A measured perspective of human existence
Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:30 am
I think it was 14 or 15 years ago we witnessed a comet in the sky (anyone remember it?). I recall the news informing us that the tail of the comet (which is what we were seeing with the naked eye) was approximately 200,000,000 miles long. I was in awe because that 200,000,000 mile tail looked like a little scratch in the sky and I realized at that moment that the vastness of the universe was way beyond my comprehension. It was one of those times when the word "WOW!" holds enormous significance.
As you can probably tell by my recent posts I've been thinking a lot about human existence lately. Science says the Homo Sapien has been occupying the planet for around 200,000 years, and the Neanderthal, which became extinct some 60,000 years ago occupied Earth for approximately 450,000 years, so as a species we haven't even reached the halfway point of the Neanderthal in terms of survival, yet we've accomplished so much more (or, depending on your outlook, we've done so much more damage).
Most of us don't think in terms of putting existence into any perspective, we simply take it for granted. So I thought I'd like to try to express this in terms we can all maybe appreciate.
Lets say that our species' existence will vastly exceed that of the Neanderthal. Lets assume we will survive for 30,000,000 years (thats thirty million)(an admittedly lofty assumption) . To illustrate this, take a 25 foot tape measure and lay it on the ground fully lengthened and look at the 2" (inch) mark of that tape. Now, from that spot look down the long end of the tape - that 2 inch mark is where we are, given our 30,000,000 year assumption, in the grand scheme of human existence. Now look at the halfway point between 1" and 2" (again inches) and understand that that is how long ago (50,000 years) its been since the brain of our species had evolved to the point where we've begun to express ourselves. We've come a long way - but observe, by taking another look down the long end of that tape to how much more evolution will take place. We are only babies of our species.
Will the evolution that has yet to occur spawn a new species while the Sapien becomes extinct? Thats a real possibility, it doesn't take all that much for that to be the case.
30,000,000 years is a long time for one species to survive and when you consider that if Earth is 4.54 billion years old as science puts it, its actually not that long (30 million divides into 4.54 billion just over 15,133 times).
As you can probably tell by my recent posts I've been thinking a lot about human existence lately. Science says the Homo Sapien has been occupying the planet for around 200,000 years, and the Neanderthal, which became extinct some 60,000 years ago occupied Earth for approximately 450,000 years, so as a species we haven't even reached the halfway point of the Neanderthal in terms of survival, yet we've accomplished so much more (or, depending on your outlook, we've done so much more damage).
Most of us don't think in terms of putting existence into any perspective, we simply take it for granted. So I thought I'd like to try to express this in terms we can all maybe appreciate.
Lets say that our species' existence will vastly exceed that of the Neanderthal. Lets assume we will survive for 30,000,000 years (thats thirty million)(an admittedly lofty assumption) . To illustrate this, take a 25 foot tape measure and lay it on the ground fully lengthened and look at the 2" (inch) mark of that tape. Now, from that spot look down the long end of the tape - that 2 inch mark is where we are, given our 30,000,000 year assumption, in the grand scheme of human existence. Now look at the halfway point between 1" and 2" (again inches) and understand that that is how long ago (50,000 years) its been since the brain of our species had evolved to the point where we've begun to express ourselves. We've come a long way - but observe, by taking another look down the long end of that tape to how much more evolution will take place. We are only babies of our species.
Will the evolution that has yet to occur spawn a new species while the Sapien becomes extinct? Thats a real possibility, it doesn't take all that much for that to be the case.
30,000,000 years is a long time for one species to survive and when you consider that if Earth is 4.54 billion years old as science puts it, its actually not that long (30 million divides into 4.54 billion just over 15,133 times).