5. Deep Time

Explosions and extinctions in our deep past, and a nod to the deep future.

INTRODUCTION

There is life/living/ordinary “day-to-day” time, and then there is deep time. Or Kronos. I’d like to namedrop Stewart Brand and the Clock of the Long Now project [brand-1].

Deep time includes the ancient past and the unthinkable future. (Not unthinkable because of the horrors that might take place — that is certainly a possibility. But just beyond anyone’s real grasp.) For example, who would have predicted twenty-six years ago that we would be living like this in 2026? (Or whenever you the audience may be reading this.)

In terms of deep time past, it is fun — if not mind-blowing and unfathomable — to look at the rock record. Layers and layers of minerals that form a natural deep calendar of life’s activity on earth. Or also the inanimate chemical/geological activity of the ancient past. Like the rings on a tree, the layers tell a story.

DETAILS

One of the major stories we see in the rock record is the fluctuation of temperatures. The ice ages and extreme heats, and implications of long periods of life flourishing, and relatively very fast events of mass extinction. And the pragmatic among us wonder about what this moment will look like in deep time. A flourishing of plastics and other debris? And/or another mass extinction?

It’s kind of a moot point — none of us will outlive our brief lifetime in the real now. But the long now asks about our responsibility to the deep future. Many generations ahead. Who will be there, and what will their lives be like, thanks or no thanks to us. Our children’s children’s children, et cetera.

At the level of explosions (like the original Cambrian Explosion, era of sea life) and extinctions (like the popularly remembered meteoric event that took out most of the dinosaurs) — at this level of time, we can look upon the evolution and diversification of species. With awe and reverence.

It is really beyond me to contemplate evolution. But it answers the biggest questions. Where do we come from? Did God create us? Whether yes or no, I wouldn’t judge if that’s your belief. But I have faith (rarely replicated) in the consensus — if appropriately skeptical — of modern science. And so I believe in evolution.

In my mind, the biggest score for evolution is the diversification that happened in isolation, in the islands. Galápagos and Madagascar. And the island continent of Australia. How cool is it that these weird and entirely unique creatures, like kangaroos and 500-lb giant tortoises, came about in their own little worlds?

Let’s look into evolution later, as a celebration of the vivacity of Nature, with or without human intervention. But in this moment of shallow time, of the NOW, I’d like to think that we could at least begin to become stewards of nature. City pigeons already tell us it is a potentially possible human/animal project. And of course, zoos.

SUMMARY

Life is amazing. (!!!) And every single example of it has a genetic and macro-trait-evident story to tell. We all, living creatures — humans, animals and plants alike — come from Source. We are all related by distant ancestral grandfather and grandmother creatures. The further you go back, the more we have in common, until ultimately, theoretically, we are the same multicellular bacteria, or the very first life form.

There is speculation into how this may have begun. No judgement if you think it was ancient alien “storks.” I tend to think it was a chemical and mineral action, perhaps involving heat from volcanoes or lightning. But however it started, the point is it did. And now it doesn’t have to again. Life goes on — and ON AND ON!!! In many forms and features, over the generations, epochs and eras of Deep Time.