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."

how to remember everything you read

MY CRYPTO WAS STOLEN | Why Celsius REALLY Collapsed

View All

Breaking apart 3-digit addition problems | 2nd grade | Khan Academy

Mike isn’t sure how to add 189 + 608, help Mike by choosing an addition problem that is the same as 189 + 608. Now let’s look at these choices. Let’s just start with this first choice. Actually, all of these choices start with having 1 hundred; they all…

Yoda's Wisdom for Inner Peace (Star Wars Philosophy, Stoicism & Buddhism)

Master Yoda is one of the main characters of the Star Wars movies. He has a leading role in educating the audience about Jedi philosophy, which has quite some similarities with Buddhism and Stoicism. During the original trilogy in which he trains Luke Sky…

A Reckoning in Tulsa | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic

[Music] So I want you to close your eyes and imagine it’s a sunny morning in early May 1921. You’re in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the bustling all-black Greenwood section of town. A dapper mustachioed man pulls up in front of the Stratford Hotel in a shiny Model…

Word problem subtracting fractions with like denominators

After a rainstorm, Lily measures the depth of several puddles in her backyard. She records her results in a table. So, here are three different puddles, and she measures the depth in inches. Then we’re asked: how much deeper was the puddle under the swin…

How Warren Buffett is Investing in 2023

We just got a rare update on how Warren Buffett is investing now in the year 2023. Buffett is universally regarded as the greatest investor ever, and thankfully for us, a few times each year Buffett is required to submit what is called a Form 13F. This do…

Worked example: Parametric arc length | AP Calculus BC | Khan Academy

Let’s say that X is a function of the parameter T, and it’s equal to cosine of T, and Y is also defined as a function of T, and it’s equal to sine of T. We want to find the arc length of the curve traced out, so the length of the curve from T equals 0 to …

The Power of Transportation | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

More Articles