History Communicates with the Future

Our Earth is billions of years old and humans have roamed this planet only a small portion of that time.  We as humans are given the gift of living and seeing this beautiful universe.  We are in only a small speck of space and time.  We are given only a small window to see as much and as far as we allow ourselves to see.  It is a gift.  A privilege.

Since we can only view and learn to our capacity of our brains and our life span, much is not learned or seen compared to what is really around us.  So how do we encompass and capture all the knowledge of what is around us and out there?  Through History.  Past times and generations have passed on clues and facts that were newly discovered so that we don’t have to discover them all over again.   How can humans do this?  How do other living things do this? 

Humans unique as we are have developed language.  We have language to use in the present by speaking, and language to record from the past and to give to the future by writing.  Then we developed technology with machines and recorded the present to use for in the future, to use as their past.  Like photos, audio recordings, and video recordings. 

So, does that mean we are much more intelligent than our ancestors in the past since we now have more knowledge than they did?  Not really.  I believe our ancestors were intelligent too.  They knew where to find food, keep warm, and how stay together as a family or community.  They knew how to adapt and survive.  Today, we know where to find food, to keep warm and stay together as a family or community.  We still know how to adapt and survive.  Our brains are still about the same size and our bodies don’t live much longer – only maybe 20 to 50 years longer due to medicine and prevention of diseases.  

With all our knowledge we have gained in the length of our human race, as a child I used to think our brains should be bigger and our bodies live longer.  Our brains should be like a library to hold all the knowledge and our bodies should live about an extra thousand years with all the scientists and doctors that help people live longer.  But we don’t, why?

I came across a saying that I hear people often say due to all the information that we have at our fingertips.  We have libraries, museums, and schools - places where there is much knowledge kept.  There is a one place that one can find all information about anything, thanks to technology.  The computer and the World Wide Web – the internet. 

“We have too much information but are starved for knowledge.”  You’ve heard that before, right?

I’d hate to but I have to say it.  We are limited.  We are limited to what our brains can process and to what our bodies can withstand.  So, as I child I’ve always wanted to know everything, everything about animals, about the sea, about farming, about machines, about the stars, about people.  Just everything.  I’d read a lot of books.  I knew where every library was and visited every museum in the area.  Did I get to know everything?  No.  Sadly I didn’t.  There was not enough time to check each and every book out and I wasn’t allowed live in the museum. I wanted to be a farmer, an astronaut, a chef, a marine biologist, a poker dealer, and a bartender all at the same time.  I wanted to grow up to do and be all these things.  I tried but couldn’t be all these things.  Why?  What happened? 

I tried all of them but there was too much knowledge in each field that I could and needed to learn in my lifespan.   I needed about ten more life spans to do everything I wanted to do very well.  So now comes the expression, “In my next life I’ll be able to knit that sweater, or in my next life I’ll travel and see all of the country, …..”

Humans have 24 hours, 7 days a week, 12 months a year, and about 75 to 80 years to do stuff.  From ages 1 to 17, children are protected, fed, and taught.  From ages 18 to about 25, young adults are still learning but are self sufficient (most of the time…anyway…until they graduate college).  So, it’s really from about ages 26 to 66, that adults can use the knowledge that was learned and possibly obtain new knowledge that was never learned or discovered before.  But that is only for in a span of about 40 years.  That’s 40 adult life years to use the knowledge that was handed down to us and to somehow obtain and discover new knowledge to hand to the future generations. 

Earth has been around for billions of years and we have only about 60 to 80 years of life in each human being, each generation.   How long has the human race been around?  About only 6,000 to 15,000 years maybe? Some say 150,000 years.  Let’s just say if its 6000 years than that’s about 300 generations.  And only about 30 to 40 of each generation of those years are quality years to make and create knowledge.  We can accumulate a lot of data and information but we can’t process ourselves alone all the knowledge we have around us.  So for each adult now in today’s time with all the information we have at hand, it boils down to do one thing, specialize. 

Yes, I’d say “Pick something to specialize and just do it.  Be an expert at it”.  Then one can learn everything about the one thing and be good at it and discover something new to give to the future generations.  Each human being, each generation, and each special knowledge will have grown and expanded forward, not backwards but forward towards a better future.  This is done by a craft that only our humans have done and developed - speaking and writing.  Our past communicates with the present and the present communicates with the future.  All to help the human race progress forward.

This is what is so good and great about our human race.  All mankind works together from generation to generation to progress ourselves. We can and have the ability to learn from our past and to be in touch with our future.  Humans that we have never met have given us the valuable gift of their knowledge and we continue the gift of giving to humans that we don’t know into the future.  All this to survive, to leave a legacy, that we humans were and are of time and space.  There is a history, a present, and ultimately a future of the human race because of language.

Published 11/7/2023 Written by Marcella Melson