Life evolved on this planet and eventually became sentient and learned to use tools. It blows my mind that this humble life-form, which only very recently (in the timescale of evolution) invented the pursuit of knowledge that we call “science”, has figured out things like:
How the entire universe – time and space itself – began, how old it is, how big it is, and how it’s evolved since its formation.
The nature of the quantum realm and of the fundamental particles, much of which is so completely counter-intuitive that it sounds both impossible and crazy, yet it’s the fundamental nature of reality. We may not intuitively “understand” it, but we do have a remarkably good description of it that makes accurate predictions.
You’ll probably really like this scene from a Canadian movie, Black Robe. A priest embedded with a native tribe introduces them to the idea of written language, and well…
I wonder about the first people who thought it was a good idea to drink the liquid from a gourd of rotten fruit. Was it a dare? Why would someone do that?
I wonder if everyone sees the same colors. We all agree on what “red” is but is my “red” different from yours?
All manufactured objects are made of parts that were themselves manufactured using machines that were manufactured using plans thought up by engineers and inventors. Every single part, from the largest steel structures to the tiniest microscopic circuits.
Yeah its 14 billion years old which sounds old. But stars will still be formed for hundreds of trillions of years. Even after that dwarf stars will still exist in the universe for endless nonillions of years. Then after that endless years of black holes.
Its all pretty new and I’m assuming intelligently designed life will permeate the universe long before these timelines.
Our electricity used to go out with some frequency. (Apparently, the underlying problem has been corrected.) But every time the power went out, I’d find myself reflecting on how dependent we are on technology. And how fragile that technology is.
I still can’t belive that it only took 66 years to go from the Wright brother’s first flight to the moon landing. The idea that humanity went from not being able to fly to landing on the moon within a single average lifespan is simply mindblowing.
I’m one of those who think totally autonomous self-driving cars are a bad idea until perfected. I don’t want to trust my life to a software patch.
And yet… I’m willing to get out on a two-lane highway, with cars hurtling almost right at me… and the tiniest flick of the steering wheel on the part of any one of those drivers would end my life.
But think of how many people DO stay in their lane, every mile, every day, throughout your lifetime…
I’ve thought of something like this while on the assembly line at work.
There are a dozen of us on the assembly line. The line makes two taillamps at a time, a left-hand lamp and a right-hand lamp. There are the four or five people who assemble the initial parts. There are the two people who weld the outer covering on and throw the lamps into the annealing oven. There are the people who take the lamps out of the annealing oven and put them in the tester. There are the inspectors who take them out of the tester and make sure they are okay. There are the four people who wrap and pack the lamps.
And that’s just one assembly line. There are also the people who fix and maintain the dozen or so machines and robots on the assembly line. There are the people who designed and if needed programmed all the machines and fixtures.
And then step back a level. There are the people who run the presses that mould the plastic parts that go into the lamps. There are the techs to maintain the presses and the moulds. There are the people who make the raw plastic granules that get melted and go into the minds to make the parts.
There are truck drivers making deliveries and taking finished products to the customer. Forklift drivers moving things around the plant. IT people maintaining the computers and printers and networks. Office staff: accountants, salespeople, managers, lawyers. The optical and testing labs. Engineers. Quality control. Cleaners. Building maintenance. Electricians. People who maintain relationships with the customers so that everything works together.
Thousands of people.
And there are similar complexities for every supplier, from the raw plastic to the bulbs, sensors, and circuit boards inside the lamps.
And all this, all this, is for one small part, a tail lamp on one model of truck. Every other component of that truck has similar complexity.
It just boggles my mind. I’m amazed that automobiles are so inexpensive, really.
