Humans on Earth, timewise.

I have read that if the history of the Earth was condensed to 24 hours, we would be here for 5 minutes.

I think we are special. How could you think not. We produce music, massive cities, architecture, etc. Yes, other animals might just possibly use a stick to get at something. But there is a big difference.

But these other animals do not destroy their environment motivated by greed for wealth and power.

I have no confidence that the wealth and power boys will come to their senses in their profound understanding that the game they are playing will be the recipe for many millions of people dying, let alone many species becoming extinct. They are completely focused on wealth and power.

I think it will be better for Earth that most of us are gone. Maybe then, we might finally begin to enhance the world that surrounds us.

a reply to: droid56
We are sorta special, but I wouldn't say we corner the market on uniqueness.
Ants make gigantic cities and lairs, Bees make amazing structures also. We do the same..we shift sand and rocks around to shape our habitation

I think our genius lies in our ability to copy other species overall...we see a bird, we think of ways to fly. we see a mole, we come up with better ways to dig, See a duck and figure out how to float and fish, etc...we copy quite nicely, and then refine that to amazing levels.

I do think we are special in those regards, but we are still motivated by the same basic animalistic instincts and methods our other earth cousins are moved by.



Wouldn't it be awesome if down the line, when we become so advanced we are basically just living blobs of energy, we choose to raise up animals that helped us..make the horse sentient and with the ability to alter their surroundings for instance, or a cow, etc. Sort of like a thanks for helping our species rise up and out.

a reply to: droid56

I do think that we use the 'royal We' far too much as though the greed is a part of all human nature. Its not, its only the nature of a few who through inheritance glide over dead parents and grab the power seat or simply claw or bribe their way to the top and dictate to the rest of humanity. We name and shame criminals but we don't seem too happy to actually name and shame the real individuals who commit crime again the people in general and its time we named and shamed them on big posters throughout our countries. These people work through the law to make their position secure and it works because they put people in the legal profession purely to draw and enforce laws that benefit them. Eg the queen and fracking in the UK. it silences or prevents people objecting and through the tax system from the central bankers we all have to pay taxes so in the man have b een turned into slaves working for a pittance percent of the profit we produce;
of which precious little goes back into the infrastructure of the countries we live in or improves our standard of living today.

What I really wanted to say about the length of time humans have been on earth is a quote from the Scientist Fred Hoyle back in the 1970's in a book about Stone Henge. He tells us that "there have only been about 200 generations within recorded history while 10,000 generations lived through prehistoric times. Its their observations, taken over a huge expense of time that have helped man to become who he is today. Those are the people who developed the music, healing and much of their discovery is encoded into the ancient Temples especially in Egypt.

Just thinking of all those generations passing their knowledge down through time just amazes me. It also helps to understand a tiny bit about why our brains are the size they are and makes me wish (in a slight way) that we had never resorted to writing things down because we use to record things in our brains and the different interpretations or alterations of the written word can mislead us completely away from the original idea being portrayed to us from the past.

The 5 minute thing is a really good visual and puts us into perspective. I get how we are only 5 minutes old in a 24 hour world. What I don't get is how we slowly progressed for 10's of thousands of years, and in only the last 100 have jumped to where we are today. I wish someone would explain how that happened.

IE: technology, knowledge, population, etc... All just suddenly happened in a very short period of time (maybe 1 second in a 24 hour time period).

a reply to: droid56
Yeah we are special-we are the special destroyers of nature.
In the last few seconds of our 5 minutes(since say,the industrial revolution)we have royally screwed up our planets environment with the side effects of our technologies.
God help the rest of the species on Earth if we are around for another few seconds.

Crocodiles,Sharks,insects have been here for many millions of years,and they didn't screw in up,but then along come the two legs and its like we are in a race to consume and destroy everything.
I wonder is it because we know we will die?
Sort of passing the buck to the next generation?

a reply to: Silcone Synapse


The problem is that the human species will continue to obliterate our surroundings as it "progresses", sucking up every ounce of natural resources we can get our hands on. Even if we had a massive "reboot" and half of our species was wiped off of the planet tomorrow, we'd eventually work our way back to this very point we are now at.

It's a sad state of affairs, and one that I am not proud to be a part of.

a reply to: CranialSponge

I agree sadly.
Where did it go wrong?
Maybe when corporations attained more wealth than 3rd world nations..
But it all goes back to greed,hoarding stuff like we did back in distant history for survival purposes-it was essential then,but on a small scale.
That trait seems to have evolved into something which will ultimately threaten us as a species I think.

I often wonder what it would be like on Earth now if the meteor had not wiped out the dinosuars-would we co exist on the same level as them,or would they make the computers and cities while we scurried about like rats in the sewers?