5000 and counting
A self proclaimed TV addict I watch a lot of shows (in the last 3 months I've followed and in a couple of cases finished watching about 5 TV shows). In addition, the evolving technology has brought TV on my laptop which is an infinite source of distraction (even without the TVshows I watch on it) and with the blessing of the internet, this baby becomes the mother of all vices. Anyway why the laptop becomes relevant in this context is that its a source of distraction (hey i'm typing this when I'm supposed to be crawling through an unending .pdf for my exam) even from my beloved TV shows because thanks to wikipedia and wikia the 40 minute watch time of an episode (varies from show to show) is stretched by another 20 minutes of exploration into the various bits of trivia associated with the episode. If I'm watching a historically based show this time might may extend even more because of a phenomenon I call wiki-quest (a neverending search through the pages of wikipedia.org jumping from one topic to another through the various hyperlinks on the page. I've heard it being called by other names by other patrons), yes I prefer dead mummies to why A broke up with B.
Archaeology always fascinated me, till the age of 14 I wanted to be an archaeologist but then career counselling and advice about the profitability in the field led me down a different path. However that didn't deter me from my connection to history. So I've often found myself back in the company of the wikipedia pages (if I could only be in the company of people dead 2 millennia) on Herodotus, Euhemerus and the likes. It always baffles me how there's often so much detail about the people the crumbling documents mention. I mean, it might not contain as much as this blog even does but in 2 paragraphs of text you'll probably find mention of at least 12 folk and some of their most significant deeds thus immortalizing them for rest of eternity and preventing their memories from turning into myth ( not saying I don't like my share of mythology). There are also more detailed accounts of the more important chaps. I'm looking up a person dead aeons ago and bam! there's his birthday (Happy birthday Marcus Salvius Otho, just by the way huh). My jaw almost dropped then I remembered there's an emoticon to do that for me (:O). My Grandma's birthday isn't accurate on record neither is that of a number of my classmates but hey I can now send birthday requests to Leonidas, Hammurabi, Charakha, Chanakya and sing happy birthday.
Jokes apart, what I'm trying to say is that in those days there lived people of a great caliber. Yes we like to elude wisdom by thinking there are great people among us as well, what else are Nobels, Fields medals, Oscars, Grammys, Bookers and Pulitzers given for. I'm absolutely sure those ladies and gentlemen deserve it, but the sheer ratio is weighed against us. Those were the days where the world had a few hundred million people with lifespans considerably shorter than us, less user friendly technology but almost the same amount of world violence. Our current population is estimated at 7 billion with only ludicrous theories like apocalypse comets and asteroids (not to forget a not so ludicrous nuclear winter) that could spell a sudden drop in population. ( FYI: WW2 caused more than 2.5% drop in the world's population). I'm sure the ancient world had its share of common folk as well but no one likes to admit to commonness. Come on we are not the standard bearers of mediocrity! All the same, there is much that each of us has access to that those ancients didn't, for that matter neither did our parents. From so much closer to the present I can state so many examples that make our lives sound so much better. Our parents would have to sit in a library and peruse (and not to mention get up from where they were sitting) through a number of texts to write an article or assignment, on the other hand all we have to do is move our fingers (and maybe stretch a little because bad posture is becoming the next big thing after HIV AIDS and Cancer). When was the last time we built something to last? How long did the last phone you bought (except users of the Nokia 1100 and the likes- "The world's most bulletproof phone"- Me) take to become outdated? Everyday we update. Which piece of technology still stands as significant today as it was 10 years ago (I think Ipod for some reason)? When was the last monument constructed (Does the Empire State Building, the London Eye or the Palm Jumeirah classify as monuments?)?
My curious mind goes into overdrive wondering at how evanescent modern day seems to feel.
Its been a lot more than 5000 years since civilization came up and the only things we leave of our existence are the fragments of grandeur that are of our age, the true measure of our worth lies only in what will stand the test of time and will be cornerstones of what the future will build.
Cool stuff: Euhemerus, Population Estimate (check out the link on point 5), World War II casualties
Archaeology always fascinated me, till the age of 14 I wanted to be an archaeologist but then career counselling and advice about the profitability in the field led me down a different path. However that didn't deter me from my connection to history. So I've often found myself back in the company of the wikipedia pages (if I could only be in the company of people dead 2 millennia) on Herodotus, Euhemerus and the likes. It always baffles me how there's often so much detail about the people the crumbling documents mention. I mean, it might not contain as much as this blog even does but in 2 paragraphs of text you'll probably find mention of at least 12 folk and some of their most significant deeds thus immortalizing them for rest of eternity and preventing their memories from turning into myth ( not saying I don't like my share of mythology). There are also more detailed accounts of the more important chaps. I'm looking up a person dead aeons ago and bam! there's his birthday (Happy birthday Marcus Salvius Otho, just by the way huh). My jaw almost dropped then I remembered there's an emoticon to do that for me (:O). My Grandma's birthday isn't accurate on record neither is that of a number of my classmates but hey I can now send birthday requests to Leonidas, Hammurabi, Charakha, Chanakya and sing happy birthday.
Jokes apart, what I'm trying to say is that in those days there lived people of a great caliber. Yes we like to elude wisdom by thinking there are great people among us as well, what else are Nobels, Fields medals, Oscars, Grammys, Bookers and Pulitzers given for. I'm absolutely sure those ladies and gentlemen deserve it, but the sheer ratio is weighed against us. Those were the days where the world had a few hundred million people with lifespans considerably shorter than us, less user friendly technology but almost the same amount of world violence. Our current population is estimated at 7 billion with only ludicrous theories like apocalypse comets and asteroids (not to forget a not so ludicrous nuclear winter) that could spell a sudden drop in population. ( FYI: WW2 caused more than 2.5% drop in the world's population). I'm sure the ancient world had its share of common folk as well but no one likes to admit to commonness. Come on we are not the standard bearers of mediocrity! All the same, there is much that each of us has access to that those ancients didn't, for that matter neither did our parents. From so much closer to the present I can state so many examples that make our lives sound so much better. Our parents would have to sit in a library and peruse (and not to mention get up from where they were sitting) through a number of texts to write an article or assignment, on the other hand all we have to do is move our fingers (and maybe stretch a little because bad posture is becoming the next big thing after HIV AIDS and Cancer). When was the last time we built something to last? How long did the last phone you bought (except users of the Nokia 1100 and the likes- "The world's most bulletproof phone"- Me) take to become outdated? Everyday we update. Which piece of technology still stands as significant today as it was 10 years ago (I think Ipod for some reason)? When was the last monument constructed (Does the Empire State Building, the London Eye or the Palm Jumeirah classify as monuments?)?
My curious mind goes into overdrive wondering at how evanescent modern day seems to feel.
Its been a lot more than 5000 years since civilization came up and the only things we leave of our existence are the fragments of grandeur that are of our age, the true measure of our worth lies only in what will stand the test of time and will be cornerstones of what the future will build.
Cool stuff: Euhemerus, Population Estimate (check out the link on point 5), World War II casualties
Comments
Post a Comment