annalee

"It's not a very big span of time geologically, a hundred-million year marker, it's about two-percent of the age of the Earth. So, in terms of the Earth it's small, it's about the time span that separates us from the dinosaurs... so geologically, in looking at strata, it's now becoming significant."

"What would be left of human action, human traces, human constructions, human buildings and wider ripple effects of humans after that length of time... assuming, that humans disappear in the geologically near future."

"Most species become extinct sooner or later. If let's say that human's have another century or two or three, and then disappear, than at least what we have is some trends, we can follow trends pretty well a century or two hense."

"So if we take what we know, what humans have done, and what humans are, are then say ok it comes to an end, and what will be left? One point is that, after a hundred-million years, there will be nothing left on the surface of the Earth that we have created... that is simply too far too big a time for any building, even the Pyramids will go in a small fraction of that time, because the Earth is so energetic - it erodes away like billy-o anything that's on the surface, or buries it. So anything that we are, or we've built, must be buried to be preserved into the geological record - it's the only reason that we know about the past of the Earth, is because in the past things have been buried in strata, and they're been buried deep... and then, they slowly come to the surface again, and what we have on the surface is a whole vista of buried landscapes."

"There's quite a lot of cities around at the moment, and it's the cities which are going to be on bits of crust which are going down, all of those are potential future fossilised cities - fragments of brick and wall, and subway, electric wires and various other sorts of piping... but the chances of one of those going down and coming back, and being at the surface again on it's return journey, in exactly one-hundred million years from now, is low. There may be two or three or four of those somewhere around the world. So the other bit of evidence is out indirect evidence, how we effect the Earth, because how we effect the whole Earth is then going to form this subtle stratum that will betray out presence... if that is found far in the future, by some future investigator, they're going to say 'well look, the strata are changing, the fossils are changing, the chemistry's changing, of the strata, what is happening here?' and that will be the mystery layer that will track the dynasty that we have come at the end of, and the dynasty that we will leave behind us, and then they will ask why, and when they ask why the will track that mystery stratum all round the world until they hit upon a fossilised city - if they find that they will know that there has been an intelligent and manipulative civilisation on the Earth."

"So if we apply the same rules to human beings that we as human beings apply to trilobites or ammonites, or anything else, we can then get some measure, not quite cosmically but at least on a planetary scale, of what we are and where we fit in, and what we have done fits in on the grand scale of things - are we a minor blip in the history of the planet? That when we disappear then it'll be like Ozymandias in the desert, being taken apart and destroyed and the jungle takes over, and then there's nothing left, the evidence is gone... or are we something really quite bit in geological terms? Have we altered the Earth enough to leave an indelible signature written into the strata of the planet?"

"Say when did the universe start? Well, it started with the Big Bang and what was there before the Big Bang..? Nothingyou cant imagine nothingno timeyou cant imagine no time.."

"I always had a burning curiosity, andevolutions been my bag for an awful long timeand I was fortunate, you know Id beId be working up in the hills, up in the woods, cutting down trees and stuff like that, and I was right with nature all the timeand, everything that I saw that was strange and different and things like that, I just automaticallyit just begged a question, you know, how come its like this? How did it get like this? And the thing thatllamaze you, Ben isthe time. It has taken so very very long, you know time has been around for an awful long timeeven 3.8 billion years they say for life to be on Earthand, an awful awful lot happens in 3.8 billion yearsand some things happen very very slowly, and yet other times, things happen very fastlike for instance, mans brain, it evolved very quick, and its all, its just trouble, theres just trouble "

"I just, I dont know whats going to happenI cant see the world surviving, unless theres some awful disease or something wipes man out. But Charles Darwin was pondering, just in the Descent of Man, hes just pondering the beginnings of the early days of Earth he says before man come along, it just looked as if the world was waiting for man to come alongbecause here was a beautiful amazing world, turning on itself, and there was no audience, there was nobody here to see it, there was nobody here toappreciate itbecause other animals are quite happy and stuff like that but they cant ponder the meaning of life, or the meaning of the world or anything like that."

"What is it? If its movingor it can be standing still or moving at the same time or something like thatand Sneuders Cat, or whatever you call him, it could be living and dead at the same timeand some things are only there if we observe them You see and when I was a kid, well a teenager, something like that, and you used to say, these philosophers say, if you was in the woodsand it was just shite at that time, but its come to be true now, if you was in the woods and a tree fell down and it made this loud noise, if you werene there would that tree made a noise? Would it have made a noise? Of course it wouldbut now when you read this quantum physicsit could make a noise and it could not make a noiseit doesne make sense, and er, everythings really contradictory."

"Some things didnt really matter, you know, some mutations didnt matter all that muchand they were neither beneficial to survival nor detrimental to survivalbut if they just hung on, thered come a time when there was probably a time when that was the thing that saved the day."

"And some of the things that are just so very very subtle, they can change the wholewhole existence of a species or something like thatand its something so just very very subtle, very small, yeh.."