67,000 miles per hour is the speed the Earth orbits the sun (18.5 miles / sec). So while we sit quietly in a room we are barreling forth. Not forward, necessarily, but around and around.
The earth orbits the sun and we call that one year. It does it again and we call that two years, and thus time is moving forward in a straight line: Year 0, Year 1, Year 2. But the earth is just moving elliptically around and around the sun. These are laps, not a straight line.
And meanwhile, it rotates on its axis, and this creates night and day. We learned this as children. As the earth orbits the sun, it rotates on its axis approximately 365 times. It's approximate, not exact, we all know that too. Hence, why we get February 29th every four years.
To measure the speed of an object it has to be measured relative to something else. For example, if you drive 60 miles per hour, you are moving 60 miles per hour in relation to the earth, or a tree on the side of the road. The Earth is moving in relation to the sun.
A mile is an arbitrary distance we created. An hour is an arbitrary interval of time -- 1/24th of 1/365th-ish (some years it's 1/24th of 1/366th-ish). The Egyptians invented hours based on stars in the sky. But "miles per hour" (or "kilometers per hour") works as a reference because we have all used it for a long time, and its inherent. We can wrap our heads around the concept. The concept lives in our minds, and would die if all humans died. However, the earth would continue to go around and around the sun and rotate on its axis, without us.
And the universe is much bigger than this. There are other planets that make up solar systems, which make up galaxies, which move toward great attractors and black holes. And everything is moving relative to everything else.
But we're here on Earth where things are just right. Atoms combine with energy and create an ecosystem.
Atoms are everywhere and make up everything. Everything that has mass and takes up space, that is. They are very small, and very old, and have been a part of other stars, planets, and millions of other organisms on the way to here and now. And the atoms that make up you will continue on long after you are gone. ¹
There are one hundred and eighteen types of atoms. We arrange these on to a "Periodic Table". Every once in a while we discover new ones so that 118 number changes over time.
So you can look at the periodic table and say "that's everything I experience". These atoms exist as solids, liquids, and gases (and other states too). It's more complicated than that of course because there are subatomic particles and forces like electromagnetism and gravity. But, in general, the periodic table includes everything you interact with, including the desk where you sit, the food you eat, and the dog you walk.
Starting at the atomic level you can go smaller and smaller and look at the subatomic particles. Or you can go larger and larger and look at how atoms bond into molecules to build our world.
This ecosystem where we live is regulated by the earth orbiting the sun, and rotating on its axis. Plants grow with the seasons; animals sleep at the same time everyday. And it repeats every day, and every year. And as it repeats, our knowledge and ideas change because as we barrel forth we discover new things.
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Now, let's look at a quick timeline:
Years before the present:
13.5 billion - Big Bang (beginning of physics and chemistry)
4.5 billion - Earth forms
3.8 billion - Organisms appear (beginning of biology)
Present - Today
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Let's ignore the first nine billion years of that timeline and start with "Earth forms".
Earth formed and then around 700 million years later life appeared. We don't know how but it started as single cells. Those cells replicated, learned to cooperate. Eventually, they bonded to create multi-celled organisms. Like building blocks. They grew into more complex organisms. It grew slowly, but exponentially. A snowball.
Let's imagine the history of Earth compressed into one day, from 4.5 billion years ago when "Earth formed" until today. If we did that, most of the day would pass before we saw any real movement. In this day, life begins around 4 A.M. with single-celled organisms but then does not advance any further for the next sixteen hours. Around 8:30 P.M. sea plants appear; just before 10 P.M. plants begin; dinosaurs appear from 11 to 11:41 P.M.; and humans emerge around 11:58:43 P.M. From the time we learned to write until now would be around a second. And from the beginning of the scientific revolution until today would be less than a second. ³
In other words, we've been around for about one minute and seventeen seconds, we've written language for only one second, and in less than one second, when we started the Scientific Revolution about 500 years ago, we've gone from a few cities of 100,000 people, where most buildings were constructed of mud, wood, and straw, to today, where we have a globally unified, brain-like network, with cities of millions of people. ²
If you were god, sitting with a bucket of popcorn, casually watching this day unfold, the first twenty three hours and fifty eight minutes would be pretty boring compared to the finale. It would appear as an explosion of activity. But this activity is just beginning. Give it another minute or so and we will either leave earth or destroy it.
This is life starting slow, but replicating exponentially. It's a slow-burning supernova of sorts. A replication bomb. ⁴
If we rewind again 3.8 billion years and go back to our single-celled organisms, and then fast-forward and watch these cells replicate and bond to form ever-more complex organisms, eventually we see a special class of "nerve cells" made of "neurons" that formed "brains". Brains gave rise to "memory" and "consciousness". Eventually, humans showed up and took "language" to a new level. A level that caused information to travel faster still. Our language created a "cooperative network" that lead to collective consciousness. ⁴
Language started as gossip and narrative that spread through local groups. But it facilitated social organization from small groups to large empires. It recently passed new thresholds into radio and internet, which allowed ideas and "memes" to spread and create a global brain. We're now approaching the next threshold, space travel. Exploding off Earth to touch other planets. ² ⁴
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Let's look at our timeline again and drop in a few other points along the way.
Years before the present:
13.5 billion - Big Bang (beginning of physics and chemistry)
4.5 billion - Earth forms
3.8 billion - Organisms appear (beginning of biology)
200,000 - Homo sapiens evolve (in East Africa)
70,000 - Cognitive Revolution
12,000 - Agricultural Revolution
5,000 - First kingdoms and writing appear
500 - Scientific Revolution
Present - Humans transcend Earth boundaries, nuclear weapons
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Looking at that, we can see we've had three revolutions. These went a long way to get us to where we are today. They allowed us to climb to the top of the food chain so to speak. It's what allowed us to progress.
Of the three revolutions, the first was Cognitive, where we took language to a new level. Most importantly, we developed fiction. We learned to tell stories, bend the truth, gossip. This took place around 70,000 years ago as shown on our timeline.
Believe it or not, language is our greatest attribute over other species. It's what allows us to transmit information to others with incredible clarity. It allows humans to live in groups much larger than other species. Have you ever seen a city of eight million chimpanzees, or zebras? Ants, bees, termites, yes. But ants, bees, and termites aren't five to six foot tall bipedal mammals with thumbs and large brains. Language binds whole societies of humans.
The second revolution, around 12,000 years ago, was Agricultural, where we learned to grow and harvest grains. We also began to domesticate farm animals around this time. This was another major breakthrough in our existence because it allowed us to become sedentary. We settled down, stayed put, thought about life, morals, art. We began to build ever more complex social structures, and eventually cities. It gave way to social hierarchy. In a way, agriculture captured us. Once we started to harvest grains, and become sedentary, we could never go back.
The third revolution was Scientific. This came along only five hundred years ago after we had formed societies. Prior to the Scientific Revolution, the mysteries of the universe were explained by "because God said so" or "because so-and-so who is close to God said so."
During and after the Scientific Revolution we admitted ignorance and developed the scientific method: observe, reason, experiment, repeat. ¹ We began to look for empirical evidence of phenomena rather than simply believing what those who were close to the Gods told us.
This lead to us discovering many things. For example, we reasoned that the universe doesn't revolve around Earth, and that Earth isn't flat. We stopped acting as if we knew everything and instead began to discover. We discovered gravity, electricity, evolution, relativity, antiseptics. The Scientific Revolution also lead to the Industrial Revolution, which raised the standard of living for humans overall.
It could be said that these revolutions have also caused pain and suffering because they created social hierarchies where some benefit at the expense of others. But biologically speaking, they have made the human race more successful. There are more humans living at the top of the food chain today than 200,000 years ago.
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Our understanding of time is linear. Year 0, Year 1, Year 2. It's a straight line, and along this line we get better, smarter, stronger, faster. Society should progress indefinitely. ⁵
We define goals and set out to achieve them. If we reach those goals we feel triumphant; if not, we apply new tactics. We are always, always looking to progress. Anything that gets in the way, even a minor setback, is a "problem". ⁵
Therefore, our understanding of time works when things are good, but when they don't go as planned desperation sinks in. ⁵ The desperation leads to confrontation. Many of the "problems" you have are because of actions by others. And you create "problems" for them by reacting. "Solutions" work the same way in that one "solution" begets another.
And it perpetuates.
This happens on grand scales across nations, over many years, and simultaneously it happens individually, daily, in our lives. Everyone in the world is doing the same. We still fight wars over religion, resources, territory, politics, economics. We fight in our daily lives, and societies fight on grand scales.
We look at the current situation and extrapolate into the future, and so does everyone else. This is what leads to confrontation. It leads to the rise and fall of societies, businesses, organizations, families. Progress comes but we make similar mistakes along the way. We make the same mistakes over and over again, the same that others have made in the past. We can't help it.
In other words, we think we are moving forever in a linear path, always progressing, but we are actually moving forward in cycles along that path. Cycles occur whether we see them or not. Time itself is a cycle. The earth orbits the sun, and spins on its axis. Therefore time as we know it exists. We are barreling forth, around and around.
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NOTE TO SELF: When you complain about the "problems" in your life, look at what you are up against.
You have problems, but would have real, actual, problems if Earth stopped orbiting the sun. Until that happens you will continue to have days and years.
Any progress you make in your day is infinitesimal compared to humankind as a whole. Everything you encounter in the day is through the interactions with others. Nothing you do is new. Even an inventor pulling an idea out of the blackbox of her mind uses cultural norms and technologies built by others.
Earth moves around the sun and for that you should be happy. Time will continue to move "forward" and we will continue to "progress". You are a blip standing on the shoulders of thousands of years of culture, millions of years of evolution. Wars were fought. Ethics were debated and defined. Civilizations moved around the globe, and all these things continue to shift.
The truth is you have to run really fast just to keep up. But you shouldn't complain about that. In other words, you will have problems.
Humans evolved in Eastern Africa and slowly, chaotically, learned to harness fire, rock, metal, water, soil, and seed. We settled, cycled, perfected sedentary life, and the first civilization formed around the the Middle East and Mediterranean (Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia) 12,000 or so years ago. We spread to Ancient India, Ancient China. Other civilizations sprouted in Ancient Mexico and Ancient Peru. These were the five Cradles of Civilization.
As an American, I inherited Western culture. This "started" in Ancient Greece, but Ancient Greece inherited at least three thousand years of culture and civilization from the Middle East, Near East, and Far East. Ancient Rome took from Greece and immodestly toiled with the human struggle. Eventually they were put to bed, and Europe became what it became. The thing that drives you to get up in the morning is the same that resided in those who rode ships across the Atlantic in the 15th century to the East coast of America. It then moved across America in search of gold, in search of progress, to the Pacific. America is the grandchild, full of promise, but will grow old and pass on an inheritance.
Economies will shift. And it will continue to move around the globe for another lap, then another lap, then another. And maybe humankind will spin off the globe and go to other planets where we will form civilizations and make laps around those planets. It will take thousands of years. And then millions. And no matter what you do you will be forgotten eventually. Because 200,000 years ago Homo sapiens first evolved into existence. And 200,000 years from now something else will look back at us. They will study us.
At some point, all cultures move into other cultures. Eventually there will be an "earth culture" and a "homo sapien culture". Broad sweeping statements that sum up hundreds of thousands of years of consciousness.
We will be remembered as a simple "earth culture". In the future, other beings will laugh as schoolchildren at our primitive ways. Actually, they won't mock it — they will scarcely acknowledge it. They'll be bored and overly-optimized and fundamentally anxious the same as we are today. They'll be sitting on the shoulders of thousands of years of culture and millions of years of evolution but most of them will complain about insignificant "problems".
SOURCES:
1. Feynman, Richard P. New York: Basic Books, 1963. Six Easy Pieces
2. Harari, Yuval Noah. New York: HarperCollins, 2015. Sapiens
3. Bryson, Bill. New York: Broadway Books, 2003. A Short History of Nearly Everything
4. Dawkins, Richard. New York: Basic Books, 1995. River Out of Eden
5. Strauss, William & Howe, Neil. New York: Broadway Books, 1997. Fourth Turning
6. Durant, Will and Ariel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968. The Lessons of History
7. Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. New York: Random House, 2018. Skin in the Game
5. Strauss, William & Howe, Neil. New York: Broadway Books, 1997. Fourth Turning
6. Durant, Will and Ariel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968. The Lessons of History
7. Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. New York: Random House, 2018. Skin in the Game
8. Kahneman, Daniel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. Thinking Fast and Slow
9. Urban, Tim. Wait But Why. (9 Sep 2013). Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy. https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html
9. Urban, Tim. Wait But Why. (9 Sep 2013). Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy. https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html