The Power of Transportation | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

[music playing] [motor revving]

JASON SILVA: What does it take to power a global civilization to connect billions of people across continents? It takes the power of transportation. From the beginning, speed and strength were paramount in the hunt, on the battlefield, for holding together far-flung empires. We sought new forms of power, harnessing the forces of nature to drive us forward—the horse, the wheel, steam power, jet engine. Every new innovation powered our next great leap.

Transportation has become our exoskeleton allowing us to transcend our biology. [music playing] Faster than sound, farther than the moon, our inventions give us a level of power we never imagined. With our machines we carved through solid rock, tunneled beneath the sea floor, connecting the world, mixing distant cultures. Freedom of movement has given us freedom of mind.

The flow of people and materials exposes us to new ideas and new understanding. This is the story of how transportation turned society inside out, how engines and animals powered the rise of civilization, and how the innovations that drive humanity forward made us modern. This is "Origins."

Ray Dalio: Are We Facing A Stock Market Bubble in 2024?

Zeros of polynomials: plotting zeros | Polynomial graphs | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy

View All

Alfred Lin with Justin Kan

Next up, I’m pleased to introduce Alfred Lynn, who’s a partner at Sequoia Capital, one of the top investors in Silicon Valley and the world. He serves as a director on a bunch of awesome Silicon Valley companies like Airbnb and Houzz. Before that, he was …

Phil Libin at Startup School 2013

Wow, good morning! Uh, I think this is literally the largest number of people I’ve ever spoken to. Pretty sure it is. Uh, very cool, very impressive. Thank you for coming. Um and to everyone, uh I’m super excited to talk to you. You know, Paul asked me t…

Are You Lightest In The Morning?

[Applause] So recently a friend of mine says to me, “Derek, you know you’re heaviest at night before you go to bed and lightest in the morning when you wake up.” Okay, but that doesn’t really seem to make sense. “Of course it does. Overnight, you’re not…

The Last Days of the Romanovs | National Geographic

I think it’s a big tragedy, big tragedy for the country and for the world. For 300 years, the Romanovs ruled Russia as czars—loved, feared, revered, respected. But all too often, those who fly highest fall furthest. World War One brought Russia to revolut…

Presidential precedents of George Washington | US government and civics | Khan Academy

Hi, this is S, and I’m here with Jeffrey Rosen, who’s the head of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In the first video, we did an overview of Article Two of the Constitution, which covers the powers of the presidency. Now we’re going to ju…

What is Time?

Time is something that everyone is familiar with: 60 seconds is one minute, 60 minutes is one hour, 24 hours is one day, and so on. This is known as Linear Time and is something that everyone is familiar with and agrees upon. But consider this: if someone…

The Power of Transportation | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

More Articles