Where were you on September 27? (An answer to Job)

The following is based on an article by John Michael Greer, the well known Archdruid Emeritus and blogger. 

Imagine the whole history of life on Earth as one year. Life emerges on January 1 (in real time, about 3.7 billion years ago). Life disappears on December 31 when the sun turns into a red giant (in real time, about 1.2 billion years into the future). In this scenario, the genus Homo evolved about two hours ago, and the entire recorded span of human history is only 32 seconds! But what date is it? Apparently, a slightly chilly afternoon on September 26…

Another sobering fact: the average life span of a vertebrate genus is about ten million years. Since humans have been around for only about one million years, that gives us about nine million years to go. However, on the Great Year, that´s only fifteen more hours! Let that sink in: even if humanity will exist for another nine million years, the life span of our entire species is only seventeen hours. On September 27, we´ll be gone. Forever.

And no, I don´t think this is necessarily a “pessimistic” perspective. However, it does put everything in perspective: our philosophy, our scientific discoveries, all the bravado about Randian heroes and the Singularity. In reality, humans are the autumn mayflies of planet Earth. And Job didn´t know who he was messing with...