This book offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of how complexity emerges, transforms, and accelerates across the entire 13.8-billion-year history of the Universe. It brings together chapters from leading researchers to explore the deep structure of complexity—from cosmic origins and planetary evolution to biological innovation, human development, civilizational dynamics, and possible future trajectories.
Notably, several chapters bridge multiple phases of Big History, providing valuable cross-disciplinary insights—such as comparisons between cosmic and terrestrial evolution and analyses of energy dissipation across physical and complex adaptive systems.
This book offers a comprehensive exploration of complexity’s manifestations and transformations across time and scale. By exploring these diverse topics, the book contributes to the broader field of Big History, deepening our understanding of complexity’s interconnected nature across the cosmos, life, and human civilization.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Complexity in Universal Evolution – A Big History Perspective. An Introduction (David LePoire).- Part I. Complexity Theory for Big History.- Chapter 2. Introduction to Complexity Theory for Big History (David LePoire).- Chapter 3. Complexity as a Unifying Framework: From the Big Bang to Human Societies (Lowell Gustafson).- Chapter 4. Complexity Pyramids and Energy Rate Density: A Quantified System Hierarchy for Big History (Martin van Duin).- Part II. Cosmic Complexity.- Chapter 5. The Evolution of Complexity in the Stelliferous Era: Observations and Patterns (Andrey Korotayev).- Chapter 6. Energy Flow and Emergence of Complexity in the Universe’s Structure (David LePoire).- Part III. Chemical and Geological Complexity.- Chapter 7. Chemical Evolution in Cosmos and Earth (Leonid Grinin).- Chapter 8. The Earth’s Pivotal Role in Big History:
From Cosmic Evolution to Life’s Emergence (David LePoire).- Chapter 9. Geological Evolution: A Bridge Between Cosmic and Earthly Development in Big History (Leonid Grinin).- Part IV. Biological Complexity.- Chapter 10. Viruses in Big History: Evolutionary Roles and Complex Systems (Anton Grinin).- Chapter 11. Biology Education through Big History’s Complex Systems Thinking (Paul Narguizian).- Chapter 12. Biological and Social Phases of Big History and Complexity Growth (Leonid Grinin).
About the Author :
David J. Lepoire has a Ph.D. in computer science from DePaul University in Chicago, USA, and a B.S. in physics from California Institute of Technology, USA. He has worked in environmental and energy areas for many governmental agencies over the past 25 years.
Andrey V. Korotayev is Director of the Center for Stability and Risks Analysis at the HSE University in Moscow, Russia. He is also Senior Research Professor at the Institute of Oriental Studies and Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as at the Faculty of Global Studies of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
Leonid E. Grinin is a Russian Sociologist, Political Anthropologist, Economist, and Scholar of historical trends and future studies. He is Senior Research Professor at the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Leading Research Fellow of the Laboratory for Destabilization Risk Monitoring of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. He is Director of the Eurasian Center for Big History & System Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Research Professor and Director of the Volgograd Center for Social Research. He is Vice-President of the International Kondratieff Fund and Member of the International Big History Association.
