Cosmic Calendar
What would happen if you could compress the entire existence of the universe down to a single calendar year? What would that year look like? The late Carl Sagan apparently used just such an analogy to explain the universe. The entire 14 billion years of the universe would fill the year with a lot of uninteresting things from a human perspective.
After the Big Bang on day one, it would take three months before the Milky Way is formed. Our solar system with our Sun and Earth wouldn't appear until August. In September, the oldest known life on Earth would appear, but it would take two more months before multi-celluar organisms show up. It wouldn't be until the last half of December that we would see the emergence of complex life, with the dinosaurs appearing on December 24th. On December 29th, the dinosaurs would vanish, and on the morning of December 31st, the first human ancestors would appear. Modern human history would start in the last 10 seconds before the end of the year.
When looked at the cosmic scale, we are brief -- hardly a moment -- with the average human life only lasting 9 seconds. This may make you feel completely small, but it should also make our problems just as small. If you only had 9 seconds on this world, how would you live your life?
After the Big Bang on day one, it would take three months before the Milky Way is formed. Our solar system with our Sun and Earth wouldn't appear until August. In September, the oldest known life on Earth would appear, but it would take two more months before multi-celluar organisms show up. It wouldn't be until the last half of December that we would see the emergence of complex life, with the dinosaurs appearing on December 24th. On December 29th, the dinosaurs would vanish, and on the morning of December 31st, the first human ancestors would appear. Modern human history would start in the last 10 seconds before the end of the year.
When looked at the cosmic scale, we are brief -- hardly a moment -- with the average human life only lasting 9 seconds. This may make you feel completely small, but it should also make our problems just as small. If you only had 9 seconds on this world, how would you live your life?
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