It’s certainly human nature to think that both the universe and world revolve around us. But it’s crucial to remember, especially as we evaluate humanity’s disproportionate impacts (both good and bad) that we were pretty much the last guests to show up at the cocktail party that is the Earth’s existence.
Fortunately, Skunk Bear has put together a video that shows us just where our quaint little “civilizations” and “technologies” lie on the spectrum of time. Using a 100-yard football field, we get to view the past and present in a whole new light.
Using this scale, every inch on the field, all 3,600 of them, equates to 1.3 million years. The far left goal line would be the creation of the Earth, about 4.5 billion years ago. As the host walks the length of the field, each step triggers massive geological and evolutionary events that shape the environment we experience today.
That example alone should remind us that as advanced as we are, humanity still has a very difficult time understanding just how big the world is, in terms of both the geography around us and history that preceded us.
Here’s a video that shows us, in truly humbling fashion, where people lie in the grand scheme of time as we know and understand it on our home planet:
To recap them all would be a little redundant, as the video below does it in a staggeringly efficient four-and-a-half minutes, but suffice it to say, there are some seminal events that are so massive in scale and duration that you really need a stadium to show the context.
For instance, take a look at something we all hold pretty dear, “life in general”:
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Even with this vast expanse, it’s remarkable how little real estate we humans occupy. We’re not an inch from the right-hand goal line. We’re not half an inch. We’re pretty much of this instant.
The applications of this understanding are vast and profound, but perhaps the most important step is that we begin to simply understand. This clever video, as simple as the premise is, goes a long way in facilitating just that.