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Y'know what scares me?
2011-01-17 09:12:16
edited 2011-01-17 15:36:27 in General
Because you never know what you might see.
We're on year 2011, 2011 years from the birth of Jesus (ish).
100 years ago, the Ottoman Empire still existed, and planes were a recent invention.
500 years ago, we had the start of the Italian Renaissance.
1000 years ago, we were in Mediaeval times.
2000 years ago, another 1000 years before that, we're in ancient times.
Go back another 500 years. Still ancient times.
Go back another 500 before that. Still ancient history.
Go back another, to around 1500 BC, and you're about 50 years into the rule of the Thutmosid Dynasty in Egypt. This is the iconic Ancient Egypt. Y'know, Tutankhamun, Akhenaten, those guys.
The Thutmosid Dynasty was the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the first of the New Kingdom. This was preceded by the Middle Kingdom, which lasted about 400 years, and was followed by an extended period of disarray before the establishment of the New Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom itself was preceded by the Old Kingdom, also known as the Age of Pyramids, which started somewhere between 2691 and 2625 BC.
Going back still further, the ancient city of Uruk was at its height at 2900 BC.
The wheel was invented some time between 4500 and 3300 BC. Domestication of animals began around 9000 BC. Pottery existed before 10500 BC. Behavioural modernity is believed to have developed around 48000 BC.
Anatomically modern humans are thought to have evolved 200,000 years ago. Human beings in general had already existed for thousands of years prior to that. The earliest known primate, Plesiadapis, existed between 58-55 million years ago. This was during the start of the Eocene epoch. We are now in the Holocene, which began around 10000 BC.
The Eocene was preceded by the 9.5 million year long Paleocene, which was the first epoch of the Paleogene period, which began with a mass extinction believed to have been caused by a meteoric impact at the end of the Cretaceous period, the last time period in which dinosaurs existed. The Cretaceous period was 80 million years long, making it the longest period of the Phanaerozoic eon. That's the current eon.
The Phanaerozoic eon began in the Cambrian period, which began around 542 million years ago. It was preceded by the (much longer) Proterozoic and Archean eons.
I guess what I'm saying is, as far as history and prehistory and geology are concerned, we - that is, modern human beings, Western civilisation, etc. - we're miniscule.
It's just nuts.
100 years ago, the Ottoman Empire still existed, and planes were a recent invention.
500 years ago, we had the start of the Italian Renaissance.
1000 years ago, we were in Mediaeval times.
2000 years ago, another 1000 years before that, we're in ancient times.
Go back another 500 years. Still ancient times.
Go back another 500 before that. Still ancient history.
Go back another, to around 1500 BC, and you're about 50 years into the rule of the Thutmosid Dynasty in Egypt. This is the iconic Ancient Egypt. Y'know, Tutankhamun, Akhenaten, those guys.
The Thutmosid Dynasty was the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the first of the New Kingdom. This was preceded by the Middle Kingdom, which lasted about 400 years, and was followed by an extended period of disarray before the establishment of the New Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom itself was preceded by the Old Kingdom, also known as the Age of Pyramids, which started somewhere between 2691 and 2625 BC.
Going back still further, the ancient city of Uruk was at its height at 2900 BC.
The wheel was invented some time between 4500 and 3300 BC. Domestication of animals began around 9000 BC. Pottery existed before 10500 BC. Behavioural modernity is believed to have developed around 48000 BC.
Anatomically modern humans are thought to have evolved 200,000 years ago. Human beings in general had already existed for thousands of years prior to that. The earliest known primate, Plesiadapis, existed between 58-55 million years ago. This was during the start of the Eocene epoch. We are now in the Holocene, which began around 10000 BC.
The Eocene was preceded by the 9.5 million year long Paleocene, which was the first epoch of the Paleogene period, which began with a mass extinction believed to have been caused by a meteoric impact at the end of the Cretaceous period, the last time period in which dinosaurs existed. The Cretaceous period was 80 million years long, making it the longest period of the Phanaerozoic eon. That's the current eon.
The Phanaerozoic eon began in the Cambrian period, which began around 542 million years ago. It was preceded by the (much longer) Proterozoic and Archean eons.
I guess what I'm saying is, as far as history and prehistory and geology are concerned, we - that is, modern human beings, Western civilisation, etc. - we're miniscule.
It's just nuts.
Comments
Although, actually, I think there's a different kind of awe attached to pre-human prehistory and the universe beyond planet Earth to the awe generated by really ancient civilisations. The scale of some of these larger distances and periods of time is difficult or impossible to comprehend, whereas early cities like Troy and Uruk (long enough ago that our ancients regarded them as ancient) are just recent enough for the mind to register, while still long ago enough to be awe-inspiring. I find I get kind of an uncanny valley effect from them.
Size of the entire universe, man.
Usually kind to smaller men,
Universe Man.
He's got a watch with a minute hand,
millenium hand, and an eon hand.
And when they meet it's happy land.
Powerful man, Universe Man.
I think that's why really old things creep me out a little.
But the question is, will the future suck more, or less?
Not really. The universe is only about 3 times older than the Earth.
"Wait till we reach the singularity."
This.
"Depends on how far you go. I don't think the heat death of the universe makes for fun times."
Also this.