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."

It Started: Home Prices Are Falling 50%

The Decline in Drug Research | Breakthrough

View All

Acid–base properties of salts | Acids and bases | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy

Salts can form acidic solutions, neutral solutions, or basic solutions when dissolved in water. For example, if we dissolve sodium chloride in water, solid sodium chloride turns into sodium cations and chloride anions in solution. At 25 degrees Celsius, t…

The Surprising Genius of Sewing Machines

Can you explain how a sewing machine works? I mean, think about it. We’ve all seen them. There’s that little needle that’s moving up and down really fast, leaving a trail of stitches behind them. But if you think about it for a second, how are they doing …

Watch: Shipwreck Hunter Discovers 500-Year-Old Treasures | Expedition Raw

This is their earliest pre-colonial shipwreck ever discovered. It’s from the European Age of Discovery when Columbus, Magellan, and Vasco da Gama were going around the world. This is the Esmeralda shipwreck of Vicente Sodré. We have over 2,800 individual …

The Life of a Baby Polar Bear - Ep. 4 | Wildlife: The Big Freeze

[Narrator] Before becoming the biggest land predator on the planet, polar bears are born small and helpless. They must then embark on an odyssey to grow more than 100 times their weight. And learn everything they need to survive before their mother abando…

The Shark Immune System | When Sharks Attack

[music playing] NARRATOR: As experts begin to search for other explanations, they turn their attention to a series of disturbing discoveries that occurred in the months following the June 2012 attacks. We had some dolphins that washed up already dead. We…

Divers Find a Wreck 90 Meters Down | Drain the Oceans

It is a very deep dive with a lot of repercussions that come up too fast. Bubbles would form inside your blood, inside your tissues, and cause ill effects. To get to 90 meters, you’d be looking at 4 or 5 minutes to get down there. It’s very dark because y…

The Power of Transportation | Origins: The Journey of Humankind

More Articles