A Brief history of Time.

Avinash Menon
Sunday, August 29, 2021

Time: It’s a really strange thing. We can’t understand it in big pieces. It's almost impossible to wrap our heads around it. But fortunately, we can understand it in small pieces. So, let's start small, with minutes, hours, and days.

You probably spent the last 24 hours either sleeping or working, with some coffee in there. You may have watched some T.V or played video games. Some may have kept grumbling about new regulations and restrictions here in Kuwait, which are being removed one by one.

Now, let's look at this year: What happened this year? Coronavirus from last year is still up and running and is showing some signs of being forgotten. Vaccines against this virus have now been made. Though many do not approve of these vaccines, these are our only chances. So, if you do not like the idea of dead/disabled viruses in your blood, then please bear with us. IN 2020, we found out that in Wuhan China, lies a mysterious “virus” that has killed many in that area. We already know this, so let's go back in time.2017 is the perfect year. France started to train eagles to hunt terrorist drones, and people on the internet made a challenge out of eating bleach. Literally.

Let's go to 2013, where the 21st Century is still pretty young and largely shaped by the attacks on 9/11 that led to another Iraqi war. The Syrian Civil War that started in 2011 is still ongoing. Oh yes, and Facebook and smartphones took over our lives and now are a part of our daily routine.

We are just getting started. Let's go back even further!

The 20th Century saw its shares of conflicts too. After two devastating World Wars, the Cold War, a face-off between the U.S and Russia (Then known as the Soviet Union), lasted for the whole second half of it. An average human lifespan covers most of this info, as well as the birth of the internet and the beginning of the information age. Oh yes, we also tried to nuke the moon. During this time, the internet was invented, which led to memes, and also Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, so keeping this in mind, we’re not sure if this is a GOOD development.

The last 500 years of human history brought enormous changes to our lifestyles. Industrialization gave us new ideas like Communism. Farmers became workers, and knowledge became easier to distribute to many. The theory of evolution quickly changed how we saw ourselves and the world we live in. All in a few hundred years!
Now to the 15th Century. It was very eventful. Columbus “discovers” America, and the fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Middle Ages as we know it. People in the Middle ages vary in religion and war, but the Black Plague was far more efficient than war, killing almost a third of entire Europe’s population. Newton discovered Gravity. We started using distance stars using telescopes and started seeing very small things like bacteria and cells using microscopes.

About 2000 years ago we set the arbitrary Year 1 of our calendar, that we still use today.

The Pyramids were constructed 4500 years ago. The peak of the Roman Empire was a mere 2000 years ago. So, to simplify, to the Romans, the Pyramids were as old to them as the Romans are to us. Bizarre, right?

History always starts with writing, but what happened before it?

About 12000 years ago, the Agricultural Revolution took place. Mankind began farming, which led to an increase in population. 90000 years ago, the Neanderthals and Humans coexisted in Europe. Fun fact: This is roughly the amount of time this takes us to reach the nearest star for a modern satellite.

We evolved 200000 years ago. So, looking back that what we call A.D, looks pretty small, right? Let's go way really further away, to the age of the dinosaurs, where they all died away in a meteor that crashed into Earth. This paved the way for Mammals to rise. But the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for an extremely long time. Over 165 million years!

Animal life started 600 million years ago. The earliest animals were fishes and other weird creatures. Then came insects, reptiles, then finally, 200 million years ago mammals joined the party. Life itself began much, much further back. About 3.6 billion years ago. Before any animals appeared, life consisted of only tiny microbes about 2.4 billion years ago. For many years, all life on Earth was invisible to the naked eye. It's really hard to understand how all single-cell organisms evolved into such complex organisms. The answer is Time.

4.6 billion years ago the Sun was born from the remnants of a giant explosion. 60 million years later, the Earth formed. In those early years, a frequent bombardment of Comets and asteroids supplied the Earth with large oceans and a Moon. But as far as the whole Solar System goes, it's pretty new.13.75 billion years ago, the Universe was born and 600 million years later, our galaxy was formed from billions of stars. But what was before the big bang? Well, we don’t know and maybe, we never will. We call this part of time Singularity. It's very weird and has no time zone.

So, there you have it: The past. There's a lot more than this, but let's keep it short for now.

Now, let's take a look into the future and keep it short and simple.

In about 1 billion years from now, the sun will be a giant red flaming ball. It will be so hot that life on Earth will be almost Impossible. The death of the Sun 4 billion years later will mark the end of our Solar System. So, what next? A few trillion years from now, star production will stop, and one day, the last star will die.

The Universe will turn dark, inhabited by Black Holes. Long after the final Black Hole has evaporated, our Universe will reach its final stage: Heat Death. The Universe will never change and can never be inhabited by any sort of life if any. The Universe is dead. Forever.

Now, many who are reading this will feel some weird feelings, right? It's only natural. The good news is, this is all far, far, far away. The only time that matters, is now! Anything you’ve ever wanted to do it! Now’s the chance. That person whom you’ve always wanted to talk to. Do it! Time is precious: Make it count!

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Avinash Menon
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