But what about Britain and France?
Did they figure out who's boss? Yes,
they did. It's Britain. Guess who's
broke? Also Britain. So they start
taxing the hell out of America. [\h__\h]
you, says America declaring their
independence and fighting for it. And
France
>> [\h__\h] you, says America. It's a very apt
description here.
I like that it's
uh Western Imperialism almost looks
adorable when described this way. Right,
it's so I mean it's the correct way to
condense this and do it really quickly
and it's almost just like, "Hey, they're
pillaging. They're pillaging. They're
pillaging." It's exactly what happened.
Um but it's like quaint when described
this way almost.
>> This helps them win. Now France is broke
and Britain will have to send their
prisoners to a different continent.
>> Wait, if France is broke, why do the
king and queen still wear such fancy
dresses?
>> Let's overthrow the palace and cut all
their heads off, said Robespierre
cutting everybody's head off until
someone eventually got mad and cut his
head off. You could make a real hit. No,
don't.
>> Haiti is starting to like the idea of a
revolution, especially the slaves who
free themselves by killing their
masters. Why didn't we think of this
before? Wait, who's in charge of France
now?
>> [music]
>> said Napoleon trying to take over
Europe. Luckily they banished him to an
island.
>> But he came back.
>> Luckily they banished him to another
island. There goes Latin America
becoming independent in the Latin
American Wars of Independence.
>> Britain just figured out how to turn
steam into power. So now they can make
>> many different types of machines and
[music and singing] factories with
machines in them so they can make a lot
of products real fast. [singing]
>> Then they invent some trains and conquer
India.
>> That's the Industrial Revolution, right?
Is it is like a is like a
like a jingle, like a Nabisco jingle.
That's the summary of the Industrial
Revolution.
>> Revolution.
>> Yeah, and maybe put some trains there.
>> Hey China, said Britain, buy stuff from
us.
>> Nah dude, we already got everything,
says China.
>> So Britain tried to get them addicted to
opium, which worked actually, but then
China made it illegal and dumped it all
into the sea. So Britain threw a hissy
fit and made them open up five cities
and give them an island. Britain and
Russia are playing a game where they try
to stop each other from conquering
Afghanistan.
>> Also, the Sultan of [music and singing]
Oman lives in Zanzibar now.
>> That's just where he lives. India just
had a revolution and they would like to
govern themselves now. Nope, said
Britain governing them even harder than
before.
>> [music]
>> Technology is about to go crazy.
>> The United States finally figured out
whether slavery is good or bad. It's
bad, they decided. And then they
continued manifesting their destiny,
which [music] is to kill the rest of the
natives and take their land and maybe
kick out the Mexicans, too.
>> I know, let's rape Africa, said Europe
scrambling to see who could rape it the
fastest.
>> They never got Ethiopia.
>> Britain and France are still hungry.
>> They never got Thailand.
>> [music]
>> The United States ran out of destiny to
manifest, so they're looking for more.
>> Like Cuba. [singing]
>> Wait, Spain controls Cuba. We'll blame
something on them and go to war. What
should we blame on Spain? Let's blame
the Maine on Spain. So, they blamed the
Maine on Spain. Now we're in business.
To celebrate, they kick Panama out of
Panama and make a canal connecting the
two oceans. Britain just found oil in
the Middle East.
>> [music]
>> China is so tired of being bossed around
that they delete their old government
and make a new stronger government,
which is accidentally weaker and
controlled by a guy from the previous
government. Europe hasn't had a war
since the last war, so they start World
War I. Look at those guns. It's going to
be a great war. So great, we won't need
a second one. After it's over, they
blame Germany. Russia went on strike and
the workers overthrew the government.
Now everyone's paycheck is the same.
>> [music]
[singing]
>> The Arabs revolt and Britain helps. Now
the Ottoman Empire is gone, so we can
give the Jewish people a place [music]
to live.
Hopefully the Arabs won't mind. Let's
cut the cake, said Sykes and Picot,
carving up the remains of the
not-so-Ottoman-anymore empire.
>> [music and singing]
>> And then the Saudis conquer Arabia. It
just seemed like the right thing to do.
Hello? Yes, it's the 1920s. Money's
calling. Let's get in the car and drive
to a party and listen to jazz on the
radio and go to the movies. The
economy's great and it'll probably be
great forever. Just kidding. Germany's
back featuring Hitler, the angry
mustache model, and he's mad at the Jews
for existing. Japan is finally
conquering the East and they're so
excited they raped Nanjing way too hard.
They should probably just deny it.
Hitler's out of control, so the
international community tackles him and
tries to explain why killing all the
Jews is a bad idea, but he kills himself
before they could explain it to him.
>> [music]
>> Bonus round, Pacific Showdown. United
States versus Japan. Fight.
Finish him.
Let's unite all the nations and have
some
>> Extinction ball.
>> [laughter]
>> That's
That's Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs is
extinction ball.
As though this is
Street Fighter II. It's just like
The man is a genius. It's just perfect.
>> [laughter]
>> Then have some world peace. [music]
Seems legit. Hi, I'm Gandhi and if
Britain doesn't get the hell out of
India, I'm going to starve myself in
public.
Wow, that worked. Bonus, now there's
Pakistan. Actually, two Pakistans. One
of them can be Bangladesh later. The
Jews and the Arabs finally figured out
which one of them should live in the
Holy Land. Me, they both said at the
same time. Let's divide up the land so
everyone's happy.
>> Psych, they both get [music] angrier.
>> Look out China, there's a new China in
China.
>> Uh
okay, well, we don't need to That's
fine.
Uh
That's not quite uh that's not quite
what happened, but that's fine.
>> I know. What's on the menu? Communism.
No, thanks, said the other China
escaping to an island. I wonder which
one is the real China. There's the
Korean War, Korea versus Korea. Nobody
wins, then it's on pause forever. Let's
meet the sponsors. Oh, it's the two
global superpowers. They're having a
friendly debate over which economic
system is good and which one is an evil
virus of Satan.
And they both have atom bombs. Fight.
Wait, no, that would be the end of the
world. Let's just keep it cool and spy
on each other instead.
And make sure we have enough atom bombs.
I'll race you to space.
Now, let's make some more countries
fight themselves. Europe is tired of
pillaging other continents, and the
continents they were pillaging are tired
of being pillaged. So, here's a new map
with new countries. Now, you can't tell
who they're being pillaged by. The
United States finally decided whether
racism is good or bad. They decided it's
bad, and the world agrees. South Africa
might need another minute to think about
it. Let's check the world population.
Whoa.
Okay.
Technology's better, too. That might
keep happening. The Soviet Union decides
to relax a little and accidentally falls
apart. Europe makes a union, so now they
can all use the same money, except
Britain because they don't feel like it.
Let's check the mail. Surprise, it's on
the computer. Whoops, someone just
attacked America. I bet they'll remember
that. Phone call, surprise, it's in your
pocket. Want to learn everything? It's
on the computer. Now, your phone's a
computer, which is in your pocket.
Whoops, the economy just crashed. Don't
worry, the big banks won't fail because
they're not supposed to. Surprise,
flying robots
with bombs. Want to print a brain?
[music] Some people have no friends.
Some people have no food. The globe is
warming
>> and the [singing] ocean is full of
plastic.
>> Let's save the planet, said everybody
not knowing how. Let's invent a thing
inventor, said the thing inventor
inventor after being invented by a thing
inventor. That's pretty cool. By the
way, where the hell are we?
>> [music]
[gasps]
>> And that's it, right? We got the 2008
crash, and then what was it?
Uh drones, and then the ocean's full of
plastic and nobody can figure out
climate change, and then the thing
inventor thing inventor.
That's the end, and where the hell are
we? Um
it's [\h__\h] beautiful. It's so good.
It's better than I remember. I think
that
what's really interesting about this
video is that you number one, you can
learn a lot, but when you don't know
what's going on, it can be confusing.
And so I haven't watched that in
probably 5 years at least. Um and since
that time
I've definitely learned a little bit
more. I mean, I I already knew kind of
the cosmology and planetary science that
I know now. I know a little bit more
about um
evolutionary biology and molecular
biology. Uh I I know quite a bit more
about uh paleontology,
uh archaeology or biological
anthropology, archaeology, and early
world history. So uh a good amount of
that
got funnier because I understood what he
was referencing. Once he hit kind of the
Middle Ages and just past the Middle
Ages, I started to not understand the
references. So So like there's just so
many obscure references in there that I
Once you get lost, it's still
entertaining, but I think it's more
entertaining when you know every single
reference. Um and it's just kind of
coming at you at breakneck speed. So
so much there. I mean, I I I don't know
how long it took him to make that, but
it must have been an unbelievable amount
of time because it's just so It's not so
many people could have that idea
to do like, "Hey, let's do it all really
quick." but then not have the discipline
to really go through and do the research
and like
get all the right factoids and and and
communicate them properly for the most
part. And um
just have it all make sense. Right? It's
It's It's very accurate and it's very
succinct and poetic in the way that it's
expressed and uh and it kind of makes
you want to learn more. Right? All of
these little tidbits you're like, "Well,
what the hell was that even? What even
was that? Now I got to look up Tonga
time or whatever the [\h__\h] that was." or
you know, these other these are you
know, Madagascar when the two things
What Who Who colonized Madagascar at the
same time? I don't know. I've never I
don't remember that. I've never learned
about that. Um
so man, it that's just like that's like
a hall of fame video right there. That's
a hall of fame video for both comedy and
science communication \{slash\} history
communication. Um if you had not seen it
until this
uh obviously go watch it without me
interrupting. Uh if you had seen it,
hopefully you enjoyed some of the
additional context that I could provide
because
really every single second of that video
can be turned into a 20-minute video
talking about early cosmology or uh you
know, or astrophysics and and solar
system formation or or abiogenesis or
you know, uh endosymbiosis or or or or
you know, paleontology, you know,
tetrapod evolution. It's just every
single little chunk. And you know,
fortunately I do have tutorials on most
of those topics. So if anything piqued
your interest, uh you know, look around
my channel. I almost certainly have it.
Um
>> [clears throat]
>> but it's uh that's just
the He's a unique comedic mind.
Um
I have no idea what he's been doing. I I
should probably look I I don't even know
if he's still making content, but uh he
got 183 million views on that. He
deserves every single one of those
views. Phenomenal video. So, that was
fun. Uh I hadn't seen that once again in
a while and I I had a I had a lot of fun
watching that. I hope you had fun
watching that with me. And uh so, yeah.
Thanks for joining me for this one as
always. I'll see you next time.