The Humbling Extent of Human Existence

Humans feel all kinds of emotions and there is one of special importance that we need to cultivate daily: awe. Alchin (2006) provides a beautiful reminder for a change of perspective, humility, and the appreciation of the sublime:

The Cosmic Calendar

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 don’t know by how much! So take this example in the spirit in which it is meant.) So now it is 12:00 p.m., 1 January, and the Universe began exactly one year ago. How long would we have been around for? Let’s examine the cosmic calendar.

Current theory suggests that our galaxy formed on 1 May. It took another four months, to 9 September, until our solar system appeared. A few days later, the Earth was formed, around 14 September. After life begins on 25 September, it may seem like things are speeding up, but it then takes until 12 November for the oldest photosynthetic plants to develop, and it isn’t until 1 December 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 19 December; trees followed soon after on 23 December, and the first dinosaurs turned up on 24 December. Mammals arrived on 26 December, and had to live with the dinosaurs until 28 December 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 31 December. 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 at 11.59.51. The modern calendar began at 11.59.56 with the birth of Christ. The great Mayan civilizations and Chinese Sung Dynasty came and went at 11.59.58, and one second later, at 11.59.59, 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. Most people feel this profoundly humbling. And where does it leave humans’ feelings of grandeur, sense of power and sense of certainty?

1. What is humanity’s place in the Universe? How likely is it that humans have found out any of the profound truths about the Universe?
2. What are humankind’s greatest successes?
3. Does it really matter how long we have been around? (pp. 4-5)

I hope that these paragraphs make you reflect on the vastness of the universe, what we know and the place of humans in this awe-inspiring universe.

Reference:

Alchin, N. (2006). Theory of Knowledge. Hodder Murray