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Sunday, May 16, 2004
Timeless
Your thin end for today:
Do you ever stop to think about the people who invented things that you take for granted in your life? Like telephones and cars and light bulbs and knowing how to measure deep time?
Not me, I never do, too shallow and boring to do that. But some other people obviously do.
The Age of the Earth is a rather intersting site for those who want to know how old their piece of rock is. Of course, the ability to date this way owes it's creation to a Good Keen Kiwi Bloke - Ernest Rutherford. This article was published by the Herald in the past week to mark the centenary of Rutherford's discovery.
To put Humanity in perspective for ya, I quote the bottom of the Herald article:
" ...a human lifespan is the merest of motes. If the history of the Earth could be compressed into a single year starting at midnight on January 1, then our first human ancestors didn't show up until late in the afternoon on December 31; all recorded history happens in the last 15 seconds before midnight. There is a profound aspect to deep time. Rutherford's research toppled the last pillar of a dogmatic human-centric universe.
To some, these revolutions have demoted humanity to transient apes, adrift in an endless and indifferent universe. Yet we apparently insignificant creatures can look into the unknown, explore it, measure it and, ultimately, understand it. One hundred years ago Rutherford beamed a light into the abyss of time."
Can you say "wow"??
Mind you, by the time 15 seconds to midnight rolls around, everyone is already pissed. No wonder the world is such a fucked up place.
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Do you ever stop to think about the people who invented things that you take for granted in your life? Like telephones and cars and light bulbs and knowing how to measure deep time?
Not me, I never do, too shallow and boring to do that. But some other people obviously do.
The Age of the Earth is a rather intersting site for those who want to know how old their piece of rock is. Of course, the ability to date this way owes it's creation to a Good Keen Kiwi Bloke - Ernest Rutherford. This article was published by the Herald in the past week to mark the centenary of Rutherford's discovery.
To put Humanity in perspective for ya, I quote the bottom of the Herald article:
" ...a human lifespan is the merest of motes. If the history of the Earth could be compressed into a single year starting at midnight on January 1, then our first human ancestors didn't show up until late in the afternoon on December 31; all recorded history happens in the last 15 seconds before midnight. There is a profound aspect to deep time. Rutherford's research toppled the last pillar of a dogmatic human-centric universe.
To some, these revolutions have demoted humanity to transient apes, adrift in an endless and indifferent universe. Yet we apparently insignificant creatures can look into the unknown, explore it, measure it and, ultimately, understand it. One hundred years ago Rutherford beamed a light into the abyss of time."
Can you say "wow"??
Mind you, by the time 15 seconds to midnight rolls around, everyone is already pissed. No wonder the world is such a fucked up place.
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