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My
Generation By Misha Goussev, January 2001 |
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Once in a while when I get into a philosophical mood I zoom out and look at my existence from the 30,000 feet point of view, both in space and time. When I think of the space, I imagine myself rising very high above the ground, so high that I exit the boundary of our planet and go far away. As I get further and further away I can see our little planet turning into a small, fragile and very beautiful multicolored ball, surrounded by a very subtle protective shell - just like a fish egg. But just like the fish egg, it miraculously stores the code of life of many generations to come. When I go even further our planet becomes so small that it looks no different than any other planet I could see from my new location. I start to think of my high-school classes in nuclear physics, which I never understood until now. Supposedly, all matter consists of so called atoms and molecules, which hang freely in the space and are connected to each other by some invisible force. Most of the matter inside is empty because of the gaps between the atoms, but it appears quite solid to the human eye from the outside. All this comes to my mind as I am jetting through the outer space and a strange comparison between the atoms and the planets strikes me. What we are all just part of another matter and some other "human" eyes are seeing it just as a solid brick? When I think of time, the feeling is easier to grasp and quantify. After all, the history takes place in the same physical space and no tricks are attached. We can all go and see the ruins of carefully preserved remains of past civilizations, we can see the works of art, which look at us with the same freshness of the colors as if they were finished yesterday, we can read the books and the accounts of historians, we can even watch movies and see people who created history, but are no longer with us. Sometimes I feel that the whole history of the human kind, conceivable and unconceivable, is my personal history, dating back centuries and millenniums. And my life is just one day in the ocean of history, as each day in my life is just day lived by a new person, new me. It's all the same, as somebody famous once said that each day is like a whole life - you are born and you die every day. But life goes on! The most astonishing thing about time is to realize that someone else was perhaps living in the same place and was having the same thoughts, emotions, aspirations and doubts a hundred or maybe thousand years ago! When
I put these two dimensions together, the concept of time and space acquires a
different meaning. I see myself as a little star pulsating on the crossroad
of two eternities, time and space, two vastnesses that have no limit. Almost
any even might seem insignificant compared to this scale. A quote from a
former colleague of mine comes to mind from many years back. This fellow, a
Ph.D. in nuclear physics (J), always amazed me with his melancholical attitude
towards life. Nothing could through him off-balance or overly excite him for
that matter. When I once asked him what kept him so calm he
replied:"Think about it, it takes tens of thousands of light years for
the light of certain stars to reach Earth. Why spend time on emotions? Life
is too short compared to this…" Life is too short in human time, I agree. But since we are humans, perhaps we should use human landmarks to diffirentiate ourselves in this ocean of time and space. By the way, I did not even mention other dimentions since I decided to stick to the plane for the sake of simplicity. So, what has happened to the human world in human time during my human life the other humans from the future would care to know about? A lot. I zoom back in. First of all, as far as I am concerned, we are lucky already to leave at the turn of the millennium. This produced the best fireworks by the Eiffel tower human history had seen. Even Ancient Greeks would have been jealous. On a serious note, the major breakthrough happened in the field of communications: computers, Internet and wireless technology literally connected the whole world into a very tight net with unconceivable capabilities of data exchange. Within years of development of new technologies they become adopted realities taken for granted. As
I think about the current historical landmarks of humanity, I have a mixed and
a slightly sad feeling. I feel myself in the position of people who lived on
the verge of major breakthroughs in science and technology about a century
ago, when many things, only described in science fiction, just started to
come true. The true benefits of those technologies were available half a
century later to other people, living in a different slot of human time. As a
side comment, for example, I experience a similar feeling every time I pass
by the construction site of the new Wharton building on the I am not sure if it is fare to say that it is the most interesting time, I think if we live in a very unique time in human history. We have already seen that we can fly; we can fly far and even visit other planets (the Moon or Mars, for example). We know we can fly even further if we wanted to. Financial issues become the constraint, not the technology. The possibility of flying with the speed of light does not appear to be pure fantasy any more. It will happen, sooner or later. The latest developments in medicine and biotechnology surpass the wildest fantasies of some of us, who are less in touch with the latest developments in the science. The gene therapy will take its toll and reproduction of biologically healthy species with desired characteristics, which is to a certain extend a reality today. The issue in question becomes the rate of adoption (again due to financial reasons) as well as the question of ownership of these technologies. Along these lines, many secrets of Chinese medicine and Chi will be scientifically described and implemented into everyday medicine. The humans will live longer and healthier lives, some will never die, but there will be fewer humans. We, who live today, in a way are blessed with the ability to see the new future of humanity develop, new horizons open, new secrets of life get discovered, but we know that the new generations will be the ones to fully embrace the new knowledge. How
would I describe out time in the history of humanity? I would that we live in
the time between major revolutionary breakthroughs in the human
civilizations. The question I have for myself is whether the new coming
revolution will have mostly technological and biological consequences or it
will happen simultaneously with the transformation of the global consciousness
of the human species. ▪ |
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Copyright SpiritEye 2003 |
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