28 November 2007
Out of Rhythm
The essay by Jon Gertner in the October 21, 2007, New York Times Magazine, “The Future is Drying Up,” begs the question whether modern medicine has extended life and whether technology has extended history beyond the rhythm of the earth’s climate. There have been long periods of climate change in millennia past – not only ice ages, but also centuries of drought. Great migrations since the emergence of recorded history helped certain civilizations survive these adverse conditions. More commonly, migrations merely helped tribes escape extinction.
Now that advances in technology have stoked anticipation of future achievements for mankind, it will take a more drastic form of migration to escape the limitations of the earth’s natural climatic cycles. Of course, it is foolish to ignore the effects of mankind itself on the periodicity of those cycles. However, survival in the future may require migrations that go beyond mere geography. They may need to transcend physical existence itself.
The essay by Jon Gertner in the October 21, 2007, New York Times Magazine, “The Future is Drying Up,” begs the question whether modern medicine has extended life and whether technology has extended history beyond the rhythm of the earth’s climate. There have been long periods of climate change in millennia past – not only ice ages, but also centuries of drought. Great migrations since the emergence of recorded history helped certain civilizations survive these adverse conditions. More commonly, migrations merely helped tribes escape extinction.
Now that advances in technology have stoked anticipation of future achievements for mankind, it will take a more drastic form of migration to escape the limitations of the earth’s natural climatic cycles. Of course, it is foolish to ignore the effects of mankind itself on the periodicity of those cycles. However, survival in the future may require migrations that go beyond mere geography. They may need to transcend physical existence itself.
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