I was reading a book called “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. Amongst many other things, it traces the birth of life, the now incredible to imaging volcanic eruptions, the meteorite crashes that would make nuclear weapons look like kid’s toys and the deep freeze of the Ice Age. To top it all, the BBC was having a program about the massive glass deposits in Sahara which could have been caused by “Air bursts” – a meteorite exploding as a ball of fire just before it crashed into earth which not just created heat, but, melted the sand to form among other things, glass and diamond!
All of this got me thinking – life is so fragile. A simple earth-quake and millions are devastated. A tsunami hits the land and a country is brought down to its knees. The homo sapiens, a thinking man has is left absolutely powerless in this sudden display of raw power from the nature.
Why is it that we who could build such complex things as super computers, electron microscopes, airplanes and rockets be left so helpless against the nature’s fury? Explaining the complexity in measuring or monitoring the earth’s activities, Bryson has made a comment that is quite intriguing. Before saying that here’s the context:
• To predict earth quakes, we need to understand the working of the earth’s interior. Currently, all our knowledge of earth’s core is more of a conjecture. We have barely scratched the surface. Ditto with volcanoes.
• To say anything about draught and rain, we need to predict weather accurately. Our most computers have a problem in telling this simple thing: If you blow smoke in a room, how will it travel? If this can’t be predicted, then how can we predict the movement of water vapor and clouds in a very open environment with the earth spinning at thousands of kilometers on its axis and running ahead along its orbit?
• Even the latest satellites and telescopes can only see at barely the outer reaches of most galaxies and stars. We have barely understood our solar system. We simply don’t know how many comets and meteors are there. They could be simply like any pedestrian who suddenly comes on the path of earth’s orbit on a very dark night. Before we even know it, BANG!
Complaining about all this, Bryson says:
..we live in a universe whose age we can’t quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distance from us and each other we don’t altogether know, filled with matter we can’t identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don’t truly understand.
And yet, we survive and evolve and look and the sky and say, “How did it all begin?”
Isn’t it marvelous and truly incredible that in such a hostile environment we could all come to life and enjoy the bounties of life. Yet, instead of enjoying it, we are so involved in drawing lines on ground that can’t be seen just a few meters from the ground - we shed so much blood and cause strife. What if tomorrow a meteorite would hurl down and hit the war torn region of West Asia? The land there will simply vanish and so will the life. What will the freedom fighters fight over (assuming some are still alive)? A cindered earth which is poisonous and can neither be used for growing food nor for living?
Don’t you sometimes feel that we quibble over things that should not even be considered important? Somehow, we build grand museums and teach history and yet, we never seem to learn anything from it.. The same old quarrels, the same old greed and lust for power and finally, the same old winners oppressing the losers. Sure, the nature follows the rule of Survival of the Fittest. And yet, after all the blood-letting, if you discover there is nothing much to celebrate and nobody to even share the happiness with, is the whole struggle worth fighting?
{I know the thoughts are very jumbled – but, I just jotted down whatever kept coming into the mind..}
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