It's hard to grasp how fast all of that happened. It's been about 125,000 generations since the emergence of the first human species. About 7,500 generations since the physiologically modern humans saw the light of day. 500 generations ago, what we call civilization began. 20 generations ago, we learned how to do science. And the Internet became available to most people only one generation ago.
Today we live in the most prosperous age humanity has ever experienced. We have transformed this planet, from the composition of its atmosphere to large-scale changes in its landscape and also in terms of the other animals in existence. We light up the night with artificial stars and put people in a metal box in the sky. Some have even walked on our Moon. We put robots on other planets. We've looked deep into the past of the universe with mechanical eyes. Our knowledge and our way of acquiring and storing more of it has exploded.
The average high school student today knows more about the universe than a scholar a few centuries ago. Humans dominate this planet, even if our rule is very fragile. We are still not that different from our ancestors 70,000 years ago. But your lifestyle has existed for less than 0.001% of human history. From here on, there's no saying what the future holds for us. We're building a skyscraper, but we're not sure if it's standing on a solid foundation or if we're building it on quicksand. Let's leave it with that for now.
The next time you miss your train, your burger is not hot enough, or someone cuts in line, remember how special this made-up human world is. Maybe it's not worth being upset about all those little things.
Today we live in the most prosperous age humanity has ever experienced. We have transformed this planet, from the composition of its atmosphere to large-scale changes in its landscape and also in terms of the other animals in existence. We light up the night with artificial stars and put people in a metal box in the sky. Some have even walked on our Moon. We put robots on other planets. We've looked deep into the past of the universe with mechanical eyes. Our knowledge and our way of acquiring and storing more of it has exploded.
The average high school student today knows more about the universe than a scholar a few centuries ago. Humans dominate this planet, even if our rule is very fragile. We are still not that different from our ancestors 70,000 years ago. But your lifestyle has existed for less than 0.001% of human history. From here on, there's no saying what the future holds for us. We're building a skyscraper, but we're not sure if it's standing on a solid foundation or if we're building it on quicksand. Let's leave it with that for now.
The next time you miss your train, your burger is not hot enough, or someone cuts in line, remember how special this made-up human world is. Maybe it's not worth being upset about all those little things.
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