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OP here (actually the top of this thread, not OP on the post). Thanks for commenting pal. I've had lots of time to marvel at technology in my nearly 40 year oi

OP here (actually the top of this thread, not OP on the post). Thanks for commenting pal. I've had lots of time to marvel at technology in my nearly 40 year oil and gas career. A lot of the work that I did when I started in the exploration end of that industry has now been used, even decades later, to drive exploitation in areas that I came to know and appreciate for their raw beauty and isolation. The rock cycle teaches us geoscientists (I'm a geophysicist) that time changes everything and not even the rocks are forever. In the grand scheme of things looking down through time it appears that a case could be made for humans being only the latest one of a series of afflictions that earth has endured in the past. No doubt earth is resilient enough to survive and establish a new equilibrium should we manage to deplete enough resources here that we can no longer survive as a species, and like rats escaping a flood, hop on any interstellar flotsam available in a bid to save ourselves from our own technologically-induced suicide.

roamerz 5y ago
Sounds like you have had a very interesting career. Congrats on that. From my limited geological knowledge I presume the earth started off a a molten ball of elements that have partially solidified into what she is today. There have been many heinous things done to her throughout her life and in the end she will end up a big ball of fire as our sun expires. Our impact - both beautiful and ugly alike - on her will be forgotten. Somewhere in that leftover pile of rock will be whatever is leftover from you and I - probably just specks of dust - and likely pals for eternity.
- doodlebugging 5y ago
  Yessir. If we're really lucky there will be enough energy in that supernova so that we can both be blasted far enough and fast enough for both us specks to catch up to and hitch a ride with Oumuamua as it glides through the universe. Dust speck pals on a cosmic dust bunny, heading for some far-off celestial corner where we can rest, safe from the vacuum of space, watching the worlds go by. Certainly a long, strange trip it will be. Happy trails! With that in mind, maybe on that journey all of our specks will find useful combinations of interstellar particulates and elements and will become the building blocks of new life somewhere else. While the whole fiery ending here on earth may be a low spot for us collectively, you have to remember that every local minima is by definition the point after which things start looking up as the next cycle begins.

roamerz 5y ago

Sounds like you have had a very interesting career. Congrats on that. From my limited geological knowledge I presume the earth started off a a molten ball of elements that have partially solidified into what she is today. There have been many heinous things done to her throughout her life and in the end she will end up a big ball of fire as our sun expires. Our impact - both beautiful and ugly alike - on her will be forgotten. Somewhere in that leftover pile of rock will be whatever is leftover from you and I - probably just specks of dust - and likely pals for eternity.

doodlebugging 5y ago
Yessir. If we're really lucky there will be enough energy in that supernova so that we can both be blasted far enough and fast enough for both us specks to catch up to and hitch a ride with Oumuamua as it glides through the universe. Dust speck pals on a cosmic dust bunny, heading for some far-off celestial corner where we can rest, safe from the vacuum of space, watching the worlds go by. Certainly a long, strange trip it will be. Happy trails! With that in mind, maybe on that journey all of our specks will find useful combinations of interstellar particulates and elements and will become the building blocks of new life somewhere else. While the whole fiery ending here on earth may be a low spot for us collectively, you have to remember that every local minima is by definition the point after which things start looking up as the next cycle begins.