From Nicholas Alchin, Theory of Knowledge, pg. 4-5
Suppose you took the whole history of the Universe and compressed it into one year (based on our current estimates that the Universe is 15 billion years old; that the Earth is 4.55 billion years old; that humans developed around 2 million years ago. These figures are controversial and almost certainly wrong, but we dont know by how much! So take this example in the spirit in which it is meant.) So now it is 12:00 pm on January 1st. The Universe began exactly one year ago. How long would we have been around for? Lets examine the cosmic calendar. Current theory suggests that our galaxy formed on May 1 st. It took another four months, to September 9th, until our solar system appeared. A few days later, the Earth was formed, around September 14th. After life begins on September 25th, it may seem like things are speeding up, but it then takes until November 12 th for the oldest photosynthetic plants to develop, and it isnt until December 1 st that there is a significant quantity of oxygen in the atmosphere. So for the first eight and a half months, there was no Earth, and even then for another two and a half months there was no conceivable way for humans, had they been around, to survive. But at least now we are beginning to approach human history. Although there was oxygen in the atmosphere, fish did not develop until December 19th; trees followed soon after on 23 December, and the first dinosaurs turned up on December 24th. Mammals arrived on December 26th, and had to live with the dinosaurs until December 28th when it seems that a massive comet struck the Earth, causing major climatic change. The dinosaurs, unable to cope with this, died out, and the age of the mammals started. Humans appeared on December 31 st. All of human history, therefore, happened on the last day of the year. Well, at least we have a day (remember that the dinosaurs had four!). Or, do we? In fact, probably not. Humans developed rather late in the day, around 10:50 p.m. Current belief is that Peking Man first used fire in a controlled way at 11:46 p.m., and at 11:59 p.m. cave paintings started being created in Europe. Things happen in a rush now, with agriculture transforming the human way of life at 11:59:20, and the alphabet allowing detailed communication through generations with nine seconds left in the year. The modern calendar began at the 11:59:56 with the birth of Christ. The great Mayan civilizations and Chinese Sung Dynasty came and went at 11:59:58, and with one second remaining in the day, the modern technological world was born with the Renaissance and Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. On the cosmic scale, therefore, it is only in the last fraction of a second, on the last day in the entire year that anyone alive today has existed, that you were born. Reflection Questions 1. What is humanitys place in the Universe? How likely is it that humans have found out any of the profound truths about the Universe? 2. What are humankinds greatest successes? Failures? 3. Arent human beings terribly egotistical to think that we really know anything?
A Short History of The World: The Beginnings of Life, The Age of Mammals, The Neanderthal and the Rhodesian Man, Primitive Thought, Primitive Neolithic Civilizations, Sumer, Egypt, Judea, The Greeks and more
A Short History of The World (Unabridged): The Beginnings of Life, The Age of Mammals, The Neanderthal and the Rhodesian Man, Primitive Thought, Primitive Neolithic Civilizations, Sumer, Egypt, Judea, The Greeks and more