Here's a thought that could keep you up at night. Have you ever noticed how much faster life is advancing these days? I mean, warp speed. The after-burners are activated.
Let me explain.
Most people don't realize it, but almost everything we use in our daily lives, things we all take for granted, has been developed in the last 150-170 years. Almost everything.
Ev.Ery.Thing.
Now I would really love to take credit for this idea and the following explanation of this idea, but I must give credit where credit is due. About 40 years ago, I read the book called 'The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need', by Andrew Tobias. It was an easy and entertaining read, and he even republished it with updates 25 years later. But as much as I enjoyed the book, I really loved his explanation about man, time, and our technological advancements.
I decided to repeat it here for your enjoyment.
(latest version)
Pause as I look for the book.
O.K. was planning on finding the original story and repeating it here word-for-word but, I can't find the book so no original article. That means I will have to tell the story from memory. It won't be exact, and these numbers are only estimations and guesses at their very best, but I am fairly certain I will get the important ingredients in the story close enough to get the idea and imagery across.
Ready?
Let's begin.
The story starts with time. Centuries in fact. And in this story, each century is represented by the measurement of 1 inch.
Got that? 100 years equals 1 inch.
Years 1900 to 2000, 1 inch.
Stop and let that gel if need be.
Ok. Ready now? Let's do this.
We know the earth has been here for x number of billions of years. To help us understand this explanation, let's turn those years into a distance so that we can better compute this idea. Let's use 700 miles as an example. The world has been around 700 miles.
Now, since one inch = one century let's compute how many inches the world has been around. Figuring out 12 inches x the feet in each mile (5280) leaves us with the number 63,360 inches per 1 mile. Times that with 700 miles equals, 44,184,000 inches the world has been in existence.
44,184,000 INCHES.
Remember every 100 years, 1 inch.
Let your head regroup if needed.
Ok, ready? Here we go again. So, things start slowly at first. The planets form around miles 1 through whatever.
Inches slowly creep away as time passes with dinosaurs appearing around mile 300 (all estimations, remember). They die around mile 400. Planets form. Oceans take shape. The Great Lakes come about around mile 500.
Time continues to creep, and then man appears.
At around 17 feet!! That's 204 inches from today. Or about 44,183,796 inches from the earth's beginning of 44,184,000 inches.
Or put another way, for 699.999+ miles, out of 700, nothing involving man happens. All is basically quiet as far as man is concerned. But then he arrives, and things begin to pick up speed. We will call the new speed, 'rapid'.
Continuing, at 16 feet, man discovers fire.
By 12 feet, he has figured out how to make a crude hut.
At 4 feet, he has developed a solid money system.
Noah arrives at 3 feet.
Jesus walks the earth at the 20-inch mark.
And so, man and things advanced fairly rapidly until about the 1850s when the cotton gin and other very useful technology came into play. From there, we leave 'rapid' speed behind and enter 'warp' speed. Because after that crucial point in time, we develop everything we now know. Cars, computers, medicine, tractors, trains, planes, rockets, nukes, most sciences, most math, cloning, the list is endless.
And if you put the 1850's to the present on the 100 years equals 1-inch scale, it all happened in less than 2 inches.
Less than 2 INCHES!
All of it.
Now, if that doesn't blow your mind, nothing will.
So, this now leads back to the original question of this article, are we headed to total...
destruction or utopia?
(Make sure you share and pass this on to all your friends so they can learn and grow with us).