200,000 years of evolution -- and Homo sapiens' most advanced societies are on the brink of nuclear war and anthropogenic climate disruption, both of which threaten to destroy most life on Earth.
Sol is a fourth-generation star, 4.6 billion years old in a universe 13.8 billion years old in a galaxy of 100 billion stars in a known universe of one to two trillion galaxies, very probably only one dimension of countless other dimensions and galaxies. Our universe is still very young, in its heyday of star formation, beginning from virtually nothing (a singularity) and lasting virtually forever (hundreds of trillions years more before it's hydrogen is expended).
We exist on a superbly balanced planet born out of the unimaginable violence of an accretion disk, a perfect globe that can only be described as a miraculous paradise, existing in the cold, dark expanses of a truly strange and chaotic yet beautifully symmetrical universe, of which we only comprehend about five percent, with little clue to what dark matter and dark energy is, two of the most profound mysteries driving the forces of nature.
According to the laws of physics, we are completely isolated in every way imaginable in the fabric of time and space -- utterly alone and on our own. Evolution is a harsh mistress; if a species cannot adapt to a changing environment, it goes extinct, never to return. 10,000 years of false religions and gods have not led to the so-called higher consciousness or spiritual enlightenment that we hoped and prayed would somehow alter the course of our self-imposed, inevitable destruction.
If (or when) we fail, we won't be missed. Earth is still relatively young, orbiting in the Goldilocks zone around a sun with five billion years of fuel left. The planet given enough time will recover its balance -- as it always has -- erasing most traces and stains of humanity, to once again become a paradise, where, perhaps, members of another species may evolve an intelligence to fully appreciate and enjoy their time in the sun.
We've had our spit of time -- a nanosecond of near eternity. It's too bad we are blowing it on the stupidity of petty, ego-driven thought whorls that lead nowhere. For the human spirit to defy this dynamic of base human nature is the only revolution that matters!