Consider this.
Age of earth: Not definitely known. Most accepted age is app. 5 billion years.
Age of human race: app. 1 million years.
Age of human race as known to most of us: app. 5000 years.
Age of cultures and tradition, we generally discuss: a few hundred years or say one or two thousand years
Life span of human being: 70-75 years.
No. of celestial bodies including the earth: Infinite. Getting shaped and getting destroyed every minuscule of time due to various known/unknown celestial activities.
Probability of earth getting destroyed tomorrow: Nil
Probability of earth getting destroyed after a few years/decades: Not known.
And we are talking about the earth. Some of the examples used by astronomers used to explain cosmic situations are as under:
Earth is like a vehicle on an extremely busy high-speed highway, where there is no definite traffic law.
If we consider age of universe as 1 day (24 hours), we are presently at 23:59:59 hrs
Consider the life of an ant. For it, its colony would be its country. If we extend this hypothesis, for them one locality or say one city would be like their universe. And, how do we, human beings, treat them. Any of us, a human being, can use any available tools, which can be its foot, to destroy their colony. And, a condition like flood (or any such catastrophe) submerging a locality or city could be like destruction of their whole universe. And, still every time their universe is destroyed, ants, from somewhere else, come and repopulate the region.
This example may be a little away from the actual fact. But the fundamental remains the same. There would be some organisms for whom their whole earth could be our locality or city. And, they would be worried about saving their earth from extinction.
If we reverse this hypothesis, we become ants (or any organism validating the above hypothesis). And, what we assume to be our earth could be just a locality or city for a bigger life-form (any similar phenomenon?). It is possible than in such scenario, we have not realized their existence, unlike in the case of ants, which would be aware of existence of humans due to overlapping resources to fulfill needs of life, due to the fact that we are in some remote, unexplored, unfriendly terrain (like deserts or mountains or poles are for us). In such a system, do we matter? Like does it matter for us whether a colony of ants is destroyed? There are so many such ant-colonies. There could be so many earth-like colonies in the bigger system.
Let’s take this hypothesis (?) forward. We, as a human being, have achieved so many physical and intellectual feasts. Starting with discovery of wheels and fires, through airplanes and atomic energy, today we are trying to understand complexities of universe. We have developed so many intangible systems, from traffic system to social structure, governance to interpersonal discipline. However, we are the ant of the bigger system, what do our feasts mean? All our activities, collective or individual, conflicts, again collective or individual, feelings, aspirations, beliefs, faiths, gods, climate etc mean in the bigger system? Should we try to identify the ant , we have known, and then to understand what we are? But, would we be able to identify the bigger system? For that matter does that system exist?
Anyways….lets enjoy “November Rain” :)
Age of earth: Not definitely known. Most accepted age is app. 5 billion years.
Age of human race: app. 1 million years.
Age of human race as known to most of us: app. 5000 years.
Age of cultures and tradition, we generally discuss: a few hundred years or say one or two thousand years
Life span of human being: 70-75 years.
No. of celestial bodies including the earth: Infinite. Getting shaped and getting destroyed every minuscule of time due to various known/unknown celestial activities.
Probability of earth getting destroyed tomorrow: Nil
Probability of earth getting destroyed after a few years/decades: Not known.
And we are talking about the earth. Some of the examples used by astronomers used to explain cosmic situations are as under:
Earth is like a vehicle on an extremely busy high-speed highway, where there is no definite traffic law.
If we consider age of universe as 1 day (24 hours), we are presently at 23:59:59 hrs
Consider the life of an ant. For it, its colony would be its country. If we extend this hypothesis, for them one locality or say one city would be like their universe. And, how do we, human beings, treat them. Any of us, a human being, can use any available tools, which can be its foot, to destroy their colony. And, a condition like flood (or any such catastrophe) submerging a locality or city could be like destruction of their whole universe. And, still every time their universe is destroyed, ants, from somewhere else, come and repopulate the region.
This example may be a little away from the actual fact. But the fundamental remains the same. There would be some organisms for whom their whole earth could be our locality or city. And, they would be worried about saving their earth from extinction.
If we reverse this hypothesis, we become ants (or any organism validating the above hypothesis). And, what we assume to be our earth could be just a locality or city for a bigger life-form (any similar phenomenon?). It is possible than in such scenario, we have not realized their existence, unlike in the case of ants, which would be aware of existence of humans due to overlapping resources to fulfill needs of life, due to the fact that we are in some remote, unexplored, unfriendly terrain (like deserts or mountains or poles are for us). In such a system, do we matter? Like does it matter for us whether a colony of ants is destroyed? There are so many such ant-colonies. There could be so many earth-like colonies in the bigger system.
Let’s take this hypothesis (?) forward. We, as a human being, have achieved so many physical and intellectual feasts. Starting with discovery of wheels and fires, through airplanes and atomic energy, today we are trying to understand complexities of universe. We have developed so many intangible systems, from traffic system to social structure, governance to interpersonal discipline. However, we are the ant of the bigger system, what do our feasts mean? All our activities, collective or individual, conflicts, again collective or individual, feelings, aspirations, beliefs, faiths, gods, climate etc mean in the bigger system? Should we try to identify the ant , we have known, and then to understand what we are? But, would we be able to identify the bigger system? For that matter does that system exist?
Anyways….lets enjoy “November Rain” :)
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