Skip to main content

Big History by Mathematics: Information, Energy, and the Singularity

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The 21st Century Singularity and Global Futures

Part of the book series: World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures ((WSEGF))

Abstract

A mathematical hypothesis is developed connecting the number of current species on Earth with the age of the Earth. This is the culmination of years of effort in developing techniques to describe life cycles of general forms, e.g., species and civilizations, with a segmented function which includes a translated lognormal distribution. The sequence of the peaks of these distributions forms an overall evolutionary (cladistics) curve which can be interpreted with stochastic methods used in the financial industry (Geometric Brownian Motion or Black–Scholes equation).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bohan E (2020) Threshold 9: Big History as a roadmap for the future. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 267–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_13

  • Fomin A (2020) Hyperbolic evolution from biosphere to technosphere. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 105–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_5

  • Grinin L, Grinin A, Korotayev AV (2020) Dynamics of technological growth rate and the 21st century singularity. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 287–344. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_14

  • Grinin L, Markov A, Korotayev A (2013) On similarities between biological and social evolutionary mechanisms: mathematical modeling. Cliodynamics 4:185–228. https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio4221334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grinin L, Markov A, Korotayev A (2014) Mathematical modeling of biological and social evolutionary macrotrends. Hist Math 4:9–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Grinin L, Markov A, Korotayev A (2015) Modeling of biological and social phases of big history. Evolution 4:111–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Korotayev A (2007) Compact mathematical models of world system development, and how they can help us to clarify our understanding of globalization processes. In: Modelski G, Devezas T, Thompson W (eds) Globalization as evolutionary process: modeling global change. Routledge, London, pp 133–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Korotayev AV (2020) The 21st century Singularity in the Big History perspective. A re-analysis. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 19–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_2

  • Korotayev A, Markov A (2014) Mathematical modeling of biological and social phases of big history. In: Grinin L, Baker D, Quaedackers E, Korotayev A (eds) Teaching and researching big history: exploring a new scholarly field. Uchitel Publishing House, Volgograd, pp 188–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurzweil R (2005) The singularity is near: when humans transcend biology. Viking Penguin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Last C (2020) Global brain: foundations of a distributed singularity. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 363–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_16

  • LePoire DJ (2020) Exploring the singularity concept within Big History. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_3

  • LePoire DJ, Chandrankunnel M (2020) Energy flow trends in Big History. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 185–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_9

  • Maccone C (2010) The statistical Drake equation. Acta Astronaut 67:1366–1383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maccone C (2011) A mathematical model for evolution and SETI. Orig Life Evol Biosph (OLEB) 41:609–619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maccone C (2012) Mathematical SETI. Statistics, signal processing, space missions. Springer, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27437-4

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maccone C (2013) SETI, evolution and human history merged into a mathematical model. Int J Astrobiol 12(3):218–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maccone C (2014a) Evolution and mass extinctions as lognormal stochastic processes. Int J Astrobiol 13(4):290–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maccone C (2014b) SETI as a part of big history. Acta Astronaut 101:67–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maccone C (2015) Evo-SETI entropy identifies with molecular clock. Acta Astronaut 115:286–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malkov S (2020) About the singularity in biological and social evolution. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 517–534. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_23

  • Markov A, Korotayev A (2007) Phanerozoic marine biodiversity follows a hyperboli trend. Palaeoworld 16(4):311–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2007.01.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markov A, Korotayev A (2008) Hyperbolic growth of marine and continental biodiversity through the Phanerozoic and community evolution. Zh Obshch Biol 69(3):175–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Markov A, Anisimov V, Korotayev A (2010) Relationship between genome size and organismal complexity in the lineage leading from prokaryotes to mammals. J Paleontol 44:363–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nazaretyan A (2020) The 21st century’s “mysterious singularity” in the light of the Big History. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 345–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_15

  • Panov A (2020) Singularity of evolution and post-singular development in the Big History perspective. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 439–465. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_20

  • Solis K, LePoire DJ (2020) Big History trends in information processes. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 145–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_7

  • Torday J (2020) Evolution, the ‘mechanism’ of Big History, predicts the near Singularity. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 559–570. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_25

  • Tsirel S (2020) Big History and Singularity as metaphors, hypotheses and prediction. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 119–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_6

  • Widdowson M (2020) The 21st century Singularity: the role of perspective and perception. In: Korotayev AV, LePoire D (eds) The 21st century Singularity and global futures. A Big History perspective. Springer, Cham, pp 489–516. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_22

  • Zuckerkandl E, Pauling LB (1962) Molecular disease, evolution, and genic heterogeneity. In: Kasha M, Pullman B (eds) Horizons in biochemistry. Academic Press, New York, pp 189–225

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudio Maccone .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Maccone, C. (2020). Big History by Mathematics: Information, Energy, and the Singularity. In: Korotayev, A., LePoire, D. (eds) The 21st Century Singularity and Global Futures. World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33729-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33730-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics