Big History, Chaos Theory, and the Solar-Induced Aurora Illustrating the Entangled Phases of Human Development with Cosmic Plasma at the Geospace Interface

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Published: Sep 28, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v7i4.7404

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Edward R. Slack, Jr.
Eastern Washington University
Robert M. Schoch
Boston University
Catherine Ulissey
Wellesley College

Abstract

This research explores humanity’s cognitive evolution within the framework of Big History, identifying three primary mechanisms—natural selection, symbolic language, and collective learning—as key to our species’ unique development. The study argues that external symbolic storage, first seen in the Upper Paleolithic era, revolutionized Homo sapiens’ ability to transmit knowledge across generations, with evidence of such systems found as early as 130,000 years ago. The paper contends that extreme space weather events, including auroral activity, played a significant role in triggering bursts of mental complexity, particularly during three prehistoric junctures: 130,000–100,000 ybp, 40,000–39,000 ybp, and 25,000–11,700 ybp. These epochs are linked to key milestones in material culture, such as rock art and symbolic artifacts. By analyzing the alignment between space weather episodes and shifts in hominid behavior, the study offers new perspectives on the cognitive milestones that laid the groundwork for complex social organization, symbolic expression, and the eventual rise of civilization. The findings suggest that symbolic and visual systems, predating written language, were influenced by both environmental and cosmic factors, providing a foundation for the continued evolution of human cognition.

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Issue
Vol. 7 No. 4 (2024): Journal of Big History Vol 7 No 4 2024
Section
Articles
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Author Biographies

Edward R. Slack, Jr., Eastern Washington University

Edward R. Slack, Jr. is Professor of History at Eastern Washington University who earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Hawai’i in 1997. His first book, Opium, State, and Society: China’s Narco-Economy and the Guomindang, 1916-1937 (2001), investigated the complex web of relations between drugs and politics during a chaotic period of Chinese history. Since 2008, Edward Slack has become widely recognized as a pioneer in studies that focus on Asian cultural influence in colonial Mexico, and the “first Chinatown of the modern era” in Spanish Manila. He has been invited to speak about his research at Brown University, the University of Minnesota, Cornell University, and the University of Guadalajara. His recent publications also include “The Chinos in New Spain: A Corrective Lens for a Distorted Image” in Journal of World History 20.1 (March 2009), “Sinifying New Spain: Cathay’s Influence on Colonial Mexico via the Nao de China” in Journal of Chinese Overseas 5.1 (May 2009), and “Orientalizing New Spain: Perspectives on Asian Influence in Colonial Mexico” in México y la Cuenca del Pacífico 15.43 (January - April 2012). He coauthored the book Navigating the Spanish Lake: The Pacific in the Iberian World, 1521-1898, published in 2014 by the University of Hawaii Press. In his latest article, “New Perspectives on Manila’s Chinese Community at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century,” in Journal of Chinese Overseas 17.1 (Spring 2021), Slack uses previously unpublished archival documents to analyze the evolution of what is called “systemic racism” today by Spaniards in the Philippines during the age of the Manila Galleon (1571-1815). He currently has a book manuscript undergoing peer review titled Countercurrents of Cathay in the Spanish Lake: Sino-Iberian Cultural Conflict, Negotiation, and Exchange, 1571-1815, an iconoclastic revision of Chinese life under Spanish rule.

 

Robert M. Schoch, Boston University

Robert M. Schoch is the Director of the Institute for the Study of the Origins of Civilization at Boston University’s College of General Studies. Schoch received his Ph.D. in Geology and Geophysics at Yale University, 1983. Since 1990, his research has focused on the interrelationships between geological and astronomical phenomena, natural catastrophes, and the early history of civilization. Schoch is the author, coauthor, and/or editor of books both technical and popular, including Phylogeny Reconstruction in Paleontology (1986), Stratigraphy: Principles and Methods (1989), Voices of the Rocks (1999), Voyages of the Pyramid Builders (2003), Pyramid Quest (2005), Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future (2012), Origins of the Sphinx (2017), and the 2nd (revised and expanded) edition of Forgotten Civilization, subtitled New Discoveries on the Solar-Induced Dark Age (2021), among others. Dr. Schoch is also the coauthor of an environmental science textbook used in universities across the United States, and he has contributed to numerous magazines, journals, and reviews on geology, ancient civilizations, and related topics. His works have been translated into various languages and distributed around the world. In recognition of his research into ancient civilizations, Dr. Schoch was awarded (in 2014) the title of Honorary Professor of the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna, Bulgaria. Schoch has also reached audiences globally through television, radio, conferences, and Internet podcasts.

Catherine Ulissey, Wellesley College

Catherine Ulissey was born in New York City and spent her early childhood in Saudi Arabia where she was first introduced to ancient civilizations, which became a life-long interest though she pursued other vocations. Ulissey was a twenty-year professional ballet and Broadway dancer, beginning her career at the age of sixteen and performing with the Maryland Ballet, the Feld Ballet, and in a number of Broadway musicals, including the Tony-winning The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the original Broadway casts of Rags, The Red Shoes, and The Phantom of the Opera. In 2002, she graduated from Emerson College with a B.A. in Visual and Media Arts (summa cum laude) and has subsequently enjoyed a teaching career (of dance), contributing to the education of students at Harvard University’s Dance Program, American Repertory Theater, The Boston Ballet School, and Wellesley College. Ulissey met her husband, Robert Schoch, in 2007 while attending a conference devoted to the topic of ancient civilizations, and they were married in 2010. Inspired by her husband’s research, she is now proud to contribute to it. She joins Dr. Schoch as a co-author on their revised and expanded edition of Forgotten Civilization: New Discoveries on the Solar-Induced Dark Age (2021), and she is the author of their children’s book Adriana and the Ancient Mysteries: The Great Sphinx (English-language edition published in 2024, revised from the German, 2021, and Italian, 2022, editions).