The story of our created history

By: Annie Sragner, Associate Arts and Life Editor

This week, I have been thinking a lot about how this era will fit into the history of time. Time is like a wheel rushing ahead with more momentum than any living thing could slow. Every fleeting second that slips by joins history, and the way we live in each moment determines how we will be remembered as the past. It is worth considering how we are leaving cultural marks that will be heavily analyzed by future scientists and historians.

Those analysts will study our books, our words or any other traces that show how we once lived. They will look at our remains and whatever else we leave behind for information. The graves we dig are a perfect resource for future study.  We protect our dead in lasting little cases that could be dug up by future generations.  Imagine if dinosaurs were preserved in graves; we would probably know a whole lot more about them.

How we interact with the environment and how we perpetuate culture will also be noteworthy. When we live lifestyles of excess, saturated with industry and prosperity, we undervalue conservation. It would suck for future generations if the ozone layer is shot and the oil has dried up. They may have a bone to pick with us about our present habits.

One thing they will observe is our tattoos. Today, more people are getting tattooed for pleasure than ever before.  Permanent art incorporated to enhance appearance is a growing custom that will get noticed. What and where we decide to ink will be a clue of our current lifestyles.

The information we have accumulated so far about medicine will also be heavily examined. Remember that within the last century, we used to think that cigarettes weren’t bad for you.  We still have medicines today that may be more dangerous than expected, and we still have much left to learn.  Consider the substances we once found helpful that actually did more harm than good. 

Advances in science are constantly booming, but the possible things they will discover long after we are gone are unfathomable. We may think we know all there is to know, but people who haven’t been born yet will find our limited knowledge amusing. We are the most recent and advanced generation of humans on earth, but our nature still seems primitive at times.  Society is moving on, and the people that follow in our footsteps will build on, or fall through, the foundations we have laid out. Think about how far the possibilities will take us.

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