The year 2001 is almost over. In spite of the recent tragic events of September 11 and the possibility of a nuclear confrontation between Pakistan and India, I often wonder if our generation really appreciates what we have been able to witness during our lifetime here on the blue planet. Although a great part of the world still lingers in past ways of doing things the modern world has made amazing advances.
For thousands of years men and women on earth traveled by horse and cart, sailed the ocean in wooden ships, cooked their food by wood fires, clothed themselves with the skins of animals or hand spun items. Methods of communication were by courier and health care was virtually non-existent. Even the great Egyptian, Chinese, Roman and Greek civilizations that flourished for great periods of time in all their glory did not really experience an industrial revolution. There was little knowledge of what was lying across the great oceans for an eternal part of history.
All the way up to the beginning of the 20th century the horse provided the best means of transportation on land. My grandfather spoke in his Texas Ranger Diary about making a “flying trip” to a ranch in West Texas on his faithful steed. Little did he know that that phrase would become an everyday occurrence for many of our generation and it would not mean on horseback. My mother who was born in 1904 would remember the first automobile she ever saw coming down the dusty road of an El Paso Lower Valley Farm. She would live to witness a man walking on the moon but never dreamed of a gadget called the home computer. Even now, a new gadget called the Segway, a people mover, has astounded a new generation, and is forecast to change the way we live from now on. Pagers, cell phones and a handheld Palm make the old Dick Tracy wristwatch seem like an antique.
Today remarkable things that simply boggle the mind surround us. We have seen the technology curve rise sharply in the short span of only 100 years. This generation…our generation, has witnessed the most amazing technological advances in all of history and those of us that are still here can appreciate having been born at a time that all this happened.
Being a geologist, I mostly relate to time periods that are much longer. When look at a sample of the Pre Cambrian from the bottom of the Grand Canyon I am humbled by the thought of millions of years that have elapsed while this big blue marble rotated about its mother sun. Trying to forecast what more will come, we can only imagine what new discoveries will occur in the future. Our earth seems smaller now that the great populations occupy most of it and we are already exploring other planets in space. Even as I write this, biotech scientists are cloning living animals, and working on life extension. Making spare parts for human bodies is already within reach.
Today it may be that we as humans are actually reaching too far for answers, and we may eventually outsmart ourselves in the future. But again reflecting back to the past, I think our generation has to really feel fortunate to have lived at this precise point of time in the earth’s history. An inscription above the old geology building at the University of Texas at Austin reads: “O Earth, What Changes Hath Thou Seen”
During “our time” we were there to witness some of the big ones
James V. Richards
Updated December 31, 2001