Earth, as it would have looked 3 Billion Years Ago
Why Are You So Lucky?
We are all fascinated by why we are here, how we came about and how scientists know what they know about the creation of the universe. How did there come to be nothing at all to something and how did so little of that something turn into us?
In his great book, A Short History Of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson Explores some of the biggest questions in life.
The first of which is: How did we get here?
We have compiled 5 amazing reasons, why you are one of the luckiest things in the universe.
1. Humans Shouldn’t Exist, Yet We Still Do
Statistically, you shouldn’t be here. Survival on Earth is surprisingly hard and we are lucky to have made it this far. The Earth is great at creating life, but it’s just as good at extinguishing it.
Of all the billions of species and life forms that have ever existed, 99.99% are no longer here. Gone forever.
The average species lasts 4 million years. There is one secret to surviving longer. You have to be willing to change everything about yourself. Your shape, colour, size, diet…everything. Over and over again. This is exactly what we have done.
There has never been, or ever will be anything quite like you.
2. You Are Gloriously Unique.
For you to be alive now, trillions and trillions of drifting atoms had to come together to make you. They have joined together in a way that they have never formed before and they have come from all over the universe.
The combination of atoms that form you are nothing special. They are the same atoms that could be found in a pile of dirt. What makes them special is that they came together to form you.
Why have these atoms formed in this way? Coming together to form you is not a gratifying experience for the atom. They are not aware of you or of themselves. And yet throughout your life, they take care of all the intricate processes that keep you alive and give you the opportunity to experience life.
3. Everything Has Been Random
All the changes our ancestors went through have been random but fantastically timely. We have always been at the right species, at the right place, at the right time. Thanks to these transformations, we’ve been able to escape every extinction event on Earth, and there have been many.
Over the course of 3 billion years, you have changed from a globule of sludge, to the life form you see today, and all that has been down to random luck and chance.
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4. You Are The Success Story
Just 8 generations ago, you have 250 direct ancestors and without either of them, you would not be here now. By 20 generations ago, a million people have been involved in processes that have formed you. And by 25 generations its 33 million people. All of their hard work and ambitions have created the opportunity to be here, and you are the legacy they left behind.
5. You’re on a Winning Streak
Had any of your ancestors made any changes in any action they had taken, you would not be here now, the way you are. You are at the very end of a very long line of successful pairings of people who have been and gone, to give you the opportunity to be here now.
All of them have been attractive enough to find a mate, strong enough to reproduce and lucky enough to be able to deal with the harms that they came across.
Nothing stopped them in passing on their genetic make up which has ultimately formed to become you.
Life is an incredibly lucky thing. Your existence is a miracle and this is something you should think about to a daily basis.
