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It's absolutely incredible to think that the age difference between you and the author of the comment you replied to is greater than the number of years I've be

It's absolutely incredible to think that the age difference between you and the author of the comment you replied to is greater than the number of years I've been alive.

ac29 7y ago
You'll really have your mind blown reading the history of the early earth then. For a couple hundred million years, there was no liquid water. A few hundred million years after that, single celled life appeared. It took yet another few hundred million years for there to be any oxygen in the atmosphere. Fast forward another 3500 million years for something resembling modern humans to appear, a few hundred thousand years ago. Recorded history is only about 5000 years. So, if you live to 100 years old, you will have been around for 2% of recorded history but only 0.000002% as long as the earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_history_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_h...
pmachinery 7y ago
Why is that absolutely incredible?
- alextheparrot 7y ago
  The wording of the original author may have been imprecise, but I’m in a similar place so I’ll try to translate my feelings as well. It is a certain form of awe, to realise that one’s life so far will likely just be a small fragment of the whole. It isn’t intuitive aside from mathematically — it is a thought that only at a certain age becomes apparent and then drifts off to be forgotten again. Realising that the journey is so much longer, it both storms and calms the soul. The calm from the meditative “I still have time to become”, the storm from a similar “But I only have time to become”.
  - mttyng 7y ago
    Beautiful clarification
nostrademons 7y ago
I had a similar moment this morning while reading a book to my son. I told him "You remember this book? Your grandmother got this book for you when you were 10 months old, less than half your current age." And it just occurred to me that my son's entire lifetime is less than half the time I've been married to my wife. The time I've been married to my wife is less than half the time I've lived in the Bay Area. The time I've lived in the Bay Area is less than a third of my total lifetime. We all live multiple lifetimes. Some moments just remind us of that more than others.

It's absolutely incredible to think that the age difference between you and the author of the comment you replied to is greater than the number of years I've been alive.

ac29 7y ago

You'll really have your mind blown reading the history of the early earth then. For a couple hundred million years, there was no liquid water. A few hundred million years after that, single celled life appeared. It took yet another few hundred million years for there to be any oxygen in the atmosphere. Fast forward another 3500 million years for something resembling modern humans to appear, a few hundred thousand years ago. Recorded history is only about 5000 years. So, if you live to 100 years old, you will have been around for 2% of recorded history but only 0.000002% as long as the earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_history_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_h...

pmachinery 7y ago

Why is that absolutely incredible?

alextheparrot 7y ago
The wording of the original author may have been imprecise, but I’m in a similar place so I’ll try to translate my feelings as well. It is a certain form of awe, to realise that one’s life so far will likely just be a small fragment of the whole. It isn’t intuitive aside from mathematically — it is a thought that only at a certain age becomes apparent and then drifts off to be forgotten again. Realising that the journey is so much longer, it both storms and calms the soul. The calm from the meditative “I still have time to become”, the storm from a similar “But I only have time to become”.
- mttyng 7y ago
  Beautiful clarification

nostrademons 7y ago

I had a similar moment this morning while reading a book to my son. I told him "You remember this book? Your grandmother got this book for you when you were 10 months old, less than half your current age." And it just occurred to me that my son's entire lifetime is less than half the time I've been married to my wife. The time I've been married to my wife is less than half the time I've lived in the Bay Area. The time I've lived in the Bay Area is less than a third of my total lifetime. We all live multiple lifetimes. Some moments just remind us of that more than others.