Looking back to now

I've recently started to listen to a series of podcasts from 2010 entitled "A History of the World in 100 Objects". It is essentially exactly what it sounds like, 100 objects from the British Museum used to talk about the history of man through the ages (from 2 million BC to the present day). It got me wondering about how our era will be viewed by history.

We are living in one of the most fluctuating periods of human history. If you think about the Old Kingdom period of Egypt (for example) you will see what I mean. That time period is widely accepted to be approximately 500 years long and didn't differ greatly from the Early Dynastic Period which filled the 500 years previously.

Yet if you think about our time frame it seems inconceivable that people will look at the 21st Century and the 19th Century (never mind the 11th) as being periods of time that can be placed under one umbrella. The shear breadth of change in the human landscape makes this an exceptionally turbulent and transient period to live.

At no point in history has the face of the planet changed to quickly and so markedly in only a few generations. The dawn of the Information Age has come so rapidly and with such force that it is rendering seismic shifts in the world as we know it, within the space of our own lifetimes, not across eras as before.

The following chart shows the biggest and most appreciable change to our planet - the population explosion.

(kindly borrowed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation) 

Part of the reason we can group large chunks of history together is because, realistically speaking, not a significant amount happens in them. There are gradual advancements and changes through the years and eras but in all honesty not a great deal changes, either with population or technology or general advancement.

Then you hit these last few hundred years or so and, wow, blink and you miss it. The population explosion is a big part of this, along with the attendant related issues such as; resource needs, technological advancements and the like. For information, the population was 370 million (ish) at the time of the the Black Death (700 years ago), passed 1 billion in 1800 and is now 7 billion and counting.

Head another 2000 years down the line and try to imagine what our ancestors will be trying to piece together, though I guess with the improved ability to record history research may be somewhat different then. Nevertheless, just try and think about being someone in 2 millennia looking back and trying to characterise the time we now live in. From a time perspective, the event is almost instantaneous and yet we have changed the face of the planet beyond all recognition.

It is truly a staggering time to live in. And now we understand why sometimes the world seems to be moving so fast and overwhelming is. Its because, in chronological terms, it really is changing at something approaching the speed of light!

Today's #randomfactoftheday - According to http://howmanyofme.com/ 99.78% of people with the first name Thomas in the USA are male. Hmmmm......

Today's #badjokeoftheday - Q: How do crazy people navigate? A: The take the psycho path

Today's #websiteoftheday - A History of the World (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/about/british-museum-objects/)

On this day: 660BC, traditional date for the foundation of Japan

Till next time
DT