Earth - middle aged or embryonic?
Now then, if the current age of the Earth is 4.567 billion years, this means that if you translate the age of the Earth to the age of a person it'd be say 45 and a half year old middle aged person. If you extend this analogy we can explore whether this Gaian theory of the planet being a sentient being holds any weight.
Taking the history of Earth as we now understand it in our human timescale: the Earth formed out of the remnants of a supernova explosion as a molten ball of rock about 45 years 6 months ago; the oceans formed 42 years ago; the first replicating molecules appeared 40 years ago, when Earth was 6; the first cell didn’t make an appearance until 11; primitive photosynthesis occurred when Earth was 19 – this is some late developer we’re talking about; but this lead to the oxygen catastrophe at 22, killing off much the previous oxygen intolerant life; the earth was still in a tumultuous state suffering two high speed impacts at 26 and 28 and not settling down with a good ozone layer until 41, just at the time the first vertebrates appeared.
Then at 42 Earth decided to have a mid-life crisis with the Cambrian mass extinction, but this sparked the real rise in productivity with plants colonizing the land and the first arthropods appearing. Amphibians pulled themselves onto the land only 3 years and 9 months ago, shortly followed by plants with seeds to help spread across the planet. Then, after another wobble at 44 which shed 95% of all species and set the stage, the first dinosaurs appeared only 2 years 3 months ago. They reigned through the evolution of the first birds 1 year 6 months ago and the first flowers 3 months later, before being wiped out in the Yucatan Asteroid collision only 7 months ago. Less than a week later, the common ancestor of the primates appeared, with the apes popping up 22 days ago. From then on Earth finally got a bug up its arse, with homo erectus climbing down from the trees in the last week and humans establishing themselves as top dog 3 days ago.
In the last 17 hours cave art appeared and we've been farming the land for the last half hour. Christianity has been around for 10 minutes 31 seconds, the renaissance happened 3 minutes 41 seconds ago and the industrial revolution took hold just over a minute ago. The first computer appeared in the last 15 seconds, connecting together to form the www in just 12 seconds.
If 2012 is the big one, Earth did a lot of pissing about before she became self aware, but maybe we’re not extending enough, maybe this has only been the gestation period – Earth is still embryonic. Our enzyme-like manufacture of the surface of the Earth, is only the beginning. Perhaps the World Wide Web ceaselessly connecting around the surface of the planet is only the first neurons connecting up before the planet finally becomes self aware and teaches everyone a jolly good lesson.
Taking the history of Earth as we now understand it in our human timescale: the Earth formed out of the remnants of a supernova explosion as a molten ball of rock about 45 years 6 months ago; the oceans formed 42 years ago; the first replicating molecules appeared 40 years ago, when Earth was 6; the first cell didn’t make an appearance until 11; primitive photosynthesis occurred when Earth was 19 – this is some late developer we’re talking about; but this lead to the oxygen catastrophe at 22, killing off much the previous oxygen intolerant life; the earth was still in a tumultuous state suffering two high speed impacts at 26 and 28 and not settling down with a good ozone layer until 41, just at the time the first vertebrates appeared.
Then at 42 Earth decided to have a mid-life crisis with the Cambrian mass extinction, but this sparked the real rise in productivity with plants colonizing the land and the first arthropods appearing. Amphibians pulled themselves onto the land only 3 years and 9 months ago, shortly followed by plants with seeds to help spread across the planet. Then, after another wobble at 44 which shed 95% of all species and set the stage, the first dinosaurs appeared only 2 years 3 months ago. They reigned through the evolution of the first birds 1 year 6 months ago and the first flowers 3 months later, before being wiped out in the Yucatan Asteroid collision only 7 months ago. Less than a week later, the common ancestor of the primates appeared, with the apes popping up 22 days ago. From then on Earth finally got a bug up its arse, with homo erectus climbing down from the trees in the last week and humans establishing themselves as top dog 3 days ago.
In the last 17 hours cave art appeared and we've been farming the land for the last half hour. Christianity has been around for 10 minutes 31 seconds, the renaissance happened 3 minutes 41 seconds ago and the industrial revolution took hold just over a minute ago. The first computer appeared in the last 15 seconds, connecting together to form the www in just 12 seconds.
If 2012 is the big one, Earth did a lot of pissing about before she became self aware, but maybe we’re not extending enough, maybe this has only been the gestation period – Earth is still embryonic. Our enzyme-like manufacture of the surface of the Earth, is only the beginning. Perhaps the World Wide Web ceaselessly connecting around the surface of the planet is only the first neurons connecting up before the planet finally becomes self aware and teaches everyone a jolly good lesson.
posted by Yesman at 9:14 pm
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