Time + time

since the dawn of civilisation, we have been obsessed with Time. we've searched for the meaning of Time, as part of our quest for imortality, through either an eternal Life or an after-Life, depending on our point of view being more rational (science) and/or emotional (faith). those we call 'prophets' today introduced these strange ideas to us and our intellectuals studied them further. from philosophers to theologians, theosophists, historians, artists, writers, alchemists, astronomers, mathematicians, biologists, biochemists, physicists, chemists, etc. etc., all joined the quest for understanding these 'strange ideas', attempting to find their own individual answers to the same old questions.

why did some of the most intelligent human beings to have walked on Earth dedicate so much time to such ethereal fairy tales and apparently non-practical issues? was it all a waste of intellectual power or is there really something to understand? why would wise and civilised men, who we've made idols, waste their time spreading 'lies' about superior knowledge? was there really something to be astonished about? is it possible that we misunderstood their ancient way of writing and teaching history? were they trying to illustrate the secrets of Life and Time, so that even the uneducated could understand them (something our scientists usually fail to do)? were they clothing science with myth, so that listeners didn't fall asleep or – worse – call them heretics? were they trying to warn us about a real threat, at a time when science was at its infancy and no one outside a small circle would understand even the basics of it? after so many thousands of years of technological advancement, can we find any Truth in their interpretation of Time and Life? can a single field of knowledge or science provide us with a complete answer? could this answer be now lost with the modernisation and specialisation of intellectuality, which destroyed the connections between sciences, fragmenting and dividing knowledge and – possibly – leaving behind an unintelligible Truth? so many questions...

"one of the most preposterous things that an alien would find coming from Mars and landing on Earth is that our time zones have no rhyme or reason," says professor of theoretical physics Michio Kaku. "any martian would say how silly humans are that they can't even decide what time it is, which is one of the most basic aspects of being civilised."
bbc news

are there any serious implications behind humanity loosing track of Time? we've all heard the expression 'time is money', a saying which supposedly implies that time is a valuable asset but, if we can't even agree on what the time is, what does that say about how much we actually value it? have you got any idea of what Time is worth? can you actually understand the importance of what i am asking you? if you don't know the answer to any of these questions, please stay with me for a few minutes but – first – let me ask you two more:

1. do you have time right now or has Time got you?
2. do you have Time right now or has time got you?

unfortunately, very few people can notice the huge difference between the two questions, despite them being very clear. if you don't, you will later (if you read this post) and – most likely – no one told you the meaning of Time at school and – instead – taught you how to read the time on a clock. right now, there are two measures of time ruling the world and competing for your attention. the first is called 'Time', and it rules the cycles of the Cosmos; essentially, the stars and planets around us. the second is the 'time' we watch going past on our clocks and the dates we look up on our calendars. you can start to see the difference now since it's astronomical (at least in scale). let's start with the smaller measure since it's the one we know best.

note: don't worry about memorising
or understanding the numbers i will throw at you.
at this point, they are here only to illustrate
the subject of Time.

what is time?
our modern and rational idea of time is based on the rotation of the Earth on its axis (24 hours) that splits days and on the amount of days it takes to complete one orbit around the Sun; 365.25 days. 4 years equals 1,461 days, which is 3 years of 365 days plus a fourth leap year with 366. years are then divided into 12 months, 4 seasons and 53 weeks. each week has 7 days, days have 24 hours, hours have 60 minutes, minutes have 60 seconds and i won't even go into splitting seconds... we use this simple, rational and practical measure of time to arrange our holidays or a meeting, feed the cat or walk out the dog, to know how long it takes us to get to work and do all the little things that we do in our daily lives. time zones on planet Earth are a complete mess. each country is free to choose its own time and some huge 'errors' do occur. one clear example is china; the nation's clock is always set on the same hour (despite the vastness of the country), which means that when you cross the border to afghanistan, you have to adjust your watch to -3.5 hours, when the acceptable leap should be of one hour difference maximum, between bordering countries. so, while we measure world records on a 100m race track to the centesimal of a second, our global measure of time can lag for hours; far from accurate or civilised...

what about Time?
Time is the clockwork of the Cosmos, of the galaxies, systems, stars and planets, including our own of course. this cosmic structure has its own cycles of travel through space, Life and Death. for planet Earth (and those of us living in it), the most influential cycles are those that relate to our Sun. our star has its own cycles of solar activity (on average every 11.125 years) and it rotates in ±26 days. every planet in its system takes its own Time orbiting the star. the Sun completes one orbit around the Milky Way every ±225 million years. if you think about it carefully, the cycles of Time within our solar system are extremely accurate. if you consider the Time our Sun takes to complete one orbit around the Milky Way (±225 myr), even a 10,000 years delay is as negligible to the Cosmos clockwork as a 0.0005 seconds delay would be for a 100m runner. the clockwork of Time also works a bit like our heart-beat; it has a rhythm that can be unusually interrupted. generally, we have a stable heart-beat but sometimes there are variations that are provoked by unusual circumstances, like running, eating or smoking. eventually, it stabilises when we rest. similarly, external events like a nearby supernova (a star dying and exploding) can represent the unusual circumstances that may break the natural cycles of our solar system. eventually, our system should stabilise after a period of rest, even if some permanent scars are left behind.

"in 2002, astronomers discovered that roughly 2 million years ago, around the end of the pliocene epoch, a group of bright O and B stars called the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association passed within 150 light-years of Earth and that one or more supernovae may have occurred in this group at that time. such a close explosion could have damaged the Earth's ozone layer and caused the extinction of some ocean life (consider that at its peak, a supernova of this size could produce that same amount of absolute magnitude as an entire galaxy of 200 billion stars)."
wikipedia


'time' rules human daily routines within Earth
but in Cosmos (including Earth) it's 'Time' that rules Life.
[ click on image to enlarge ]


imagine our 'time' (Earth) being a tiny
interlocking wheel in the huge clock of 'Time' (Cosmos).
in this perspective, our idea of time
measures only the cycle of that tiny clock wheel.
could you tell how the huge clock works
without looking beyond the tiny wheel?
can we know how the cycles of the big wheels
of the Cosmos influence the tiny wheel of Earth,
without studying all the connections?
[ click on image to enlarge ]



Time, the Architect of the cycles of Death and Life
all Life on Earth has been, is and will always be under the influence of Time. through the ages, our planet has gone through cyclical periods of partial destruction, extinction and evolution, some more severe than others. ±230 million years ago the dinosaurs appeared to rule the Earth until they became extinct ±65 million years ago. according to some scientists, the number of species on planet Earth has dropped every ±62 million years for the past 542 million years, possibly one of the largest cycles of Death and Life on our planet. but comets and asteroids are the 'least' of our worries. why? first, they need to be aimed at us instead of another planet in our solar system. the giant Jupiter alone may have saved more lives on Earth than any other planet. given it's size, it's a good shield and attractor. second, an asteroid must be quite large to cause a mass extinction. so chances are in our favour, even if there is always a chance of it happening again, like it happened to the dinosaurs. then, Earth is believed to have been hit by a huge 140km wide asteroid, big enough to wipe out almost all Life from the planet. so, let's look into the cycles that involve them anyway so that we can guess our chances a bit 'better', before looking into other cycles that could contain more immediate dangers.

"the solar system's up-and-down motion across our galaxy's disc periodically exposes it to higher doses of dangerous cosmic rays, new calculations suggest. The effect could explain a mysterious dip in the Earth's biodiversity every 62 million years.

the solar system moves through the Milky Way rather like a child on a merry-go-round. it completes a circuit of the galaxy once every 225 million years or so but as it goes it bobs up and down through the dense galactic disc.

previous research had suggested this motion might affect Earth's climate as the solar system passes through the giant hydrogen clouds concentrated in the galaxy's spiral arms. some researchers have said these clouds could be dense enough to sprinkle the Earth's atmosphere with dust, blocking out sunlight and cooling the planet.

others have suggested the gravitational pull of the clouds may dislodge comets from their spherical halo surrounding the solar system and send them crashing into the Earth, causing major extinctions."
new scientist space

First Cycle of Death and Life (every ±62 million years)
interestingly, the dinosaurs may have appeared when the Sun was close to its current orbital position. if they appeared ±230 million years ago and the Sun takes about ±226 million years to complete one Cosmic year [source here], that means we're ±4 million years past the point of the their appearance, unless the '±' fails us of course and throws us behind that point. unfortunately, scientists aren't able to measure such long cycles with 100% precision. the Cosmic year currently has a 6% error margin. this means scientists are actually saying that takes anywhere around 226 million years, between 213.5and 239.5 million years, leaving our likely position anywhere between behind and ahead of the dinosaurs in the galactic orbit. in any case, we're probably not 'far off'. this should give us some hope of a long future ahead.

on the other hand, the dinosaurs died out ±65 million years ago, which is 3 million years ahead of the point of danger of the ±62 million years cycle of extinctions possibly caused by going above and below the galaxy plane. so here's a bit of good news... we seem to have records of a bombardment around 3 million years ago, which matches the above calculations extraordinary well. this suggests we have gone past that apocalyptic point and – who knows – maybe the evolution of humanity is the product of such chaos and necessity to adapt to a different reality. of course, the downside is that bombardments may happen over longer periods. no one knows and – worse – they can't even agree on their timings:

"some call it the Death Star. others say It is a mystery planet. still others call it voodoo astronomy. few, however, disagree that some mysterious factor – something from Space – has been periodically snuffing out Life on Earth during the past 100 million years. theorists believe that whatever this force is, it has blown animals and other substances on the planet high into the stratosphere, about once every 26 million years or so.

[...] at first, scientists were highly skeptical that extinctions could occur like clock work, but those who examined the evidence quickly became convinced. "no one has really been able to shoot the hypothesis down." said Brian Niarsden [...] "and until they can prove it isn't so, the theory still holds. that's the way science goes."

[...] as the sun spins inward it also bobs up and down through an imaginary plane that intersects the galaxy. the complete up-and-down trip through the debris-filled galaxy takes about 67 million years, and the sun slips through the most crowded region every 33 million years. during this time it could be blocked by the debris. the 33 million-year period corresponds roughly to the 26-million year cycle of extinction postulated by Raup and Sepkoski and the differences between the two figures can be accounted for by uncertainties in astronomical and geological datings […].

as the solar system passes through the central plane, it may collide with one of the massive dust clouds. while the cloud itself would have little gravitational effect on the Earth or the Sun, its gravitational pull would [...] perturb the Oort cloud – a vast spherical shell of trillions of icy particles which surround the solar system.

[...] if the solar system passed through the Oort cloud, a bombardment of comets would shake loose. even if a small fraction of them made contact with the Earth, the impact would blow enough debris into the atmosphere to cut off sunlight and cause a cosmic winter, ultimately extinguishing most of the life on the planet.

the two scientists turned to proving [the theory], primarily by examining craters on the earth that can be geologically dated. [...] after analyzing data compiled by geologist Richard Grieve of brown university, they found that the ages of craters formed over the past 250 million years were clustered in 26 million-year intervals."
the harvard crimson

Cosmic winter (±26 million-year cycle)
if you read the complete article, one gets the idea that our present position may be 'safe' (though no scientists will ever bet their lives on this). since their findings talk about a ±26 million-year cycle and they mention that the last bombardment happened 11 million years ago, let us hope we're not in the wrong place at the wrong time yet. still, not sure how they fit the supposed bombardment that happened 3 million years ago into these maths. then, some scientists are saying they happen every ±62 million years (placing us ±3 myr past such an event), while others say it happens every ±26 million years (placing us 15 myr from the next event). so it looks like science is having some trouble agreeing on Time. as you can see, anything to do with asteroid impacts can be a bit confusing. my wild guess is that this may be due to data holes about the cycle being created by asteroids missing Earth (and/or hitting other planets) and/or the fact that other stars and events may also dislodge these asteroids and create data that doesn't match our solar cycles.

ice ages (±100,000 cycle)
whatever the case is, and while comets and asteroids are undoubtedly among the most dangerous threats, they are not our only concern. beyond this Cosmic winter cycle there are other smaller cycles of extinction, not so massive but still massive when compared to anything observed by modern science today. ice ages may not be as severe but they are also cyclical (every ±100,000 yr) and very dangerous times. ice ages are intercalated with warm periods, like the one we are living in today. then, within these large ice ages, we also find cyclical mini-ice ages intercalated with slightly warmer periods. patterns within patterns...

according to scientific data collected from antarctic ice, we are now closing on the edge of a warm peak, before Earth falls into a new ice age. we are living the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. there is a 'thin' line dividing them and we are living on it. we don't know how far we are from the edge, but we're as high as we've ever been in the last 420,000 years. up until now, the causes of these 100,000 year cycles of ice ages remains unexplained; we only know the effects and associated events, not the causes. we know that before an ice age, there is a period of warming temperatures which results in the loss of polar ice, rising emissions and both air and ocean temperatures rising, plus ocean levels rising as well and possibly higher volcanic activity. this is all being observed today. this is then followed by temperatures dropping somewhat dramatically and ice slowly building up in the poles again and covering large parts of the most northern and southern hemispheres of the Earth. as ice builds up, water levels go down.

most people don't realise this but ice ages – not warm periods – are actually the normal 'weather' in our planet. if you look into our planet's history of temperatures for the last 420,000 years, you'll notice that warm periods – like the present one – are usually 'short' and rare, lasting between 2,000 and 15,000 years. it may seem a lot of time to you, until i tell you that, in 420,000 years of recorded temperatures, warm periods add up to about 45,000 years (including the current one), while the remainder 375,000 have been extremely cold. also, if you consider we've been going through this warm period for about 11-12,000 years and that it is already the 2nd longest in a 420,000 years history, then we can only assume that it should be coming close to an end, even if we don't know that for a fact.

Life on ice
outside our current warm period, Life is not easy. when an ice age kicks in, huge areas of vegetation die and herbivorous mammals depending on them starve. predators that feed on herbivorous mammals also starve. the most vulnerable species to change are usually the larger ones, since they require more food, more water and more air, all of which can become scarce during periods of extreme temperatures (whether warm or cold). those few species that do manage to survive, adapt and evolve, until the next big change places them on the knife's edge again. mammoths, who were around for about 4-5 millions of years, saw their population decline around 300,000 years ago, when a mini ice age began. in one of those amazing tricks of Nature, they developed a fur coat to withstand the cold. however, most of the different breeds of mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago. the reason behind the mammoth's extinction is a controversial subject for debate; some argue it was caused by over-hunting, others by environmental changes (maybe a combination of both?). others talk of an infectious disease. interestingly, smaller 'dwarf mammoths' survived until about 1,500 BC. our species has also lived through many ice ages and hasn't become extinct. however, a group that manages to survive the cold may not survive when the warm temperatures return. the neandertal man is one example; it adapted to the harsh conditions of the last ice age, starting around 120,000 years ago, but then suddenly disappeared about 28,000 years ago. change is always dangerous and only those that adapt to them can survive; a stark warning for humanity. so, how is all this ancient history relevant to us today? first, science has shown us that these cycles of change will happen again. second, science has not been able to come to a consensus on why, how or when it will happen next. could the human species be at the brink of extinction? probably not for another few million years (don't take my word for it though).

the problem is that we can no longer resume our worries to those that endanger the survival of our species. in the advent of an ice age starting, enough humans should survive to repopulate the earth in a matter of thousands of years. however, society is not as resilient as individuals are. modern societies have developed intricate commercial relationships between them, involving vital supplies like food, water and energy. some western countries are no longer self-reliant on some of these vital supplies and are becoming ever more dependent on foreign resources. when the next ice age kicks in, these relationships will most certainly crumble to dust and every individual, group or country will be pretty much on its own. gold will be worth little, compared to food. modern societies may not be the first to fall in this challenge, but they will certainly be among the ones falling harder. the poorest populations of the planet may face even more difficulties than they feel today, but any developed country in the northern hemisphere will suffer the most, since their populations will feel the largest loss of quality of life. the poorest of the poor often grow their own food and some even still hunt. most european citizens struggle to keep a plant alive within a controlled environment (never mind farming in the open) and tend to associate 'hunting' with 'barbaric practice'. obesity in developed countries is flourishing, meaning that individuals suffering from it require more food to keep a mental balance and carry their own weight around. like mammoths – and pardon the pragmatic comparison – overweight individuals will be among the most affected when the going gets tough.

equally, any overweight and foreign food dependent society is on the front line of extinction during the environmental collapse that comes before and during an ice age. this means that the most technologically advanced quarter of the world will be at risk, since this is precisely where we find the tallest, strongest and most overweight – and therefore energy consuming – individuals of our human species. in this sense, knowing when the next big change is going to come should help modern societies stay alert and prepare for the worst with enough anticipation. closer to the danger Time zones, children could be prepared and learn subsidence farming and survival skills at school, instead of playing football, basketball and volleyball. individuals would me more aware of their own habits; after all, who would want to pass on overweight genes to their children or allow them to become overweight, knowing that in a couple of generations their grandchildren might starve to death?

is Time measurable?
or is it possible to predict these changes? well, where there are cycles there is knowledge to be learned about them that could help us predict when the next one comes. was this the knowledge that those we call 'prophets' were trying to spread across the earth? ancient civilisations, like the mayan, were even more obsessed with the skies than we are today. their kings were always surrounded by astronomers, mathematicians and scribes. how many governments would have this group as its closest advisors? a more superstitious prime minister may consult an horoscope or an astrologer for his personal affairs, but he wouldn't dare forming a government around an advisory board of astronomers and mathematicians.

but how could ancient and much less technologically advanced civilisations predict such events with any level of accuracy, when our most technologically advanced sciences can't? first, we need to make a clear distinction between intellectually advanced and technologically advanced. some ancient civilisations were extremely advanced intellectually; the greeks invented democracy, an invention that our modern thinkers haven't managed to replace. egyptians made extraordinary feats of engineering and building, despite being much less technologically advanced. mayans invented the zero, one of their greatest achievements that brought a huge advance to the field of mathematics. there is no doubt that there was mastery of certain disciplines, within the observational constraints.

the irony is that these limitations may have provided them with the perfect conditions to achieve such knowledge. ancient astronomers, unlike modern ones, couldn't look beyond the starry night sky. they could only see what their eyes permitted and that limited their quest for the unknown universe lying beyond. modern astronomers are much more concerned with finding planets like Earth and looking outside our system, than trying to understand how the clockwork of the solar system may influence our Life. ancient scientists couldn't study the details of their sciences, so they probably spent a lot more time trying to understand the connections, the cycles and possibly registering the symptoms.

as to measuring their precision on predicting such cycles, it's an issue for another post. here, we only need to understand that these cycles exist and that we could understand them better than we do today, if our eyes, minds and money weren't elsewhere.

that these men knew more about the Cosmos than the average person knows today, no one should have any doubt. some of them must have dedicated their entire lives to studying the stars. today, astronomers and science accept that at the centre of most galaxies (including ours) is a supermassive black hole, which may eventually merge with others and swallow everything around it before exploding, like it happened 13 billion years ago. i'll leave you with a modern drawing of a symbol from the distant past, together with its meaning to those ancient wise men; call them 'prophets', scientists or both. fools they were certainly not.




Ouroboros

"the Ouroboros (also spelled Oroborus, Uroboros or Uroborus) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. an ancient symbol, it has been used to represent many things over the ages, but it most generally symbolises ideas of cyclicality and Primordial Unity. the Ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations. In the last century, it has been interpreted by psychologists such as Carl Jung as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche.

the name Ouroboros (or, in latinised form, Uroborus) is greek (οὐροβóρος), 'tail-devourer'. the depiction of the serpent is believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way, as some ancient texts refer to a serpent of light residing in the heavens.

the Ouroboros is one of the oldest mystical symbols in the world. the serpent or dragon appears in aztec, chinese, and native american mythologies, among others."
wikipedia

[note:] it was represented by the chinese (4700–2200 BC), egyptian and greek and in norse, christian, hindu, aztec, ashanti and west african religion. that such a distinct symbol could appear in so many different parts of the world and cultures is also subject for another post, since this is far from a lone occurrence.